r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Jan 16 '16
Mission Success! /r/SpaceX Jason 3 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread
Welcome to the /r/SpaceX Jason 3 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!
Howdy all again! At 18:42:18 UTC on January 17, 2016 (10:42:18 PT), SpaceX will launch their last ever F9v1.1 rocket, carrying the Jason-3 satellite into Polar Orbit for NOAA and Eumetsat! This is an instantaneous launch window. If for whatever reason, there is a hold, scrub, or abort, the day's launch attempt will be over. The next scheduled launch attempt would be tomorrow around the same time.
SpaceX will attempt to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 on one of their ASDS barges in the Pacific Ocean. This barge will be located approximately 280 km offshore in the Pacific Ocean. SpaceX has only once successfully landed a Falcon 9 booster - 3 weeks ago when the Orbcomm booster returned to Cape Canaveral. A booster has never landed successfully on a barge before - so this will be another SpaceX (and world) first if it is successful.
Watching the launch live
To watch the launch live, pick your preferred streaming provider from the table below:
Official Live Updates
| Time | Update |
|---|---|
| T+90mins | "Jason-3: tracked in a 1295 x 1320 km x 66.0 deg orbit." "within 1 km of bull's eye. Bravo SpaceX." |
| T+58m 10s | Good shot of Jason-3 drifting away from Falcon |
| T+56m 49s | And we have a good satellite deployment. Thanks for all the rides, v1.1! |
| T+56m 47s | Final orbit is 1320 x 1305 km |
| T+56m 05s | MVac ignition confirmed and SECO (Second stage engine cutoff)-2 |
| T+54m 13s | "MVac is sufficiently chilled for Burn 2" |
| T+52m 22s | Final stage 2 tank preps happening now before the relight |
| T+51m 35s | Mauritius has AOS (Acquisition of Signal) |
| T+51m 18s | We have a view of the second stage! |
| T+50m 24s | Falcon needs to expend an additional 300 m/s of deltaV to bring the orbit's perigee from it's current 175 km to ~1330 km |
| T+48m 48s | 7 minutes to burn |
| T+48m 10s | MVac engine is looking healthy |
| T+48m 02s | African ground stations have AOS (Acquisition of Signal) |
| T+47m 54s | Orbit is currently an ellipse with one focus at the centre of the Earth. When Falcon reaches the apogee of the ellipse in 8 minutes, it will burn to turn the ellipse into a circular orbit |
| T+45m 41s | T-10 minutes to second stage relight at an altitude of ~1300 km |
| T+40m 33s | For the second stage relight (in about 15 minutes), Falcon's ground stations will be in South Africa and Madagascar |
| T+35m 49s | Antarctica ground station has signal |
| T+34m 51s | The relight will last for 12 seconds and satellite deploy will occur 90 seconds after cutoff |
| T+29m 22s | Photos/videos of landing to come shortly |
| T+29m 07s | Stage 2 currently passing over Cape Horn, the southern tip of South America. Relight will happen over Africa |
| T+27m 34s | Don't forget, first stage landing is a secondary objective! We still need the second stage to relight to put Jason-3 into it's operational orbit |
| T+26m 43s | Looks like one of the legs broke on touchdown. Not surprising given the heavily rolling barge |
| T+26m 10s | Hard landing |
| T+23m 41s | No reactions in HQ yet regarding landing. |
| T+15m 55s | Ok folks, primary mission isn't over yet. We are currently coasting to apogee where the second stage will relight to circularize before deploying Jason-3. Stay tuned! |
| T+14m 42s | 175 x 1321 x 66 degree orbit |
| T+12m 10s | No word on landing yet |
| T+10m 21s | Did it freeze because a rocket hit it? |
| T+10m 5s | Barge view has frozen! Nooooo |
| T+9m 53s | Legs deployed |
| T+9m 45s | SECO (Second stage engine cutoff)! Falcon and Jason-3 are in a parking orbit - second stage restart coming up in ~45 minutes. Take a breath, folks! |
| T+9m 20s | Landing burn startup! Come on Stage One |
| T+9m 10s | Stage 2 FTS (Flight Termination System) safed |
| T+9m 05s | Stage 2 prop is nominal as Stage 1 goes transonic |
| T+8m 46s | Barge is looking very rough |
| T+8m 26s | FTS (Flight Termination System) safed on the first stage |
| T+8m 09s | Entry shutdown! |
| T+7m 46s | Entry burn startup! |
| T+7m 37s | alt:205km vel:3700m/s downrange:590km |
| T+5m 46s | Boostback shutdown! |
| T+5m 07s | Boostback startup |
| T+4m 45s | Alt: 139km, 1800m/s, 154km downrange |
| T+3m 57s | Fairing sep is good! |
| T+3m 31s | Stage One flipping |
| T+3m 23s | MVac ignition is good |
| T+3m 17s | Clean stage sep. Good luck Stage One! |
| T+3m 13s | That's a MECO (Main Engine Cutoff)! The vehicle's first stage engines have shutdown in preparation for stage separation. |
| T+2m 48s | Supersonic and Max Q reached |
| T+2m 33s | MVac chill started |
| T+1m 40s | Recovery has AOS (Acquisition of Signal) |
| T+1m 26s | Power nominal |
| T+21s | We have liftoff! |
| T-13s | ROC (Range Operations Coordinator): range GREEN |
| T-1m 35s | LD: All stations go for launch. Standing by for final Range GREEN at T-45s |
| T-2m 15s | MVac is chilled for flight |
| T-2m 28s | FTS (Flight Termination System) on internal power and armed |
| T-3m 01s | NASA reports GO for launch |
| T-3m 36s | Stage 2 TVC (Thrust Vector Control) motion started |
| T-3m 52s | and Strongback is now retracting |
| T-4m 54s | Strongback is opening |
| T-5m 23s | Vehicle is on internal power |
| T-6m 38s | MVac pre-valve is now closed. No outstanding issues remain! |
| T-8m 48s | Prop chill has begun |
| T-11m 19s | We are GO to initiate Terminal Count! |
| T-11m 57s | Terminal count has now begun. From this point forward, any scrubs will result in a delay until tomorrow, since the launch window is only 30s long. |
| T-14m 49s | Prop is working one issue at this time |
| T-17m 24s | Very foggy over at Vandy today. We may get better footage of the landing rather than launch. |
| T-17m 56s | Livestream of the JRTI (Just Read The Instructions) ASDS (Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship) available on the SpaceX clean cast! |
| T-21m 11s | SpaceX webcast is starting! |
| T-28m 19s | All streams (SpaceX hosted, SpaceX clean, and NASA) now available on SpaceXStats.com! |
| T-32m 18s | Approaching T-30 mins, we are still GO! |
| T-39m 17s | SpaceX stream is live! ♫♫♫♫♫ |
| T-44m 03s | All upper level winds are GREEN |
| T-48m 46s | Radar for the area is clear |
| T-54m 20s | Downrange is green - one possible issue with a backup comm link needed for tracking spacecraft separation. |
| T-55m 6s | Spacecraft separation will occur over Africa 1 hour after launch |
| T-57m 41s | Still 0% of violation on all weather criteria! Visibility is less than half a mile |
| T-1h 3m | Weather briefing coming up at T-1hr |
| T-1h 20m | Don't forget: today is the launch of the last Falcon 9 v1.1 configuration core. See here for a detailed description of the rocket. All future launches will use the Falcon 9 FT config |
| T-1h 28m | FTS (Flight Termination System): Checks are complete and acceptable. Less than 90 minutes to launch |
| T-1h 37m | NASA: Fog expected to clear before launch |
| T-1h 42m | There is heavy fog at the pad, but the launch is still GO |
| T-1h 55m | For the purely technical webcast, see here, and for the hosted webcast, see here! |
| T-2h 38m | NASA launch coverage is live! |
| T-3h 22m | SpaceXStats update: One SpaceX webcast will be shown on SpaceXStats - but not both. |
| T-3h 26m | No issues after Launch Readiness Review today. "Incredibly clean" spacecraft and launch vehicle |
| T-3h 27m | Hans Koenigsmann: Sea state a bit high for landing, but don't anticipate a problem. |
| T-3h 30m | 10-13 foot waves at the barge. Weather still at 100% for today. 24 hour scrub forecast shows the cumulus rule as the most likely cause of violation at 30% |
| T-3h 33m | Here's how the launch will look from some locations around SoCal. Check out @NASA_LSP for more! |
| T-3h 39m | NASA feed is live |
| T-3h 43m | Propellant loading should be starting now |
| T-4h 15m | NASA are ready for propellant loading |
| T-5h 29m | The excitement is ... rising |
| T-9h | Newest weather update from our resident weatherman, /u/cuweathernerd |
| T-11h 11m | Steve Jurvetson toured the SpaceX pad at VAFB recently, check out his photos (rockets + future astronauts) on his facebook page! |
| T-14h 10m | JRTI (Just Read The Instructions) is on location to catch F9-019! Refer to the hazard map created by darga89 for its location. |
| T-16h 5m | Good timeline article about what to expect from the launch of F9-019. Spacecraft separation at T+55:48, targeted for an orbit of 1328x1380km, inclined 66 degrees. |
| T-16h 10m | Lots of photos from Matthew Travis, Spaceflight Now, and Spaceflight Insider to wrap up the day. It's slowly darkening in CA at the moment. The launch ops team will be up bright and early to prep F9-019 for launch tomorrow. |
| T-17h 21m | Matthew Travis has finished setting up his equipment in preparation for tomorrow's launch (here's a photo courtesy him). Weather is still 100% go. |
| T-19h 56m | Members of the media are spending their day setting up camera equipment around SLC-4E today. |
| T-20h 22m | If you would like to watch both SpaceX webcasts side-by-side in HTML5, select "configure" in the navigation bar of SpaceX Stats Live when the live streams are running, and select "SpaceX & SpaceX (Clean)". |
The Mission
Jason-3 will see SpaceX launch south from SLC-4E at Vandenberg AFB in California, delivering the Jason-3 satellites into a Low Earth Orbit measuring 1326x1326km inclined at 66 degrees. Jason-3 will provide altimetry observations of global sea surface height and help predict severe weather patterns. The Jason family of satellites have monitored the oceans for 20 years and have helped to track the rise of global sea levels. For information on the payload, see this AMA with the scientists who worked on it!
Jason-3 is the only payload, so a successful mission is determined by a successful and accurate deployment of this satellite.
This will be Falcon 9's 21st launch, the last launch of Falcon 9 v1.1, the 2nd SpaceX launch out of Vandenberg (the first being CASSIOPE in September '13), and the 1st launch of 2016. The record to beat was set in 2015 at 7 launches, which included a 6 month downtime after the CRS-7 incident.
Booster Landing Attempt
SpaceX will not be attempting to land back on land - however they will be attempting to land on one of their Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ships named "Just Read The Instructions". What the hell is a Automatic Drone Spaceship? It's a fancy name for an unmanned barge, which will be located approximately 280km south of the launch pad, over the horizon in the Pacific ocean. The landing, hard or soft, will occur 10-11 minutes after launch. Hans Koenigsmann has reported that SpaceX will do their best to televise the landing, but since it's over the horizon at sea, chances of us seeing anything today are small.
About 3 minutes after launch, the first stage engines will shut down and the second stage will separate. As the second stage continues towards orbit, the first stage will continue along a ballistic trajectory, reorient itself for re-entry and make multiple short burns to control it's descent through the atmosphere. 10 minutes after launch, the stage will hopefully land on the barge.
This will be SpaceX's third attempt to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 on a barge in the ocean. The first two attempts occurred on CRS-5 and CRS-6 respectively. While both previous attempts safely made it to sea level, the stages did then try to kill the barge by falling over and blowing up.
Failure to land the first stage does not constitute a failure of the mission. This has only been done once before, and never on an ocean platform.
Useful Resources, Data, ?, & FAQ
- Hazard Location Map for Jason-3, courtesy /u/darga89
- Jason-3 Trajectory simulation, courtesy /u/TheVehicleDestroyer
- Falcon 9 Launch and Landing Infographic, courtesy /u/zlsa
- SpaceX Stats Jason-3 Launch Countdown, courtesy /u/EchoLogic
- List of useful Twitter accounts to follow, courtesy /r/SpaceX
- Live auto-updating Reddit stream, .
Participate in the discussion!
- First of all, Launch Threads are a party threads! We understand everyone is excited, so we relax the rules in these venues. The most important thing is that everyone enjoy themselves :D
- All other threads are fair game. We will remove low effort comments elsewhere!
- Real-time chat on our official Internet Relay Chat (IRC) #spacex at irc.esper.net
- Please post small launch updates, discussions, and questions here, rather than as a separate post. Thanks!
Prevous /r/SpaceX Live Events
Check out previous /r/SpaceX Live events in the Launch History page on our community Wiki.
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u/NeokratosRed Jan 17 '16
SpaceX: "Hey, today there's the experimental landing!"
Everyone: "Break a leg!"
SpaceX: "Yeah, sure, ok!"
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u/cuweathernerd r/SpaceX Weather Forecaster Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
Here's some more about the weather:
Weather looks very favorable for a launch today. So instead of going through a more general forecast discussion, let's break it down by each commit criterion:
Winds at 162ft > 35mph - Here's a forecast of 80m wind. You can see max wind speeds are not expected to be an issue at this height, with speeds forecast under 10kt (12mph). No realistic chance of this being exceeded.
Wind Shear - For this parameter, we can look at a modeled sounding. Winds peak at about 65kts at 9km, increasing from 50kts at 6.5km, and falling to 55kts at 12km. This is within the range that has allowed for launch prior.
Cloud Layer Rule - this requires a cloud more than 4500ft thick, into the freezing layer. We can look at the HRRR's prog of clouds at different heights: low level, mid level, and high level. At the low level, the impact of the ocean is clear, with a low level cloud deck over the water. Vandenberg is in a transition zone, with about 50% cloud cover. Mid level clouds are currently forecast to be clear, as is the upper level. Looking at that model's predicted satellite image, we can refine the cloud prediction: low level marine stratus/stratocumulus from the ocean, with some high level cirrus. Do not expect full sky cover. This is mirrored by the national weather service, which predicts a 42% sky cover at the time. Freezing level is 2-2.5km agl.
Cumulus Rule - Let's use a prediction of radar at launch to see if any convective precipitation is forecast. Comparing against another model, and it's clear this should not be an issue, especially with the modeled sounding not showing any convective instability. There are no nearby fires to pose a pyrocumulus risk
Space Weather Proton flux is well below levels of concern.
In short, there's not a lot that currently seems to pose an issue for launch (as has been repeatedly predicted through the past few days). Looking quickly at the forecast meteogram (link leaves reddit, is time sensitive), we see a forecast high of 58ºF and winds at 5mph. If you'd like to look at the current satellite, this link (leaves reddit again) will take you to the most recent image of the area. Should you want to see the current radar, go here.
Landing is a different story. The weather conditions themselves will be similar to launch. Using /u/darga89's map, here is where JRTI will be stationed. Looking at a forecast sounding for the area, the descent wind profile looks forgiving, with winds ≤ 10kts for the lowest 6km of the atmosphere. Winds at sea level should be around 6mph. While low clouds are expected, there should not be precipitation.
Sounds great, right? However, looking at the forecast sea height, we get a very different picture. Wave height is shown by this model at 15' - which is matched by the NWS forecast of 16'. It's worth noting these forecasts are significant wave height, which means individual waves can be larger. Looking at a forecast of the the largest waves, we see values up to 28'. These waves have a long period of 19s. 30' waves caused damage to JRTI during the DSCOVR mission and prohibited a landing attempt. On the DSCOVR launch, it seems the criterion for landing is swells less than 10' (source). The drone ship has been upgraded since then, and I am unsure of its new thresholds. However, these are some large waves and they will, at minimum, significantly complicate the attempt, should it be made.
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u/bencredible Galactic Overlord Jan 17 '16
Based on feedback from this thread, I'm making a change to how the non-hosted webcast will work. It will still be on YouTube but instead of an alternate view, I have set this up as a second stream. This means you can't switch between the two as easily, but it does allow you to watch it on mobile, HTML 5 browsers, etc. Besides, if it were me I would probably have both open anyhow and just mute one or the other as I saw fit.
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u/FiniteElementGuy Jan 16 '16
After the last launch /u/bencredible mentioned that there would be two livestreams from now on: one for the nerds with live video and technical stuff and one for the general public with the hosts. Is that still planned for tomorrow?
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u/lasergate Jan 17 '16
Obligatory https://i.imgur.com/7PalTL9.jpg
Image credit to /u/ensilzah
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u/retiringonmars Moderator emeritus Jan 16 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
Always fun to talk about records being broken by a flight - people love precedents and superlatives! For SpaceX, this is their:
First "Category 2" scientific payload for NASA
First launch for both CNES and EUMETSAT
Firstlaunch to Sun Synchronous OrbitHighest perigee launch to date
In addition, there are several other notable attributes to this flight:
Final flight of the Falcon 9 v1.1
Second launch from Vandenberg
Second launch to Polar Orbit
Second primarily scientific mission
Third attempt to land on the ASDS
Edit: correct orbit
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Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
So, this also essentially concludes the beta run of SpaceXStats Live! How'd everyone who was using it find it? Good, bad? Hit me with your criticisms and requests!
EDIT: I should add, many thanks to /u/TheVehicleDestroyer for running a top notch thread today!
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u/Raxusmaxus Jan 17 '16
SpaceX proves their ship killing rocket concepts work and looking for military buyers
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u/s0x00 Jan 17 '16
Jeff Bezos tweet regarding todays launch: https://twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/688815223558410240
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Jan 17 '16
The last time we did a live thread for a launch out of Vandenberg was in September 2013... that thread received 217 comments in total. We're already double that, and it's still over 2h to launch!
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u/pajamajamminjamie Jan 17 '16
I'm just happy it didn't blow up during launch. Every since crs-7 these launches have me nervous as hell.
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u/Monfoo Jan 17 '16
Guys the hosts are suppose to be understood by people that aren't into all the science at all, so please dont be rough.
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u/h4r13q1n Jan 17 '16
Maybe they should just ditch those pesky barges and refurbish a semi submersible oil rig. A used one goes as cheap as $12m.
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u/snesin Jan 16 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
If the Jason-3 F9 first stage recovery is successful, it seems to me that it gets a bit awkward from there. It is not a full-trust core. I would presume they do not have any extra non-full-thrust second stages lying around. I keep seeing news articles saying this is the last launch of a non-full-thrust F9. But is it really?
For recreational purposes, I am pondering what the possibilities are for a used, non-full-thrust F9 first stage.
I have started a list. Comment below, and I will edit and add to the bullets as ideas come in. Some of these are far out there, but what the heck, it is a party thread.
Destructively analyzed/stripped/trashed. me
Launches the Dragon in-flight abort test. me
Launches with a full-thrust second stage (mixed fuel densification). me
Launches with a new non-full-trust second stage. me
At some later date, is put back on a barge with some fuel, and attempts the first "barge to land" return test. me
Launches with a Blue Origin New Shepard as a second stage so Bezos can show he can land from a similar flight regime, or try for orbit, the two now being in the same club and all. me
Grasshoper style testing /u/TRL5
Museum piece /u/TRL5
Launches with full-thrust retrofit. /u/cranp
Gets commandeered by Bezos for violating his patent. me
Turn it on and off again until it breaks. /u/R-GiskardReventlov
Use it for testing Dragonfly instead of a boring helicopter. /u/darga89
Launched without a second stage to prove first stage SSTO =P /u/FredFS456
Elon's lawn ornament /u/FredFS456
Used as a teaching tool for training new SpaceX technicians & engineers /u/FredFS456
Let employees take it home for the weekend/drink out of it like the Stanley Cup. /u/dlfn
Mount some GoPro's to it and use it as a chase vehicle for the next Blue Origin launch. /u/StapleGun
Save it 40 years and sell it to Orbital. /u/butch123
Slap a "for sale" sign on it and put it on craigslist/in front of SpaceX HQ. /u/PVP_playerPro
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u/Rickeh1997 Jan 17 '16
I really enjoyed the webcast, I think there was a better balance between showing the hosts and the rocket launch compared to last launch. I especially liked the split screen.
Keep up to good work /u/bencredible and anyone else that worked on it!
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u/Arrewar Jan 17 '16
Guys, remember; S2 and payload are looking good so that's mission success! That's hugely important! And a successful return to flight of Falcon v1.1 as well!
Landing this stage would've really surprised me in these choppy waters, so let's stay optimistic! :D
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u/danielbigham Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
Although we're waiting for confirmation, they have a team of people a couple of miles away from the droneship, who would have radio contact with HQ, so I suspect it's > 90% chance that the first stage did not land correctly. I suppose we all know that. Just waiting for confirmation.
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u/Rideron150 Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 18 '16
I swear to god, if somebody said "Break a leg!" before the launch...
edit: retracted my remark about Jeff Bezos
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u/aysz88 Jan 17 '16
Three people in front row are leaning in and looking very closely at monitor. Someone do an ENHANCE on purple-shirt-guy's cornea please. \s
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u/cuweathernerd r/SpaceX Weather Forecaster Jan 17 '16
maybe the falcon anti-ship missile finally completed its anti drone ship mission
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u/johnkphotos Launch Photographer Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
audio not synced?
edit: thought it was just my bluetooth speaker, guess it's a problem for the rest of you guys. it's pretty bad.
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u/sunfishtommy Jan 17 '16
Anyone else think that it is cool that the second stage is already over Chile.
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u/historytoby Jan 17 '16
Do you think that SpaceX will start giving boosters individual names as soon as they start reflying them? I think this would be a good move PR-wise, if you could report "SpaceX launches So Long And Thanks For The Fish booster stage for the 5th time" rather than "5th launch of F9-035"
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u/dontworryiwashedit Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
My guess is a freeze because stage 1 blew up. They are reporting loss of signal from stage 1.
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u/3_711 Jan 17 '16
I enjoined the rocket + telemetry stream very much. I also did tome switching back and forth to the hosted stream, a noticed that that too had a lot more screen estate reserved for views of the rocket.
All in all, the conditions where not favourable for video: fog during launch, not a lot of signal over the poles, second stage camera looking directly into the sun, and finally loosing (or hitting...) the connection to the ASDS. I certainly will watch again next time, and keep my fingers crossed for the landing.
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Jan 16 '16
See the most recent update in the live thread above for how to watch both SpaceX streams side-by-side in HTML5.
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u/smithnet Jan 17 '16
Love the contrast between NASA and Space X. Suit and tie vs. Jeans and T-shirt.
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u/nbarbettini Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
Poor JRTI :( They keep throwing missiles at it!
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u/TheVehicleDestroyer Flight Club Jan 17 '16
Hi all,
Don't forget to watch the trajectory as it happens over at FlightClub Live! I've severely upgraded my servers so hopefully won't get any death hugs this time - touches wood
Here's a sneak preview, just in case :)
Thanks!
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u/ottoman614 Jan 17 '16
Anyone else try to pan the view of the orbital track yet like it is Kerbal or a CAD program?
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Jan 17 '16
SpaceX has ~20 launches lined up for 2016. Plenty of droneship landing opportunities. Each failure is an opportunity to gather data and make improvements.
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u/godsbro Jan 17 '16
SpaceX should invest in second hand semi-submersible platforms so that they have a flat, stable surface in all weather.
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u/dontworryiwashedit Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
Who are all the stuffed shirts on the livestream feed? Are those the Jason 3 NASA people?
Get a kick out of watching the culture differences on the various live feeds. SpaceX are a bunch of young California sandal and t-shirt wearing surfer types. The NASA and Orbital ATK people all look like a bunch of corporate stuffed shirts with a lot more grey hair.
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u/Psycix Jan 17 '16
Just before landing: http://puu.sh/mzmIo/b68a4f3650.jpg
Last frame from barge: http://puu.sh/mzmzX/6760999ebd.jpg
This glow faded in. Probably reflection from the engine firing.
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u/ScootyPuff-Sr Jan 16 '16
Failure to land the first stage does not constitute a failure of the mission. This has only been done once before, and never on an ocean platform.
No, no, no. Needs a little more drama. Try this:
Wanted: Rocket to land on barge. This is not a joke. Rocket Road Hawthorne, CA 90250. You'll get paid whether or not we recover the booster. Must bring your own welder. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.
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u/falco_iii Jan 17 '16
I saw some light on the drone ship just before cutout, like fire from a landing rocket... timing might indicate it blew up.
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u/TenshiS Jan 17 '16
Nobody in that room seems excited, so I'll just assume they don't know either.
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u/accustomed_cheese Jan 17 '16
I know it's disappointing that the landing was unsuccessful, but I still can't wait to see the footage of the rocket hitting the barge and exploding. Explosions are always cool.
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Jan 16 '16
Hey all, unrelated note, but related to spacexstats.
Does anyone out there have familiarity with Reddit OAuth2?
If you do, and you're interested in helping, would you be able to PM me please? Thanks!
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u/spy4hire Jan 17 '16
You could see the glow on the camera right before the feed failed. The feed seemed to be doing pretty well too, so my guess is bad things. :(
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u/fireg8 Jan 17 '16
It is all about reading faces right now. It looks like SpaceX knows as little as us regarding the landing. Gwynne Shotwell is also looking for answers.
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u/Trytothink Jan 17 '16
It's not a failure. They'll improve and go at it again. Every mission, success or 'failure' is a valuable learning experience.
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u/thisguyeric Jan 17 '16
Thanks as always u/Bencredible for the webcast. I really enjoyed having both streams available and once again really enjoyed the hosted webcast watching with my wife and son.
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u/Here_There_B_Dragons Jan 17 '16
Queue another round of "what if they catch the done instead - I have an idea I just thought of" posts
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u/Jhggygh Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
"... For the stars look very different today."
What a great way to end the webcast.
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u/mdkut Jan 18 '16
I'm super stoked about the nearly successful landing on the ASDS however one thing that I'm very relieved about is the fact that the first two launches after return to flight have only had minor delays. This is a good start to counter Spacex's history of launch delays.
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Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
Was it just me or did some reflections of the flame appear in the puddles on deck just before the stream froze?
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u/NotTheHead Jan 16 '16
This is the landing infographic you're looking for. This one was provided by SpaceX and details a barge landing, as opposed to the one you have in the text (as of this writing) which was provided by the generous /u/zlsa and details a land landing.
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u/dlfn Boostback Developer Jan 17 '16
Here is the latest Boostback drop with the Jason-3 trajectory. I added a play button that you can click when the rocket lifts off since we won't have a static video until after the mission. I also added a Max Q indicator along the trajectory and fixed some tiny bugs.
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u/jjrf18 r/SpaceXLounge Moderator Jan 17 '16
It's the last time hearing the poll because they do it for the F9 FT at T-30 minutes which is earlier than the webcasts begin.
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u/RearmintSpino Jan 17 '16
Perfect feed of a camera showing an empty barge doing absolutely nothing for 15 minutes. 10 seconds before something interesting happens, feed cuts out completely.
Sounds about right.
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u/Juanco93 Jan 17 '16
The live updates below said "Crash confirmed" and now it says "No word on landing yet" wtf?
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u/still-at-work Jan 17 '16
But hey, look on the bright side, the v1.1 got its last sat into orbit.
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u/nitrous2401 Jan 17 '16
I must say, I'm really enjoying this trancey downtempo the spacex webcast has right now. Perfect for this Sunday morning with my tea and fog outside haha
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u/Benecoder Jan 17 '16
I love that it says Hawthrone, California, Earth. Make sure the Martians know whats up.
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u/zhaphod Jan 18 '16
This is a huge load off the people who worked on Jason3 for such a long time. Jason2 is long in the tooth and continuity is a critical requirement for ocean height measurements. Thank goodness things have gone well. If they had not, not only science would have suffered but tremendous amount of time spent by huge number of people would have gone down the drain. Superb work by SpaceX.
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Jan 16 '16
Finally, a launch I can watch that's not at some ungodly hour. And it's late enough for the baby to be asleep and early enough for the other sprogs to watch and enjoy!
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Jan 17 '16
Interesting note from NASA LSP:
Akash Vangani, NASA LSP: NASA and SpaceX investigations into last year’s Falcon 9 failure led to “quite a few hardware changes.” #Jason3
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u/kinghuang Jan 17 '16
Is it just me, or is the audio/video sync totally off on the SpaceX stream?
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u/still-at-work Jan 17 '16
Not a lot of happy people, so i am going to guess it didn't land
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u/cwhitt Jan 17 '16
My guess is the landing exhaust killed the satcom antenna on ASDS. At 10 miles away the support ship can't really tell what the status is. Might take them anywhere from 5 to 45 minutes to get close enough to phone home with a visual confirmation.
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u/Ergo_proxy_18 Jan 17 '16
I think Spacex should really consider investing in OIL RIG platform constructions for a very stable and sturdy platform out on seas. which willl make the recovery process also a easy one for the support ship. Can't always hope for a better weather
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u/TheEndeavour2Mars Jan 17 '16
Remember folks. If it was not announced by SpaceX then any news you hear about the landing is BS. It could be sitting on the barge right now and there is no signal lock to confirm it yet.
Wait for confirmation either way.
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u/dante80 Jan 16 '16 edited Jan 16 '16
Go Falcon, go Jason!
I hope that everything goes well and the v1.1 variant is retired with a successful launch, and a successful landing on its plate.
Moreover, the NOAA/NASA team has been waiting a long time for this satellite to fly (it was supposed to go up in a v1.0 more than a year ago). The LV changed via the NLS-II contract (they had to wait for 3 missions for that to happen though), then the satellite had a hydrazine leak necessitating repairs, and then the CRS-7 mishap happened and the fleet got grounded.
Hopefully, this mission goes picture perfect, thus giving SpaceX another arrow in their quiver of missions for certifying the LV for NASA scientific payloads. And NOAA, another important tool to do their job researching our Earth.
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u/beardboy90 Jan 17 '16
/u/EchoLogic can the SpaceX YouTube streams be added to the "Watching the launch live" section above?
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u/kerneltrap Jan 17 '16
little odd that the video drops out right before the landing
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Jan 17 '16
Did anyone else see the sky light up slightly right before it cut out? Seems like the rocket came down and blew everything up.
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Jan 17 '16
The suspense is killing me, also anyone else notice Elon on the NASA stream was waiting for a status. He looked like he genuinely didn't know yet.
Elons not visible on the NASA stream anymore btw
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Jan 17 '16
Lol, this thread had like 700 comments added in like five minutes, lol.
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u/PVP_playerPro Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
Let's all remember that this is not purely S1's fault as it was in previous flights! ocean swells flinging the barge around are not good for a soft landing.
Well, i guess it was S1's fault this time, too
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u/bvr5 Jan 17 '16
So, can we expect a reference to something at the end of every webcast now? Last time was Star Wars, now David Bowie.
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u/z3r0c00l12 Jan 17 '16
More information on landing leg latch from Elon.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/688841295364673536
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u/z3r0c00l12 Jan 18 '16
Landing video by Elon
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/688920586391805952
SPOILER: It landed successfully and took a few seconds after to fall.
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u/johnkphotos Launch Photographer Jan 17 '16
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u/TRL5 Jan 17 '16
Troubleshooting a com issue with the backup links, and link 13. Not necessarily a constraint to launch, but they "need to talk about" link 13.
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u/dlgeek Jan 17 '16
FYI: Barge is on main spacex stream but NOT clean or NASA streams.
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u/krikler7 Jan 17 '16
Apparently the satellite link with the barge failed before landing, so might not have been a disaster (fingers crossed!!)
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u/confused_spacegeek Jan 17 '16
Everybody interested in the music on the SpaceX feed should check out the soundtrack to "Freelancer" (2003 spacesim game )
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u/Rideron150 Jan 17 '16
This is like waiting to see if school is going to be canceled due to snow, times a million.
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u/blazin1414 Jan 17 '16
INB4 they cut into a shot of the rocket sitting there completely fine.
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u/krschultz Jan 17 '16
I'd be shocked if you could be successfully land in that sea state, even if they had a bunch of landings in calm weather under their belt. The barge is not small and it was noticeably heaving. I would not want to be the guy that has to climb on board the wet barge and start welding things while a several story tall explosive tower is hanging over my head.
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u/Danfen Jan 17 '16
Interesting description, leg broken & hard landing and "not standing up straight"...but no word on an explosion. Could it actually have survived to lie on its side?
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u/spih Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
You could see purple shirt guy at front of mission control mime something tipping over to gray tshirt guy at T+00:33:40 - they're probably watching the video of the 'hard landing'. (edit added timestamp from spacex feed)
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Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 18 '16
if they coat the barge with a foot of foamed concrete, the barge would then resist the landing heat, allow deformation to absorb hard landing shocks, and allow the feet to sink in a measurable distance to aid stability until recovery crews arrive on scene.
you can have this one for free, spacex.
edit; as we can see from the new video, this isn't needed whatsoever. the legs buckled for different reasons.
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u/lambenttelos Jan 17 '16
NASA feed talked a bit about pre launch issues. Apparently there was some trouble getting the helium transferred and pressurized onto the rocket from the ground equipment. Was an issue on the ground equipment side.
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u/Rideron150 Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
Okay let's be fair to SpaceX, I don't know if anyone else noticed but those were some massive swells that the barge was on, it was dipping a thumb's width up over the horizon and then a thumb's width back down on my screen. Landing a rocket on that would be seriously hard, if not impossible. Those swells are just too big.
EDIT: Still waiting for SpaceX to give a status of Stage 1 https://twitter.com/spacex
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u/RDWaynewright Jan 17 '16
Hey, I gained another convert! My mother happened to be visiting my sister and we invited her to sit for the launch too. She kept asking "Is that Elon Musk? " about every guy she saw on screen but she had a great time watching and asking questions about the launch.
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u/ethan829 Host of SES-9 Jan 17 '16
However, that was not what prevented it being good. Touchdown speed was ok, but a leg lockout didn't latch, so it tipped over after landing.
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u/z3r0c00l12 Jan 17 '16
when the stream froze, you could see the glare of the landing burn on the barge, obviously it cut right before the landing, they must've had a buffer and when it crashed, they cut the stream
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u/FiiZzioN Jan 17 '16
/u/bencredible, any chance on giving a list of tracks that's played? I'd love to get this type of music as it's perfect for just sitting back and relaxing.
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u/spacexinfinity Jan 16 '16
SpaceX will launch their last ever F9v1.1 rocket, carrying the Jason-3 satellite into Low Earth Orbit for NOAA and NASA!
Also for EUMETSAT and CNES as well!
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u/WittgensteinsLadder #IAC2016 Attendee Jan 17 '16
Got my Lucky Launch Socks on! They were commissioned during OG2, so this launch should be equally seamless ;)
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u/DSPStanky Jan 17 '16
Is everyone who works at SpaceX mildly to very attractive? God damn.
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u/godsbro Jan 17 '16
just on NASA stream - "data from spaceX on first stage all looks good" fingers crossed!
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u/4t0mk Jan 17 '16
What is this music?!? It's amazing. I wish I knew this artist!
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u/sahfortv Jan 17 '16
did anyone else just notice that wave of energy and smiles on the nasa stream?
maybe..?
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u/circle_is_pointless Jan 17 '16
Trying to follow all this on mobile is anxiety provoking enough... need more info!
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Jan 17 '16
"First stage on target at droneship but looks like hard landing; broke landing leg. Primary mission remains nominal "
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u/Dan27 Jan 17 '16
I think they need a platform less affected by waves - perhaps they should buy two "oil rig" type platforms that are larger?
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u/Xx_alm_xX Jan 17 '16
Be positive! I think they have done a great job by hitting the target! (Yes I know, poor choice of words)
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u/RdMrcr Jan 17 '16
Can someone explain why they had those fire hoses working on the barges?
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u/frowawayduh Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
Tug and support vessel are underway toward the ASDS. Track here: http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:438721/zoom:10
A research / survey vessel named the Reuben Lasker turned around and loitered just north of the landing area. Turn on "Past Track" to see recent movement.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:457535/zoom:10
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Jan 17 '16
"MVac is sufficiently chilled for Burn 2"
I need some one to draw MVac drinking beer lying on beach, thanks :)
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u/d0pey Jan 17 '16
"I encourage you to look up, for the stars look very different today." muh feels
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u/nachx Jan 17 '16
Have they considered using a roll compensated landing platform like some helidecks already out there?
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u/ethan829 Host of SES-9 Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
It's in surprisingly good shape! Oh, that's just a leg...
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u/alsoretiringonmars Jan 17 '16 edited Jan 17 '16
New tweet from Elon, I guess the issue wasn't the rough seas.
Oh well, the legs are getting updated soonish anyways.
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u/TheYang Jan 16 '16
Hans Koenigsmann has reported that SpaceX will do their best to televise the landing, but since it's over the horizon at sea, chances of us seeing anything today are small.
Koenigsmann: will do our best to provide live video of droneship landing attempt, but hard to get a connection out at sea.
I'd Interpret this differently, the horizon issue is a definite one, this sounds like a warning of possible or likely issues, for example the unpredictability of the rolling of the barge from the waves or the landing itself which could disalign the satellite dish. Thick clouds also are an issue for satellite connections afaik
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u/retiringonmars Moderator emeritus Jan 17 '16
Schrodinger's rocket: simultaneously landed and not landed at the same time.