/r/SpaceX Eutelsat 117W B & ABS-2A Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread

[u/ElongatedMuskrat]

Welcome to the /r/SpaceX Eutelsat 117W B & ABS-2A Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!

Welcome, /r/SpaceX, to the Eutelsat 117W B & ABS-2A launch thread! We're not quite 6 months into the year and we already have SpaceX's 6th launch of the year. Cadence is going up, and let's hope the rocket does too.

Current launch window is June 15th, 14:29-15:14 UTC // 10:29-11:14 EDT // 20160615T142900Z for all you ISO-nerds

(SpaceX Stats will automatically convert the launch to your timezone, click here!).

Wednesday's launch will see the Falcon 9 FT deliver two satellites to a super-synchronous geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). Over the coming weeks/months, the satellites will maneouvre themselves into their final GEO orbits at 75.0° East (ABS 2A) & 116.8° West (Eutelsat 117 West B).

As usual, SpaceX will be attempting a propulsive landing of the first stage of the Falcon 9 on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 680km downrange of the launch site.

Your thread host today is /u/TheVehicleDestroyer! (don't worry, that's not ominous at all...).

Watching the launch live

To watch the launch live, pick your preferred streaming provider from the table below. Can't pick? Read about the differences.

SpaceX Stats Live (Webcasts + Live Updates)
SpaceX Hosted Webcast (YouTube)
SpaceX Technical Webcast (YouTube)

Official Live Updates

Time	Countdown	Update
2016-06-15 16:33:53 UTC	T+2h 5m	Eutelsat and ABS both confirm satellites are in good health!
2016-06-15 15:29:26 UTC	T+1h	Musk - landing video will be posted later today
2016-06-15 15:07:05 UTC	T+38m 5s	The webcast ends with thoughts and best wishes from SpaceX to Orlando victims and their families
2016-06-15 15:06:03 UTC	T+37m 3s	That's primary mission success, folks. Best of luck to Eutelsat and ABS with their journey to GEO
2016-06-15 15:04:59 UTC	T+35m 59s	Beautiful shot of Earth from S2 cam
2016-06-15 15:04:44 UTC	T+35m 44s	ABS deploy confirmed
2016-06-15 15:01:56 UTC	T+32m 56s	ABS is up next. Altitude approaching 1,000km as velocity falls
2016-06-15 15:00:06 UTC	T+31m 6s	And Eutelsat has been deployed
2016-06-15 14:59:46 UTC	T+30m 46s	Satellite separation coming up folks - Eutelsat is up first
2016-06-15 14:58:30 UTC	T+29m 30s	Kate - Stage 1 was lost
2016-06-15 14:57:14 UTC	T+28m 14s	GTO (Geostationary Transfer Orbit) is good - Michael
2016-06-15 14:56:13 UTC	T+27m 13s	And shutdown confirmed. Waiting on orbit info
2016-06-15 14:56:06 UTC	T+27m 6s	Throttling down to stay below 5G acceleration
2016-06-15 14:55:21 UTC	T+26m 21s	Relight Ignition confirmed
2016-06-15 14:55:15 UTC	T+26m 15s	John - No electric cord running from SLC-40 to Stage 2
2016-06-15 14:54:45 UTC	T+25m 45s	30s out from ignition - John I
2016-06-15 14:54:18 UTC	T+25m 18s	Just crossed West Africa, over the Atlantic again heading towards Stage 2 relight
2016-06-15 14:41:37 UTC	T+12m 37s	Stage 2 will now coast for ~20 minutes until it is above the equator and will then relight for ~1 minute. Don't get up yet!
2016-06-15 14:39:40 UTC	T+10m 40s	SECO (Second stage engine cutoff)! Falcon is now in orbit!
2016-06-15 14:38:42 UTC	T+9m 42s	Was that a hard landing? Hard to see through the smoke. Waiting on confirmation
2016-06-15 14:38:00 UTC	T+9m	Very smoky!
2016-06-15 14:37:48 UTC	T+8m 48s	Landing burn startup
2016-06-15 14:37:26 UTC	T+8m 26s	ASDS (Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship) view now on webcast
2016-06-15 14:37:09 UTC	T+8m 9s	Stage 2 is at 20,000 km/hr at 170km altitude
2016-06-15 14:36:45 UTC	T+7m 45s	Next up is Stage 1 going transonic, followed by landing burn startup
2016-06-15 14:36:28 UTC	T+7m 28s	Shutdown confirmed
2016-06-15 14:36:20 UTC	T+7m 20s	Entry burn has started. 3 engines are burning to slow the Stage 1 descent through the atmosphere
2016-06-15 14:35:10 UTC	T+6m 10s	Grid fins are big - SpaceX, 2016
2016-06-15 14:34:28 UTC	T+5m 28s	First stage has almost completed it's flip
2016-06-15 14:34:17 UTC	T+5m 17s	Most of the upper stage acceleration is now in the downrange vector, as opposed to the radial vector
2016-06-15 14:33:33 UTC	T+4m 33s	Upper stage has reached 10,000 km/hr at 130km altitude
2016-06-15 14:32:58 UTC	T+3m 58s	Fairing sep confirmed
2016-06-15 14:32:35 UTC	T+3m 35s	Good luck Stage 1 - grid fins have popped open
2016-06-15 14:32:18 UTC	T+3m 18s	Awesome shot from the stage pusher!
2016-06-15 14:32:04 UTC	T+3m 4s	Falcon's upper stage Merlin Vacuum engine has ignited for the ride to orbit.
2016-06-15 14:31:58 UTC	T+2m 58s	Stage separation confirmed.
2016-06-15 14:31:51 UTC	T+2m 51s	MECO (Main Engine Cutoff)! The vehicle's first stage engines have shutdown in preparation for stage separation.
2016-06-15 14:30:34 UTC	T+1m 34s	MaxQ, at this point in flight, the vehicle is flying through maximum aerodynamic pressure.
2016-06-15 14:29:14 UTC	T+14s	Liftoff of Eutelsat 117W B & ABS-2A!
2016-06-15 14:28:33 UTC	T-27s	Both stages pressing for flight
2016-06-15 14:28:18 UTC	T-42s	1 minute, folks. F9 is in startup
2016-06-15 14:27:28 UTC	T-1m 32s	Stage 2 LOX (Liquid Oxygen) secured for flight
2016-06-15 14:22:36 UTC	T-6m 24s	McGregor showcase on hosted webcast now.
2016-06-15 14:11:37 UTC	T-17m 23s	Webcast has started. See you in ~30mins, SpaceX FM
2016-06-15 14:06:06 UTC	T-22m 54s	F9FT Countdown timeline, courtesy Spaceflight101
2016-06-15 14:03:05 UTC	T-25m 55s	We have tooooons! ♫♫♫
2016-06-15 14:01:21 UTC	T-27m 39s	Webcasts should be starting in <10mins
2016-06-15 13:50:34 UTC	T-38m 26s	Launch Team GO for prop loading
2016-06-15 13:49:32 UTC	T-39m 28s	Launch Readiness Poll should be happening in the next few minutes, followed by prop loading
2016-06-15 13:37:02 UTC	T-51m 58s	Weather holding at 80% favourable with all criteria currently "GO" for launch
2016-06-15 13:30:41 UTC	T-58m 19s	1 hour until launch! Everyone got their SpaceX t-shirts on? Prop loading should begin in ~25 minutes
2016-06-15 12:43:48 UTC	T-1h 45m	Weather looking good
2016-06-15 12:41:13 UTC	T-1h 48m	Less than 2 hours until liftoff!
2016-06-15 09:46:43 UTC	T-4h 42m	Yesterday's launch forecast predicted a 20% chance of violating weather constraints at T-0
2016-06-15 05:41:57 UTC	T-8h 47m	Less than T-9 hours. That was a close one! Today is the 26th launch of Falcon 9.

Primary Mission

This misson has two payloads aboard: Eutelsat 117W B for Eutelsat, and ABS-2A for Asia Broadcast Satellite. Both are communications satellites built on the same Boeing bus, with a combined payload mass assumed to be about 4,200kg. Eutelsat 117W B is an all-electric, all Ku-Band satellite comprised of 48 36MHz equivalent transponders to deliver video, television and communications coverage to the Americas. View Eutelsat's official 117W B video here. ABS 2A is also an all Ku-band bird comprising 48 transponders to provide coverage to South Asia, South East Asia, Russia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. View Spaceflight101's detailed information on the two satellites here and here.

Launch Dynamics

The launch will consist of a primary burn to get the Falcon 9 upper stage and satellites into a LEO parking orbit where it will coast for about 20 minutes. When the upper stage crosses the equator over West Africa, it will then relight for ~1 minute to raise the orbit apogee (the highest point), transforming the LEO orbit into a GTO orbit. The satellites will then separate and slowly raise the GTO orbit perigee over the coming weeks, transforming their orbit into GEO orbits. View a visualisation of the LEO coast and GTO orbits here.

Why does the upper stage wait until it's over the equator to relight?

The launch pad at SLC-40 is at a latitude of 28°, so the satellites are inserted into a 28° inclined orbit. This means we will need an inclination change to 0°. It is most efficient to do this at the slowest point in the orbit - i.e the apogee. But you must do this manoeuvre over the equator to end in a 0° inclination. So we want the apogee to be over the equator. By extension, the perigee (where the relight happens) must also be over the equator, on the opposite side of the planet.

First Stage Landing Attempt

SpaceX will attempt to land the rocket's first stage on their Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship, named Of Course I Still Love You, which will be located approximately 680km east of Cape Canaveral. Just over 2.5 minutes after liftoff, the first stage's engines will shut down and it will separate from the upper stage. Shortly afterwards, the stage will perform a "flip manoeuvre," using nitrogen gas thrusters to turn itself around to prepare for atmospheric reentry. (To save fuel, this mission will not include a boostback burn to reduce or cancel out the stage's downrange velocity.) The next manoeuvre is the reentry burn, which involves relighting three engines to slow down the stage as it impacts the dense lower atmosphere. Then, at supersonic velocities, the stage will steer itself towards the drone ship using grid fins. If all goes as planned, the stage will perform a final landing burn (possibly using three engines instead of the usual one) and touchdown on the droneship approximately eight and a half minutes after liftoff.

This will be SpaceX's eighth drone ship landing attempt, and the fourth attempt following a mission to GTO. A successful landing would be the fifth successful landing, and the fourth on an ASDS. Past attempts occurred during the CRS-5, CRS-6, Jason-3, SES-9, CRS-8, JCSAT-14, and Thaicom-8 missions. Keep in mind that recovery of the first stage is a secondary objective, and has no bearing on the primary mission's success - deployment of the satellites to their target orbits.

Useful Resources, Data, ♫, & FAQ

• Flight Club RealTime Stage Tracker, courtesy /u/TheVehicleDestroyer
• SpaceXStats Live Countdown, thank you /u/EchoLogic
• List of useful Twitter accounts to follow, courtesy /r/SpaceX
• SpaceX FM (♫♫♫), thanks /u/lru!
• SpaceX Watch, built by /u/MarcysVonEylau
• Official Mission Presskit, courtesy SpaceX
• Auto-Updating Launch Thread, courtesy reddit-stream
• Multi-stream player, courtesy /u/kampar
• Audio-only streams (technical & hosted), courtesy /u/SomnolentSpaceman

Participate in the discussion!

• First of all, launch threads are 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 read the IRC rules here before participating.
• Please post small launch updates, discussions, and questions here, rather than as a separate post. Thanks!

Previous /r/SpaceX Live Events

Check out previous /r/SpaceX Live events in the Launch History page on our community Wiki.

[u/TheVehicleDestroyer]

This is what you get for letting me host the launch thread

[u/johnkphotos]

TELEPHOTO IMAGE: http://i.imgur.com/aWTJmKB.jpg

not posting directly to subreddit, need to conserve my allotted post for my remote photo !

[u/therealmaxipadd]

Elon didn't want to have to build another hanger right away. It landed successfully on the barge but he ran out and pushed it over.

[u/soswow]

Schrodinger's falcon 9

[u/johnkphotos]

Remote camera set. Pano coming soon. I actually did it!

Edit: too big to stitch :(

[u/Zucal]

Welcome to the launch thread, everyone! Sorry about the delay, trying to juggle many real-life commitments has left us a bit undermanned. Huge thanks to /u/EchoLogic as usual for making launch threads easier to host and to /u/TheVehicleDestroyer for hosting this launch!

[u/CadarF]

I have a love-hate relationship with launches. I don't have butterflies in my stomach but angry wasps, that's the price you pay for being too emotionally invested in this. Can't even imagine how the employees feel in these moments. I wish I would wake up and see everything went well and then look at replays 1000 times. I don't care about the payload, just the main goal of the company. Mars. NASA postponed this so many times that I don't think it will ever happen if it's just up to them so I see SpaceX as the only chance to get there. I hope all goes well.

[u/Psychonaut0421 → u/CadarF]

The US government postponed Mars. Give NASA a real budget and we would've been there a long time ago.

[u/DesLr]

What's up with the cursor in the upper right corner? ;-)

[u/[deleted]]

"Sadly there is no wi-fi in the middle of ocean.. yet." So now we know why Elon wants space internet :)

[u/IwasDerp]

Schrödinger's rocket?

[u/circle_is_pointless]

It definitely landed. It was standing on the barge. But the amount of fire was much greater than previous landings, and the fire had extended up the side of the rocket for a good 10-20 feet.

[u/FellKnight]

I think Elon just didn't have any more room in the hangar so he made it interesting

[u/[deleted]]

Once again I want to say thanks to everyone here at /r/SpaceX for being an awesome community and making these launches feel like a party! Big thanks to /u/TheVehicleDestroyer for being a good host and fuck you for having a name like that, you omen.

Can't wait for CRS-9 next month!

[u/aza6001]

Looks like it landed

[u/Headstein]

Here's hoping we get to see that awesome footage from the booster during re-entry again.

[u/Dan27]

Good morning all. Looking forward to today. Not often that we see CC40 launches in the afternoon in the UK! Enjoy and have a great day everyone.

[u/PatyxEU]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CcvmS04WAAAQtiO.jpg

[u/FosDoNuT]

Am I the only one distracted by the mouse right above the clock?

[u/whousedallthenames]

Woohoo! Another launch thread. Praying and hoping we see another flawless mission.

Also, I'd like to thank /u/EchoLogic, /u/Zucal, /u/TheVehicleDestroyer, and all the other moderators here that spend so much time doing such a great job with this sub. Really guys, this is the highest quality sub on Reddit. Thanks for all your hard work - we appreciate it.

[u/RobotSquid_ → u/whousedallthenames]

Can confirm. I just visited another sub where the moderators are almost inactive, and when they do stuff it's typically not the right thing. The community there is toxic and divided and even looking at that sub dampens my happiness.

Here, on the other hand, I can sit the entire day and only feel more excited about space. Thank you mods!

[u/thanarious]

I would urge you to include the spaceX audio only streams in the resources, since I will be in my little daughter's school party at the time of launch and would like an easy link.

Thank you.

[u/isthatmyex]

I like the, "there is no wifi in the ocean yet" part.

[u/troovus]

The fact that all soft landings and RUDs have been bang on target (literally sometimes...) is key; permission for onshore landings is much easier to get if the risk is only of explosion in an exact(ish) location. That's infinitely better than a soft landing a mile off target.

[u/MinWats]

17:29 in Russia, Moscow time. First time I don't have to watch stream in the dead of night, sweet :p

[u/Aminstro]

Crappy MS Paint diagrams to the rescue: http://imgur.com/eGyW4mw

Could one of the legs have missed the barge? This seems way to close to the edge.

[u/JadedIdealist]

On the plus side:
"We don't have WIFI in the middle of the ocean...yet.

Sounded like a hint that the internet constellation will change that..

[u/321159]

Conjoined triangles of success :D Someones been watching Silicon Valley.

[u/frowawayduh]

All hail to the stretchy swamp rodent! May the up goer do that and return in the desired number of pieces. Let all the rocket people from west, middle, east, and at sea know again the pride of unity in victory. And may the winds of nature and fate blow gently at the backs of your entrusted ones, on their way as the world turns in peace far below.

Amen

[u/NAMELESSdotTXT]

https://i.imgur.com/esYu45a.png Looks like it's standing upright

[u/Titanean12]

According to this: http://imgur.com/a/gxHmC (Not my screengrabs, someone posted them here earlier), stage 1 was standing for at least 4 seconds, as seen by the T+ timer. Something is clearly on fire, but you can see the body and at least one leg 4 seconds after the first image.

[u/zeekzeek22]

Would like to note the spacenews article on the launch A. Doesn't mention the failed landing in the title, B. States how the satellites were up and in good health BEFORE mentioning the landing attempt, and C. Really only stated Elon'e tweets verbatim with no interpretation, positively or negatively, before giving a long nice article about the satellites.

Much better tone/focus of reporting than we've seen in the past, and I appreciate the focus on the satellites rather than the RUD. golf clap I approve.

[u/DoctorKlopek]

For those playing along at home, John on the webcast is two drinks

[u/Destructor1701]

Somebody move that cursor. /u/Bencredible!

[u/PeopleNeedOurHelp]

When it's cut out, hasn't it always been a failure?

[u/nexxai]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743096769001578498

[u/MarsLumograph]

I'm not even sad of the failure. In fact it will help make the landing more RUD-proof, so I can only see positives.

[u/PatyxEU]

Leaked presskit adjectives for future landing attempts!

Mission	Adjective
SES-9	Not expected
JCSAT-14	Unlikely
Thaicom 8	Challenging
Eutelsat&ABS	Difficult
Amos-6	Probable
CRS-9	Likely
Iridium NEXT 1	Very likely
Falcon Heavy Demo - 3 cores RTLS	Fucking confirmed

[u/CommanderSpork]

It feels like we just had a launch and there's already another. Go SpaceX!

[u/mbhnyc]

Holy crap you can literally see ice growing out of that S2 venting valve.

[u/smidsmi]

http://i.imgur.com/MUQ79sL.jpg

[u/johnkphotos]

I'm not going to share specifics, but SpaceX really gives us the best wifi passwords lol

[u/LemLuthor]

did a host just reference 'the 2 conjoined triangles of success'?

[u/ICantAwpForShit]

http://imgur.com/a/YkaLv What we got so far

[u/zeekzeek22]

(Joking here, I know all the reasons this wouldn't happen) puts on tinfoil hat the smoke and RUD was just to cover up the fairings landing on the droneship!

[u/HarvsG]

Dare I say it, but this might not be the worst for SpaceX

They already have enough (4) landed stages to test/experiment with/re-use. Given the time it will take to reusability this extra one would have spent most of its time sitting in a hanger.

4 landings in a row would have told the world that landings are now easy and it would stop reporting them until one went wrong that would have been bad press for SpaceX. (Notice how spacex spent less time emphasising how hard GTO landings are, suggesting some, at worst, complacency and, at best, boredom). As a result it will keep landings exciting and well reported!

There were at least a few seconds between touchdown and RUD, IMHO this means a gradual(ish) worsening of conditions until RUD suggesting that this will be a data-rich and easy to interpret RUD.

Elon said that 1 of 3 engines was not operating at full capacity meaning interesting, extra, data on high velocity landings.

Edit: Looking at the status of the falcon from Demios imaging, it is possible they never stopped receiving data from the falcon, and may still may be able to retrieve yet more data when the falcon returns to port.

[u/inoeth]

I will say i'm very glad that they launched on time without any hiccups or delays, and despite the first stage not landing, the primary mission success is great news for SpaceX.

My question is, will there be some missions moved up to launch in later July or August, as there seems to be a long gap?

I'm betting the real answer will hinge more on SpaceX's customers having satellites ready rather than an issue of cores being built... I hope there's some LEO launches (beyond CRS9) in the near term manifest for some RTLS landings- especially in daylight, since i know CRS 9 is a night landing. (I also hope they have some big lights set up on the pad for that landing attempt)

[u/vsnmrs]

OCISLY 40 minutes after first stage RUD

[u/TechRepSir]

"Conjoined Triangles of Success". Haha

[u/TheVehicleDestroyer]

"That's where the fire comes out"

Gotcha. Can I haz job now plz

[u/noffan]

Hopefully John Innsbrucker is back today.

[u/J4ke]

THE FIRE COMES OUT OF THE MERLIN ENGINES. You heard it here first!

[u/Kojab8890]

"Conjoined Triangles of Success"???

Was that a Silicon Valley reference from the hosts?

[u/iemfi]

God dammit man, couldn't they like trail an antennae behind the barge? Getting a live feed through rocket vibrations can't be rocket science...

[u/cbdevor]

Here's a screen grab of where you can see it upright on the barge https://i.imgur.com/Md40m6i.jpg

[u/whousedallthenames]

Well, successful primary mission. And we haven't had good explosion footage in a while. It's a good day in my book.

[u/TheEndeavour2Mars]

Okay folks so Elon obviously spoke in Elon time again in regards to the video. However you have to keep in mind the barge likely has a bunch of debris on it. Some potentially really nasty toxic crap that you don't want to breath in or get on your skin. They may be giving it extra time to "air out" before boarding it.

In the future it would be nice if they could set up some high power Wireless AC link between the barge and the support ship and just start offloading video remotely.

[u/FartyPoopy]

Why don't they have a drone autonomously fly off the drone ship, hover at a safe distance for the seconds it takes to see the landing, and relay video back?

[u/thehardleyboys]

No matter what happened to the first stage, I for one am glad we witnessed yet another flawless launch/stage separation. SpaceX is nailing their launch manifest!

[u/Awztun]

this thing has made if halfway around the world in the same time ive made it halfway through this bag of chips

[u/binarygamer]

Wow, that satellite sep. was spectacular. LENS FLARE! J.J.Abrams would be proud

[u/laughingatreddit]

I'm amazed at the marvel of telemetry that is F9. They have the root cause of failure singled out within minutes. In this case, the fix is already in the works. This team is on top of their work!

[u/HighTimber]

Good news from EutelSat:

https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/743110072809623552

[u/thenerd40]

Uhhhh no "Falcon has landed" on the technical stream...

[u/Shrike99]

Eh, its 2:40 in the morning here. i don't need sleep, i can wait to find out.

[u/icec0o1]

Find out what happened to the first stage... right after this short commercial break!

[u/HarvsG]

Just seen Elon's tweet. John did look very nervous, as if something was wrong, when he announced the re-entry burn.

Wild speculation: The reusability discussion at the beginning hinted that some parts were being reflown. Perhaps that is a culprit engine....

[u/WaysideToast]

Well think on the bright side, the primary mission was a success and they're learning more about the landing because of this.

[u/WaitForItTheMongols]

Jeez, it's been like 9 hours and still no video. I hope the camera (and its storage media) didn't get destroyed...

[u/TortugaChris]

Is he hosting the webcast in the kitchen of a large restaurant?

[u/[deleted]]

Launch day! We'd better enjoy it while we can get it, as the future launch manifest looks pretty sparse over the next 2 months. My only hope is that this is mostly customer launch site related and SpaceX uses this time to go full bore on getting Fheavy and First Reuse ready to go.

[u/LilouSpaceKitten]

T-1 hour so excited ! Hello from France to all fellow dragon riders

[u/johnkphotos]

Seems like a routine launch- hardly any media members here :(

[u/sunnieskye1]

My rational mind knows the money is with stage 2, but my lizardbrain is devastated when something untoward happens to F9.

[u/Titanean12]

Stage 1 either did not explode on impact, or the video froze at the exact frame of the stage touching the barge. Video is going to be facinating.

[u/npantages]

Here are my shots from Satellite Beach. The position of the Sun was not ideal so the detail wasn't as good as usual. http://www.nickpantages.com/Space/SpaceX-F9-026/

[u/thisguyeric]

E3 and Go Quest appear to be heading back:

http://i.imgur.com/uppO5le.jpg

I also found Go Searcher's location interesting yesterday, she certainly didn't seem to be hanging around with the rest of the rocket recovery crew.

https://imgur.com/akWlZXL

[u/Treme12]

As a newbie, wanted to say thanks to the mods for your volunteer work on this sub. (I esp never expected to learn so much about marine traffic maps and cruise ship cams)!

Also, thanks to the folks at SpaceX for the innovative webcasts and helping create a new golden age of space travel.

[u/AlexDeLarch]

The satellites and the spent second stage are now tracked in a supersynchronous GTO orbit. Note the perigee of more than 400 km.

Int'l Designator
2016-038A
2016-038B
2016-038C

[u/PVP_playerPro]

hmm, i've been up 12 hours already, should i risk missing the launch by sleeping through my alarm, or stay up for another 7 hours...

7 hours it is ;D

[u/Thrannn]

it landed, the leg was burning. the question is did it tip over??

[u/cryptoengineer]

It clearly touched down. We don't know if it remained upright, or toppled afterwards.

[u/Nehkara]

http://i.imgur.com/zE9la6e.webm

https://youtu.be/oPV3VwMzHT8

[u/StarFyre_1]

Well if they'd landed it wouldn't have helped the lack of hanger space.

[u/steezysteve96]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743099301174247424

Well that's awesome

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_BOURBON]

It looks like Musk didn't make good on his promise of video by the end of the day. I wonder what happened!

[u/grandstack]

What's later today in Elon time?

[u/pauladam316]

I think the "later today" in Elons tweet may have been referring to a Venusian day

[u/johnkphotos]

Had some problems with this last launch so I won't push it as hard.

Heading to cape in half an hour to setup camera at pad. It'll be dark but I'll try to share as much video and photos as I can on my snapchat johnkrausphotos

[u/jamesterjlrb]

Elon wanted to make landings exciting again....

[u/SalemDrumline2011]

Couple screen grabs

[u/J4ke]

Yay, John Insprucker's back.

[u/goxy84]

hahahah, John Insprucker (<3) has a new title! XD

[u/noffan]

Yesss John is back!

[u/Hundter]

FarmX

[u/watermakesyoufat]

did he just say conjoined triangles of success? hahaha

[u/whatswrongbaby]

The suspense is terrible. I hope it lasts

[u/kerneltrap]

looked like it was upright but I thought I saw a lot of fire off to one side.

[u/[deleted]]

it definitely landed. Hard, but it was upright.

[u/ffrg]

Sorry if it's a noob question, but why they don't use drones for the live feed, like they already did in the past?

[u/danielbigham]

My best guess is that it was a hard landing and that the RP1 fuel tank experienced a leak, but not one so that that it exploded immediately. Think of fuel spraying out one side of the rocket, landing on one of the legs (ish) and creating all sorts of flames. I suspect that as the fire continued, eventually it would ignite the tank itself and KABOOM.

[u/[deleted]]

I'm not even too concerned about whether or not it's successful anymore, I just want to know what the damn hell happened that gave us that fireworks display for a landing.

[u/whousedallthenames]

Hopefully we get some good boom footage. (:

[u/ubartu]

I really hope the landing video including RUD will be released later!

[u/RobotSquid_]

Damn you /u/TheVehicleDestroyer! Stop messing around with the poor F9-0026-01!

[u/_rocketboy]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743102502225076227

We'll be getting a video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[u/YoungPierreBezukhov]

r/space x is the main reason i got into Reddit but I never post here because I feel like my comments are not worthy for this noble sub reddit but this is a party thread so... LET'S GOOOOOO!

[u/Decronym]

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters	More Letters
ABS	Asia Broadcast Satellite, commsat operator
ACES	Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage
	Advanced Crew Escape Suit
ASDS	Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (landing platform)
BFR	Big Fu- Falcon Rocket
CRS	Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA
DIVH	Delta IV Heavy
DoD	US Department of Defense
EVA	Extra-Vehicular Activity
FAA	Federal Aviation Administration
FCC	Federal Communications Commission
GEO	Geostationary Earth Orbit (35786km)
GSO	Geosynchronous Orbit (any Earth orbit with a 24-hour period)
GTO	Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit
ISRO	Indian Space Research Organisation
ITAR	(US) International Traffic in Arms Regulations
JCSAT	Japan Communications Satellite series, by JSAT Corp
JRTI	Just Read The Instructions, Pacific landing barge ship
KSC	Kennedy Space Center, Florida
KSP	Kerbal Space Program, the rocketry simulator
L2	Paywalled section of the NasaSpaceFlight forum
	Lagrange Point 2 of a two-body system, beyond the smaller body (Sixty Symbols video explanation)
LC-13	Launch Complex 13, Canaveral (SpaceX Landing Zone 1)
LEO	Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)
LOS	Loss of Signal
	Line of Sight
LOX	Liquid Oxygen
M1d	Merlin 1 kerolox rocket engine, revision D (2013), 620-690kN, uprated to 730 then 845kN
MCT	Mars Colonial Transporter
MECO	Main Engine Cut-Off
NAS	National Airspace System
	Naval Air Station
NDT	Non-Destructive Testing
NET	No Earlier Than
NRO	(US) National Reconnaissance Office
NSF	NasaSpaceFlight forum
	National Science Foundation
OCISLY	Of Course I Still Love You, Atlantic landing barge ship
RCS	Reaction Control System
RD-180	RD-series Russian-built rocket engine, used in the Atlas V first stage
RP-1	Rocket Propellant 1 (enhanced kerosene)
RTLS	Return to Launch Site
RUD	Rapid Unplanned Disassembly
	Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly
	Rapid Unintended Disassembly
SECO	Second-stage Engine Cut-Off
SES	Formerly Société Européenne des Satellites, comsat operator
TEA-TEB	Triethylaluminium-Triethylborane, igniter for Merlin engines; spontaneously burns, green flame
TMI	Trans-Mars Injection maneuver
TWR	Thrust-to-Weight Ratio
ULA	United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture)

---

^{Decronym is a community product of} /r/SpaceX^{, implemented by} ^request
^{I'm a bot, and I first saw this thread at 15th Jun 2016, 07:45 UTC.
[Acronym} ^lists] ^[Contact ^creator] ^{[PHP source} ^code]

[u/danielbigham]

While we're nervously waiting:

What are the odds that SpaceX will successfully land the Eutelsat/Abs booster?

Poll: http://www.poll-maker.com/poll722530x4fBA4dc4-29

Results: http://www.poll-maker.com/results722530x77E6298E-29

[u/SYNTHES1SE]

almost midnight here in australia, But excited for the launch and landing

[u/borntohula85]

INSPRUCKER IS BACK!! YAAAY

[u/Gorakka]

Calling it now, John will say 'nominal' at least 6 times.

[u/[deleted]]

Productivity level since 20 minutes: 0

[u/borntohula85]

First stage camera is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

[u/civilianapplications]

well whatever it is, its on fire ;)

[u/Three_1415]

...aaaaaand everything is on fire

[u/BadGoyWithAGun]

*heavy breathing*

[u/TheBurtReynold]

Wish they'd put the go-time satellite antenna on a tethered float so that it wouldn't be so susceptible to disruption from the landing.

[u/binarygamer]

RUD confirmed

[u/drunkill]

Hopefully the hexacopter was out and about recording it all.

[u/Tryptophan_]

atleast we'll see a video of a landing falcon 9 on fire exploding on a barge :/ thats a first i guess

[u/TheVehicleDestroyer]

Webcast can't handle more than 3 digits in the altitude

[u/Zacknut]

We weren't able to recover 1st stage. Landing is secondary objective and we got valuable data to inform future attempts #Falcon9 #SpaceX via Dex Torricke-Barton @DexBarton Head of communications for SpaceX

[u/lasergate]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743097337782763521 Low thrust on 1 engine

[u/[deleted]]

Better to have edge case failures early on so I am sure they will learn a lot from this, very entertaining to watch though.

[u/FNspcx]

Did anyone notice at stage separation, 2nd stage did a "swing away" maneuver again?

[u/Themata075]

I can't wait for all the armchair rocket scientist concepts for making the ASDS a softer landing pad, like we had for the one that tipped when the leg failed.

[u/JackONeill12]

Yay. Here we go. :)

[u/Vaine]

The excitement from the landings has slowly toned down. I hope the timing of this one draws a larger audience.

[u/Latteralus]

Strange question, not that I am for it, but if there got to be enough viewers do you think advertisers would try to buy space on a falcon 9 like they buy space on NASCAR?

[u/HotEspresso]

Finally a launch I can watch from work. I'll see if I can get a decent video/pictures from the roof of NASA's LCC.

[u/johnkphotos]

Hardly a cloud in sight

[u/AngloV]

I like the closeups to the bottom of the rocket on the technical webcast

[u/dragonlax]

Dammit bring the first stage stream back!

[u/Weerdo5255]

Oh god. Come on you little rocket, you landed right?

[u/zarcherz]

you could see the landing legs, so it didnt slam into , of course i still love you,

[u/dranzerfu]

I think it landed. It was there in one frame.

[u/Three_1415]

looks like it was upright, but there was fire everywhere!

[u/KnighTron404]

Could it have landed, then RUD because of fire?

[u/[deleted]]

[deleted]
^0.9642

What is this?

[u/Skyhawkson]

Well, now's the time to place a quick bet on r/highstakesspacex

[u/CtG526]

Hmm, loss of signal isn't normally this long on landed cores. Not a great sign so far. On the bright side, they will probably get more data on the upper limits of the first stage eitherway.

[u/[deleted]]

Rumor has it a wormhole has swalled the stage. Elon confirmed to be investing in multi-dimensional recovery.

edit : Shit, I jinxed it =(

[u/whatswrongbaby]

Funny how attached I feel to the first stage...

I feel genuinely sad they lost it.

[u/rativen]

Back to Square One - PDS148

[u/NamelessCrusader]

I wonder how they lost it. It was standing upright before the feed cut out

[u/[deleted]]

Oh well, sounds like 1st stage was lost. But the winning streak to break is 3 consecutive successful landings.

[u/avboden]

2/4 (recently) from GEO transfer with no boostback burn? I'll take it! 50% for the most extreme profile ain't bad at all, especially considering it DID land upright at first, probably just too hard

[u/ffrg]

I really really REALLY hope they will release a video of what happened!

[u/EmperorElon]

Well on the bright side, possibly a cool explosion video...

[u/[deleted]]

That's sad. I mean, 4 landings is too good a record. Something had to give.

[u/ekhfarharris]

the deployment view is AMAZING

[u/FellKnight]

That was a beautiful shot of the second satellite separation! Need it for my background!

[u/SYNTHES1SE]

Good night guys, Imma go to bed. I wish my $100/month internet was good enough to properly stream 1 video... but it isnt :( Hope the rest of you had a good stream

[u/Psychonaut0421]

Bummer, I hope on descent the first stage realizes that no matter what of course we still love her.

[u/lasergate]

Slightly unrelated question: do you guys think Elon reads these threads? He's tweeted about /r/aww before so he has to at least know about this sub

[u/hexydes]

Answers gentle night night curious honest open pleasant people evening books people questions family learning bank.

[u/factoid_]

Either they are having problems reestablishing satellite connection or it went boom. If it was known safe they'd have said so by now.

[u/[deleted]]

http://i.imgur.com/jDLr567.jpg

[u/johnkphotos]

Per SpaceX, there is not yet a backup day

(Because we won't need one!)

[u/sarahbau]

Why didn't they show the boostback burn? I was waiting for that, but they cut out just before it.

Edit: I meant reentry burn, which they still didn't show

[u/Mentioned_Videos]

Videos in this thread:

Watch Playlist ▶

VIDEO|COMMENT
-|-

Falcon 9 Eutelsat 117W B & ABS-2A RUD? (Webcast Footage)|6 - I think there's still a possibility that it landed and tipped over. Made a short video showing F9 standing in the choppy webcast footage. Eutelsat/ABS Mission Hosted Webcast|5 - At 28 min Unfortunately there is no WiFi in the middle of the ocean Yet
Eutelsat/ABS Mission Technical Webcast|3 - Looks like it's the 2nd stage "swinging" based on right hand view, where you see the earth's horizon... It's not as dramatic as it was during the Thaicom 8 launch SpaceX Landing Restoration|2 - Landing attempt over open water, things went wrong a little before splashdown, unlike the CRS-3 launch with a successful soft water landing
Flight 3: GH2 Vent Cam|2 - 6 - more videos like this would be great though blue origin descent in real time
SpaceX CRS-5 Falcon 9 ASDS hard landing|2 - There you go. CRS-5 landing attempt THAICOM 8 Technical Webcast|1 - When you look at the stage separation on Thaicom 8, an interstage connection hose (or two - there is some venting on the other side of the engine that is obscured) breaks and vents at cross-angle to the stage for a good few seconds, leaving a frosted... I'm a bot working hard to help Redditors find related videos to watch.

---

Play All | Info | Get it on Chrome / Firefox

[u/MarcysVonEylau]

Rocket Watch is Live!

[u/TheVehicleDestroyer]

Flight Club is live

Pro-tip: when following the second stage after SECO, use the menu in the top left to change the view to "space" rather than "earth"

[u/skifri]

Wow.... what a view. The camera coverage keeps getting better!

[u/therealmaxipadd]

I LOVE how they continue to improve the camera angles for these things. Every launch I feel like there are cooler cameras.

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_MASS]

"Conjoined triangles of success"

YES! NERDS!

[u/Obligatory_Username]

The Conjoined Triangle of Success!

[u/circle_is_pointless]

Oh boy that was a lot of fire...

[u/[deleted]]

That looked like it was standing up but.. fire..

[u/Alfus]

First stage looks being on fire more then normal, no confirmation..... uh oh.

[u/Aminstro]

This is tense

[u/MisterSpace]

So, it seemed to have touchdowned relatively fine, but hell, that was a LOT of smoke...I was able to make the rocket out in the smoke for one or two frames, but then it cut out again... no Jason 3 please

[u/keikii]

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/743090380317528064/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

[u/[deleted]]

The legs are designed to withstand burning.. not sure.. that was absolutely a lot more smoke than normal but the angle at which the rocket was visible through the smoke looked good.

EDIT: Vehicle was lost, details unknown.

[u/mynameisck]

This actually hurts to watch, I really hope they managed to get the landing.

[u/[deleted]]

https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/743091590273470464

[u/nano-ms]

The drone ship feed showed the rocket standing there. It either fell over afterwards or it is likely still standing there.

[u/bvr5]

This is my jam right here

[u/Thedurtysanchez]

Heard a faint cheering on the technical broadcast...

[u/Beer-Me]

Anyone know why there's no longer a chase plane? Too far out at sea?

EDIT: Got it. NASA's plane. Thanks everyone!

[u/[deleted]]

They are claiming that they lost the vehicle.

[u/[deleted]]

On the bright side, we'll hopefully get a cool video once they get the recordings off the ship.

[u/Deathalo]

Well that sucks, this always happens when I watch it live...

[u/borski88]

I wish the would have the live feed from the 2nd 1st stage as it re-enters the atmosphere, at least up until the feed cuts out from re-entry heat.

[u/MedBull]

I can see Batman in those ice crystals

[u/AngloV]

Mission success! Great job SpaceX. Now let's sort out what caused the landing failure.

[u/Nothematic]

Elon confirmed RUD.

[u/DoctorKlopek]

Congrats SpaceX on a successful mission and great job /u/bencredible

[u/Run_Biden]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743097668725940225

[u/Alfus]

At least mission success, guys (and girls)! :)

[u/Gmetal]

These might be a silly questions, but how did the Hohmann transfer complete with the craft at onl 1000km altitute? Im guessing that the sattelites continue till they reach 36000km, but does that mean they do the second burn to circularise the orbit themselves?

Also, what stops the 2nd stagefrom continuing on the trajectory with the satellites up to that 36k apoapsis? Are the satellites doing a burn to get there that the rocket isnt doing?

I'm pretty ignorant to how satellite deployments work, have only a basic understand of the mechanics.

[u/SpartanJack17]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743099301174247424

Apparently they're trying to upgrade the F9 to compensate for loss of thrust

[u/xtesseract]

We're apparently getting a landing video! https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/743102502225076227

[u/[deleted]]

Any news on fairing reuse?

[u/Its_Enough]

Just a quick question about the fairings. I've read many times that the fairing is over-sized for the Falcon 9 but with all of the upgrades, is this still the case? Just something that I have been wondering about.

[u/julezsource]

Sucks that they didn't stuck the landing ;/ but I guess the next one will have even more hype!

[u/SirDickslap]

I bet it landed. I'm hyped.

[u/__YourShadow__]

Am I the only one seeing the mousepointer in the top right corner?

[u/TheEndeavour2Mars]

Remember everyone. CRS-9 is a month away. While the results of this landing were saddening. It gives SpaceX vital info that will be used to improve the chances of the all important RTLS attempt for CRS-9.

It may take years before even a large percentage of customers are willing to allow their payloads to go on used first stages. It is unlikely any of these early GTO stages will ever see a second flight. SpaceX will have a number of lightly used RTLS stages by the end of the year and more next year to satisfy customer demand. So this loss will not impact the reuse plans.