SpaceX Falcon 9

[tnt22]

Julia‏ @julia_bergeron 13 мин. назад

A more complete view of Octograbber holding onto the Block 5 booster as OCISLY enters port this morning. #Block5 #SpaceX #Roomba

[tnt22]

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-9-block-5-returns-to-port-gallery/

SpaceX's first Falcon 9 Block 5 returns to port in pristine condition

By Eric Ralph
Posted on May 15, 2018

SpaceX's first launched and landed Falcon 9 Block 5 booster has returned to port after a handful of days at sea, hopefully marking the beginning of a long and storied future of commercial missions. The booster – numbered B1046 – appears to be in extraordinarily good shape, more or less unscathed after a relatively high-energy reentry. Photographer Tom Cross documented the historic return in person at Port Canaveral.


B1046 arrives at Port Canaveral after an eventful inaugural launch and landing. (Tom Cross)

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After detaching from the rocket's second stage, which went on to successfully inject Bangladesh's first communications satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit, B1046 reached a peak of around 110 km before reentering Earth's atmosphere. Traveling 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) per second, Block 5 eventually completed a soft landing 500 miles off the Florida coast on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. The 25th successful Falcon 9 booster recovery, B1046 marked that historic achievement in proper style, dressed with large, black sections of the new SpaceX-developed thermal protection system, among dozens of other major improvements included in the launch vehicle's "Block" upgrade.


Technicians attach an interstage-grabber to lift the booster. (Tom Cross)


Compared to past high-energy GTO recoveries, B1046 is in extremely good condition. (Tom Cross)


The central aluminum grid fin of 1029 features a dramatic lack of several vanes, likely melted off during the intense heat of reentry. (Reddit, u/thedubya22)


Again, B1046 looks almost pristine thanks to its new thermal protection system, described as a sort of felt that is both extremely heat-resistant and hydrophobic. (Tom Cross)

While not visible, the most significant improvements are likely to be found at the base of the first stage's octaweb – now assembled with bolts instead of welds – in the form of a dramatically improved heat shield around its nine Merlin 1D engines (also upgraded, of course). One of the Falcon recovery technicians showed some exceptional interest in the shield and Merlins, likely documenting their condition in extreme detail to inform engineering reviews of the pathfinder rocket after its first flight test. Per CEO Elon Musk's pre-launch phone call with members of the press, SpaceX means to do an extremely thorough disassembly and analysis of B1046 in order to (hopefully) validate many thousands of hours of design, engineering, modeling, and testing. If those reviews are promising, it's extremely likely that B1046 will be reassembled and flown many more times, perhaps one day becoming another historic monument to SpaceX's reusability program and Block 5 upgrade.


A technician examines the booster's brand-new leg retraction mechanism, likely to be operationally trialed for the first time sometime today or tomorrow. (Tom Cross)


Octagrabber hangs on to B1046 as OCISLY arrives in port. (Tom Cross)


(Tom Cross)


A SpaceX technician spied taking photos of the Block 5 rocket's Merlin engines and octaweb heatshield. (Tom Cross)

Meanwhile, this mission also marked another routine operation for SpaceX's robotic stage-securing robot, unofficially nicknamed Roomba or Octagrabber. This custom-built robot is used to better ensure the safety of SpaceX's recovery crew by allowing them to remain on an accompanying vessel while securing the booster robotically, significantly lowering the chances of it sliding around or tipping over in high sea states.

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[Max Andriyahov]

Визуально - гораздо меньше копоти. Видимо, сократили время работы двигателя на посадки до самого минимума

[tnt22]

B1046

TomCross‏ @_TomCross_ 1 ч. назад

10:30am update: The last leg is off. Currently waiting for lift & placement onto the booster transporter. @Teslarati #spacex #falcon9 #PortCanaveral

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[Alex_II]

Max Andriyahov пишет:
Визуально - гораздо меньше копоти. Видимо, сократили время работы двигателя на посадки до самого минимума

Так у этих Мерлинов тяга больше...

[cavia]

Удивлен, что они так и не реализовали систему складывания ног.

[tnt22]

PORT CANAVERAL
Time lapse SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 leg removal

TESLARATI.com

Опубликовано: 16 мая 2018 г.

The block 5 Falcon 9 booster recovery taking place at Port Canaveral in Florida on May 16, 2018. In this time lapse the landing legs are being removed from the booster. Originally, this version of the booster was to be able to retract, or fold, the legs back up. Video by TomCross for Teslarati

(0:23)

[tnt22]

TomCross‏ @_TomCross_ 1 ч. назад

SpaceX removed the block 5 booster legs today. "Ironically, we need to take it apart to confirm that it does not need to be taken apart." Elon said.

[Oleg]

Короче, сняли ноги чтобы убедиться, что все там нормально и в дальнейшем больше не разбирать.

[Зловредный]

"Вскрытие показало, что больной умер от вскрытия."

[DiZed]

Зловредный пишет:
"Вскрытие показало, что больной умер от вскрытия."

"..давайте отрежем маресьеву ноги!" - "не надо, не надо! я буду летать!.."

[tnt22]

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-9-block-5-landing-leg-removal-video/

SpaceX team spotted removing Block 5 landing legs prior to teardown analysis

By Eric Ralph
Posted on May 16, 2018

Teslarati photographer Tom Cross has captured SpaceX technicians removing the landing legs from the first Falcon 9 Block 5 booster, signaling that the end of recovery operations are near.

Of note, it appears that SpaceX chose to conduct this recovery much like previous ones by removing the rocket's legs instead of retracting them, a feature of the Block 5 upgrade prominently noted by CEO Elon Musk and other company officials. A brief time-lapse shows workers carefully removing the legs in a well-worn ballet of heavy machinery, skirting around the massive rocket with expertise developed over the better part of two years of sea and land recoveries of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters.

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There are a number of possible reasons for SpaceX choosing to remove B1046's landing legs the 'old-fashioned' way, most relating to the fact that this particular booster is a critical pathfinder for the entire future of Falcon 9 Block 5. Musk described this attitude in a lengthy and detailed prelaunch briefing:

We are going to be very rigorous in taking this rocket apart and confirming our design assumptions to be confident that it is indeed able to be reused without being taken apart. Ironically, we need to take it apart to confirm that it does not need to be taken apart.

Both COO Shotwell and Musk have briefly discussed the new functionality of the upgraded legs in the past few weeks, indicating that they are capable of being rapidly and repeatedly stowed without being removed from the rocket, whereas all past booster reuse has required the slow removable and equally slow reattachment of landing legs, assuming Block 3 and 4 boosters even reuse their same landing legs. At a minimum, Musk's above comment already makes it clear that SpaceX has no plans to reuse this booster immediately, instead conducting an extremely thorough teardown analysis to verify that wear and tear from high-speed atmospheric reentry is within an acceptable range.


SpaceX technicians busy themselves removing Falcon 9 Block 5's massive recovery hardware. (Tom Cross)

Equally plausible, choosing to remove B1046's landing legs instead of testing the new retraction mechanisms may better preserve the leg hardware in its post-landing state, providing engineers and technicians cleaner and more representative data. One final obvious possibility is that the process of flight-testing new Block 5 leg hardware caused damage or led to some off-nominal telemetry and other visible faults, thus preventing them from retracting.

Because the next Block 5 booster (B1047) is likely nearing its own debut after a thorough round of testing in Texas, captured by an aerial photographer, SpaceX may be pushing hard to complete its post-landing analysis of B1046 as quickly as possible to make way for the imminent launches of several new boosters. If the company hopes to maintain its impressive 2018 flight rate of one launch every two weeks throughout the rest of the year, they will need to refly Block 5 boosters at least 10 times – the last flight-proven commercial Block 4 launch (CRS-15) is currently scheduled for early July, leaving roughly half of all 2018's upcoming launches manifested on Block 5 Falcon 9/Heavy rockets. Falcon Heavy's second launch has in fact been pushed back by several months per The Planetary Society, indicating that the construction of the first Block 5 center booster has taken a back seat to the more pressing concerns of Falcon 9 Block 5 boosters, upper stages, and fairings needed to avoid additional customer launch delays.


B1046's final landing leg is removed and carried off with a forklift, presumably for teardown analysis at a SpaceX facility. (Tom Cross)

Regardless, the first successful and nearly-complete recovery of a Falcon 9 Block 5 booster marks a huge milestone for SpaceX. So long as the imminent teardown analysis does not reveal anything especially unexpected, the rocket company is quickly closing in on true rapid reuse with Octagrabber/Roomba's steady routinization of robotic rocket saving, yet another intact fairing half recovery, and the good condition of B1046 after a relatively hot reentry and landing.


Just boopin' an orbital-class rocket with a huge metal component, NBD. (Tom Cross)


(Tom Cross)


A toasty Block 5 landing leg shows off a new patina for SpaceX's upgraded thermal protection material.


(Tom Cross)

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[Сергей]

Вполне очевидное решение. Для набора статистики понадобится как минимум 10 штук блок 5 с 10 кратным использованием каждого блока и с тщательной дефектацией каждый раз после приземления, особенно тщательно по мере увеличения циклов использования. Так что программа подтверждения работоспособности блока 5 на 10 циклов растянется лет на пять. Если за это время заработает хотя бы прототип Раптора и центральный движок будет управляться не хуже , чем у F9 по величине тяги, то Маск определенно модернизирует F9 под метан , и вот тут то все упростится и с точки зрения многоразовости, и увеличения ПН за счет УИ.

[Искандер]

Сергей пишет:
Маск определенно модернизирует F9 под метан , и вот тут то все упростится и с точки зрения многоразовости, и увеличения ПН за счет УИ.

НННШ
Разве что вторую ступень.

[Сергей]

Искандер пишет:

Сергей пишет:
Маск определенно модернизирует F9 под метан , и вот тут то все упростится и с точки зрения многоразовости, и увеличения ПН за счет УИ.

НННШ
Разве что вторую ступень.

Эн то конечно обязательно, по масковски (если он спятил), - на первой ступени керосин, на второй метан.

[Старый]

Сергей пишет:
Маск определенно модернизирует F9 под метан , и вот тут то все упростится и с точки зрения многоразовости, и увеличения ПН за счет УИ.

Размер ступеней увеличится и они перестанут вписываться в дорожный габарит.

[Alex_II]

Старый пишет:
Размер ступеней увеличится и они перестанут вписываться в дорожный габарит.

А для этого ему завод в Порт-Канаверал... BFR  то определенно в дорожный габарит не впишется...

[tnt22]

Falcon9 B1046‏ @Falcon9_B1046 20 ч. назад

Guys, I'm headed for home. Wish me luck!

[Зловредный]

Good luck! And many happy returns of the flight!

[opinion]

Сергей пишет:
Так что программа подтверждения работоспособности блока 5 на 10 циклов растянется лет на пять.

Маск должен запустить две тысячи спутников до 24-го года, иначе может потерять лицензию FAA. Так что, некогда растягивать. Во время телеконференции перед последним запуском он сказал, что 3 или 4 пуска одной и той же ступени будут уже в этом году, а 10 пусков - в следующем.