Tag Archives: LZ-1

Synchronized Landing

Unless you have been living under a rock, you now know that yesterday SpaceX accomplished something spectacular. That being the launch and partially successful landing of the Falcon Heavy boosters and the delivery of “Starman” in Elon Musk’s vintage cherry red Tesla Roadster. Both side boosters landed successfully back at the Cape as shown below. Unfortunately the core section failed to initiate the final landing burn and crashed next to the recovery drone ship. YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter are replete with coverage and discussion.

I have selected a few choice (short) videos below for your enjoyments.

Note that even though the bottom videos from the returning side boosters shown above are supposed to be from each individual booster, someone goofed and we see the same video stream displayed on the left and right. SpaceX corrected this with a later video, but that is not currently available on YouTube.

Below is one of the better spectator videos of the landings. (There are many)

Let the New Space Race begin!

SpaceX OTV-5

SpaceX launch of the US Air Force “minishuttle” Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) X-37B

Another successful launch and landing for Falcon 9. It is beginning to remind me of watching planes take off and land at the airport.

 

 

Side note: the contract to launch OTV-5 was awarded to SpaceX directly, without bid

SpaceX Press Kit

List of Falcon 9 Launches

OK … somebody had to do it. The complete list of every Falcon 9 launch is on Wikipedia!

As of June 25, 2017

  • 37 launches
  • 2 failures (one in flight, one on the launch pad pre-flight)
  • 13 successful landings (8 droneship, 5 Landing Zone 1)
  • 2 resused Falcon 9 boosters (both of which re-landed successfully – one on droneship, the other at LZ-1)
  • 1 reused Dragon capsule

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches

 

So … compare this to the Blue Origin numbers also care of Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin)

  • 1 launch and crash landing of the New Shepard 1
  • 5 launches and landings of the same New Shepard 2 booster (up and down – no payload to orbit)

 

    Just sayin’

    80 Seconds

    Watch (almost) EVERY SpaceX Falcon 9 landing attempted … in 80 seconds 

    https://youtu.be/Gum4EVbg7_0

    And that doesn’t even count two back-to-back landings last week on an Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (Atlantic AND Pacific) plus the landing at LZ-1 at the beginning of June. Oh … and don’t forget the May 1st landing at LZ-1. So that makes it 18 landings?

     

    See also

    https://contrafactual.com/2017/06/25/spacex-iridium-2/

    https://contrafactual.com/2017/06/23/bulgariasat-1/

    https://contrafactual.com/2017/06/13/yaf9lv/

    https://contrafactual.com/2017/06/07/crs-11-falcon-9-landing-close-up/

    https://contrafactual.com/2017/06/04/crs-11-falcon-9-landing/

    https://contrafactual.com/2017/05/01/best-footage-ever/

    CRS-11 Falcon 9 Landing

    Yet another Falcon 9 landing (from yesterday June 3rd) at LZ-1. Note the arrival of the sonic boom just before landing. Starting to get routine (as it should). This was also the first re-use of a Dragon capsule (Woo Hoo). 

    For more info on LZ-1 see:

    For more on the CRS-11 mission see:

    Feels like the 60s again.

    CRS-11 ISS Resupply

    SCRUBBED DUE TO WEATHER 

    From http://www.spacex.com/webcast


       

    New milestones for SpaceX

    • First reflight of a Dragon capsule
    • Another re-landing of Falcon 9 booster at Landing Zone 1
    • 100th Launch from LC-39A

    Click to access crs11finalpresskit.pdf

    Launch windows:

    • Primary Thursday June 1 at 5:55pm EDT (21:55 UTC) 
    • Backup Saturday June 3 at 5:07pm EDT (21:07 UTC)

    Falcon 9 Re-entry … How it survives

    The video below does an excellent job of explaining exactly how the Falcon 9 survives re-entry

    The heat of re-entry is due to the compression of the atmosphere ahead of the re-entering vehicle, NOT air friction. Think of a diesel engine that works by highly compressing the air in the cylinder above the ignition temperature of the diesel fuel which is then injected at maximum compression and temperature.

    Credit XKCD

    Latest SpaceX Mission Notes

    I am replaying the video for your convenience

     

    Falcon 9 first stage by the numbers 

    Speed of sound = 343 m/s

    Max speed on ascent = 1685 m/s (Mach 4.9 @ 68 km)

    Max altitude (apogee) = 166 km

    Max speed on descent = 1407 m/s (Mach 4.1 @ 65km)

    Stage separation (2:47) to touchdown (9:24) = 6m 37s

    • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 

    Go back and rewatch the video while paying close attention to SPEED and ALTITUDE 

    The Falcon 9 first stage trajectory is quite interesting …

    Second time is the charm

    SpaceX successfully launches CRS-10 from LC-39A | Falcon 9 first stage lands at LZ-1 

    Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Airforce Station

     

    Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A, the southern most of the two most northerly pads) with SpaceX modifications 


     


    Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1 formerly LC-13 midway down ICBM road )


    LC-39A launch

     

    Aerial view of LZ-1 landing

     

    Full coverage with some SpaceX provided historical clips

     
    Links

    Aerial snapshots from Apple Maps (TOMTOM)

    Welcome to the Future – the revolution will be Tweeted