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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

#51

Post by AtlasBarfed »

NortySpock wrote: post #50
praveen9920 wrote: post #49

Did they ever try catching it mid air? Something like a hook to helicopter perhaps? $6 mil is big number not to try.

Depending on the launch trajectory, these fairings come down between 40 km and 1400km offshore. So you either need a helicopter with incredible range and dwell time, or a boat with a helicopter pad AND a place to put the fairing if you catch it. Say you catch the fairing. Great, now you have a giant composite/plastic sail, the size of school bus, bouncing around in your rotor downdraft. Not exactly the safest thing,…

Balloons! But yeah, the boat is probably simpler / cheaper.

Re: SpaceX successfully catches both fairing for the first time

#52

Post by jzoch »

blackrock wrote: post #48
wittyusername wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the salt water even for brief periods even surrounded and raised up a few feet by bouys is a corrosive disaster. Maybe reusable a few times but not the long term solution if they want to reuse them 10's / 100's of times.

Perhaps their next move is to build another machine to spray some kind of rubber sealant foam on it, immediately after they capture it, in order to minimize and prevent the spray of ocean water and air, on the surface of the fairings. Then, when it returns to land, someone can peel off the rubber sealant, do some quick quality control inspections, and authorize the fairing to be reused on its next launch.

or just have it land on a docking pad :)

Re: SpaceX successfully catches both fairing for the first time

#53

Post by woodandsteel »

ceejayoz wrote: post #28
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.

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...

That was the original plan. But according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_Centaur they went ahead without funding it, though they may some time in the future. So for now Vulcan is going to have a disposable first stage, just like all the other old-time space rockets.

Re: SpaceX successfully catches both fairing for the first time

#54

Post by mattr47 »

Robotbeat wrote: post #43
exabrial wrote: post #40

Dumb question I'm sure has been asked... we've been throwing stuff into the sea for awhile then going and picking it up later as it's bobbing gently in the waves. Why not just have some inflatable buoys that deploy in the water and have it float? Catching it seems pretty difficult, albeit pretty sweet.

First: saltwater damage. Ever tried to run a car or a laptop or an airplane after it was dunked in saltwater? Hardening for saltwater immersion isn’t always practical and will always add some weight. Second: They already do float. They recover them quickly (& sometimes reuse them) if they miss the catch. But the fairing halves are 800km down range. You need to have a boat nearby anyway, so might as well try to catch…

It's not the water per say. A car, laptop or airplane that is in fresh water will not work without an overhaul.

The salt water produces corrosion that fresh does not. That is why military aircraft operated near the sea get washed so much. Both inside and out, including the engines.

We would come back from overwater flights over the Atlantic and either go through a 'bird bath' which is basically a car wash for aircraft. Or they would drag a fire hose out, hook it up and spray everything down. It was pretty cool to watch the exhaust gas temps when the started dumping fresh water into the engine inlet.

Re: SpaceX successfully catches both fairing for the first time

#55

Post by [deleted] »

mattr47 wrote: post #54
Robotbeat wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First: saltwater damage. Ever tried to run a car or a laptop or an airplane after it was dunked in saltwater? Hardening for saltwater immersion isn’t always practical and will always add some weight. Second: They already do float. They recover them quickly (& sometimes reuse them) if they miss the catch. But the fairing halves are 800km down range. You need to have a boat nearby anyway, so might as well try to catch…

It's not the water per say. A car, laptop or airplane that is in fresh water will not work without an overhaul. The salt water produces corrosion that fresh does not. That is why military aircraft operated near the sea get washed so much. Both inside and out, including the engines. We would come back from overwater flights over the Atlantic and either go through a 'bird bath' which is basically a car wash for aircraf…

[deleted]

Re: SpaceX successfully catches both fairing for the first time

#56

Post by drcross »

dylan604 wrote: post #30
noughtme wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try enabling JavaScript.

That's some top notch developing to not be able to display anything for non-JS enabled viewers.

By viewers you probably mean "people they aim to track"

Re: SpaceX successfully catches both fairing for the first time

#57

Post by redis_mlc »

Shivetya wrote: post #31
rmccue wrote: post #6

This article just links to https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1285338582849208320 and adds a bit more context, if you don't want to blindly accept the Verizon GDPR wall.

I am just amazed that NASA turned around a shuttle in 54 days, I don't even recall it. Apparently these were the first two missions flown[0]. However I also read almost suffered Columbia's fate on one of its flight due to a large loss of tiles [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Atlantis#Flights...

> I am just amazed that NASA turned around a shuttle in 54 days

It's disgraceful, actually.

The Shuttle was sold as being "reusable", but it turned out to require remanufacturing after each launch.

A lot of them took a year to prepare, with majors requiring 2 years.

From the very first launch, there were missing tiles.

The result was the cost per launch being 10x that of regular rockets.

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