Support NeoGAF

[cebri.one]

So close!!!

 

[Jezbollah]

Yea its a shame they didn't this time but they hit the target well and will probably prevent this issue next time.

Any idea when their next launch/ ship landing attempt is?

SES-9 (FalconFT), currently scheduled for February 6th.

 

[mentallyinept]

Video of touchdown:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAqirNbwEc0/

Better than I expected given the result!

... Man. They had it.

The engineers will beef up the legs and latching mechanism and this will be done later this year.

Edit:

SES-9 (FalconFT), currently scheduled for February 6th.

Or in a couple weeks...

 

[HellBlazer]

Wow, I can't believe how close that was. Stupid leg.

Anyone know what's the landing plan for the Feb. 6 launch? Barge again, or on land?

 

[Faith]

This was close.

Humans are amazing.

 

[Lach]

Damn they almost had it. Shame

 

[Crispy75]

They should have 5 or 6 legs for redundancy?

 

[Starviper]

They should have 5 or 6 legs for redundancy?

No, that would add weight. They gotta figure out a better way to get the landing legs to lock.

 

[cameron]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/689299216607232000

Video of touchdown:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BAqirNbwEc0/

Better than I expected given the result!

Crazy impressive how close to target and how vertical the landing was. This only after 2 landing attempts done previously on a drone ship. Was curious if the drone ship readjusts its position during the landing attempt. Looks like it tries to stay at a given coordinate, while the first stage does all of the targeting.

A key upgrade to enable precision targeting of the Falcon 9 all the way to touchdown is the addition of four hypersonic grid fins placed in an X-wing configuration around the vehicle, stowed on ascent and deployed on reentry to control the stage’s lift vector. Each fin moves independently for roll, pitch and yaw, and combined with the engine gimbaling, will allow for precision landing – first on the autonomous spaceport drone ship, and eventually on land.

Mr. Musk presented his company’s first drone ship as using thrusters repurposed from deep-sea oil rigs, able to hold its position at sea to within three meters even in a storm, and perhaps able to allow future refueling and fly-back of the rocket stage to its launch site.
...
Now, in addition to wing extensions, Marmac 300 carried four diesel-powered hydraulically-driven thrusters for position-keeping, diesel fuel tanks and several large steel shipping containers at either end of the deck housing communications gear, an autonomous guidance system and additional equipment.

Wow, I can't believe how close that was. Stupid leg.

Anyone know what's the landing plan for the Feb. 6 launch? Barge again, or on land?

Barge. And it will be a first for a launch that has a geostationary transfer orbit payload. The previous 3 drone ship landing attempts were for low earth orbit payloads.

 

[Crispy75]

Barge. And it will be a first for a launch that has a geostationary transfer orbit payload. The previous 3 drone ship landing attempts were for low earth orbit payloads.

Yeah - this will be the lowest margin landing yet. The barge will be further downrange, and the re-entry will be faster and more shallow.

 

[CyclopsRock]

They upgraded the legs for the last 9.2 rocket used on the land landing - anyone know if they retrofitted that to this recent (last) 9.1?