Another Perfect Launch/Landing For SpaceX
SpaceX launched the CRS-10 mission on time this morning at 9:39 am ET from historic LC39A. The Dragon is in orbit and heading toward the ISS while the Falcon 9’s first stage made yet another pinpoint anding back at its landing site in Florida.
Great launch from SpaceX with the usual well done to everyone else at KSC and the Eastern Range.
For NASA, this launch must be particularly sweet as it is from ‘their’ launch site – Kennedy Space Centre – and a NASA mission (ISS resupply). I’m sure that the upper echelons will be claiming bragging rights for this one!
Poor state of affairs, really, when ‘bragging’ is based on the use of a launch pad: after 5 decades.
As 45 would say: Sad!
Not to the engineers who originally designed it and the administrators who had the foresight to invest in something that has been serving the country for, as you say, five decades, helping to launch three different (so far!) launch vehicle configurations.
Your comment suggests that your definition of ‘success’ or ‘value’ rests on our society’s current commercial mindset of built-in obsolesence and disposability. This is not a given; there was a time when longevity was considered a virtue for our tools. [What a terrible state of affairs that so many of us continue (after centuries) to use the spade to dig dirt! And the knife? Millennia! Oh, don’t get me started…]
Not at all. My point, poorly stated, is this: we are celebrating a pad – a pad! – rather than the vehicles that should be regularly using it, on missions to wherever with dependable machines honed over time.
Nope.
Sorry I misunderstood. But I suppose everyone gets to celebrate what they choose to celebrate.
Yes. Agree about poorly stated. Now see that five decades refers to first use of LC-39A (Apollo 4, Saturn V, 1967)
Kind of reminds me of when I took the visitor’s tour at Johnson Space Center. They took us to a seating area behind the old Mission Control and at the end the tour guide said something like “please clap for this historical room”.
5 decades after what? Apollo 17 (1972)? Skylab 1 (1973)? STS-135 (2011)? All three launched from LC-39A. Maybe you meant 5 years instead of 5 decades???
Seeing something other than a Shuttle launch from that pad was weirdly and unexpectedly jarring. Symbolic at many levels.
That was so cool watching the landing of the first stage on NASA TV, seeing the stick come down through the cloud cover. Can’t wait to see that happen three times with a Falcon Heavy launch.
Question for the actual smart people here:
At around 32:10 (on the SpaceX webcast) two things happen right after the second stage lights up: a small piece of fluff moves from right to left, followed by what appears to be some sort of band around the very bottom of the engine that appears to unwrap and then move into space. Here’s the second event:
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Can anyone explain? (Ignore the cursor caught in the screen grab).
(Is watching the webcast over and over again some sort of unnamed sickness?)
Good catch Michael. I noticed that, as well, and immediately wondered if that strap/ring/collar “thingee” (technical term, there) was intended to release from the end of the nozzle, or if it was an anomaly. It did occur shortly after 2nd stage ignition and the heating up and thermal expansion of the exhaust nozzle…hmmm.
The band is some sort of stiffener that is ejected shortly after MVAC engine start. It is visible separating like this on all flights.
The stiffening ring has broken off in every single MVAC ignition sequence ever seen. The SpaceX commentators even mention specifically that it is meant to break off.
The other stuff was more interesting; Falcon-9 v.1.2 does seem to have a tendency to shed random bits of Mylar during engine start and stop sequences. It’s never seemed to be a problem but I suppose knowing how fatal this sort of thing could be to a Space Shuttle makes me over-sensitive.
Shedding debris during a launch is fairly common. The problem with the Shuttle were the thermal protection tiles. They were pretty delicate, compared to just about anything else on a rocket. I’m not sure what a Falcon first stage uses for thermal protection when it comes back down, or if they need much of anything (since it is a propulsive reentry.)
Depends on trajectory. The ISS launches, not much. The GEO boosters enter at a higher speed and some have been badly burned, but even they come in at only a small fraction of the entry speed of the Shuttle. I suspect they will need some protection, but possibly just an abaitive paint will be enough.
The booster stage is the biggest and most expensive part of a launch vehicle, and enters with the least energy, so the SpaceX strategy of focussing on reuse of the booster rather than the spacecraft makes sense.
Ironically the X-37 uses TPS similar to the Shuttle and has not had any tile damage, of course it is launched inside a payload shroud and is completely protected on the launch.
Thought the X-37 used more advanced TPS materials. (?)
In today’s broadcast, I just noticed for the first time the new countdown clock. After a little Internet research I found out it replaced the old clock near the end of 2014. I guess that means it was used for EFT-1?? From some of the pictures I saw it looks like it was used during other Dragon CRS flights even though those flights flew from LC-40. Does any one know who paid for it? NASA or SpaceX? Was it used for the two Cygnus/Atlas V flights from LC-41?
Logic would say the public viewing area clock that is a NASA asset, would be paid for by NASA and not SpaceX. That’s just a guess.
Just to clarify, I am talking about the large out door countdown clock next the flag pole with the American flag next to the LC-39 press viewing area.
Correct EFT-1 was the first launch for the new clock. NASA replaced the original Apollo era clock which was first used for Apollo 4, although the electronics had been upgraded over the years. The original clock has been relocated to the visitor center entrance near the ticket booths. You would think that since the original clock is listed on the national register of historic facilities that they could have found a place indoors for it.
For all the engineering performance art and the general glory of this latest SpaceX launch and landing , Elon still hates Helium…
The video of the booster stage touchdown from the drone looks to be straight out of a Toho Godzilla movie, e.g., Godzilla vs Astro-Monster (a.k.a Godzilla vs Monster Zero).
See (at ~ 00:50) https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Imagine if we had kept Saturn V operational and they produced an F-1r-t…and lightened up the S-IC’s structure…and…