[QUOTE=kladner;501744]The two items emphasized show progress on multiple fronts. Upping the reuse numbers, with speedy turn-arounds bespeak a practiced, smooth running system.[/QUOTE]

SpaceX are [URL="https://www.spacex.com/webcast"]about to do their thing again in about 90 minutes[/URL]....

[QUOTE=chalsall;501753]SpaceX are [URL="https://www.spacex.com/webcast"]about to do their thing again in about 90 minutes[/URL]....[/QUOTE]

And things didn't appear to go so well for the Stage 1 landing. Lot's of spinning, and suddenly SpaceX cut away from the landing attempt....

[QUOTE=chalsall;501761]And things didn't appear to go so well for the Stage 1 landing. Lot's of spinning, and suddenly SpaceX cut away from the landing attempt....[/QUOTE]
It was a water landing near the cape. The reentry burn puts its path off-shore (or to miss the barge). The landing burn stears it onto the pad. It looked to me that it fought the wind to get on course and then decide that the wind was too strong and that it would not be same, then bailed out to the water. Will be interesting to hear what happened.
Two more launches with real dates slated by the end of the year for Space-X. That will bring the total to 22. Currently Space-X is responsible for about 2/3rds of the USA's launches this year.


<edit>From Twitter
[QUOTE=Elon Musk]Grid fin hydraulic pump stalled, so Falcon landed just out to sea. Appears to be undamaged & is transmitting data. Recovery ship dispatched.[/QUOTE]</edit>

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;501009]A little spy has informed me that Space-X is preparing to catch a fairing on Wednesday.[/QUOTE]My spy was right, even though Everyday Astronaut was reporting no. It was Monday, not Wednesday. And it was a miss.

[QUOTE=Elon]Falcon fairing halves missed the net, but touched down softly in the water. Mr Steven is picking them up. Plan is to dry them out & launch again. Nothing wrong with a little swim.[/QUOTE]

And the [URL="https://twitter.com/i/status/1069657950464073728"]video[/URL] from Space-X of Mr. Steven heading out to sea does not do it justice. I have seen large ships and the first stage of a Falcon9 from reasonable distances. Mr. Steven is a WOW!

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;501762]It was a water landing near the cape.[/QUOTE]

Yeah. But beyond analysis it's not likely to be of much use for reuse.

Trivial to have redundancy of hydraulic pressure...

[QUOTE=chalsall;501764]Trivial to have redundancy of hydraulic pressure...[/QUOTE]

A little bit dizzying to [URL="https://twitter.com/elonmusk"]watch[/URL].

The very expensive titanium grid fins are locked in position, while the rocket comes in for a soft landing on the ocean. Then it tips over....

Watch this view of the landing. [url]https://clips.twitch.tv/CleverSpineyEggPrimeMe[/url]

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;501776]Watch this view of the landing. [url]https://clips.twitch.tv/CleverSpineyEggPrimeMe[/url][/QUOTE]

Poor little thing. It tried really hard...

I'm sure lots of data will be analysed deeply by SpaceX. That's what they do, after all.

Failure is where you learn what not to do again....

[QUOTE=chalsall;501773]A little bit dizzying to [URL="https://twitter.com/elonmusk"]watch[/URL].

The very expensive titanium grid fins are locked in position, while the rocket comes in for a soft landing on the ocean. Then it tips over....[/QUOTE]

After a soft landing they can presumably remove, wash and reuse the very expensive titanium grid fins; it might be prohibitively expensive to requalify the engines themselves.

(in a similar direction, I believe SpaceX owns no more than two sets of space station docking adaptors, and just unscrews them from landed Dragons, test, and reinstall one onto the Dragon next in line to go to ISS)

Saw the bluish-white lasso-shaped contrail pictured below on my way out of the 2nd-floor garage of the Novato (Marin county) Whole Foods - It was from a Vandenberg rocket launch, a heavy Delta IV carrying a spy satellite: [url]https://www.space.com/32286-space-calendar.html[/url]

Re. my above post, things turned out to be much more interesting than that - a bunch of folks posted to the NextDoor site for my area, upshot is that the nearly-identical time Vandenberg launch I linked to was scrubbed, and that in fact the contrail was left by a very bright meteor which entered the atmosphere above us. I had a hard time believing it at first since no one confirmed actually seeing the flash of the bolide (and after all, disinformation is the spooks' stock in trade, though admittedly it would be odd to publicize the launch time in advance and then spread a fake cover story afterward), but over dinner last night the brother-in-law (who lives 10mi away) said they had seen the thing streaking downward while out driving. Damn, I must've *just* missed seeing that, never seen one so bright in my lifetime, at least not 'live'.