
SpaceX successfully catches both fairing for the first time - abakus
https://www.engadget.com/space-x-falcon-9-005622474.html
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gt565k
"Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, told reporters last year that the
fairing costs around $6 million."

Pretty good if they can recover them and refurbish them. Could save a few
million dollars per launch, even more if they can be re-used more than once.

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JshWright
Perhaps even more importantly, they are a big bottleneck on their flight rate.
They require a massive autoclave (for curing the composites), and it wouldn't
be practical to scale up their production significantly.

Even if it didn't save them a penny, my guess is it would still be a priority.

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SEJeff
^ This.

The second stage (which is not reused on a Falcon 9), the fairings, and the
grid fins are three of the longer lead time items for the Falcon series
rockets. Reusing as much as possible helps keep their crazy launch cadence up.

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exabrial
Dumb question I'm sure has been asked... we've been throwing stuff into the
sea for awhile then going and picking it up later as it's bobbing gently in
the waves. Why not just have some inflatable buoys that deploy in the water
and have it float? Catching it seems pretty difficult, albeit pretty sweet.

~~~
Robotbeat
First: saltwater damage. Ever tried to run a car or a laptop or an airplane
after it was dunked in saltwater? Hardening for saltwater immersion isn’t
always practical and will always add some weight.

Second: They already do float. They recover them quickly (& sometimes reuse
them) if they miss the catch. But the fairing halves are 800km down range. You
need to have a boat nearby anyway, so might as well try to catch it before it
lands in saltwater and screws it up.

~~~
mattr47
It's not the water per say. A car, laptop or airplane that is in fresh water
will not work without an overhaul.

The salt water produces corrosion that fresh does not. That is why military
aircraft operated near the sea get washed so much. Both inside and out,
including the engines.

We would come back from overwater flights over the Atlantic and either go
through a 'bird bath' which is basically a car wash for aircraft. Or they
would drag a fire hose out, hook it up and spray everything down. It was
pretty cool to watch the exhaust gas temps when the started dumping fresh
water into the engine inlet.

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pjc50
So are the fairings passively falling, or are they guided to the ships in some
way? Ships are very slow compared to even a parachuting object from the sky.

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ceejayoz
They use steerable parafoils.

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BitwiseFool
Do you know how the steering is being done? Is it controlled from a computer
on the fairing or is it remotely guided?

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zionic
IIRC it's automated GPS to a staging area and the local ship takes over
control when it comes within radio range.

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rmccue
This article just links to
[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1285338582849208320](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1285338582849208320)
and adds a bit more context, if you don't want to blindly accept the Verizon
GDPR wall.

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Shivetya
I am just amazed that NASA turned around a shuttle in 54 days, I don't even
recall it. Apparently these were the first two missions flown[0]. However I
also read almost suffered Columbia's fate on one of its flight due to a large
loss of tiles

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Atlantis#Flights...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Atlantis#Flights_listing)

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the-dude
Techcrunch : [https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/20/spacex-successfully-
catche...](https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/20/spacex-successfully-catches-both-
fairing-halves-for-the-first-time-on-its-latest-launch/)

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praveen9920
Did they ever try catching it mid air? Something like a hook to helicopter
perhaps? $6 mil is big number not to try.

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NortySpock
Depending on the launch trajectory, these fairings come down between 40 km and
1400km offshore. So you either need a helicopter with incredible range and
dwell time, or a boat with a helicopter pad AND a place to put the fairing if
you catch it.

Say you catch the fairing. Great, now you have a giant composite/plastic sail,
the size of school bus, bouncing around in your rotor downdraft. Not exactly
the safest thing, and you're over water so you can't just put down anywhere.

So, it's complicated, and SpaceX decided to go with a boat rather than a
helicopter-and-a-boat.

[https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-mr-steven-renamed-falcon-
he...](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-mr-steven-renamed-falcon-heavy-
fairing-catch/)

[https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/8/21213917/rocket-lab-
rocket...](https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/8/21213917/rocket-lab-rocket-
electron-helicopters-reusable-mid-air-catch)

Rocketlab first stage catch demo; they've got a heavy stage to catch (with
heavy engines at the bottom to act as a counterweight) and it's not nearly as
big as the Falcon 9 booster.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3CWGDhkmbs&feature=emb_titl...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3CWGDhkmbs&feature=emb_title)

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AtlasBarfed
Balloons! But yeah, the boat is probably simpler / cheaper.

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forgotmypwbctbi
page is just blank for me...

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noughtme
Try enabling JavaScript.

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dylan604
That's some top notch developing to not be able to display anything for non-JS
enabled viewers.

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drcross
By viewers you probably mean "people they aim to track"

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speedgoose
This website is not trustworthy and doesn't respect GDPR as it redirects to
[https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId](https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId)

Engadget, stop this nonsense and change the responsibilities of the team who
decided to put this into production.

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StavrosK
I'm not sure why you were downvoted, I hate sites where the only option to "do
you want to be tracked?" is "yes" too.

~~~
oh_sigh
There's always the ctrl-w option. It seems better that you have to consent
rather than them just assuming you consent since you opened a link.

~~~
StavrosK
> There's always the ctrl-w option.

That is usually what I resort to.

> It seems better that you have to consent rather than them just assuming you
> consent since you opened a link.

Yes, but one of the two is completely illegal, and the other is slightly
illegal.

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chasd00
there were a couple guys using acrobatic parachutes and some control code to
fly high power model rockets back to the pad saving an hour walk. I wonder if
SpaceX could use the same technique and fly the fairings to the ships.

~~~
vikramkr
That's what they already do. It's a steerable parafoil. How would they be
expected to get the ship lined up underneath the parafoil in time to catch it
otherwise?

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ncmncm
Don't understand why they don't just use an inflatable parachute with a radio
beacon antenna sticking out the top. Then they could just drive up anytime and
fish it out of the water. Would immersion in salt water for a few hours damage
a fairing?

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throwaway0a5e
Or grab them with a hook dangling from a C-130 like the film from old-timey
spy satellites.

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vikramkr
They considered doing that to reuse the Saturn V with a giant helicopter with
rockets at the end of each propeller. It didnt go anywhere. Though people have
been using air capture for more reasonable use cases, and rocket lab is going
to be air capturing their electron rockets.

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avian
I haven’t heard about this giant helicopter idea before. Here’s an article I
found about it:

[https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1045/1](https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1045/1)

~~~
amacbride
Very cool article. The Hiller Air & Space museum mentioned in the piece is
well worth visiting if one happens to be in the Bay Area.

