I was shocked when I saw that SpaceX was listed as set to launch from Cape Canaveral this morning. I've been watching the reliable news sources to see if they've been given a reprieve by the FAA, which clamped down on the company after they announced they were voluntarily grounding the Falcon 9 while they troubleshot the problem encountered on the Crew-9 mission a week ago. I haven't seen any articles about what they've found or saying the FAA has completely cleared them to launch, though. Nevertheless, they launched this morning at 10:52 EDT from SLC-40 and the mission seemed as routine and successful as any we've ever observed. With the local weather preventing seeing anything, we watched the launch on NASASpaceflight.
Screen capture from the SpaceX video, with some stretching of levels since the original was darkened by the camera's auto exposure.
Hera is an interesting mission, described using words I've never seen in a serious sentence before: it's a planetary defense mission. From SpaceX:
Hera is a planetary defense mission that will study the impact NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission spacecraft had on the Dimorphos asteroid, which Falcon 9 launched in November 2021. Hera will provide valuable data for future asteroid deflection missions and science to help humanity’s understanding of asteroid geophysics as well as solar system formation and evolutionary processes.
An interesting side note to this mission was that it flew booster B1061 on its
23rd mission. The required orbital performance of the mission consumed the
fuel that would ordinarily be used to land, so B1061 was disposed of. More like, well, everybody else's launch vehicles, not a Falcon 9.
"Farewell, 1061, and we thank you," SpaceX's John Insprucker, principal integration engineer, said to the booster after stage separation.
As has been talked about before, SpaceX developed the booster recovery and
refurbishment technologies on their own Starlink missions, and very experienced
boosters like 1061 don't tend to get used on "paying customer's" flights -
especially since 23 flights is currently what the fleet leaders have flown.
This seems to indicate a growing confidence in and acceptance of these
refurbished boosters among customers.
The $398 million (363 million Euro) Hera spacecraft, accompanied by two smaller cubesats called named Milani and Juventas, is scheduled to arrive at Dimorphos in late 2026 to look at DART's work up close. On the way, Hera will swing by Mars in 2025 to nab a gravity assist for its asteroid trip.
The NASA mission shortened Dimorphos' orbit by 33 minutes and may have changed the shape of the little moon as well.
Hera will look at the depth and size of the crater that DART gouged out on Dimorphos and confirm the impact's changes on the moon, if any, against early simulations.
The two cubesats, meanwhile, will examine the structure of Dimorphos along with its surface minerals and gravity, all of which will help to refine models.
An artist's impression of Hera, and two cubesats, named Jethro and Bodine, - no... just checking if you were really reading - named Juventas and Milani, which will assist Hera in its study of Didymos and Dimorphos. (Image credit: ESA/Science Office)
Space.com noted that SpaceX launched after receiving authorization from the
FAA, "to resume flights after an anomaly last week." They didn't mention if
this was a one-time approval, perhaps because of it being a European Space
Agency mission, or if they're going to resume regular operations.
Checking NextSpaceflight, it appears they're resuming regular operations.
The Falcon Heavy launch of NASA's Europa Clipper had been scheduled for
Thursday, October 10th. That's pretty much the worst day of Hurricane Milton
over here on the Space Coast. The five day forecast plots have moved the point
projected to be where the storm goes back offshore farther north, but it appears to be over
Playalinda Beach just north of the KSC. The vehicle and payload will
have to be rolled back to their integration facility for safety. The
currently listed date and time is Saturday, October 12th at 12:19 PM EDT.
The real surprise is they list the Starship 5 Flight Test as this coming
Sunday, Oct 13, at 8:00 AM EDT
Was this successful, as in "we blew an SRB nozzle off at T+30 sec into our certification flight, but were still successful" or was it successful as in "we got this, just like the other 90 times this year?"
ReplyDeleteIt is inspiring to see a company (Spacex) performing with excellence, finding and fixing issues promptly, and innovating in every aspect of their business. Go Starship!
I'd be curious if there was no announcement because FAA found they couldn't sustain the shutdown after investigation so they slunk away from it?
ReplyDeleteOr maybe their regs allow for a (relatively) short shutdown with little to no justification so that is all they did.
I'm sure it didn't hurt that the ESA was involved...
Either way, glad to see them moving again.
Jonathan
Watched the entire flight, beautiful right down the center. Last SECO just seconds shy of attaining 35,000 kph, pretty impressive deltaV due to using all the fuel booster 1009 had. I guess if your gonna waste a booster thats certainly the way to do it. Though they mentioned the fairing halves where due to be recovered as they use cold gas thrusters, they must not encounter damaging re-entry atmospheric friction heating, like a potato chip verses a falling anvil.
ReplyDelete"like a potato chip verses a falling anvil." - Good analogy!
DeleteSometimes when I watch a SpaceX mission my thought is, "it's nice to watch a group that knows what they're doing." Musk has said something like he'll know he's been successful when launches become boring. I do fast forward through the videos at times, especially to see the landings.
Pretty exciting! Yup, right you are SGB, posted as 8am Sunday, anyone want to place bets they are planning on something spectacular, a real mind bender, aside from the monumental effort to catch the booster that is?
ReplyDeleteBecause my money is on Elon and his SpaceX crew, and they ain't gonna take this FAA/legacy aerospace filthy lucre wealth transfer/laundering, stupidity lying down. The money they have consumed is just crazy. When I remember the compact viable superb entity NACA was.
People are still using NACA data and engineering because of how classic tight nit no BS and down to earth, git er done those folks where. Right now I am on my fourth iteration of a ram air intake system for my road race bike, using a NACA duct, stuck out front of the nose of the fairing in clean air, on an extended tapered pod, using the NACA principles of accelerating the rammed air the duct picks up. Its still totally valid engineering. I've also placed the radiator tucked up under the tail/seat fairing, that too uses a slim but vertically wide NACA duct just forward of the engine, flat to the frame, so don't require a cooling fan, plus all the drag of a flat front facing radiator, which on a motorcycle its claimed to create 70% of the drag at 100mph and up. That NACA duct produces so much air flow had to tape off portions of the heat exchanger fins to get the engine coolant temps up to 185deg F. I was able to eliminate steam pickets in the cylinder heads, due to using a V8 NASCAR aluminum radiator sectioned and welded the expansion tanks at 10 inches wide, kept the vertical dimension, and with the radiator cap set at the highest point on the bike, a small bypass circuit from both cylinder heads, it naturally "burps", and it enabled the use of food safe ethylene glycol, which has a near 245degF boiling point, its also "wetter", than straight water so its a better heat transfer liquid.
I am by no means formally educated in any of this stuff, just simply read study the engineering drawings, and try to utilize what those immaculate engineers at NACA created in practical ways. Funny thing after NASA came along, with the end of Apollo, the engineering just is not out in the public domain like NACA handbooks material is, I know they did amazing things with Space Shuttle, I even entered into the weld repair contest for the hydrogen ducts feeding the engine turbos, and the NASA experience had the unmistakable smell of politics in every aspect, just the differences between NACA and NASA us like different solar systems apart.
Ho hum, another flawless - or very nearly so - Falcon 9 launch.......... which is a VERY big deal even though it "looks easy". Right?
ReplyDeleteWhen you have your feces consolidated to the point where your normal operations make the complex and difficult task look simple and easy, you ARE a professional organization. Get the hell outta their way and let them do their job. And don't try to do things "on the cheap" because of what they do and how they do it (I'm looking at YOU, FAA...). Sure, do things according to regulations, but don't OVER regulate, you wankers.
Carry on, SpaceX. Help us get to the stars.
Did they clear FAA, or did Elon just say, "F it, they're optional"?
ReplyDelete