Falcon Heavy core booster lost at sea • Hacker News Board

Re: Falcon Heavy core booster lost at sea

#21

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 1:58 AM UTC

Klathmon wrote: post #6

eatbitseveryday wrote: post #5

And the article does not say / make apparent where this information is from.

There was just a press conference where he went into some detail, with the caveat that it's all still very early information. Basically he said that 2 of the 3 engines didn't start up correctly, and caused the booster to hit the water at a few hundred miles per hour. I'm guessing the dive into the water was purposely missing the barge when it detected the problem, as they have spoken about this capability in the past…

[deleted]

Re: Falcon Heavy core booster lost at sea

#22

Post by richardkmichael » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 2:00 AM UTC

Klathmon wrote: post #6

eatbitseveryday wrote: post #5

And the article does not say / make apparent where this information is from.

There was just a press conference where he went into some detail, with the caveat that it's all still very early information. Basically he said that 2 of the 3 engines didn't start up correctly, and caused the booster to hit the water at a few hundred miles per hour. I'm guessing the dive into the water was purposely missing the barge when it detected the problem, as they have spoken about this capability in the past…

He mentioned the centre core landing failure "took out two of the engines on the drone ship".

Re: Falcon Heavy core booster lost at sea

#23

Post by jacquesm » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 2:09 AM UTC

imjasonmiller wrote: post #12

hodgesrm wrote: post #2

I kind of figured that happened when they lost the video. Still a really amazing accomplishment--the video of the boosters landing was like something out of a sci-fi movie. It's the best space launch since the first Space Shuttle in 1981.

In a press conference an hour or so ago, I think Elon mentioned that, if he had to pick one core that would experience “rapid unscheduled dissassembly”, it would have been the center one. I think he mentioned it was due to the boosters having the expensive titanium grid fins and also being reusable for future flights. Regardless, it was absolutely wonderful to watch! I think the Youtube stream had 2,500,000 viewers a…

Back when we did Shuttle launches on ww.com 10K or so was the maximum number of viewers we ever saw. It's absolutely incredible how far video delivery over the web has come since STS-87.

Keep in mind that we got kicked off the backbone because we were using too much bandwidth and 'the internet wasn't made for video' (which is why we moved to Canada to begin with).

Re: Falcon Heavy core booster lost at sea

#24

Post by delaaxe » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 2:18 AM UTC

> But the core, middle booster, which attempted to land aboard “Of Course I Still Love You,” a drone barge that SpaceX uses as a mobile, ocean-borne landing pad stationed in the Atlantic for its flights departing from Florida, wasn’t recovered.

“Of Course I Still Love You” is the name of a spacecraft in The Culture, a series of novels that inspired Elon Musk when he was young.

Re: Falcon Heavy core booster lost at sea

#25

Post by sarreph » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 2:19 AM UTC

I absolutely love the fact that SpaceX is so open and public about their rocket launches, however, I couldn't help but get the feeling that they were in full 'PR backlash' mode [over the core booster] when ending the live stream, and from skimming many of the instantaneous press releases.

Does anyone else think that they were overly quiet on the core booster landing on purpose, in order to minimise negative PR on the whole operation; or was it simply that they did not have enough information on what happened (seems slightly implausible to me)?

This all being said, what happened today was nothing short of magic.

Re: Falcon Heavy core booster lost at sea

#26

Post by globuous » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 2:28 AM UTC

sarreph wrote: post #25

I absolutely love the fact that SpaceX is so open and public about their rocket launches, however, I couldn't help but get the feeling that they were in full 'PR backlash' mode [over the core booster] when ending the live stream, and from skimming many of the instantaneous press releases. Does anyone else think that they were overly quiet on the core booster landing on purpose, in order to minimise negative PR on the…

Agreed, at the very end of the feed actually, the 2 presentators didn't really know what to say about the status of the core booster. A space X employee showed up (I assume a PR or an engineer previously briefed by PR, all he had was a SpaceX polo). The guy essentially said: 'best test ever, everything went smooth yadi yadi yada, oh and also, we gotta figure out about that last booster. Otherwise, everything went perfect !"

Which is very true. But it was clearly a move to divert away the audience from that last booster. Which is understandable. it'd be a shame if everyone focused on a lost booster when the everything else was nothing short of magic like you say ;)

Congrats spaceX, guys guys are magicians.

Re: Falcon Heavy core booster lost at sea

#27

Post by toomuchtodo » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 2:41 AM UTC

lykr0n wrote: post #4

I'm still impressed beyond words that they were able to glue basically 2 reused rockets onto a 3rd rocket and then not only have a successful test flight but return 2 of the 3 boosters.

Fun fact: there is a pneumatic mechanism that gives the side boosters a gently push away at the top, with the bottom attachment point separating milliseconds later. This is to cause the side boosters to fall away from the center core properly.

Re: Falcon Heavy core booster lost at sea

#28

Post by gnarbarian » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 2:42 AM UTC

sarreph wrote: post #25

I absolutely love the fact that SpaceX is so open and public about their rocket launches, however, I couldn't help but get the feeling that they were in full 'PR backlash' mode [over the core booster] when ending the live stream, and from skimming many of the instantaneous press releases. Does anyone else think that they were overly quiet on the core booster landing on purpose, in order to minimise negative PR on the…

They were, but I understand. It was the last thing to happen and they didn't want THAT to be the story or the thing that sticks in people's minds. delaying it a couple hours was smart from a PR perspective.

That said I can't wait to see the video.

Re: Falcon Heavy core booster lost at sea

#29

Post by Eridrus » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 2:43 AM UTC

jlmorton wrote: post #18

imjasonmiller wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a press conference an hour or so ago, I think Elon mentioned that, if he had to pick one core that would experience “rapid unscheduled dissassembly”, it would have been the center one. I think he mentioned it was due to the boosters having the expensive titanium grid fins and also being reusable for future flights. Regardless, it was absolutely wonderful to watch! I think the Youtube stream had 2,500,000 viewers a…

The unspoken point in Musk's comment is that SpaceX doesn't actually care if they get these particular rockets back. They want to prove reusability, of course, but no matter the outcome they never plan to re-fly these cores. They will focus on the not-yet-flown Block 5 cores, and standardize on that going forward. In this flight, the side boosters and center core were Blocks 3 and 4. So SpaceX definitely wants to rec…

Didn't they say these boosters had already flown before?

I'm also a bit surprised the grid find are so pricey, they seem pretty small? Not that I really know how much titanium costs to buy and machine.

Re: Falcon Heavy core booster lost at sea

#30

Post by deadA1ias » Wed, Feb 07, 2018, 2:52 AM UTC

delaaxe wrote: post #24

> But the core, middle booster, which attempted to land aboard “Of Course I Still Love You,” a drone barge that SpaceX uses as a mobile, ocean-borne landing pad stationed in the Atlantic for its flights departing from Florida, wasn’t recovered. “Of Course I Still Love You” is the name of a spacecraft in The Culture, a series of novels that inspired Elon Musk when he was young.

For anyone who has not yet read of the books from The Culture series, I highly encourage you to do so. They are an amazing - agnostic - version of what our far future selves could be. Iain M. Banks had quite the mind (no pun intended).