8 ms·

SpaceX: Eutelsat/ABS Mission Hosted Webcast

56 points by pol0nium 10y ago

manaskarekar 10y ago
As for the first stage: "Following stage separation, the first stage of Falcon 9 will attempt an experimental landing on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship. As with other GTO missions, the first-stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing difficult." Mission Press Kit : http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/spacex_eutelsat_abs_press_kit.pdf http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/spacex_eutelsat_abs... EDIT: Sounds like they lost the first stage, still not very clear on the details. EDIT2: Confirmed loss of first stage by Elon Musk. "Ascent phase & satellites look good, but booster rocket had a RUD on droneship" https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743096769001578498 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743096769001578498
- AliCollins 10y ago
  Did the "experimental landing" work this time?
  - manaskarekar 10y ago
    No clear word yet. Feed froze as usual and whatever was on the screen was covered in black smoke. I did see something upright though, so who knows. Meanwhile, for anyone looking for one of the most epic moments: https://youtu.be/L0bMeDj76ig?t=29m28s https://youtu.be/L0bMeDj76ig?t=29m28s
  - krallja 10y ago
    It's not clear. The video feed cut off at landing. There was a lot of smoke, and possibly a standing rocket.
  - atonse 10y ago
    Feed died. I hope the next-gen of communications satellites improves the broadband-over-satellite situation. If only there was a company in this day and age that is launching satellites often and at lower cost. :)
    - bisby 10y ago
      Apparently the broadband out there is great. The issue isn't lack of satellites or speed. The issue is that when you have a Merlin 1D (or 3) firing directly at a mobile platform, it's going to shake violently. And when you have sensitive equipment on that platform shaking, you're going to have a satellite misalignment and signal cut outs while the lock is reacquired. Considering this is a pretty unique scenario (I would imagine 99% of satellite internet connections don't have rockets landing on them), I doubt it's a high priority to resolve somehow.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
  - EA 10y ago
    On the telecast they just said it appears the vehicle was lost.
    - vvanders 10y ago
      Seems like one engine was low on thrust: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743097337782763521 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743097337782763521
  - jefurii 10y ago
    I love the commentator's wording: "We'll see whether yes, we landed, or no, we've got more experimental data."
  - dtparr 10y ago
    No. It appeared briefly on the deck, but Elon tweeted it was a RUD, and that they'll be releasing video once they get access to it later today.
- lallysingh 10y ago
  I had to look it up: RUD is "Rapidly Unscheduled Disassembly"
  - larrywright 10y ago
    This might be my favorite acronym of all time.
  - dopamean 10y ago
    Rapidly or rapid? Is in the unscheduled part that is rapid or the disassembly?
    - nraynaud 10y ago
      that would be a rapidly scheduled disassembly. "yeah, we totally planned that in half a second".
  - outworlder 10y ago
    Was it caused by a lithobraking maneuver?
    - mikeash 10y ago
      I believe in this case it was a skafobraking maneuver. Not many lithos out in the Atlantic to brake with.
pol0nium 10y ago
As usual, the reddit /r/spacex launch thread is a useful resource: https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/4o5u6r/rspacex_eutelsat_117w_b_abs2a_official_launch/ https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/4o5u6r/rspacex_eute...
ritonlajoie 10y ago
If you are wondering, the video feed from the barge got cut off during the landing, but it didn't appear that it was very good. Lot of smoke. But I'm no pro. For now, we (the viewers) don't know if the landing was OK or KO.
- AliCollins 10y ago
  No telemetry from the landing stage? Or views from the nearby boats (how close is the nearest boat anyway?)
  - ritonlajoie 10y ago
    Well, they (the people at spacex) probably have everything, but I don't have access to this information :) Just watching the webcast, nothing indicated if the landing was ok or not. The people presenting the cast didn't know either.
    - tomahunt 10y ago
      They have just said that they got lots of good data. Even though the landing failed.
  - dtparr 10y ago
    The boats are quite a distance away. During the JCSAT-14 mission, there was actually video on the webcast from one of the boats, and the barge was over the horizon. It was night, so it's hard to get a feel for just how far away, though.
- cpwright 10y ago
  SpaceX confirmed they "lost the vehicle."
  - AliCollins 10y ago
    O well - better luck next time. Hopefully they got some more good data...would rather they have this issue now than when landing Red Dragon on Mars..!!
wiredfool 10y ago
It was announced on the webcast that they lost the Falcon 9. Second stage is still looking good, on a good GTO orbit after the second burn.
ChuckMcM 10y ago
Another successful satellite launch and more experimental data (aka they have a new failure mode for landing things). It is really awesome that they can be collecting the expertise to land the first stage "for free"[1] like this and every failure has improved the lander in some key way. I can't wait to see the reconstructed footage of this event. From what we got initially it seemed a bit off to the left of screen and generating a lot of smoke. [1] I realize it costs them time and money to operate the barge and recover the stages, but the cost of building those stages and launching them is covered by the launch contract so this work has extremely low marginal cost for rocket research.
xiphias 10y ago
Am I the only one who thought the landings are already starting to be boring? Smoke, rocket is there, cheers from the engineers...I remember Musk expected a few months ago to be able to save 10-20% of the Stage 1 this year (while the ratio increasing over time). But I guess they already can achieve 70-80% success rate, which is a cost saving that is already enough to kill competition.
- lutorm 10y ago
  When 70-80% are reflown, that might be true. So far there has not been any cost savings whatsoever...
  - gozur88 10y ago
    Yeah, this is the critical part. We still don't know what kind of reliability to expect from the used stages, and we don't know how much it's going to cost.
    - xiphias 10y ago
      Right now it is, but as they built the rocket, they are able to repair it and save money for sure. From what Elon said, landing was the tougher part. He was much more sure about being able to relaunch some of the stage 1s (except 1) than about being able to land (which took a lot of effort)
tdy721 10y ago
Here's the bit where they "landed": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLNmtUEvI5A&t=36m18s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLNmtUEvI5A&t=36m18s Looks to me like they may have stuck the "landing" but it was hard, broke something and the vehicle was on fire. Listen to the crowd and I think you can hear when the RUD went down.

56 points by pol0nium 10y ago

As for the first stage: "Following stage separation, the first stage of Falcon 9 will attempt an experimental landing on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship. As with other GTO missions, the first-stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing difficult." Mission Press Kit : http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/spacex_eutelsat_abs_press_kit.pdf http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/spacex_eutelsat_abs... EDIT: Sounds like they lost the first stage, still not very clear on the details. EDIT2: Confirmed loss of first stage by Elon Musk. "Ascent phase & satellites look good, but booster rocket had a RUD on droneship" https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743096769001578498 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743096769001578498

AliCollins 10y ago
Did the "experimental landing" work this time?
- manaskarekar 10y ago
  No clear word yet. Feed froze as usual and whatever was on the screen was covered in black smoke. I did see something upright though, so who knows. Meanwhile, for anyone looking for one of the most epic moments: https://youtu.be/L0bMeDj76ig?t=29m28s https://youtu.be/L0bMeDj76ig?t=29m28s
- krallja 10y ago
  It's not clear. The video feed cut off at landing. There was a lot of smoke, and possibly a standing rocket.
- atonse 10y ago
  Feed died. I hope the next-gen of communications satellites improves the broadband-over-satellite situation. If only there was a company in this day and age that is launching satellites often and at lower cost. :)
  - bisby 10y ago
    Apparently the broadband out there is great. The issue isn't lack of satellites or speed. The issue is that when you have a Merlin 1D (or 3) firing directly at a mobile platform, it's going to shake violently. And when you have sensitive equipment on that platform shaking, you're going to have a satellite misalignment and signal cut outs while the lock is reacquired. Considering this is a pretty unique scenario (I would imagine 99% of satellite internet connections don't have rockets landing on them), I doubt it's a high priority to resolve somehow.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
- EA 10y ago
  On the telecast they just said it appears the vehicle was lost.
  - vvanders 10y ago
    Seems like one engine was low on thrust: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743097337782763521 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743097337782763521
- jefurii 10y ago
  I love the commentator's wording: "We'll see whether yes, we landed, or no, we've got more experimental data."
- dtparr 10y ago
  No. It appeared briefly on the deck, but Elon tweeted it was a RUD, and that they'll be releasing video once they get access to it later today.
lallysingh 10y ago
I had to look it up: RUD is "Rapidly Unscheduled Disassembly"
- larrywright 10y ago
  This might be my favorite acronym of all time.
- dopamean 10y ago
  Rapidly or rapid? Is in the unscheduled part that is rapid or the disassembly?
  - nraynaud 10y ago
    that would be a rapidly scheduled disassembly. "yeah, we totally planned that in half a second".
- outworlder 10y ago
  Was it caused by a lithobraking maneuver?
  - mikeash 10y ago
    I believe in this case it was a skafobraking maneuver. Not many lithos out in the Atlantic to brake with.

pol0nium 10y ago

As usual, the reddit /r/spacex launch thread is a useful resource: https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/4o5u6r/rspacex_eutelsat_117w_b_abs2a_official_launch/ https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/4o5u6r/rspacex_eute...

ritonlajoie 10y ago

If you are wondering, the video feed from the barge got cut off during the landing, but it didn't appear that it was very good. Lot of smoke. But I'm no pro. For now, we (the viewers) don't know if the landing was OK or KO.

AliCollins 10y ago
No telemetry from the landing stage? Or views from the nearby boats (how close is the nearest boat anyway?)
- ritonlajoie 10y ago
  Well, they (the people at spacex) probably have everything, but I don't have access to this information :) Just watching the webcast, nothing indicated if the landing was ok or not. The people presenting the cast didn't know either.
  - tomahunt 10y ago
    They have just said that they got lots of good data. Even though the landing failed.
- dtparr 10y ago
  The boats are quite a distance away. During the JCSAT-14 mission, there was actually video on the webcast from one of the boats, and the barge was over the horizon. It was night, so it's hard to get a feel for just how far away, though.
cpwright 10y ago
SpaceX confirmed they "lost the vehicle."
- AliCollins 10y ago
  O well - better luck next time. Hopefully they got some more good data...would rather they have this issue now than when landing Red Dragon on Mars..!!

wiredfool 10y ago

It was announced on the webcast that they lost the Falcon 9. Second stage is still looking good, on a good GTO orbit after the second burn.

ChuckMcM 10y ago

Another successful satellite launch and more experimental data (aka they have a new failure mode for landing things). It is really awesome that they can be collecting the expertise to land the first stage "for free"[1] like this and every failure has improved the lander in some key way. I can't wait to see the reconstructed footage of this event. From what we got initially it seemed a bit off to the left of screen and generating a lot of smoke. [1] I realize it costs them time and money to operate the barge and recover the stages, but the cost of building those stages and launching them is covered by the launch contract so this work has extremely low marginal cost for rocket research.

xiphias 10y ago

Am I the only one who thought the landings are already starting to be boring? Smoke, rocket is there, cheers from the engineers...I remember Musk expected a few months ago to be able to save 10-20% of the Stage 1 this year (while the ratio increasing over time). But I guess they already can achieve 70-80% success rate, which is a cost saving that is already enough to kill competition.

lutorm 10y ago
When 70-80% are reflown, that might be true. So far there has not been any cost savings whatsoever...
- gozur88 10y ago
  Yeah, this is the critical part. We still don't know what kind of reliability to expect from the used stages, and we don't know how much it's going to cost.
  - xiphias 10y ago
    Right now it is, but as they built the rocket, they are able to repair it and save money for sure. From what Elon said, landing was the tougher part. He was much more sure about being able to relaunch some of the stage 1s (except 1) than about being able to land (which took a lot of effort)

tdy721 10y ago

Here's the bit where they "landed": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLNmtUEvI5A&t=36m18s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLNmtUEvI5A&t=36m18s Looks to me like they may have stuck the "landing" but it was hard, broke something and the vehicle was on fire. Listen to the crowd and I think you can hear when the RUD went down.