SpaceX And/Or Rocketry In General

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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RE: .... include avoiding

Quote:
.... include avoiding cruise ships ....


Like this one perhaps ( projected route ) :

Cheers, Mike.

( edit ) Which is now passing some 5km to the south & east of the group and may go west and then north first into the port methinks.

( edit ) Yep it's doing exactly that ! I don't know about you lot, but this is fun ..... :-)

( edit ) FWIW : having seen the Carnival Pride just go past while the web cam followed it I can confidently say the camera is situated at the FishLips Waterfront Bar & Grill. Which ought be no surprise as that restaurant is a co-sponsor of the camera ....

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

archae86
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There is some chatter,

There is some chatter, possibly some based on actual passed-along inside information, on the NSF site to the effect that the crunchy landing left the stage in a state which was not considered safe for prompt boarding of personnel. So it may currently not be as secured, safed, or tied-down as one would like.

There is much discussion on whether a regulatory notice regarding possible handling of a possibly explosive device at the port set to expire late June 3 is actually a provision for some activity on this launcher return, and thus whether we might be waiting as much as another couple of days.

By the way, the Webcam hosted from Fishlips has people associated with it who are super pushy about "stealing their intellectual property" so I'd not suggest posting captured screen shots from it. Although the primary mission of that web cam seems to be to let people look at their friends waving from passing cruise ships, the operator has provided some really good scenes of Falcon 9 port operations in the past, and may again.

archae86
archae86
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All three support ships have

All three support ships have been making determined speed toward Port Canaveral for a while now and are getting pretty close. The movement appears intended to bring the whole shebang into harbor soonish.

On some very crude hand-span matching, I guess the tug and thus the actual barge is about 15 miles from the harbor mouth. As the tug most recently reported just over 5 knots, and likely speed may decrease when near, "soonish" is probably over 3 hours for the stage. Go Searcher, on the other hand, is about half as far out and going almost twice as fast, so could get to the port before it is very dark.

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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I've got Elsbeth III and Go

I've got Elsbeth III and Go Quest some 15km out going into port at 2 - 3 knots, Carnival pride moving well away and Victory I just exiting the port. Go Searcher is docked at the eastern side of the Western Turning Basin within Port.

Well I guess if the landing was a bit too sporty there could be a risk. As for the PTZtv mob thanks for the heads up.

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

archae86
archae86
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Folks listening in on radio

Folks listening in on radio report hearing an exchange from which they concluded that entry of the barge with F9 to port has just been put off until tomorrow morning.

Also if you browse the pictures in this linked facebook page the case that the stage is sitting at a pretty nasty tilt seems clear. The photographer who took the pictures reports he saw three men at the business end of the rocket, and intermittent flashing, which he speculated might be welding, or possibly inspection lighting.

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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Yup. That's leaning

Yup. That's leaning alright.

.... some bowing of the right side leg strut ?

Cheers, Mike.

( edit ) Curly problem ie. how to remove the fuels. LOX is easy : just vent ( possibly already ). It's the kero which will be the question.

( edit ) This is Go Quest's movements for the last ~ 72 hours :

... which on the face of it implies they had a couple of runs at it.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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BTW : you might think the

BTW : you might think the photo indicates that the centre of gravity is well within the leg contact point, BUT we have no proper aspect information ( depth of field along line of sight* ) here to reassure. In any event the state of the leg is still crucial.

Cheers, Mike.

* ie. how much lean component there may be either toward or away from the camera.

( edit ) They are backtracking to the southeast again. Much of this could simply be polite & proper station keeping with respect to other traffic of course.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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Here's some offshore footage

Here's some offshore footage taken by the veterans. It's quoted as being only ten mile offshore and is apparently recent.

I've just worked out the aspect of this footage compared with the prior photos and they are almost from diametrically opposite viewpoints. As such there is a consistent lean towards the port-side stern of the barge. I nominate the stern end here as the one with the most superstructure ( OCISLY has a 'big' and 'little' end in that regard ) ie. the stern is at the right side of the photo but to the left side on the footage. By this analysis the point on the barge which the engines are sitting over is to the starboard and forward of the centre of target.

.... the point of all that is to determine which legs may be in trouble. I'd say ( upon this hasty BOTE ) these ones in the foreground :

... with any lean in that view ( or developed since ) going to the left with the projection onto the deck as indicated by the blue arrow. More or less. Perhaps etc. This is all very shoot from the hip. :-))

Cheers, Mike.

( edit ) I've also just noticed that they have rotated OCISLY to have the booster leaning into the not-inconsiderable wind ! :-)

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
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{ I've obviously having

{ I've obviously having plenty of time on my hands this week .... :-) }

This is a frame immediately post-landing, showing if my geometry/orientations are correct ( 'stern' nomination to the left side ) :

... one of the 'suspect' legs, as it were, indicated by the red arrow, with my estimate of the ( general ) lean in blue.

Cheers, Mike.

( edit ) Hmmmm .... which one to prefer ? A partial tank of oxidizer ( burns anything ) or a partial tank of RP-1 ??? :-))

( edit ) So we have the suspect leg here I think - or it's attachment to the booster etc. That side for sure.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

archae86
archae86
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Posts: 3157
Credit: 7229828195
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one of the commercial surf

one of the commercial surf camera sites has been focusing on the incoming F9 on barge for the last little bit.

I'm not clear on whether it is truly live or looping.

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