And here’s video. Damn, it just never gets old watching a stage 1 touch down safely on a ship rocking away in the ocean.
Good stuff starts at around 20:00
That is so amazing :)
Yeah thanks for this!
More info on that asteroid mission.
It looks like today’s SpaceX launch (CRS-16) was their first booster landing failure in a while. The video feed from the booster showed a bit of loss of control, axial rotation and a grid fin forced hard over, and according to the commentary, the booster ‘made a water landing’.
The rest of the mission went as planned, though.
I am annoyed their feed cut off when things started going wrong and just said uh ‘water landing’ but everything is nominal! Which for the primary mission was absolutely true, but annoying. The landings are by far the best part and missing a crash? God damn it!
Rocket spotters have your back:
Link, since the embed seems broken for me: https://clips.twitch.tv/embed?clip=CleverSpineyEggPrimeMe
Musk Twitter says the problem was a stalled grid fin hydraulic pump, which caused the uncontrolled roll you see in the clip. All told, they did pretty well given the issue. It was a soft landing in the water, and it’s still sending telemetry.
Oh man thanks! That was perfect. What a heroic effort on the rocket’s part. I figured once things started spinning out of control it would be a more spectacular crash but it looks like it almost pulled it off.
And now we have the video from the booster all the way down to the water: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1070399755526656000
Nice, I like how it pulled off a Wile E. Coyote moment there before realizing you can’t actually land a rocket on the ocean’s surface.
Maybe I’m just a weirdo for thinking this but the way it got from out of control to a “controlled crash” is more impressive than if nothing had gone wrong at all.
No not all. I have had similar thing happen to me many times in Kerbal, and I can count on one finger the number of times they didn’t end in a disaster. SpaceX is as good as Scott Manley, maybe better :).
I’m curious what’s NASA reaction to it is though. Will they impressed at that fast reaction or concerned that fin grid got stuck in the first place?
Hello, I’m Scott Manley, and today I’m going to show you how to get back to Kerbin from Gilly using nothing but the thrusters on a spacesuit.
In other news about that launch, the cargo…
Christmas Dinner Rocketed To International Space Station
Important supplies! And mouse food without mold, apparently.
Nah, that’s pretty much what I meant by this -
Here is an external shot of the rocket landing -
https://twitter.com/i/status/1070446975642812416
First I heard moldy food. And I thought, that’s not good. Then I heard moldy mouse food. And I thought, oh okay… wait, no. That’s still not good.
Where are the brains for the engine and thrusters on those returning candles?
Isn’t that an actual video of his?
Scott makes me smarter and yet I feel dumber at the same time.