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SpaceX’s nose cone catching ship named Mr. Steven sailed
into Port Canaveral, FL, on Feb. 11, 2019. The ship will use a giant net to
catch falling payload fairings with a giant catchers mitt before they are
damaged by splashdown in the ocean. Two fairings sit on deck in this photo. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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Ken Kremer - - SpaceUpclose.com & RocketSTEM - - 11 February 2019
PORT CANAVERAL, FL - SpaceX’s unique ship whimsically named ‘Mr. Steven’ and designed to catch falling nose cones from rocket launches sailed into Port Canaveral around 4 a.m. EST this morning, Monday Feb. 11 after a two week voyage from the Port of Los Angeles.
When fully operational Mr. Steven will be outfitted with 4 massive arms and what looks like a giant fishing net which functions as a huge ‘catchers mitt’ to catch used payload fairing halves descending by parachute in mid-air after rocket launches - but before they hit the ocean and suffer corrosion by salts and structural damage by impact.
Mr Steven is a marine vessel that will try and catch the fairings with the giant net as they fall from the sky beneath a parachute before smashing into the sea waters.
SpaceX has tried this netting attempt scenario several times already on the West Coast after Falcon 9 launches from Vandenberg AFB, California but not yet succeeded. Although the ship has come close a few times and almost succeeded on the last attempt in January.
Enjoy our gallery of Space UpClose images taken in Port Canaveral.
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Workers crane a payload fairing half off the deck of SpaceX’s
newly arrived nose cone catching ship named Mr. Steven after it sailed into
Port Canaveral, FL, on Feb. 11, 2019. The ship will use a giant net to catch
falling payload fairings with a giant catchers mitt before they are damaged by splashdown
in the ocean. Two fairings on deck in this photo. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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SpaceX’s nose cone catching ship named Mr. Steven sailed
into Port Canaveral, FL, on Feb. 11, 2019. The ship will use a giant net to
catch falling payload fairings with a giant catchers mitt before they are
damaged by splashdown in the ocean. Credit: Ken
Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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SpaceX hopes to change that past paradigm with Mr. Steven.
SpaceX CEO and billionaire founder Elon Musk says the ultimate goal is to recover and recycle the nose cone fairings for another launch and thereby help slash the high cost of access to space.
Watch the video in this SpaceX tweet showing a practice fairing recovery test on the West Coast:
Musk says the payload fairings cost about $6 million out of an overall cost of about $60 million for a new Falcon 9 rocket. That’s contributing roughly 10% and thus counts as a significant share of the overall cost.
SpaceX has already succeeded in soft landing and recovering
more than 30 Falcon 9 first stages by land and by sea and successfully demonstrated
rocket recycling with them for new paying customers including NASA.
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| Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com |
And even if the 250 foot long (62
m long) Mr. Steven misses the ‘catch’ all may not be lost.
The parachute already enables a gentle soft landing of the nose cones in the sea
waters.
After snatching the fairing halves from the ocean, Musk says if may be possible to rinse and reuse them.
“Falcon fairing halves missed the net, but touched down softly in the water. Mr Steven is picking them up. Plan is to dry them out & launch again. Nothing wrong with a little swim,” Musk tweeted after a West Coast launch and fairing recovery on Dec. 3, 2018.
The approximately 5500 mile (8800 km) voyage from the West Coast Port of Los Angeles to the East Coast Port took about 13 days and passed through the Panama Canal.
Mr Steven was transporting two fairing halves on its deck during the long voyage which were easily visible upon its arrival. They were craned off by early Monday afternoon.
See our photos showing the craning operation.
After snatching the fairing halves from the ocean, Musk says if may be possible to rinse and reuse them.
“Falcon fairing halves missed the net, but touched down softly in the water. Mr Steven is picking them up. Plan is to dry them out & launch again. Nothing wrong with a little swim,” Musk tweeted after a West Coast launch and fairing recovery on Dec. 3, 2018.
The approximately 5500 mile (8800 km) voyage from the West Coast Port of Los Angeles to the East Coast Port took about 13 days and passed through the Panama Canal.
Mr Steven was transporting two fairing halves on its deck during the long voyage which were easily visible upon its arrival. They were craned off by early Monday afternoon.
See our photos showing the craning operation.
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Workers crane a payload fairing half off the deck of SpaceX’s
newly arrived nose cone catching ship named Mr. Steven after it sailed into
Port Canaveral, FL, on Feb. 11, 2019. The ship will use a giant net to catch
falling payload fairings with a giant catchers mitt before they are damaged by splashdown
in the ocean. Two fairings on deck in this photo. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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If all that assembly work can be completed in time then perhaps Mr. Steven will be dispatched on its first east Cost mission later this month.
The next SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch is currently slated for Feb. 21 carrying the Nusantara Satu communications satellite for Indonesia.
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SpaceX’s nose cone catching ship named Mr. Steven sailed
into Port Canaveral, FL, on Feb. 11, 2019, will be used to catch falling
payload fairings with a giant catchers mitt. Before they splashdown in the
ocean. It berthed beside the OSICLY drone ship used to soft land spent Falcon 9
rockets. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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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 on TV and radio about space topics.
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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
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