Heyoo this is your 1 day/25ish hour warning of a launch. SpaceX is launching bulgaria Sat 1 tomorrow at 4:10 Eastern, 1:10 pacific, 18:10 UTC.
Yes this will feature a landing attempt on the drone ship OSCILY(Of Course I Still Love You).
Yes this is the second launch of a reused stage that has already flown and launched a satellite before. Very exciting stuff! This core was first launched at the beginning of this year launching satellites for Iridium from Vandenburg AFB. It performed a flawless landing off the coast of California and was towed into Long Beach harbour where they brought it in under the cover of darkness. Next time(next month) if the stage is being towed in during the day I will run out there in a skiff to get you guys some pictures.
You can find the stream on SpaceXās page on youtube and their countdown is to the actual launch at T-0, and should start around 20 minutes prior to that time.
Hey everyone! So we just missed the launch from Vandenberg about 30 minutes ago and I did not mention itā¦however I have 1 shitty phone picture to show for it!
Uh ignore the rocketlike wind and half the video being out of focusā¦We were pretty happy how it turned out despite the in and out of focus due to autofocus. It was pretty cool to see stage separation!
For whatever reason he couldnāt upload in 1080p and if he manages to let youtube let him Iāll link that later.
It will probably be 3 days or so until the core gets back and Iām hoping to get out on the water and get pictures/video of it coming back in as well
Out of an abundance of caution, SpaceX will be spending the 4th of July doing a full review of the rocket and launch pad systems. The next launch opportunity for Intelsat 35e from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASAās Kennedy Space Center in Florida is now no earlier than Wednesday, July 5 or Thursday, July 6.
Launch is today at 7:37 EAT again. Apparently it was scrubbed due to the GNC computers finding a fault. As far as I know the exact issue hasnāt become public yet.
Iāll be in bed (the joys of earning money), but Iāll be there in spirit. Go SpaceX! I was kind of surprised though that this is another expendable one, I thought they didnāt want to expend any anymore and here we areā¦ I guess the Falcon Heavy delays are biting into their manifest planing.
Funny you mention FH. This payload was originally set to be launched on a FH. Due to all the upgrades of f9 itās capabilities increased to the point where they could launch it on a f9 expendably. Because itās heavy enough to be a FH payload is exactly why f9 was expendable. When FH starts launching I have a feeling all payloads that canāt also include an f9 landing will be moved to FH so they can land all 3 cores.
Thatās my suspicion as well. Even if they could launch a payload on F9 in expendable mode, it would be cheaper in the long run to use a FH with full reusability.
Anyone know if FH can be partially fuelled based on launch requirements?
An interesting thought, but the only reason I can imagine for doing so would be to reduce the mass coming back on landing. It would be like an airliner aborting to return to its departing point. They dump fuel to reduce weight and make the landing safe.
It might just be simpler to manage the logistics of waiting for enough launch customers who can share the same launch configuration. That way, youāre always launching with a full tank and not going through all that work to set up a launch for an incomplete manifest. The fuel is apparently not the critical factor.
And speaking of full tanks, hereās a couple videos showing the inside of a rocket fuel tank as it delivers its fuel. I always wondered what went on in there and now I know.
Falcon 9 second stage LOX tank. No narration. The strange movement at the end is when the engine stops and the stage is at 0g. Although the video doesnāt show it, the fuel eventually just breaks up into blobs that float around in the tank.
Interestingly enough itās actually better for falcon 9 to be heavier when landing. By decreasing the Thrust too weight ratio the computers have a longer time during the landing burn to get it right. The toughest landings are 3 engine burns with so little fuel because the landings are 3 times faster and 3 times less time to adjust for errors.
