SpaceX F9v1.1 Launch: Orbcomm OG2, July 14, 2014 (finally!)

[ecarfan]

Awesome video! Vast improvement over previous soft landing attempt.

So it appears that the landing went as planned. Stage was deliberately tipped over once the soft landing was accomplished. During tip over when the stage contacted the water it suffered structural failure of some kind.

I hope the next first stage landing occurs on land!

Damn this is exciting stuff to witness in my lifetime.

 

[chickensevil]

I'm no expert, but is the product of LOX/RP1 not CO2 and H2O? Probably hard to avoid all that water flying back up into the camera as the re-entry burn is happening.

If that is the case, then what happened differently between the two landings? because there was no issue with this the first time. Once they recovered the video you can clearly make out the images and there is no evidence of icing.

 

[ecarfan]

Found this article spacetoday.net: SpaceX releases video of first stage landing

It says "SpaceX says it will make another water landing attempt three launches from now, on its next NASA commercial resupply mission, and then attempt landings on land for the subsequent two launches."

 

[dpeilow]

They've said that they have a couple of GEO launches coming up (so no recovery attempt) but after that there will be an attempt to land on a floating platform before going for the biggie - a land landing.

 

[chickensevil]

Found this article spacetoday.net: SpaceX releases video of first stage landing

It says "SpaceX says it will make another water landing attempt three launches from now, on its next NASA commercial resupply mission, and then attempt landings on land for the subsequent two launches."

yeah, but that seems based on their press release. Which given the description in the release the "land" could be a floating island. But exciting all the same!

 

[Mario Kadastik]

The press release specifically says that next two launches are high speed geo satellites (AsiaSat 8 & 6) that have to run on expendables and would normally be flown with Heavy once it's in the fleet. However launch 13 will be a water landing (that should be CRS-4?) with limited probability for recovery and the next two flights (14 and 15) will be on solid surface (probably some barge). So the next attempt will be a rerun with a soft landing in water and probable loss of vehicle at the end.

 

[chickensevil]

OMFG! Check this out!

This is the coolest video of the whole thing! They need to release this footage more often! <3 :love:

 

[c041v]

OMG, that is an amazing video! I'm glad at least someone else thinks this is cool as I do.

 

[ecarfan]

Uh...what is that showing exactly? The first stage from this mornings launch falling into the ocean?

 

[c041v]

Orbcomm OG2 launch, a few weeks ago. AsiaSat 8 did not have landing legs.

 

[chickensevil]

and it didn't just "fall into the ocean" - It softly landed!

I was reading that when they refire the one engine it apparently has more thrust to weight ratio greater than 1 which is why they can't do a "hover" type landing. They have to fire the engine at exactly the right time so when they hit 0 altitude the are going exactly 0 velocity. This is why you only see it fire the engine just before it hits the water and rapidly comes to a halt.

I assume for the Dragon V2 there will be much more weight which will give a better thrust to weight ratio allowing them to slow the rate of decent more "comfortably". haha!

 

[ecarfan]

Sorry, I got mixed up on which video was showing which launch. Now I get it. I did watch the landing video of the OG2 launch. Awesome!

 

[Grendal]

That is the coolest thing ever. I wonder who shot that video? I really hope someone posts the raw feed of that onto YouTube. Unbelievably cool.

 

[chickensevil]

I am glad others appreciated this video as much as I did Makes me happy I posted it! This makes me even more psyched for the next landing attempt. I really hope they set up some good camera feeds and live broadcast the landing. Success or not, they should show it off!

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

and probable loss of vehicle at the end.

The proper technical term is kaboom.

 

[c041v]

and it didn't just "fall into the ocean" - It softly landed!

I was reading that when they refire the one engine it apparently has more thrust to weight ratio greater than 1 which is why they can't do a "hover" type landing. They have to fire the engine at exactly the right time so when they hit 0 altitude the are going exactly 0 velocity. This is why you only see it fire the engine just before it hits the water and rapidly comes to a halt.

I assume for the Dragon V2 there will be much more weight which will give a better thrust to weight ratio allowing them to slow the rate of decent more "comfortably". haha!

I was thinking that they could throttle the 1D, but I have checked and they cannot - only the Second Stage 1C (60-100%) I also wondered if this relight would cause some form of Pogo Oscillation , but I think that only affects rockets on the way up, not down. Either way, would be interesting to know how they had to design the fuel lines/pumps to get the leftover RP1/LOX where it's supposed to go in order to decelerate.

I wonder why they never put floaties on the landing legs...?

 

[chickensevil]

I wonder why they never put floaties on the landing legs...?

Weight cost most likely?

 

[Grendal]

I wonder why they never put floaties on the landing legs...?

These have been ocean landings. They'll put them on for the test in the kiddie pool. :wink: