Earlier quoted context omitted.
They had the Air Force bomb it instead
I thought they bombed the booster, not the fairing.
Oh, my mistake :-)
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy center booster lacked ignition fluid to re-light engines
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Re: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy center booster lacked ignition fluid to re-light engines
#12Re: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy center booster lacked ignition fluid to re-light engines
#13I like hearing that the problem is something as (relatively) trivial to solve as this. I know carrying more fuel with the rocket isn't exactly an easy thing to do, but far easier than finding out there's something fundamentally wrong with the design. SpaceX is amazing and I'm glad they're doing the hard stuff.
It apparently ran out of TEA-TEB ignition fluid, not fuel:
https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/15403/why-is-tea-t...
I can't find any info on how much TEA-TEB is carried on-board, only that it's ground supplied for initial launch with the on-board TEA-TEB being used only for restarts.
(I'm not even an amateur rocket scientist: I just googled all this.)
Re: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy center booster lacked ignition fluid to re-light engines
#14Has anyone seen any updates on how their fairing recovery attempt went? They had the ship done and seemingly ready back in December - https://imgur.com/gallery/MQcEE
Fairing recovery was asked in the press conference afterward - here's a transcription from r/spacex
Fairing recovery has proven surprisingly difficult. I'm still fairly sure we can do it in the next six months, but the fairing is [not aerodynamic], messes with the parachute... we also have a fairing version 2, much more important than version 1 fairings.... my guess is next six months for fairing recovery. We have the special boat. .....we might even be able to catch the dragon too, if nasa wants to
https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/7vruh7/falcon_heavy...
Re: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy center booster lacked ignition fluid to re-light engines
#15I like hearing that the problem is something as (relatively) trivial to solve as this. I know carrying more fuel with the rocket isn't exactly an easy thing to do, but far easier than finding out there's something fundamentally wrong with the design. SpaceX is amazing and I'm glad they're doing the hard stuff.
Will it work, though? Is the center-core restart happening under the same conditions as the heretofore successful ones? Is it really a matter of adding more lighter fluid? (That's like The Cable Guy's BBQ advice.) How fast is the wind those rocket nozzles are pointed into?
Re: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy center booster lacked ignition fluid to re-light engines
#16So, I wonder why the side boosters won't be used again? Was that explained. I'm curious, but I barely have internet on this hill.
Re: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy center booster lacked ignition fluid to re-light engines
#17Perhaps some rocket scientist can explain why this seemingly-obvious error even happened? Shouldn't it be possible to calculate the precise amount of fuel used, and therefore required?
Re: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy center booster lacked ignition fluid to re-light engines
#18He also announced the 3rd drone ship's name on twitter as "A Shortfall of Gravitas".
Re: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy center booster lacked ignition fluid to re-light engines
#19I bet it didn't randomly lack fluid due to some stupid miscalculation. It's probably more like: "Due to unforeseen circumstances it needed more fluid than expected. But we adjust our numbers and next time we expect more (in the hopes that it will be enough, which it will probably be)."
Re: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy center booster lacked ignition fluid to re-light engines
#20Has anyone seen any updates on how their fairing recovery attempt went? They had the ship done and seemingly ready back in December - https://imgur.com/gallery/MQcEE
Isn't the fairing just a simple pair of metal casings. Why bother to recover it?