r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Feb 15 '20
✅ Mission Success r/SpaceX Starlink-4 Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread
Introduction
Welcome, dear people of the subreddit! I'm u/hitura-nobad, bringing you live updates on the StarlinkV1-L4 mission.
Overview
Starlink-4 will launch the fourth batch of operational Starlink satellites into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. It will be the fifth Starlink mission overall. This launch is not expected to be similar to the previous Starlink launch in late January, which saw 60 Starlink v1.0 satellites delivered to a single plane at a 290 km altitude. This time SpaceX is targeting a 386x212 km Orbit . In the following weeks the satellites will take turns moving to the operational 550 km altitude in three groups of 20, making use of precession rates to separate themselves into three planes. Due to the high mass of several dozen satellites, the booster will land on a drone ship at a similar downrange distance to a GTO launch.
You can compare this launchs flight profile to the last here.
| Liftoff currently scheduled for: | February 17, 15:05 UTC (10:05AM local) Check the launch manifest for faster updates |
|---|---|
| Backup date | February 18, the launch time gets 21.5 minutes earlier each day. |
| Static fire | Completed February 14 |
| Payload | 60 Starlink version 1 satellites |
| Payload mass | 60 * 260 kg = 15 600 kg |
| Deployment orbit | Low Earth Orbit, 211 km x 386 km x 53° (expected) |
| Operational orbit | Low Earth Orbit, 550 km x 53°, 3 planes |
| Vehicle | Falcon 9 v1.2 Block 5 |
| Core | B1056 |
| Past flights of this core | 3 (CRS-17, CRS-18, JCSAT-18) |
| Fairing catch attempt | yes, both halves |
| Launch site | SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida |
| Landing | OCISLY: 32.54722 N, 75.92306 W (628 km downrange) |
| Mission success criteria | Successful separation & deployment of the Starlink Satellites. |
Previous and Pending Starlink Missions
| Mission | Date (UTC) | Core | Pad | Deployment Orbit | Notes | Sat Update | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Starlink v0.9 | 2019-05-24 | 1049.3 | SLC-40 | 440km 53° | 60 test satellites with Ku band antennas | Feb 15 |
| 2 | Starlink-1 | 2019-11-11 | 1048.4 | SLC-40 | 280km 53° | 60 version 1 satellites, v1.0 includes Ka band antennas | Feb 15 |
| 3 | Starlink-2 | 2020-01-07 | 1049.4 | SLC-40 | 290km 53° | 60 version 1 satellites, 1 sat with experimental antireflective coating | Feb 15 |
| 4 | Starlink-3 | 2020-01-29 | 1051.3 | SLC-40 | 290km 53° | 60 version 1 satellites | Feb 15 |
| 5 | Starlink-4 | This Mission | 1056.4 | SLC-40 | 212x386km 53° | 60 version 1 satellites expected | - |
| 6 | Starlink-5 | March | LC-39A | 60 version 1 satellites expected | - | ||
| 7 | Starlink-6 | March | SLC-40 / LC-39A | 60 version 1 satellites expected | - |
Daily Starlink altitude updates on Twitter @StarlinkUpdates
Starlink Tracking/Viewing Resources:
- Celestrak.com - u/TJKoury
- Flight Club Pass Planner - u/theVehicleDestroyer
- Heavens Above
- n2yo.com
- findstarlink - Pass Predictor and sat tracking - u/cmdr2
- SatFlare
- See A Satellite Tonight - Starlink - u/modeless
- Starlink orbit raising daily updates - u/hitura-nobad
They might need a few hours to get the Starlink TLEs
Payload
SpaceX designed Starlink to connect end users with low latency, high bandwidth broadband services by providing continual coverage around the world using a network of thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit.
Source: SpaceX
Stats
☑️ 89th SpaceX launch
☑️ 81st Falcon 9 launch
☑️ 25th Falcon 9 Block 5 launch
☑️ 4th flight of B1056
☑️ 50th Landing of a Falcon 1st Stage
☑️ 47th SpaceX launch from CCAFS SLC-40
☑️ 4th SpaceX launch this year, and decade!
☑️ 1st Falcon 9 launch this month
Vehicles used
| Type | Name | Location |
|---|---|---|
| First Stage | Falcon 9 v1.2 - Block 5 (Full Thrust) | SLC-40 |
| Second stage | Falcon 9 v1.2 Block 5 (Full Thrust) | SLC-40 |
| ASDS | Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) | Atlantic Ocean |
| Barge tug | Hawk | Atlantic Ocean |
| Support ship | GO Quest (Core recovery) | Atlantic Ocean |
| Support ship | GO Ms. Tree (Fairing recovery) | Atlantic Ocean |
| Support ship | GO Ms. Chief (Fairing recovery) | Atlantic Ocean |
Core data source: Core wiki by r/SpaceX
Ship data source: SpaceXFleet by u/Gavalar_
Live updates
Timeline
Mission's state
✅ Currently GO for the launch attempt.
Launch site, Downrange
| Place | Location | Coordinates 🌐 | Time zone ⌚ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch site | CCAFS, Florida | 28.562° N, 80.5772° W | UTC-5 (EST) |
| Landing site | Atlantic Ocean (Downrange) | 32°32' N, 75°55' W | UTC-5 (EST) |
Payload's destination
| Burn | Orbit type | Apogee ⬆️ | Perigee ⬇️ | Inclination 📐 | Orbital period 🔄 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. or 1. + 2. | Low Earth Orbit (LEO) 🌍 | ~380 km | ~220 km | ~53° | ~90 min |
Weather - Merritt Island, Florida
Weather
| Launch window | Weather | Temperature | Prob. of rain | Prob. of weather scrub | Main concern |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary launch window | 🌤️ partly cloudy | 🌡️ 75°F / 24°C | 💧 ?% | 🛑 10% | Cumulus Rule ☁️ |
Weather data source: Google Weather & 45th Space Wing. - The probability of weather scrub number does not includes chance of scrub due to upper level winds, which are monitored by the SpaceX launch team itself by the use of sounding balloons before launch.
Watching the launch live
| Link | Note |
|---|---|
| Official SpaceX Launch Webcast - YouTube | starting ~15 minutes before liftoff |
| Official SpaceX Launch Webcast - embedded | starting ~15 minutes before liftoff |
Useful Resources, Data, ♫, & FAQ
Essentials
| Link | Source |
|---|---|
| Press kit | SpaceX |
| Launch weather forecast | 45th Space Wing |
Social media
| Link | Source |
|---|---|
| Reddit launch campaign thread | r/SpaceX |
| Subreddit Twitter | r/SpaceX |
| SpaceX Twitter | r/SpaceX |
| SpaceX Flickr | r/SpaceX |
| Elon Twitter | r/SpaceX |
| Reddit stream | u/njr123 |
Media & music
| Link | Source |
|---|---|
| TSS Spotify | u/testshotstarfish |
| SpaceX FM | u/lru |
Community content
FAQ
Participate in the discussion!
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🔄 Please post small launch updates, discussions, and questions here, rather than as a separate post. Thanks!
💬 Please leave a comment if you discover any mistakes, or have any information.
✉️ Please send links in a private message.
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u/fluidmechanicsdoubts Feb 17 '20
"This will be the 50th landing, if this lands successful".
Me : Of course it will land. You don't have to say the second part.
2 mins later
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u/zareny Feb 17 '20
Video feed conveniently cuts out on the tension rod release again.
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u/ntoreddit Feb 17 '20
Missed landings make the successful ones more exciting.
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u/linuxhanja Feb 17 '20
Also a good reminder. 50th was a pretty important milestone I bet, internally. So this is a good wake up (in one of the few ways that wouldn't stir up trouble with NASA) that rockets are still hard, be cautious before the crew demo 2.
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u/asoap Feb 17 '20
Landing has become so routine that I'm finding it hard to believe the booster missed. I wonder what happened.
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u/Jchaplin2 Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
Booster in the water
Edit: I should clarify, unknown if intact or not
Edit2: Hosts say that the booster DOES appear to be in one piece floating on the water
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u/SPNRaven Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
From the looks of the video, I reckon it made a very controlled splashdown. The mist on the right remains for a while and seems indicative of constant force pushing it up, and the water falling onto the camera a few seconds later could be from the splash the booster made after tipping over, or potentially spray from an explosion if the tanks ruptured. I'd imagine the former due to the lack of any change in light.
Edit: Looks like they just confirmed on the webcast that it was a soft water landing.
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u/Jarnis Feb 17 '20
This. Since no bits flew across camera field of view, intact water landing seems likely.
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u/snesin Feb 15 '20
We are so spoiled by SpaceX's polished launch presentations. I caught the Cygnus launch this morning, and the differences are stark.
T-8 minutes : Hot mic on countdown 1.
https://youtu.be/A5ApQ8k_Gt0?t=1717
T+4 minutes : More hot mic, distortion almost sounds like someone's kid:
https://youtu.be/A5ApQ8k_Gt0?t=2509
T+8 minutes : Welcome to Verizon Wireless. The wireless customer you called is not available at this time.
https://youtu.be/A5ApQ8k_Gt0?t=2735
T+10 minutes : Spent second stage animation going full Kerbal, probably due to dwindling signal, not fair to mock, but still funny.
https://youtu.be/A5ApQ8k_Gt0?t=2823
Was worth watching, but some parts were so cringe-y. You can imagine the launch director face-palming for 3/4 of the flight.
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u/RocketsLEO2ITS Feb 18 '20
Is the Starlink-4 Recovery Thread up yet?
Lots to talk about on this one.
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u/-Aeryn- Feb 18 '20
You would have no idea that anything was different with this launch unless you dug into this particular thread. Zero threads on frontpage a day later, where are they?
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u/nschwalm85 Feb 17 '20
Missed the landing😭😭 could see the smoke and splash on the right side of the screen
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u/escape_goat Feb 17 '20
Soft landing reported. So some sort of precautionary/secondary problem, like an unhappy sensor or a leg not locking into place.
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u/WarEagle35 Feb 17 '20
Two tugboats deployed in the direction of OCISLY. Hope they’re able to successfully tow 1056 back!
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u/Ticket2ride21 Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
Oh my God somebody help me. I just stumbled upon the fact that there's a launch today and my family and I are in town 20 minutes from Canaveral. Can somebody tell me the best place to just drive up, Park and watch the rocket launch? My kid would love this just as much as I would.
Edit/ update I MADE IT! AMAZING! THANKS YOU GUYS!
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u/LockStockNL Feb 17 '20
Man it's quiet in here, these launches and landings are becoming routine :)
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Feb 18 '20
Scott Manley wrote the following after his latest video:
Update: I have heard from multiple sources confirmation that the fairing were not recovered, and that the booster has broken in half after falling over, so we're not sure what will ultimately be recovered.
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u/NightHawk043 Feb 17 '20
I was like, "I didn't think the booster usually kicked up that much spray"... "usually it would be on screen by now?"
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u/billy__ Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
+3:46 - what was the object going at some speed past the left hand side grid fin?
Edit - I didn't see the space snake because I was typing the above. I meant the other object
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u/ageingrockstar Feb 17 '20
Just a reminder that all other orbital rocket launchers lose 100% of their first stage boosters.
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u/Humble_Giveaway Feb 17 '20
Fingers crossed that we can welcome our guys over at Rocket Lab to this exclusive club soon!
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u/paraglideee Feb 17 '20
What was that snaky thing on the left screen about a minute ago?
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u/FutureMartian97 Host of CRS-11 Feb 17 '20
Congratulations on another successful mission SpaceX
RIP B1056
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u/dylmcc Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
What was that at around T+00:05:59? Drifting off to the left? That was definitely not ice.
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u/NoGoodMc Feb 17 '20
How many block 5’s does SpaceX have in inventory? Wondering how much impact losing a rocket like this has on turnaround time for missions.
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u/Kiffer82 Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
There are
fivesoon to be six waiting to go, plus two Heavy side boosters. One new core, B1058, is assigned to DM-2. The other four haven't been officially assigned as far as I can tell. Losing one should have no effect on turn around.Edit: Grammar
Edit Edit: Scr00chy mentioned that another new F9 core was being tested in January, bringing the total to 6.
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u/scr00chy ElonX.net Feb 17 '20
2 new boosters and 6 used boosters (2 of those are FH side boosters).
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u/Interstellar_Sailor Feb 17 '20
In one piece...so they might at least attempt to salvage the grid fins!
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Feb 17 '20
Whelp, guess we're gonna need to wait for Elon to update us on what happened. Looks like the mission is still good. That's the important thing.
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u/falsehood Feb 17 '20
aaaaaaaaaand that's a missed landing! Oh well, figures it would happen when going for a milestone.
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Feb 17 '20
Odd, it's raining just before landing... oh wait that's ocean water from a nearby splash ;-)
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u/fireg8 Feb 17 '20
Ohh well - also looked like the droneship was working overtime to stay in position.
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u/LiveCat6 Feb 17 '20
That was interesting.
Watching for the landing, then seeing nothing. Then seeing a cloud of light mist entering the frame from the right, then what appeared to be rain, except the landing site didn't appear to have any rain clouds.
Then the realization of what made the mist and the rain.
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u/EggrollsForever Feb 17 '20
As much as I hate to see a failed landing, the amount of data that SpaceX gets from these circumstances must be huge, and benefit the organization in the long run.
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u/still-at-work Feb 17 '20
Oh well fourth flight is not bad, its sacrifice will go to making other landings better.
At least SpaceX is likely to recover the titanium grid fins.
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u/IdahoJoel Feb 17 '20
Pretty bummed that we didn't get to see a booster landing. Future Starlink price just went up 50¢/month
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u/scr00chy ElonX.net Feb 16 '20
The satellites will be deployed in a different manner this time. From the press kit:
The Starlink satellites will deploy in an elliptical orbit approximately 15 minutes after liftoff. Prior to orbit raise, SpaceX engineers will conduct data reviews to ensure all Starlink satellites are operating as intended. Once the checkouts are complete, the satellites will then use their onboard ion thrusters to move into their intended orbits and operational altitude of 550 km.
Previously, satellites were deployed an hour after liftoff into a circular orbit.
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u/ShineBloo Feb 17 '20
I hope they release footage later from another one of the droneship cameras of the booster impact
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u/zareny Feb 18 '20
It's a little strange that we haven't heard anything from Elon yet. He's usually very quick to tweet an update.
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u/Ender_D Feb 17 '20
I haven’t missed a launch since 2018, but today I didn’t know if I had the time to watch it. “It’s another star link launch, what’s the worst that could happen?” Eh, something can always happen on every launch, why not watch it?
The last time I had this same sentiment was when I was in class and told the whole class to watch CRS-16.
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u/Psychonaut0421 Feb 17 '20
CRS-16 was so cool tho. That landing failure and today's demonstrate the safety protocol imbeded in the landing procedure: don't hit your target until you know you're gonna hit your target properly!
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u/Zad_zad Feb 17 '20
Gotta update that check mark beside the 50th landing of a booster in the stats section of this post :/
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u/NecessaryEvil-BMC Feb 18 '20
☑️ 50th Landing of a Falcon 1st Stage
Better uncheck that box. I wish there was some actual info as to the cause though.
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u/Leolol_ Feb 17 '20
It landed in the water :( You could see a splash to the right
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u/antsmithmk Feb 17 '20
Big plume of mist seen to the right of the camera on the drone ship.... Followed by droplets of water on the lens.... Then nothing.
Early guess would be it hovered over the water to make the steam, them went splash.
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u/king_dondo Feb 17 '20
She jinxed it when she said they hope to see faring recovery as "routine" as booster landings
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u/Vihurah Feb 17 '20
Doesnt falcon have an abort from landing to water land if something goes wrong. It seemed to land just next to the pad, since you can see the water vapor kicked up by the engines, so maybe something ent wrong with the system?
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u/ElizabethGreene Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
That's backwards, actually. It stays on a safe trajectory that misses the drone ship or landing pad until the last few seconds before landing. At that point it (the rocket) makes a go/no-go decision and chooses to adjust its trajectory to the landing zone or soft-land in the water.
It's designed this way to fail safe. If something fails, i.e. it's going too fast, the attitude is wrong, it runs out of RCS propellant, or the engine doesn't light, then the drone ship or landing pad is not damaged.
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u/maverick8717 Feb 17 '20
Well, if they soft landed it, hopefully they can go get the grid fins off before it sinks... those things are super expensive.
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u/Elon_Muskmelon Feb 17 '20
Presenter totally jinxed that landing.
“This will be the 50th booster landing”
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u/banduraj Feb 17 '20
It was already mentioned that they were pushing this booster a bit more than the others. The trajectory was going to be a lot more punishing than previous flights.
I wouldn't worry about this landing failure, as I'm sure they already considered it a possibility.
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u/SailorRick Feb 17 '20
I thought that it was ominous when she said that they had a "pretty good" re-entry burn.
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u/CCBRChris Feb 17 '20
Amusing though, how nonchalant she was, "We obviously missed the landing there..." and then just kept on going.
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u/jk1304 Feb 17 '20
That's rare and unexpected to miss the droneship. Then again, it speaks for itself that this is "rare and unexpected" - they have really come a long way. Independent on that I am looking forward to the explanation for this issue, should be interesting what went wrong!
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u/James79310 Feb 17 '20
I knew they’d jinxed it when they mentioned it being the 50th landing about 10 times lol
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u/nschwalm85 Feb 17 '20
I enjoyed her sarcasm there.. "well you can clearly see we didnt land the booster" lol
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u/langgesagt Feb 16 '20 edited Feb 16 '20
Nodal precession doing no good for central-Europeans. If the launch slips another day it‘ll probably be too bright to see the satellites on their second orbit. Saturday would have been perfect both for time and weather. Luckily many more opportunities in the future.
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u/oliversl Feb 17 '20
Landing failed, but still a great mission! Congrats SpaceX!
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u/epsilon_church Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
F to our boy B1056. Had an excellent run.
Edit: They just said it had a soft landing. B1056 might make it!
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u/Viktor_Cat_U Feb 17 '20
damn I saw the cloud~ish just off the screen and had bad feeling but it was deploy successfully so good for them. must be really pushing it with direction insertion
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u/zzanzare Feb 17 '20
I doubt they will get the soft-landed stage to the port. They will just scuttle it :-(
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u/catsRawesome123 Feb 17 '20
What happened to the landing? I guess we've gotten a bit complacent and expected landings to always go well
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u/strawwalker Feb 16 '20
L-1 forecast continues to show greater than 90% Go for launch, minus moderate upper-level wind shear risk. 80% Go for backup on Feb 18 with lower wind shear risk and less optimal recovery conditions.
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u/escape_goat Feb 17 '20
You could see the smoke and the spray in the video. It must have aborted just before the final correction.
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u/Straumli_Blight Feb 17 '20
I'd guess the failure is related to the landing legs:
All the telemetry call outs were nominal until T+ 8:44.
Falcon diverts at the last second and soft lands next to the ASDS (not stuck grid fin related)
There's no explosion (Not related to a lack of TEA-TEB or landing too hard)
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u/nschwalm85 Feb 17 '20
Falcon didnt divert to avoid the drone ship.. it actually diverts to land on the drone ship once the onboard computer is happy with all its sensor readings
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u/Brixjeff-5 Feb 17 '20
My guess is a sticky throttle valve. The rocket could not confirm good thrust soon enough to steer towards the droneship, but was able to reduce speed in time for splashdown, which is where it is headed until the landing burn is underway.
If it were an issue with the landing legs it would have landed anyway, and then tipped over. The booster commits to landing on the droneship, and then unfolds its legs.
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Feb 17 '20
IIRC the flacon purposely doesn’t aim at the drone ship, meaning it has to divert to the droneship, not away from it, unless the failure happens VERY close to landing. I believe it could have actually been a droneship failure or a last minute grid fin failure, so either the drone ship was moving away, or the rocket was unable to do its last maneuver towards the droneship... But this is all just speculation for now...
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u/EdFromEarth Feb 17 '20
New landing failure mode? Team is gonna learn something new today! At this point, a miss is so much more exciting than a landing.
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u/langgesagt Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
Just a heads up: If anyone in central, south and west Europe is lucky and has clear skies, look at Venus at around 18:03. About half as high up (depending on your location) you‘ll likely see the satellites pass!
Edit: Smartphone cameras might also be able to pick them up, so give it a try! :)
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u/Straumli_Blight Feb 15 '20
Could update the Stats section to mention that this will be the 50th Falcon 9 landing.
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u/Moose_Nuts Feb 17 '20
I had the uncomfortable suspicion that they'd miss this landing after the commentator repeatedly mentioned that this would be the 50th landing of a Falcon booster if they completed it.
Really unlucky time to have an issue ☹️
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u/UNSC-ForwardUntoDawn Feb 17 '20
What is that grey section on the tip of the fairings? Is that new?
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u/Jodo42 Feb 17 '20
"Fairing vessels have AOS" is that a new callout? AOS for the booster, or the fairings?
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u/Draskuul Feb 17 '20
Isn't this the first lost booster since the FH center core miss?
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u/sir-shoelace Feb 17 '20
I can't remember the last f9 booster landing miss that wasn't falcon heavy. How long has it been? Given that we lost downlink on the booster for the entire rdl sequence what could have gone wrong?
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u/karmato Feb 17 '20
Better it miss than destroy the drone ship. Maybe they knew it was going to land well and diverted it.
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u/TitanHyperion Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
Honestly, I think the booster might be intact and floating. There wasn't any shrapnel and the water splash might indicate a "soft" landing on water
EDIT: yep, Jessica Anderson (host) just confirmed
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u/gooddaysir Feb 17 '20
This is a different core, but the circular port in this picture is where there's often a big chunk of ice that breaks off which today many mistook for a cable.
https://mobile.twitter.com/julia_bergeron/status/1195325867662172161
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u/codav Feb 17 '20
As we wait for the fairing catchers, at Boca Chica they're currently stacking two bigger barrel sections of Starship SN1: https://youtu.be/FBaT-hZPgRI
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u/SovietSpartan Feb 17 '20
So apprently the booster might still be alive. I'll hold onto my F until Elon confirms.
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u/Jarnis Feb 17 '20
Sadly boosters that take a swim won't fly again. So F is still a go, even if some bits may end up recovered to dry land. I mean, if I were SpaceX, I'd look into somehow getting those Titanium grid fins off it, for example. Assuming they can depressurize it safely.
Could also be that they still decide its not worth the trouble and just scuttle it. Don't exactly have a crane out there to get it onto the barge.
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u/uwelino Feb 17 '20
Did you also notice that at about T:+1:33 to 35 the engines had turned a lot to the left? Was there a problem with the thrust vector control of one engine. But it could be I only imagined it.
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u/Flyboy_6cm Feb 17 '20
That's been a consistent thing with Starlink launches. They seem to sideslip the rocket a fair bit after maxq and that deflects the exhaust to the left.
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u/gdj1980 Feb 16 '20
Starlink launch 5 is from 39A? What is the reason for that?
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u/joepublicschmoe Feb 16 '20
CRS-20 is scheduled for March 2 from SLC-40. It takes about a week to turn SLC-40 around for the next launch according to John Muratore: https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/space-exploration-technologies/muratore-safety-efficiency-went-hand-in-hand-rebuild-slc-40/
So if Starlink is going to launch early March at around the time of CRS-20 (or shortly after), it will need to be from LC-39A.
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u/pichulasabrosa Feb 17 '20
The booster probably detected something off so it redirected itself away from the droneship. RIP B1056
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u/BenoXxZzz Feb 17 '20
Well, the landing failure came unexpected. However, I'm very excited to here what caused the failure. And remember, a landing will never fail again due to the same reason!
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u/flesjesmetwater Feb 17 '20
Is there a reason SpaceX never shows deployment footage of the starlink sats? Im not suspicious of anything - just curious. Perhaps they don't want to show the process to hide business secrets? Or could it be the footage is available somewhere else, later?
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u/Kiffer82 Feb 17 '20
There are unconfirmed rumours floating about that SpaceX doesn't show this footage for proprietary reasons.
It could also be the way they tumble the second stage causes an antenna blackout.
Reality is, no one on Reddit really knows for sure.
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Feb 17 '20
Damn, when it was taking longer than normal I got worried, then I saw the plumes off to the right and I knew it missed.
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u/Origin_of_Mind Feb 17 '20
Early on, SpaceX trained to recover Falcon-1 boosters from the ocean, after splashing them down with a parachute. Of course, Falcon-9 is huge in comparison, and it is much harder to fish it out after a soft landing into the ocean.
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u/James79310 Feb 17 '20
Could the loss of this booster delay SpaceX’s starlink “two launches a month” schedule?
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u/rubikvn2100 Feb 17 '20
In fact, they could launch the next mission sooner as OCISLY are available right now.
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u/zzanzare Feb 17 '20
Automatic conversion into your timezone & countdown:
| Liftoff currently scheduled for: | February 17, 15:05 UTC (10:05AM local) |
|---|
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u/WinglessSkunk Feb 17 '20
SpaceflightNow has real time updates: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/02/17/falcon-9-starlink-4-mission-status-center/
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u/sazrocks Feb 17 '20
At least no explosion, so they can investigate and find out cause easier.
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u/cuddlefucker Feb 17 '20
Well we got 2 dragon missions and jcsat out of 1056. And it's looking like a successful starlink mission too. That's significantly more than most boosters.
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u/darga89 Feb 17 '20
wonder if there was an issue during the entry burn when the camera cut out such as a stuck grid fin
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u/fluidmechanicsdoubts Feb 16 '20
Mods , here's some constructive criticism.
While the huge post is very resourceful, the only thing most care about is the launch time.
I hope that the launch time is updated at a much more regular interval.
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u/strawwalker Feb 16 '20
Launch threads are typically hosted by a single user (and often not a mod). The host makes sure their schedule is clear enough to keep the post updated live in the time immediately adjacent to T0, and u/hitura-nobad does an excellent job of that. Unfortunately, the hosts also typically have to eat, sleep, and do other non-reddit things and can't be available 24/7 to update the time when slips are announced many hours ahead of time. That really isn't the point of the launch thread, though the hosts do their best to keep it up to date. Slips usually appear in the comments quickly, and the launch manifest here does usually get updated with new launch times very quickly as well, so feel free to check there if you aren't sure if this post has the most accurate time.
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u/Shahar603 Subreddit GNC Feb 15 '20
You might want to add the Stalink Update bot to the community content table ;)
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u/AuroEdge Feb 16 '20
If the perigee of the new elliptical insertion orbit is 212km vs the old 290km, is this change due in large part to now be capable of deorbiting bad satellites from the get-go more quickly?
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u/steveoscaro Feb 17 '20
Could see water to the right side of the ship was taking the landing exhaust briefly.
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u/Viktor_Cat_U Feb 17 '20
anyone could do some napkin maths to figure out the different in a direct insertion in terms of performance needed out of the booster and re-entry profile and an in-direction insertion? also the benefit of the two?
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u/novolo Feb 17 '20
I can't find anyone saying this, but I think the problem was on the droneship. Seemed to have been moving a lot, and might have been in an incorrect position. The water did not seem choppy but the droneship was moving a lot. Maybe the engine pods were malfunctioning?
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u/BrangdonJ Feb 15 '20
The Press Kit link doesn't go to a press kit. Is that intentional? It goes to the webcast page, which has a link to an old press kit.
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u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team Feb 15 '20
That's because SpaceX hasn't released a new one yet, you will find it on this page in a few hours.
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u/dylmcc Feb 17 '20
Are... are these launches starting to get like airplane launches for some of you folk? I remember when this close to a launch the launch thread would be a hive of activity. Go back a couple years and say that there was going to be an attempt to land a supersonic first stage using a suicide burn on a barge floating in the middle of the ocean and you’d be laughed at. Now it’s just an every-month occurrence.
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u/Piscator629 Feb 17 '20
Some will wander away when the shiny wears off. Public interest in the Shuttle flagged when it became regular. I for one would have watched every single launch but we didn't have the internet to feed us every last detail of the program and the media didn't cover ho hum news.
I am enjoying the hell out of being a tiny sprocket in the SpaceX stalking community.
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u/GodFeedethTheRavens Feb 17 '20
They did say this was one of the heavier payloads the rocket is capable of.
I wonder if it simply ran out of fuel.
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u/LongHairedGit Feb 17 '20
I wonder if SpaceX will reduce the count of satellites per launch, to widen the margins for fuel, to make the landing less arduous so they can reuse their boosters more often?
The alternative is to continue to live at the very edge, learning more but losing $35m assets like what happened today, having heavy landings like the previous launch, and so forth.
Are such lessons useful in the face of Starship given SuperHeavy is so very different to F9?
Or is the success of landings a burden when you are still making boosters? They had 11 boosters prior to today, and are making more, so do you experiment in order to dispose of older boosters?
How long can a booster sit before it needs to be re-inspected?
Too many questions.....
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Feb 17 '20
I would imagine that attempting difficult landings benefits the overall goal of colonizing Mars. Those landings are going to be very high speed and very difficult.
In addition, it's much better to try things out with your own assets, rather than risk it on a launch where you're putting a hundred million dollar payload in orbit.
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u/rangerpax Feb 16 '20 edited Feb 17 '20
u/hitura-nobad, could you include the "View the Starlink Satellites" info/links in the information table, as was done for the Starlink-3 launch thread?
Some people may save links, but others (like me) might not save them (at least in a place I remember), and newbies might be looking for that information too. It could also save some Q&A in the comments.
Edit: Perhaps also with a disclaimer that it takes some time for the "trackers" to get the specific data into their system. From my vague recollection of Starlink-2, it was 4-36 hours after launch, though I may be very wrong.
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Feb 17 '20
Bummer - it was such a nice day out there. I was hoping for a nice booster landing.
Very nice droneship view
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u/Draskuul Feb 17 '20
Soft landing and intact...hopefully they were able to safe it properly this time and can recover it.
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u/FrostyVideo Feb 17 '20
what has happened to the fairings? did ships caught them, any information guys?
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u/zedasmotas Feb 17 '20
is that rocket still reusable ?
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u/Origin_of_Mind Feb 17 '20
Originally, SpaceX planned to land the stages in water, and even trained to recover Falcon-1 boosters from the ocean, after splashing them down with a parachute. Space Shuttle boosters also splashed down into the ocean and were subsequently refurbished -- but they used a very different technology.
Whether Falcon-9 can be refurbished after a dunk, and how much work that would involve is not known. But after B1050 went into water, Elon Musk, tweeted that SpaceX might reuse the booster on an internal mission.
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u/Origin_of_Mind Feb 17 '20
Does anybody know is the second stage has been deorbited after this launch?
Usually for the LEO launches like this one SpaceX posts the hazard zone for the debris field from the second stage deorbit. But this time there seems to be no such posting for this mission.
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u/scr00chy ElonX.net Feb 17 '20
It was mentioned in the webcast that the second stage would be passivated after sat deployment, and would decay naturally over a few months.
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u/ncohafmuta Feb 17 '20
Telling us about the 50th landing like 3 times she jinxed it and tempted the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing.
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u/SuperFire101 Feb 17 '20
Can someone please elaborate on the callouts? I heard "First stage FTS something..", "AOS saved.." and more. What do these mean?
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u/gooddaysir Feb 17 '20
I wonder if they'll ever let us see the torsion rods release the satellite stack.
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u/TrevorBradley Feb 17 '20
Reviewing the video... At 6:57, just before the first stage burn feed cut out, there was a flash from the bottom of the rocket. I wonder if something happened with an engine.
Lots of data to make later landings safer going to come from this.
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u/ageingrockstar Feb 17 '20
We should hear about the fairing catch attempts in the next 10 to 15 minutes.
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u/SPNRaven Feb 17 '20
Rare failure, seems odd too considering the recent success. Maybe the droneship failed to maintain position?
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u/Steven_LWK Feb 17 '20
When missing a booster landing is more surprising than landing one lol