Falcon Heavy 2 boosters landing 02/06/08 in HD

I wish I was there to hear the booms in person. Last time I've ever heard sonic booms over the cape was nearly a decade ago when the shuttle flew.

Watching both those boosters land in unison was surreal. The entire launch and landing felt like science fiction and I'm glad I had the opportunity to see something incredible like that in my lifetime.

 

The center booster was even more spectacular, mainly because it missed the barge so the result was a very large splash. If they could have pulled off all three, it would have been really amazing, instead on just plain amazing. The two outside boosters dropped off earlier at a lower Mach number and closer to lift-off location. The center booster went higher, faster, and further downrange, so could not make it back to recover on land.

 

Heard the center booster just didn't have enough fuel to stick the landing... miscalculation.

 

Good to see, and impressive landing. Maybe this will get people more interested in the space program again.

 

Probably good the center booster mostly missed the barge (did damage 2 thrusters and fragged the barge). She was doing 300 knots when she hit the water. Would likely have sunk the barge with a direct hit.

DARPA's and Boeing's Experimental Spaceplane (XSP) program is progressing nicely towards 2020 demo flights. Fully reusable booster with ~Mach 10 capability using an expendable upper stage.

 

So center booster burned too long?? That why the space car ended up in the wrong orbit??

SV

 

I wonder if they had any control over it a ditched it once they knew the couldn’t recover it?
The drone barge camera picked something up then cut out so it was very close!

Awesome launch though......

 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the center booster is completely separate from that third burn (utilizing re-fire of the second stage) while in earth's orbit. The center booster provided lift to help (but not entirely) get into orbit and then detached and landed back in the Atlantic near the barge.

I think there were two separate miscalculations/mishaps that happened. The first being not enough of the center booster engines reignited to land (only 1 of 3 engines necessary came back on). Therefore it could not slow down appropriately. The second mishap was the third burn (of the second stage) while in earth's orbit was for too long and sent it off its mars orbit. Hopefully that doesn't happen when we try to send people to Mars...

First stage: 3 boosters (27 engines). Two side boosters successfully returned to the Cape. The center failed to land on the barge off coast.
Second stage (1 engine): Gets the into orbit. Successful.
Second stage+: Re-ignition of that second stage single engine to get into deep space. Overshot mars orbit.

http://www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy

 

The center booster had more fuel than the two outer boosters and burned longer to a higher Mach number. We see the same thing on Falcon 9 recoveries. Those boosters going into low energy orbits (and/or with smaller payloads) are able to return to launch site (RTLS). The ones involved in higher energy orbits are too far away at MECO to RTLS and recover to a barge further out in the ocean. They screwed up the calculation of propellant required on the center stage or burned too long, so she was effectively in free fall during the last part of the recovery.

 

I’ve read two different explanations for the center booster failure. Not enough propellant and not enough engines restarted... very different explanations. Which is it??

SV


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Fabulous!

 

Haven't seen anything that characterized it as a mishap. I had heard an explanation that the burn just used all the available fuel which was greater than necessary to get to a Mars orbit, so they exceeded their planned objective.

 

yes. apparently they also needed to show the ability to push beyond just an orbital velocity. so it was plan b, but on purpose.

 

Great video. Those two boosters landing is something worthy of the overused word awesome.

 

Elon said they miscalculated fuel required on the center booster. Easy to do. At least they did not screw up the conversion from km to nm like one company did.