SpaceX Successfully Lands F9 First Stage of JCSAT-14 Launch on ASDS OCISLY

For the third time, SpaceX has successfully landed the first stage of their Falcon 9 booster during a launch. The first successful attempt was a landing at Cape Canaveral Landing Zone 1. The second success was last month's CRS-8 Dragon launch to ISS which ended with precision landing on the ASDS drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" (OCISLY). Tonight (or this morning, if you prefer), they repeated their feat by landing a Falcon 9 on OCISLY once again. This time, however, the margin for success was much smaller. JCSAT-14 was destined for geostationary orbit, which requires more velocity, more energy at re-entry, and means the first stage has less fuel left to land with.

To pull it off, the Falcon 9 had to perform a 3-engine landing for a much faster final deceleration and touchdown. A faster deceleration means a more fuel-efficient landing since the rocket spends less time fighting against gravity, but of course it's also much more difficult. This is a "suicide burn" style landing where the engines start burning at basically the last possible moment. There's no hovering possible here; the velocity must reach zero when the altitude reaches zero, and of course it must do so on a relatively small platform out in the middle of the ocean. The drone ship and the rocket are actually both autonomously steering themselves to a common waypoint, so it's not just a passive barge that the rocket is landing on.

It's an amazing accomplishment for SpaceX. They now have three used rockets, the first of which will be a museum piece parked outside SpaceX headquarters, the other two will be studied and (hopefully) re-flown in the near future.

Here's a video of the previous landing as seen from the deck of OCISLY.

Thank you for posting; I was wondering if they would be successful... amazing !

a reply to: ngchunter



They are REALLY nailing these insane landings.

The men and women of Space X should be proud as punch with this achievement, since coming down to a specific point, from a two kilometres per second drop, without anything exploding or going haywire is as impressive a feat as one could imagine.

Smashing work on the part of everyone involved!

i wish i was smart enough to understand any of this

a reply to: IShotMyLastMuse

If you have any questions, I am sure there will be a member along who can answer them. I am, of course, at your service in whatever small regard I might be able to assist.

a reply to: ngchunter
You posted an hour-long video, could you please specify at what time mark does the landing itself occur?

Thank you.

a reply to: wildespace

The video has a progress bar at the bottom, showing the time line, with various events marked along it. The landing is just one of the events you can scan through to, using the progress bar as a guide.

a reply to: ngchunter

... perhaps fake 2.0?
here is fake 1.0

a reply to: ZakOlongapo

Care to explain this footage you have here, and where it came from exactly?

It's all a bit context free if you ask me.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: ngchunter



They are REALLY nailing these insane landings.

The men and women of Space X should be proud as punch with this achievement, since coming down to a specific point, from a two kilometres per second drop, without anything exploding or going haywire is as impressive a feat as one could imagine.

Smashing work on the part of everyone involved!

Ditto. I was concerned as to the integrity of the metal after the first successful landing, but it appears they got it all figured out - spot on!

originally posted by: ZakOlongapo
a reply to: ngchunter

... perhaps fake 2.0?
here is fake 1.0

Congrats, you just displayed a level of ignorance that can barely be fathomed. I suggest you study how orbits are achieved. You don't just "flight straight up" to geostationary orbit. You leverage the rotation of the earth in your favor by pitching over and flying horizontal until low earth orbit is achieved (causing your apparent altitude over the horizon to decrease as you get farther away from an observer near the launch site), THEN you burn again in a prograde direction with the second stage to reach geostationary transfer orbit.

Watch, and learn:

SpaceX has released these videos showing multiple camera angles of the landing filmed on board OCISLY:


You can watch a live webcam of SpaceX unloading the Falcon 9 and getting it ready for transport here:
portcanaveralwebcam.com...

a reply to: ngchunter

PTZtv has stopped providing footage of the Falcon 9 and will no longer being doing "rocket watch" at the above webcam. This stems from a dispute they had with a few of the viewers who were attempting to circumvent their ads. In response to demand for an ad-free service, they started offering a premium ad free service for a fee. Someone continued to circumvent their ads, so in response they have decided to throw the baby out with the bath water and will no longer point their cameras at the rocket. The SpaceX reddit group is now looking at crowd funding their own camera in response.

Some drone footage of the booster after unloading from the drone ship.