
SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage has landed at LZ-1 [video] - romanhotsiy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzQpkQ1etdA
======
FiatLuxDave
I see a lot of comments about how boring this is becoming. It caused a bit of
excitement for me, though.

The launch and landing happened around 7 am local time, and my house is only a
few miles from the landing zone. So, I'm taking my morning shower, and I hear
the boom. I'm thinking "Sounds like a SpaceX landing or a rapid unplanned
disassembly". Then my houseguest from out-of-town yells into the bathroom:
"David, I think something just hit the house!".

Me: "No, hun, that's what a rocket landing sounds like. Go check the internet,
I'm pretty sure we're okay."

Best of luck to SpaceX, and thank you for not launching (and landing) any
earlier in the morning!

~~~
collinmanderson
There's a map here of how loud it is and noise analysis:

[https://www.docdroid.net/xfNMCgz/draft-supplemental-ea-
space...](https://www.docdroid.net/xfNMCgz/draft-supplemental-ea-spacex-at-
ccafs-lc-13-01-03-2017.pdf.html#page=104)

------
jacquesm
Good business: make the hard seem easy and the nigh on impossible seem merely
hard. They do these landings so well now it almost seems normal that rockets
land after taking off and boosting a second stage to orbital velocity.

~~~
vkou
Nit: The first stage does not boost the second stage to orbital velocity. It
boosts it to ~2,000 m/s, which is one-quarter of an orbital velocity, and one-
sixteenth of the energy required for orbit.

I don't believe it's likely that we'll see recovery of an orbital velocity
stage anytime soon.

~~~
grecy
> _I don 't believe it's likely that we'll see recovery of an orbital velocity
> stage anytime soon._

Oh, I wouldn't be so pessimistic.

"Considering trying to bring upper stage back on Falcon Heavy demo flight for
full reusability. Odds of success low, but maybe worth a shot." \- Elon Musk
[1]

[1][https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/847882289581359104](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/847882289581359104)

Remember, everyone said they would never land the first stage....

~~~
vkou
> Remember, everyone said they would never land the first stage....

Everyone? That's a bit hyperbolic.

~~~
dotancohen
Actually almost everyone with experience in the matter said that SpaceX would
never successfully reuse a first stage booster. That would be Boeing, USA, and
a majority of NASA engineers. Granted many of those had an interest in seeing
Space Exploration Technologies fail, but their opinion certainly holds weight.

------
rl3
NROL-76's mission patch[0] seems rather mundane. NRO patches are normally a
bit more cryptic and bizzare.

I wonder how many people at SpaceX are cleared to know what the payload is.
What are the finer points of payload integration in such a situation?

Does Elon even know what his own company just launched?

[0]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_launches#/media/...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_launches#/media/File%3ANROL-76_mission_patch.jpg)

~~~
whatshisface
NRO-39's patch (the one in the wiki article) caused a small controversy - the
tentacles enveloping the world seemed like pretty poor taste in light of
Snowden. They probably decided that their PR team needed to see them first
from then on.

~~~
lobster_johnson
To be fair, some of the patches for the NRO missions seem weirdly aggressive,
with a bunch of different animals all clutching the earth. They've had bird
claws (presumably an American eagle), a tiger, a three-headed bird monster,
and even a big green dragon. It's odd that tentacles were somehow considered
worse taste.

~~~
Para2016
After reading up on some of the patches and their hidden meanings, the octopus
could have been largely symbolic. For example, there could have been 8
components of the mission and the octopus has 8 arms. Something like that.
Here's some background on why I think that might be possible:

"The patches’ relative obscurity changed in 2000, with the launch of a payload
known as NROL-11. The mission patch depicted what appeared to be owl eyes
peering down at the Earth, where four arrow-shaped vectors, two per orbit,
made their way across Africa. Three of the vectors were white, and one was
dark. Based solely on studying the design, civilian satellite watcher Ted
Molczan hypothesized that the patch showed a failed satellite (the dark
vector), and that the newly launched satellite would take its place.

Sure enough, after the launch a new satellite appeared just where Molczan
predicted. Pearlman, who reported on the story at the time, says that NRO at
first told him “no comment” when he contacted them. About 30 minutes later
they called him back and asked him not to publish the story. Pearlman told
them no dice, and in the end, the NRO spokesman told him that the patches were
just morale-builders for those who work on the launches."

[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/creepy-
kitschy-...](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/creepy-kitschy-and-
geeky-patches-us-spy-satellites-180953562/)

------
digitalnalogika
Watch the whole stream, it was beautiful. There was a view from ground all the
way from separation to landing.

------
crispyambulance
This is the first time, I think, we got to see the charred surface of the
first stage. I wonder what kind of processing is involved to make the stage
usable again?

Do they just put it through a car wash and re-fill for next time?

Is everything reusable on the first stage?

~~~
safeharbourio
Anecdotal: I believe musk said that the charred outside was surprisingly only
in need of a fresh coat of paint.

~~~
angstrom
Wouldn't be surprised if it's similar to the coatings placed on the launch pad
stabilizers. The paint is meant to char because it acts similar to a ceramic
preventing damage to the underlying metal. There's a good youtube video of
this on the moon launches where the tail fin hold downs char, but don't warp.

~~~
greglindahl
The grid fins have paint like that, which is why they catch on fire.

~~~
dflock
They're aluminium underneath the paint - and that _also_ melts a bit on a high
speed GTO reentry, hence the likely switch to titanium grid fins in the
future.

------
lordelph
The booster footage was amazing. Incredible to see just how much it flies
through its own exhaust on the re-entry burn!

~~~
Klathmon
And I was surprised just how close to the second stage it still looked when
the secondary engines started up.

I can't even imagine trying to steer a rocket to turn it around, with an open
top, while it's in the exhaust of another rocket! It's amazing.

~~~
mstade
True story! The landing was fantastic, no doubt, but this footage is a thing
of pure beauty:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzQpkQ1etdA&feature=youtu.be...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzQpkQ1etdA&feature=youtu.be&t=1211)

~~~
Shivetya
I enjoyed watching Blue Origin's landing as well
([https://youtu.be/9pillaOxGCo](https://youtu.be/9pillaOxGCo)) and from their
video it looks like engine restart is at five thousand feet with full burn at
one thousand. Do we have similar numbers for Space X?

I am curious what threshold differences there are between teams, both are
doing amazing work.

btw, this portion of the return where they did the entry level was most
impressive for space x
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzQpkQ1etdA&t=1145s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzQpkQ1etdA&t=1145s))

~~~
jacquesm
SpaceX rockets have to shed a lot more velocity the numbers are not
comparable.

------
10dpd
What is truly amazing is that this is becoming normal.

~~~
apaprocki
I said it on Twitter.. F9 stuck the landing 1 minute before I had to walk out
the door with my 5yo daughter and she was really happy to see it. Then through
the bus window as it was pulling away, she made rocket-taking-off hands that
went up to space... and then came back down and landed again. I'll be able to
tell her about how nice that was to see someday :)

~~~
rdruxn
Got a lot of frisson reading this comment. I just can't understand the people
who love to criticize Musk as a charlatan and PR mastermind because either
way, true or untrue, he and his engineers are doing undeniable good in
inspiring the next generation of scientists.

~~~
Robotbeat
Yeah, it is strange. A charlatan is someone who is lying and has no intent on
following through on their unrealistic plans.

Musk clearly isn't a charlatan as he's trying his very best to make his
unrealistic plans a reality, and has already succeeded tremendously.

Is Musk crazy? He might be. But he's earnestly crazy.

~~~
gozur88
I think a lot of the criticism has come from moves he made on the business
side, like having SpaceX buy SolarCity bonds.

~~~
erikpukinskis
Worked out pretty well for SpaceX.

At what point do you say "he's made so much money for us that we'll give him
at least one major fuckup before we start trying to reign him in."?

~~~
gozur88
The criticism is SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity are so tied together financially
they'll all go down if one does. As an outsider I don't really care how Musk
arranges his financial house. However, if I had a financial stake in SpaceX
I'd be pretty upset to see my money getting invested in another company for
Elon Musk's benefit.

~~~
greglindahl
That's up to SpaceX's private owners, now isn't it?

~~~
gozur88
Yes it is. That was part of the postulation. I don't know how things are drawn
up - they may not have had a choice.

------
ChuckMcM
That never gets old :-) and I thought the external views were really awesome
as well. On the previous return of SES-10 which was a geosync mission,
previously SpaceX had said that the booster was unrecoverable in those
situations given the additional boost that it gave the payload (so started
from a higher altitude) but they tried it, and got it back anyway. Watching
the grid fins nearly burn off from re-entry friction was a the most
interesting bit of that one.

~~~
angstrom
As far as I'm concerned these gravity assisted landings are technologically
superior voodoo magic. The combination of materials, software and physics to
accomplish the improbable.

------
toexitthedonut
I do like how these landings are becoming more routine. They're making it seem
like a piece of cake now. I don't think I'll get as excited again until the
Falcon Heavy maiden launch.

------
collinmanderson
Is it just me or is this first time they've caught video of stage separation
from the ground?

Beautiful video in any case. It's fun to see the first stage engine cut off,
separate, flip over, and the second stage accelerates away.

[https://youtu.be/EzQpkQ1etdA?t=857](https://youtu.be/EzQpkQ1etdA?t=857)

------
ziikutv
Didn't they say it was classified? I think just before the separation of the
rocket and payload, they said something about what it was.

13:38 in the video "Falcon X is delivering the, National Reconnaissance
office's satellite to orbit right now"

~~~
harshreality
There's nothing secret about that. It's a satellite and it's for the NRO.
What's secret is what it does, and what its orbit will be. (Once it gets to
its final orbit, I guess there are amateur satellite trackers that will figure
it out, but not until then).

The webcast host may not (I'd guess he _probably_ doesn't) know what the
satellite does or its final orbit. He does mechanical design. I'd bet they
keep that information compartmentalized within SpaceX so only the operations
personnel who need to know would know.

~~~
ziikutv
In the beginning they said that the payload is confidential too, not just the
destination. Rewatch it ;)

~~~
harshreality
"satellite" is not a description of the payload.

------
sidcool
Another great achievement. I am OK with this becoming a regular boring affair.

------
madlynormal
Wow! What amazing work being done by SpaceX.

------
sidcool
What was the payload?

~~~
stilldavid
I believe it was an NRO spy satellite.

------
RyanMathewson
Amazing video from the ground this time. Link to the webcast at the time of
separation.
[https://youtu.be/EzQpkQ1etdA?t=1211](https://youtu.be/EzQpkQ1etdA?t=1211)

~~~
sctb
Thanks! We updated the link from
[https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/859006000136769536](https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/859006000136769536).

------
wand3r
You almost forget that it was an NRO spy sat payload.

~~~
criley2
No, they didn't forget to add that extra detail which adds nothing to their
post.

~~~
mmjaa
But, wouldn't it be interesting if one of the reasons we had such great ground
coverage was somehow related to the NRO being a customer?

~~~
gus_massa
I guess the better coverage of the first stage is that they landed in land and
not in a small ship in the middle of the sea. It's more difficult to put
cameras in the sea and keep a good connection.

I think it's indirectly related. Probably, the satellite has a low orbit to
have a better sight, and they don't expect to have the satellite for too long
so care about some drag. So the rocket has more fuel to a return to land
maneuver.

Also, it was very strange that they cut the transmission so soon. Usually they
continue with the second stage and they highlight many times that the main
mission is the satellite and they transmit as much of the satellite as
possible in case they have an RUD. This time they closed the transmission as
soon as the first stage landed.

Anyway, an amazing transmission.

~~~
rohit89
> Also, it was very strange that they cut the transmission so soon.

That's an NRO requirement.

~~~
ceejayoz
Yep. Same reason the cheering crowd at SpaceX was much smaller than a usual
launch - only folks with clearance allowed in.

~~~
dtparr
I wonder how much was that, and how much was the fact the launch window opened
at 4am.

