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Giant
trampoline like ‘fishnet’ attached to four massive arms onto SpaceX’s nose cone
catching ship named Mr. Steven docked in Port Canaveral, FL as crew practices
scooping up a payload fairing half with the secondary net Feb 19, 2019. The giant net will try to catch falling
payload fairings with a giant catchers mitt mid-air before they are damaged by splashdown
in the ocean. Mr Steven arrived in port on Feb. 11, 2019 after sailing from the
US West Coast. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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Ken
Kremer -- SpaceUpClose.com &
RocketSTEM -- 21 February 2019
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – The SpaceX naval fleet including Mr. Steven and the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship (OCISLY) have set sail to sea in hopes of snatching falling payload fairings and the spent Falcon 9 first stage booster in anticipation of tonight’s first rocket launch of 2019 from the Florida Space Coast.
Earlier this week the crew on Mr. Steven practiced scooping payload fairing halves using the ships secondary net. See our Space UpClose photos of the practice scooping session in Port Canaveral channel to see how the recovery operation is carried out.
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – The SpaceX naval fleet including Mr. Steven and the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship (OCISLY) have set sail to sea in hopes of snatching falling payload fairings and the spent Falcon 9 first stage booster in anticipation of tonight’s first rocket launch of 2019 from the Florida Space Coast.
Earlier this week the crew on Mr. Steven practiced scooping payload fairing halves using the ships secondary net. See our Space UpClose photos of the practice scooping session in Port Canaveral channel to see how the recovery operation is carried out.
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Giant
trampoline like ‘fishnet’ attached to four massive arms onto SpaceX’s nose cone
catching ship named Mr. Steven docked in Port Canaveral, FL as crew practices
scooping up a payload fairing half with the secondary net Feb 19, 2019. The giant net will try to catch falling
payload fairings with a giant catchers mitt mid-air before they are damaged by splashdown
in the ocean. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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Liftoff
of the first SpaceX Falcon 9 of 2019 carrying the Nusantara Satu
communications satellite for Indonesia and the privately funded Beresheet moon launder
for Israel is slated
for Thursday evening Feb. 21 at 8:45 p.m. EST (0145 GMT
Friday), from
Space
Launch Complex-40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL.
Latest reports however indicate rough seas that may force cancellation
of at least the payload fairing recovery attempt. Time will tell.
SpaceX has had great success in soft landing and recycling over
30 spent Falcon 9 first stages with the goal of drastically slashing launch
costs.
The upstart firm is now trying to recover and recycle the
nise cone fairings as well which cost about $6 million according to SpaceX billionaire
CEO and founder Elon Musk.
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Giant
trampoline like ‘fishnet’ attached to four massive arms onto SpaceX’s nose cone
catching ship named Mr. Steven docked in Port Canaveral, FL as crew practices
scooping up a payload fairing half with the secondary net Feb 19, 2019. The giant net will try to catch falling
payload fairings with a giant catchers mitt mid-air before they are damaged by splashdown
in the ocean. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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At this moment the Falcon 9 rocket has been raised at pad
40 and SpaceX is targeting launch tonight as planned.
You can watch the launch on a SpaceX dedicated
webcast that starts about 15 minutes prior to the opening of the nominal
launch window:
Currently the weather outlook for Thursday
evening is rather favorable - currently forecast as 80% GO !!
Nusantara Satu will be delivered to geostationary orbit. It
carries the other two satellites attached as rideshare payloads.
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The Nusantara Satu
spacecraft for Indonesia is equipped with two rideshare payloads, the Beresheet
lunar lander from Israel and the U.S.
Air Force S5 experimental satellite as it is readied for encapsulation inside
the SpaceX Falcon 9 payload fairing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL. Launch
is slated for Feb. 21, 2019 from Space Launch Complex-40. Credit: SSL
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Also noteworthy is that this mission will launch
on a ‘flight-proven’ Falcon 9 booster. In fact this flight will mark the first
thrice flown Falcon 9 booster launched from the US East Coast.
This booster previously launched the Iridium-7 mission in
July 2018 and the SAOCOM 1A mission in October 2018.
The next launch follows quickly on NET March
2 involving the super critical inaugural test flight of the uncrewed SpaceX Crew
Dragon on the Demo-1 mission to the International Space Station for NASA.
The Demo-1 flight is the precursor flight to
missions with astronauts aboard starting on the Demo-2 Crew Dragon later in the
summer- thus restoring America’s capability to launch Americans to space from American
soil and end out sole reliance on the Russian Soyuz capsule since the shutdown
of the shuttles.
For more all on this
Fox 35 Orlando interviewed me about the Nusantara Satu launch and Mr. Steven’s arrival and fairing recovery
goals.
http://www.fox35orlando.com/news/local-news/spacex-boat-hopes-to-revolutionize-how-we-launch-and-recycle-rockets
Watch for Ken’s
continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin,
Northrop Grumman and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy
Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Wallops Flight
Facility, Virginia.
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Dr. Ken Kremer/Space Up Close interviewed on
Fox 35 Orlando about the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of Nusantara Satu/Beresheet mission
and attempt to catch the nose cone with Mr. Steven maritime vessel.
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Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and
Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer
– email: ken at kenkremer.com
Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the KSC
area, active in outreach and interviewed regularly on TV and radio about space
topics.
………….
Ken’s photos are for sale and he is available for lectures and outreach events
Ken’s photos are for sale and he is available for lectures and outreach events
Learn more about the upcoming/recent SpaceX Falcon 9 Nusantara Satu launch, USAF GPS 3-01, SpaceX Falcon 9/CRS-16 launch
to ISS, NASA missions, ULA Atlas &
Delta launches, SpySats and more at Ken’s upcoming outreach events at Quality Inn Kennedy Space Center,
Titusville, FL, evenings:
Feb
22: “SpaceX Falcon 9 Nusantara Satu launch, Dragon CRS-16 resupply launch to ISS, SpaceX
Falcon GPS 3-01, SpaceX Falcon Heavy & Falcon 9 launches, upcoming SpaceX
Falcon 9 USAF GP3 3-01, NRO & USAF Spysats, SLS, Orion, Boeing and SpaceX
Commercial crew capsules, OSIRIS-Rex, Juno at Jupiter, InSight Mars lander,
Curiosity and Opportunity explore Mars, NH at Pluto, Kuiper Belt and more,”
Kennedy Space Center Quality Inn, Titusville, FL, evenings. Photos for sale
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