Launch News SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 with 6 Orbcomm generation 2 satellites, July 14, 2014

[BrianJ]

Landing was successful, although it blew up right after splashdown.

Ah. Probably quite wise to underplay the publicity angle, then.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

I'm not sure what the cause of the explosion is, but a plausible candidate would be jamming a red-hot rocket nozzle into sea water, I would think. Not necessarily a failure of design.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

More likely, jamming a red-hot rocket engine into a fuel tank.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Enjoy! :tiphat:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhMtTiAm-c8"][OG-2] Stationary Camera Closeup View Of Falcon 9 Launch And Orbcomm OG-2[/ame]

 

[RGClark]

Good launch. Now the whining begins - how did the 1st stage do on flyback? I saw the maneuvering thrusters fire at stage separation.

Congrats to SpaceX on successful launch.

Bob Clark

 

[Kyle]

Elon Musk
‏@elonmusk
Looks like body slam, maybe from a self-generated wave

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Video Elon! Send us video! Tweets aren't cutting it!

 

[RGClark]

Landing was successful, although it blew up right after splashdown.

"The surgery was successful but the patient died."

Bob Clark

 

[Unstung]

What is considered successful for a F9 first stage ocean landing as of now? Obviously the ultimate goal is not to have rockets explode upon impact.

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

WOW! SpaceX declared a success with soft landing the Falcon 9 first stage on the sea surface! :10sign: :11sign:

Following last week's successful launch of six ORBCOMM satellites, the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage reentered Earth’s atmosphere and soft landed in the Atlantic Ocean. This test confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able consistently to reenter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near zero velocity.

After landing, the vehicle tipped sideways as planned to its final water safing state in a nearly horizontal position. The water impact caused loss of hull integrity, but we received all the necessary data to achieve a successful landing on a future flight. Going forward, we are taking steps to minimize the build up of ice and spots on the camera housing in order to gather improved video on future launches.

At this point, we are highly confident of being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or back at the launch site and refly the rocket with no required refurbishment. However, our next couple launches are for very high velocity geostationary satellite missions, which don’t allow enough residual propellant for landing. In the longer term, missions like that will fly on Falcon Heavy, but until then Falcon 9 will need to fly in expendable mode.

We will attempt our next water landing on flight 13 of Falcon 9, but with a low probability of success. Flights 14 and 15 will attempt to land on a solid surface with an improved probability of success.

Sounds like SpaceX are in full steam ahead of making the first stage back! (F9 flight 13 will launch the next Dragon - SpaceX CRS-4 - to the ISS in September; flights 14/15 are probably the Dragon after that and the 2nd Orbcomm generation 2 deployment flight, both in the fourth quarter of 2014) :hotcool:

 

[RGClark]

If the schedule holds up, and we know there are always delays, the first solid surface landing, on an off-shore barge or on actual land, will take place towards the end of this year. Imagine the effect on the industry when that stage lands intact on a solid surface. Imagine the even greater effect when that same stage is relaunched successfully for another flight!

Bob Clark

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Video of the falling first stage and landing burn as seen from one of Mr. Musk's own chaser plane! :blink:

 

[Mader Levap]

Now original video, not unclear video of video:

In hindsight, some certain comments here and there are... pretty funny now...