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Here's a great video of the entire flight and landing of the side boosters in one shot, made with custom tracking software: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEZZkEXAD6Q
I wonder what emergency procedure is in place in case the landing is off-course. Does it blow itself up?
I wonder how they do the booster landings? Is it precise modelling and standard control algorithms, or something more exotic like neural networks?
It's done using convex optimization https://www.nap.edu/read/23659/chapter/10#39
Not only that, but apparently they recovered both fairings: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/... So 5 out of 5...
Being a SpaceX launcher, as the article indicates, means they can accept higher risks, but in turn has a greater financial risk to the company. It's times like this where I'm glad SpaceX is a private company.
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I'm more impressed by the booster landings though :-) Seeing a launch/landing in-person is on my bucket list.
I saw the live stream yesterday and when the two side boosters landed side-by-side synchronously it was almost as if it was out of a movie. We are living in the future!
If you get time, go look for the first FH booster landings. The timing is almost perfect and the long exposure images looked beautiful.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's done using convex optimization https://www.nap.edu/read/23659/chapter/10#39
How is "booster landing" mapped to a convex optimization problem?
http://www.larsblackmore.com/losslessconvexification.htm
See also: https://www.aa.washington.edu/facultyfinder/behcet-acikmese
I wonder what emergency procedure is in place in case the landing is off-course. Does it blow itself up?
The booster's trajectory targets offshore or away from droneship in case landing burn fails. The landing burn brings the booster onto the landing pad. See CRS-16 where the booster landed in the water when the booster lost roll control when the grid fins failed.
IIRC it purposely missed the droneship by only a few hundred meters, but it was going something like 300 miles per hour!
I wonder what emergency procedure is in place in case the landing is off-course. Does it blow itself up?
As far as I understand, the Flight Termination System is safed before the landing burn. It's more dangerous to have it potentially still active after landing. So at this point it can't blow itself up anymore. Until the last moment it also doesn't target the barge itself, but slightly to the side. Only very shortly before landing does it correct the target to the actual landing position. So in most cases it would simp…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I saw the live stream yesterday and when the two side boosters landed side-by-side synchronously it was almost as if it was out of a movie. We are living in the future!
On this launch, it looks like they offset the timings to reduce the chance of tipping over. If you get time, go look for the first FH booster landings. The timing is almost perfect and the long exposure images looked beautiful.