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SpaceX successfully catches both fairing for the first time

engadget.com

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Re: SpaceX successfully catches both fairing for the first time

#21

Post by MayeulC »

a_imho wrote: post #17
lucideer wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I fully agree with this sentiment generally, I wonder what people think of NPR and WaPo in comparison (both give much less choice than Engadget). I seem to see this complaint on every Verizon-property article posted, but NPR and WaPo get excused? I wonder is it just a UX difference?

European here, the NPR plain text site is a joy to use and I consider it one of the best and most compliant solutions, If I accidentally click a WaPo link I just navigate away from the paywall. Same with TechCrunch.

I agree. I can read NPR. uMatrix prevents that website from loading at all, so I never read the article.

A noticeable chunk of the Internet is now inaccessible to me, and I believe it's actually not for the worse...

Re: SpaceX successfully catches both fairing for the first time

#22

Post by avian »

vikramkr wrote: post #19
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or grab them with a hook dangling from a C-130 like the film from old-timey spy satellites.

They considered doing that to reuse the Saturn V with a giant helicopter with rockets at the end of each propeller. It didnt go anywhere. Though people have been using air capture for more reasonable use cases, and rocket lab is going to be air capturing their electron rockets.

I haven’t heard about this giant helicopter idea before. Here’s an article I found about it:

https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1045/1

Re: SpaceX successfully catches both fairing for the first time

#23

Post by Robotbeat »

kazagistar wrote: post #13
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or grab them with a hook dangling from a C-130 like the film from old-timey spy satellites.

Apparently thats been considered, and you still might see another company like electron try it. It's just a bit harder to do safely and some other limitations.

One of the main reasons they aren’t doing it is that the fairing halves are so far out to sea (about 800km down range) that no helicopter could have the range with a fairing dangling down to make it back to land (the Sikorsky Skyhook, for instance, only has a range of 200nmi or so... maybe you could get a specialized helicopter to do it with heroics like drop tanks, but the cost would be much higher), so they’d need to land on a ship after capture anyway. By catching the fairing halves with ships directly, they save the substantial costs of also having helicopters.

Notice that with RocketLab reuse, the helicopter is staged from a ship at sea. However, probably can save more money by recovering a RocketLab Electron first stage than half of a fairing (you’d need one helicopter per fairing halve but only one helicopter for Electron... Electron also has a much smaller and less awkward aerodynamic cross section than a F9 fairing halve). See: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=enndCzvZpZk

Re: SpaceX successfully catches both fairing for the first time

#25

Post by raducu »

chasd00 wrote: post #16

there were a couple guys using acrobatic parachutes and some control code to fly high power model rockets back to the pad saving an hour walk. I wonder if SpaceX could use the same technique and fly the fairings to the ships.

I think those guys fly in much better weather conditions than the returning fairings.

If those guys miss by 50 meters, no biggie, they just walk and pick the rocket up.

If SpaceX misses by 5 meters, the fairings could end up in the salt water.

Landing on a moving ship is much harder.

Re: SpaceX successfully catches both fairing for the first time

#28

Post by ceejayoz »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #10
ncmncm wrote: post #8

Don't understand why they don't just use an inflatable parachute with a radio beacon antenna sticking out the top. Then they could just drive up anytime and fish it out of the water. Would immersion in salt water for a few hours damage a fairing?

Or grab them with a hook dangling from a C-130 like the film from old-timey spy satellites.

ULA is planning that (with a helicopter) to catch the engines from their upcoming Vulcan rocket. https://spaceflightnow.com/2015/04/14/ula-chief-explains-reu...
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