The Pod Bay

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uhoh

1:32 AM

@PearsonArtPhoto Congratulations!! Ben Pearson is an Ars (Technica contributor) ;-)

PearsonArtPhoto

1:58 AM

:-)

uhoh

2:49 AM

Q: If Starman (Roadster) had a "Starman Cam" could it see Mars?

Our own Ben Pearson's new article in Ars Technica Starman is out there, but we probably won’t see him again until 2047 points out: A much closer pass will happen at Mars on April 22, 2035. The distance this time will only be about 1.4 million miles (2.3 million km), and has a small chance of ...

9 hours later…

uhoh

11:20 AM

@PearsonArtPhoto I thought this question was pretty cool, but apparently 2 out of 46 people didn't. Does it bother you at all? I'm happy to delete it, but I thought it would be pretty interesting.

PearsonArtPhoto

11:49 AM

I kind of agree that it isn't really clear.

There are a few ways to take it, but the question either boils down to one of two things.

Could the Starman cameras see it? Or could a camera that could have been placed on Starman see Mars?

The answer to the second is absolutely yes. The first does have an answer, but that doesn't really sound right.

2 hours later…

geoffc

2:19 PM

Lunar landing today, hopefully followed by 3 core landings after a launch. Have we ever had 4 meaningful such landings in a single day before? (Record is 2 I suppose from first F-H launch).

PearsonArtPhoto

I thought maybe Vostok or Gemini did, but they were different days (Although close)

geoffc

But no where close to 4! Even at most, 2 for Gemini perhaps.

PearsonArtPhoto

Gemini was 2 days apart, Vostok was on consecutive days.

There probably has been a dual landing day besides Falcon Heavy...

But not likely more than 2.

2 hours later…

Muze

4:19 PM

What happen to this user? in this answer? space.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1214/18879

and how do i close a chatroom i made?

@uhoh

@PearsonArtPhoto

1 hour later…

Rory Alsop

5:31 PM

@Muze We are not at liberty to say - generally when accounts are removed, or deleted, SE and mods will not say, unless the user makes it public.

@Muze avoid talking in it. It will eventually get frozen. And then deleted

PearsonArtPhoto

6:07 PM

Truth be told, we probably don't even know.

Either they deleted their account, requested it be deleted, or it was deleted by a moderator.

geoffc

6:51 PM

And SpaceIL has their live stream ready. Here is hoping the landing works!

Started with Hebrew.

LIVE broadcast - Beresheet lands on the Moon Fasten your seatbelts, we are about to land.

►

Rory Alsop

7:10 PM

SpaceX will go live in 3 hours as well:

Arabsat-6A Mission

►

geoffc

It is mostly in Hebrew. I do not understand technical Hebrew, alas. (Of course so many are just English words said with an accent).

PearsonArtPhoto

There is a nice telemetry stream, however.

I think they are in the main landing burn.

geoffc

Like he just said, all is going well, then a bunch of technical words, then more I recognize. It is funny.

PearsonArtPhoto

I'm watching, not listening.

geoffc

I am trying to understand. Too many technical words I do not know.

They talked about not having redundcany is some sensor but I do not know the word he used for the sensors function.

21K up.

Yoreach they keep saying is of course "Moon"

Delek is not a word I recognize.

Haha. Fuel.

Had to look that one up.

PearsonArtPhoto

7:19 PM

What's the picture?

geoffc

Selfie with lunar surface in background?

PearsonArtPhoto

I guess, taken earlier.

geoffc

Is your Stream cutting out? Mine has errored 4 times now. Youtube issue.

The IMU2 is not ok, and then I missed it?

PearsonArtPhoto

One way or another it is going to land.

Hasn't cut out on me yet...

Red vertical speed...

And its growing...

geoffc

I heard them say do a reset.

Not good he said.

PearsonArtPhoto

7:23 PM

Altitude 149, vertical 134...

It crashed, I'm sure.

geoffc

By now.

PearsonArtPhoto

Well, that was something.

I'm listening now.

Yep, it crashed.

Still, better than the first US/ USSR attempts.

geoffc

Drat. Wonder if they will try again.

Landing is very hard. And doing it for $100 million is unheard of.

PearsonArtPhoto

Yeah, they almost had it too...

It was a REALLY bad time to have the computer crash...

Hope LRO takes a picture soon!

You don't have people singing at the end of NASA press conferences...

geoffc

7:43 PM

Haha.

So cool that we have an imaging orbiter handy to even try and take a picture.

3 hours later…

geoffc

10:19 PM

F-H webcast is starting.

Showing last F-H launch footage.

T-15

The found new shiiny happy people! GIVE ME INNSBRUKER or give me apathy!

My video is cutting out again... Anyone know a good tool for monitoring RF interference in the 2.4Ghz band?

INNSBRUKER is here! Phew.

Is it strange to be a fan of Insbruker? He is calm, collected, and consistent.

uhoh

@geoffc He's the Cronkite equivalent of SpaceX, the voice forever associated with the missions

geoffc

The Dragon hanging behind him is a great prop. :)

There is Merlin in the ceiling and I thought they were going to hang the last Falcon 1 in the ceiling there as well.

They will fish the fairings out of the water, Mr Steven was caught naked, without his arms earlier in the week, and not ready to try and catch a fairing.

uhoh

that would be fun!

geoffc

(I think they said the rough seas on last try they broke the arms)

10 seconds

Liftoff!

PearsonArtPhoto

10:35 PM

Liftoff!!!!

geoffc

5 million lbs thrust baby! Shuttle and Saturn V only things really bigger. (Energia with 2 launches, does not count).

Side booster attach points look different!

Good seperation!

uhoh

really beautiful!

geoffc

4 screens now. So much to keep track of on one of these flights.

MECO!

uhoh

don't often see this

geoffc

Fairing sep good!

PearsonArtPhoto

10:39 PM

I'm glad I have 2 monitors...

geoffc

Grid fins opening quite slowly.

PearsonArtPhoto

No side grid fines, interesting.

geoffc

You think only 2 fins not 4 per booster?

PearsonArtPhoto

I see on the right, but not the left. Oh well.

I'm sure it is 4...

geoffc

Cameras are a bit different.

PearsonArtPhoto

10:41 PM

Reentry burns:-)

geoffc

Entry burn.

PearsonArtPhoto

This time...

Last time it was the same video for both, other booster video didn't get included.

geoffc

That is true. They claim they had it, just switcher was wrong The released video after is supposed to have the proper pairing of 2 feeds.

Here comes landing....

PearsonArtPhoto

Go for twin launch!

And done!!!!

geoffc

That is my favorite thing to watch two boosters, side by side, perfect landings. No one else ever landed 1 orbital booster this way, they are doing 3, and 2 together.

PearsonArtPhoto

10:43 PM

Wow, Stage 1 has a long ways to go stilll...

geoffc

SECO

Lets see if they can hold the signal.

Nope.

PearsonArtPhoto

Looks on target to me.

It was getting brighter.

Center core landed!!!!

geoffc

Woo Hoo! 3 landings on one day!

But they missed the X. So does not count.

Missed the middle ring I mean. (Wish I knew darts well enough to make a quick joke about how they are scoring)

PearsonArtPhoto

So a 75% landing success for the day.

geoffc

Haha.

PearsonArtPhoto

10:46 PM

I guess that is a pass?

geoffc

75% is way better than everyone else in history. So ya, a pass.

And then they will refly 2/3 of that set in a few months.

Woo hoo!

PearsonArtPhoto

I'm sure they will do a complete refurbishment of the center core.

uhoh

they will still do one more burn for GTO?

Seth

I believe so

geoffc

But next F-H flight is swith a new center core. Theory seems to be they were not 100% sure a) They would land center core. b) Refurb would be easy/fast. So to keep schedule for next customer, they are using a new center core. But with 2 probably won't need more for a while.

I heard 7 more flights on the F-H manifest right now?

38 boosters landed so far. That is pretty dang fine.

71 flights (75 cores), landed 38 of them so far. One away from having recovered 50%! And it is only going to get better over time now.

PearsonArtPhoto

10:50 PM

Eh, no one cares about that last burn, except for the payload and Starman.

geoffc

Payload, whatever, comm satelllite, BORING. Hard to compete with 3 sexy landing boosters

PearsonArtPhoto

And the traffic spike on whereisroadster.com...

geoffc

Woo Hoo for you!

PearsonArtPhoto

About 10x more traffic than normal:-)

geoffc

You have any F-H content about this flight?

PearsonArtPhoto

10:53 PM

Nope. Probably should have, but...

I haven't really updated it in a while. There are a few things I need to put on there soon...

geoffc

Who cares, kickass launch and landing to enjoy.

PearsonArtPhoto

What else matters?

geoffc

And CRS-17 apr 26! (Ccygnus the following week two, so we might get a pic of Cygnus and Dragon at the ISS together!!! Woo Hoo!)

PearsonArtPhoto

Would be interesting.

geoffc

Likely 6 vehicles at ISS, 2 Progress, 2 Soyuz, Dragon, and Cygnus. Not a record, since Shuttle and HTV where there together and I assume 2 Soyuz/2 Progress at the same time, since the Russian sie is usually full house.

Oops it was ATV, 2 Soyuz, 1 Progress, HTV and Shuttle in 2011 (I love this graphic)

Doubt we will exceed 6 any time soon. Since once Commercial Crew starts launching will only be one Soyuz on station with Dragon/CST-100. Not sure they will leave 3 progress;s docked. Wonder...

PearsonArtPhoto

11:09 PM

I could see one Soyuz, Starliner, Crew Dragon, Progress, and one of the US Commercial Crew. And maybe even one more to boot.

PearsonArtPhoto

11:23 PM

Or two Soyuzes being there at the same time.

geoffc

11:51 PM

The Russians actually prefer to 'cover' the ports on their end with vehicles as opposed to leaving them open. No covers on the docking ports, per se. So likely still be 4 vehicles on the Russian side. So maybe 4 Russian, and then 1 Crew, 1 Cargo. And on odd times, 2 cargo.

Though they will likley start selling more Soyuz seats for cash once CC starts flying US passengers.

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