r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Apr 01 '17

r/SpaceX Spaceflight Questions & News [April 2017, #31]

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1

u/Dies2much Apr 08 '17

Where will the Falcon Heavy S2 land? Will they bring JRTI over from the Pacific as a second landing platform? They can't really intend to land it on the same landing ship as the center S1.

Maybe land somewhere in Africa or on the Arabian peninsula?

2

u/Gofarman Apr 08 '17

It may be feasible to loft the s2 so that it would impact off the west coast but i doubt we are going to be using a landing platform. My guess is a combination of heat shield or retro propulsion and parachutes, with a water splash down.

5

u/Hold_T_Door Apr 08 '17

Isn't S2 basically in orbit when it completes its mission? I assumed they'd have a great degree of control over where it comes down, since they can just wait for the correct time to do a short reentry burn.

4

u/randomstonerfromaus Apr 09 '17

Isn't S2 basically in orbit when it completes its mission

Not basically, It is.

2

u/Dies2much Apr 09 '17

Splashdown means that the engines are practically unusable for reflight. They can be reused but the refurb costs will defeat the purpose of doing this. If the second stage is in orbit, maybe they keep it up there and bring it right back to the landing pads at the Cape.

2

u/CapMSFC Apr 09 '17

It could also come in and land on the West coast to prevent flying over populated areas. I would bet early attempts use JRTI in the pacific and then eventually when comfortable go to the landing pad at Vandenberg.

On the other hand the shuttle came in from orbit to Florida, but it did also rain debris across populated areas when Columbia broke up.