SpaceX: We NAILED the Falcon 9 landing! The video, on the other hand...

Private spacefaring firm SpaceX is looking for a few good video engineers to help recover footage of the historic Falcon 9 rocket splashdown landing. The company said that it had recovered footage from on-board cameras on the re-usable rocket which serves as the first stage propulsion for the company's Dragon spacecraft. The …

[James Hughes 1]

Not much hope

There simply too much missing data by the look of it. Since they were unable to recover the booster, it must have been transmitted telemetry, and the bad weather and effect on the chase plane to capture it means lots of data drop outs.

Although I guess the CSI team would be able to get some decent 4K resolution footage out of it.

[WraithCadmus]

Re: Not much hope

I don't think even CSI methods would work, I've been shouting 'ENHANCE' at it for a good 30 seconds and nothing's happening.

Looks like this footage is ... ... pretty much unwatchable.

What? They can't all be winners!

[Adam 1]

Re: Not much hope

Maybe they need these guys?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not much hope

NCIS could get it in virtual reality and then onto mars...

[Fink-Nottle]

Re: Not much hope

> Since they were unable to recover the booster

The reports I've read state that they were able to recover some parts of the booster. Further, according to SpaceX the footage is "original video data from the first stage landing, recovered from the Falcon 9 onboard camera".

This implies that the onboard camera was among bits they were able to recover.

[EddieD]

Get the SPB on the case...

Elon and his boys may be going orbital, the I think Lester and company could help on the video side...

Sarcasm aside - SpaceX are doing an incredible job, maybe soon all flights will be like I saw on 60's SciFi films, with the space craft descending on a point of flame to land

[MachDiamond]

Re: Get the SPB on the case...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAvZxa1VXKI

VTVL Rockets

[phuzz]

Re: Get the SPB on the case...

Or more on topic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjWqQPWmsY

An earlier test of the Falcon 9(R). Note the size of the containers near it's landing pad, that thing is HUGE!

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Get the SPB on the case...

" I think Lester and company could help on the video side..."

Naaahhhh. The last time Lester and the SPB attempted a water landing, the pilot drowned. The body was never recovered.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fake.

It's clearly faked.

No stars in it.

[James Hughes 1]

Re: Fake.

It's full of stars!

(and lens flare)

[Ralph B]

How hard can it be?

Recovering video data? It's hardly rocket science, is it?

[Real Ale is Best]

Re: How hard can it be?

Thank you for that link. It made me chortle!

[hammarbtyp]

This is a job for....

Surely this must be a job for the LOHAN team since they must has lots of similar footage. At the same time they could advice the Space X team where to get some decent camera's.

[The First Dave]

Re: This is a job for....

Or for the "Rocket City Red-necks"

[Anonymous Coward]

Just to check....

We are talking about a group of rocket scientists that are having difficulty getting their VCR to work???

[MrT]

That's it!

The tracking was off... Anyone got a jeweller's screwdriver and some tape-head cleaner?

[Anonymous Coward]

I find it hard to believe that the Reg can get decent footage of a home made playmobile space plane, and yet these space-x fly boys with hundreds of millions in porky government cash can't get a single vid of their rocket.

I wonder if the LOHAN team would consider suing the US govt for some of those lucrative subsidies to major US aerospace companies masquerading as defence contracts?

[James Hughes 1]

Listen carefully, I shall say this only once.

This is NOT a camera problem. It's a transmission problem. The LOHAN team do NOT transmit video, they recover it from the plane/whatever when it lands. They do transmit stills, very slowly. The Falcon 1st stage is at the bottom of the ocean, so not so easy to get the SD card out.

As for the transmission problem, the landing was over the horizon, so the telemetry had to go from the rocket, to a chase plane. The weather was terrible, and the signal is garbled. Simple as.

Of course, video has a pretty low priority to other telemetry, and bandwidth is very limited. The data is more important, which is why they can sure the landing was a success - the data arrived, the video didn't do so well.

Also because fo the bad weather, the recovery ship wasn't able to get to the stage prior to it sinking.

[bigtimehustler]

I completely agree with everything you said, but this bit made me laugh "which is why they can sure the landing was a success - the data arrived" - are you sure they don't in fact know this because it had in fact landed, so it was there where it should be to be seen with their eyes, not just the data.

[James Hughes 1]

Whut?

It landed 200 miles in to the Atlantic. No eyes for miles. They know it 'landed' because the telemetry said so.

[ecofeco]

Thank you james.

Excellent explanation.

Upvoted.

[michaelvirks]

Looks like the title sequence of Under The Skin, really.

[Originone]

Bonus points...

Every article so far has mentioned how bad weather prevented the boat getting into position. Is there any mention if the bad weather was in effect at the site at the time of splash down, if so they can have 10 bonus points for the increased difficulty of landing in conditions that overcame what I assume would be a reasonably capable ocean going vessel.

[oldcoder]

Take a look at the second video, 19 seconds in.

The top half certainly looks like the flame impacting the water and causing a splash. Even includes some of the landing legs extended. The same frames look like they occur at 28 seconds in the first video.

[ravenviz]

Telemetry?

If the problem was telemetry, which didn't they just have an onboard recording as well? If they recovered Liberty Bell 7 then I'm sure they could find this to recover the footage.

Unless it's cheaper just to repeat the exercise (which I doubt).

[James Hughes 1]

Re: Telemetry?

Why would they bother? They don't need the video and spending millions upon millions trying to find the SD card at the bottom of the Atlantic would be a bit of a waste of cash I would have thought. They have another flight soon anyway.

Of course, had they thought about it, they could have splashed down in the MH370 area, saved a bit of search cash.

[Sureo]

The video clearly shows a swarm of extraterrestrial creatures attacking the lens of the camera.

[stucs201]

Alternatively

I should be able to knock up a suitable replacement video in KSP.

[Parax]

Their best chance..

Would be to send a sub to the bottom to get the camera back!

[agricola]

Now I haven't seen everything!

WHAT?!

The guy who knows absolutely EVERYTHING can't take a proper video?

AND, he's asking the amateur community for HELP?.

Sounds just exactly like the modus operandi of another South African: one Mark Shuttleworth. Must be a systemic South African disease.

Perhaps the Ubuntu-controlled (lifted straight out of a Tesla) fire extinguisher for the camera didn't respond to its Ubuntu commands.

[James Hughes 1]

Re: Now I haven't seen everything!

I didn't know Jake was South African. Although I doubt he would ask any for help.

[Anonymous Coward]

so even with horrible weather conditions

the booster was still able to reorient from separation, reignite the motors, slow from high MACH numbers to zero, and hold a stable hover for any time at all?

Such an attempt would have been awesome attempted the first time under carefully controlled optimal conditions. Pulling it off in conditions hostile to the test, makes it epic.

Of course now, our expectations are higher for their next attempt. Land the booster on the back of a ship in combat conditions....or a showy landing James Bond Villain style right on the 50 yard line during Superbowl Halftime. :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: so even with horrible weather conditions

Aren't they supposed to land it in an extinct volcano where the floor opened up to reveal the underground facility.