SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch scrubbed for today set for tomorrow.

[Thebobo]

Wednesday, January 31, at 4:25 p.m. EST. Looks like a water landing without a barge. Not a 100% on that.


"SpaceX is now targeting launch of the GovSat-1 satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on Wednesday, January 31, at 4:25 p.m. EST, or 21:25 UTC. The satellite will deploy approximately 32 minutes after launch. Falcon 9’s first stage for the GovSat-1 mission previously supported the NROL-76 mission from LC-39A in May 2017. SpaceX will not attempt to recover Falcon 9’s first stage after launch."

Watch here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScYUA51-POQ

 

[Ken g6]

So far, so good. The satellite is in a low parking orbit and will boost to geostationary orbit in about 15 minutes.

 

[tynopik]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/958847818583584768

Elon Musk‏Verified account @elonmusk

This rocket was meant to test very high retrothrust landing in water so it didn’t hurt the droneship, but amazingly it has survived. We will try to tow it back to shore.

 

[tynopik]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02/amazingly-spacex-fails-to-expend-its-rocket/

Amazingly, SpaceX fails to expend its rocket

Another reason to be surprised at the landing is the fact that the rocket performed a "three engine" landing burn. Normally, during the last part of a Falcon 9 landing, the central engine alone fires to slow the rocket for its final descent. (See, for example, here). In this case the rocket performed what Musk called a "very high retrothrust landing," which means that three engines fired instead of one to triple the deceleration force.

This is significant because three engines firing instead of one greatly increases the gravitational force exerted on the structure of the approximately 27-ton rocket. Calculations by amateur enthusiasts on Reddit suggest that the Falcon 9 booster underwent approximately 10gs of force compared to the normal 3gs, in the seconds before landing. The upside of landing with three engines is that a booster only has to fire them for a short amount of time relative to a single engine deceleration burn, and therefore it uses considerably less fuel.

It is not clear how SpaceX will attempt to tow the rocket to shore. The company's Atlantic Ocean-based drone ship, "Of Course I Still Love You," will be in service during the next week to catch the central core of the Falcon Heavy launch, tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, February 6. Perhaps the company will take a page from the playbook of NASA, which recovered the space shuttle's larger solid-rocket boosters, with tugboats.

 

[tynopik]

Air Force Strike Takes Out SpaceX's Floating GovSat Booster

Thing is, SpaceX didn’t expect the booster to survive the splashdown in tact, but it did, making it easy to speculate that it’s a situation SpaceX didn’t have a contingency plan for. For example, things like un-safed COPVs (composite overwrapped pressure vessels) at flight pressure could have made it a ticking time bomb and hazard to navigation and marine life, being that they store a dangerous amount of energy if not vented.

Additionally, if circuitry onboard was fried by water after the booster splashed down, then there’s no way high-pressure areas could vent.

Whatever the case, trusted anonymous sources have confirmed to AmericaSpace that the U.S. Air Force carried out an air strike to blow up the unsafed floating booster.

In an inquiry to the U.S. Air Force, an Air Force Space Command spokesperson would not confirm or deny the strike, but instead asked that any and all booster queries go to SpaceX.

 

[PottedMeat]

Air Force Strike Takes Out SpaceX's Floating GovSat Booster

interesting - all i found on that was that website and there's a twitter account of an editor on nasaspaceflight that mentions it

https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/961622795900866561

Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF

So the #Falcon9 1st stage for #GovSat1 that soft landed in the ocean and survived... @NASASpaceflight has confirmed that the Air Force conducted a scuttling operation to destroy it as there was no safe way to get it back to Port. (Photo credit: #SpaceX)

 

[IronWing]

Air Force Strike Takes Out SpaceX's Floating GovSat Booster

It's good to know we have a plan for extra-terrestrials.

 

[tynopik]

SpaceX Hired Company to Destroy Floating GovSat Booster, Not USAF

In response to our inquiry to clarify, SpaceX issued the following official statement this afternoon:

“While the Falcon 9 first stage for the GovSat-1 mission was expendable, it initially survived splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. However, the stage broke apart before we could complete an unplanned effort to recover the booster.”

SpaceX went on to say, “Reports that the Air Force was involved in SpaceX’s recovery efforts are categorically false.”

AmericaSpace has since learned that the Air Force was, instead, initially considered to take care of the job, but a commercial company of demolition specialists was eventually hired to safely destroy the hazardous booster.