All Questions
30
questions
3
votes
1
answer
274
views
How can you find out how many times a SpaceX fairing has been reused?
For the past few years, SpaceX has been reusing there fairings. While on some SpaceX webcasts they tell you, others they dont. Is there a way to find out how many times judging from how they appear? ...
- 3,756
2
votes
0
answers
89
views
How did the recovery of the first crewed Crew Dragon water recover differ from previous recoveries of Crew and Cargo flavors?
The NASA video Expedition 63 Inflight with New York Times, Fox News, and USA Today - July 7, 2020 includes an interview with Fox News reporter Bill Hemmer, who asks:
I am most interested in your ...
- 149k
3
votes
0
answers
96
views
What became of slowing down and recovering the falcon 9 upper stage using large balloons
On 16 April 2018, Elon Musk posted on twitter
This is gonna sound crazy, but …
SpaceX will try to bring rocket upper stage back from orbital velocity using a giant party balloon
And then land on a ...
- 5,333
21
votes
3
answers
6k
views
Why is the Falcon Heavy center core recovery done at sea?
Why does SpaceX attempt sea recoveries of the Falcon Heavy center core instead of staying at altitude and performing a land based recovery at a different site?
- 211
56
votes
5
answers
14k
views
Why doesn't the Falcon-9 first stage use three legs to land?
The immediate thought that would probably come into your mind would be "Because 4 legs is more stable than 3." However that is not always true. 3 legs offer the same or in some cases more stability as ...
- 5,928
27
votes
5
answers
10k
views
Why doesn't SpaceX land boosters in Africa?
Apart from the obvious answer that it'd take too long to get the booster back across the Atlantic, why doesn't SpaceX leave the main or centre booster in space a little bit longer and guide it to land ...
- 533
7
votes
1
answer
315
views
Did the Falcon Heavy center core miss the drone ship or abort?
On the recent Space Test Program-2 Falcon Heavy launch, the center core crashed into the ocean. Unlike the test flight, however, it was not due to running out of TEA-TEB lighter fluid.
From the video ...
- 7,935
13
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Why did the Falcon Heavy center core fall off the ASDS OCISLY barge?
On the second flight of the Falcon Heavy, they successfully landed the side cores at LZ-1 and LZ-2, and the center core downrange on the ASDS Of Course I Still Love You.
Reports have come in that ...
- 80k
16
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Why does this boat have a landing pad? (SpaceX's GO Searcher) Any plans for propulsive capsule landings?
The BBC News article SpaceX Dragon demo capsule set to return to Earth talks about the return of the first Crew Dragon capsule to Earth:
Four parachutes should bring it into soft contact with water ...
- 149k
4
votes
2
answers
207
views
Is half of a SpaceX fairing a viable lifting body?
If it was powered, would a shape such as a half-fairing produce any lift, or could it be modified to both work as fairing, and lifting body?
- 499
4
votes
0
answers
72
views
Chilling during restart of Spacex first stage engine [duplicate]
As I know that all the liquid rocket engines go through chilling process for different components (like pipes, engine, injector plate, etc.) before starting the ignition. At the time of launch the ...
- 2,246
5
votes
0
answers
481
views
Does the downrange position of an ASDS vary, depending on payload mass?
SpaceX in its recovery attempts can either do a Return To Launch Site (RTLS) or land downrange on an ASDS landing barge.
The Telesat 19V and 18V payloads were some of the heaviest payloads on the ...
- 80k
1
vote
1
answer
276
views
Would having the Falcon fairing reconnect be possible/beneficial?
I understand that many of the problems with recovering the two pieces of the Falcon 9 fairing deal with the weird aerodynamic patterns of the descent. It is by no means an aerodynamically sound object ...
- 9,417
17
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Why is the first stage from the Falcon 9 SES-12 mission not recovered?
Youtube video here
At 4:13 minutes into the Iridium-6/GRACE-FO NASA Launch, the commentator mentions:
The first stage is not going to be recovered, so there won't be any views from the drone ship ...
user10509
30
votes
3
answers
7k
views
Why won't they recover the Falcon 9 from CRS-14?
According to the upcoming livestream of SpaceX CRS-14 (resupply of ISS):
SpaceX will not attempt to recover Falcon 9’s first stage after launch.
Why not? Wasn't that the whole point of (among ...
- 601