Space UpClose: Legless SpaceX Falcon 9 Lowered Horizontal in Record Turnaround Time and Shipped Back to Cape in ‘Dance’ with Payload Fairings

Recovered SpaceX Starlink Falcon 9 1st stage is tilted and lowered horizontally by two cranes and crews working together around 5 PM EDT May 29, 2019 one day after arriving vertical atop OCISLY droneship into Port Canaveral, FL on May 28. Note: 9 Merlin 1D engines fully exposed. From May 23 SpaceX Starlink 1 launch. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

Ken Kremer -- SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM – 1 June 2019

PORT CANAVERAL/CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL – Barely a day days after the 4 legged, recovered Falcon 9 first stage from the SpaceX Starlink 1 launch arrived back into Port Canaveral at lunchtime Tuesday, May 28, the 15 story first stage was tilted and lowered horizontal late Wednesday afternoon May 29 – after all the landing legs had been detached by ground crews and in what amounts to record turnaround time.

Then a day later the sooty booster was shipped back to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the multi-wheeled transporter at lunchtime Thursday, May 30 – simultaneously to the two payload fairings by moved to a warehouse at the Port and in what amounted to another beautifully choreographed space first with first stage and fairings on the move in a horizontal ‘dance’ slithering in between hundreds of containers along the way.

Recovered lowered SpaceX Starlink Falcon 9 1st stage and recovered payload fairings are simultaneously transported horizontally in between hundreds of shipping containers at Port Canaveral berthing port in choreographed ‘dance’ moves on May 30. 1^st stage moved back to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for refurbishment. From May 23 SpaceX Starlink 1 launch. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

In fact it took only 49 hours overall from the time SpaceX’s thrice flown and thrice landed Falcon 9 first stage from last weeks Starlink 1 launch was towed back into the mouth of Port Canaveral at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday May 29 grappled vertically upright atop the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship - until the horizontally booster restrained by two ring clamps trekked back to the Cape on the long white transporter.

All this virtually non-stop action came only 4 days after it soared aloft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and successfully delivered the first 60 Starlink broadband satellites to LEO on May 23.

Enjoy our Space UpClose photo gallery of the tilting, lowering, decapping and transport of the 1^st stage Falcon 9 booster 1049.3 back to the Cape and off their respective recovery ships at their normal berthing port.

Check back as our gallery grows.

Furthermore be sure to check out our earlier Space UpClose articles and galleries of the launch as well as the arrivals of the payloads fairings and the arrival and docking of Falcon 9 booster, and cranings of the fairings and booster off their respective recovery ships.

The SpaceX work crew uses a pair of cranes with cables attached to the top and bottom of the booster to lower it gracefully horizontally.

First it’s raised off the pedestal where the legs are detached and moved to the spot where its slanted over.

Lowering the 156-foot-tall 1^st stage started at 5 p.m. EDT May 29 and proceeds rapidly. Its all over in about 10 minutes.

Liftoff of the Starlink 1 mission took place at 10:30 p.m. EDT Thursday, May 23 (0230 GMT Friday) from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL.

Eight minutes later the Falcon 9 first stage successfully made a precision rocket assisted intact and upright touchdown on the ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ droneship prepositioned in the Atlantic Coast off the Carolinas.

Falcon 9’s first stage for this mission previously supported the Telstar 18 VANTAGE mission in September 2018 and the Iridium-8 mission in January 2019.

This Falcon 9 1^st stage and the payload fairings will be checked by SpaceX engineers and refurbished for eventual likely reuse if they pass SpaceX rigorous inspection regime.

“The goal of the Starlink system is to provide high bandwidth, low latency connectivity, ideally throughout the world that will offer an alternative to expensive services and also provide internet options to places where no connectivity is currently available,” said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in a prelaunch media telecon.

Watch my SpaceX launch commentary and rocket photos at this Fox 35 Orlando report from May 16 launch attempt:

http://www.fox35orlando.com/home/spacex-trying-again-for-launch-of-falcon-9-rocket

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.

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.

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Ken’s photos are for sale and he is available for lectures and outreach events

Sunday, June 2, 2019

Legless SpaceX Falcon 9 Lowered Horizontal in Record Turnaround Time and Shipped Back to Cape in ‘Dance’ with Payload Fairings

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