SpaceX powers through bad case of wind to nail Falcon 9's eighth droneship landing

SpaceX has landed an individual Falcon 9 booster for a record eighth time after pushing the envelope on winds above the waiting drone ship. The launch had been delayed from 18 January due to what the company called "unfavorable weather conditions in the recovery area". There was a further delay on 19 January "to allow …

[Trigonoceps occipitalis]

8th Time

Yawn, I don't bother firing up YouTube now.

Great, Isn't it?

[Down not across]

Re: 8th Time

I'm still impressed. Especially considering the "unfavourable conditions" not being an issue in the end.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: 8th Time

amazingly impressed not just nailed the landing, but landed right on the X (in nominally out of spec weather). SLS it was nice knowing you!

[Muscleguy]

Re: 8th Time

It is incredible how the amazing becomes mundane so quickly. I’m sure it will be a long time before I forget the ballet of the boosters returns from the launch of the Starman Car. The first stage was recovered then as well.

Controlled fin down landings with routine reuse. There may be reasons to dislike Musk but he gave the engineer’s their heads on the landing and reuse thing and lead the world on it. Now others are either doing it or collecting telemetry so they can do it.

Rocket Labs understandable want to know if their 3D printed engines can be reused. An interesting question. Planetary colonists are going to use 3D printing to get off planet but reuse will obviously be high on their agendas so we really are building the future with this stuff.

[cawfee]

Re: 8th Time

iirc the central core of Falcon Heavy didn't make it back home as it missed the droneship :( Still pretty impressive though.

[cmdrklarg]

Re: 8th Time

Falcon Heavy has flown three times, and they did manage to safely land the center core on the 2nd mission.

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

Re: 8th Time

The rocketry might now be "mundane" (never!) but unfortunately the commentary is inane.

[Jonathon Desmond]

Re: 8th Time

Jessie Anderson? Mundane and/or inane?

A million nerds just cried out in unison...... NEVER!

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

Re: 8th Time

The phrase "...as you just saw there" should never be used in live video commentary.

[DaveFlagAndTenDigits]

Re: 8th Time

I think the reason is that the SpaceX commentators are engineers who get to do the commentary as an extra so they're not professional presenters. Anderson and Insprucker's commentary on the first Falcon Heavy launch was brilliant as they were so hyped by the whole thing. Personally, I prefer it to the naff "god bless America" commentary style that NASA tends to use.

[stiine]

Re: 8th Time

Same me from PR. I watched the SLS firing from Stennis Space Center near Picayune, MS and it was awful.

With that being said, I'm not so fond of the current lady, but hell, she's an engineer at SpaceX and gets to do live launch webcasts, so.... she wins.

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

Re: 8th Time

Certainly SpaceX has set the standard when it comes to launch coverage. In stark contrast to Starlink L16, the live commentary on this morning's mission (Transporter 1) was excellent.

[cmdrklarg]

Re: 8th Time

It is great indeed, but I myself will never get tired of watching rocket launches and landings.

[David Roberts]

Congrats

Makes NASA look a bit pedestrian.

[Denarius]

Re: Congrats

NASA Boeing. FTFY.

[Francis Boyle]

Seconded

Tail landing rockets and high resolution pictures of Pluto (for example) are both extremely non-pedestrian.

[Chris 239]

Re: Seconded

"high resolution pictures of Pluto (for example) are .....non-pedestrian"

True but the legacy space industry (eg. Boeing) deciding not to bother developing booster recovery because it's too hard or they assume the customer will always be happy to pay to build a new one is shortsighted, arrogant and is now costing them SpaceX is eating their lunch/launch.

[Missing Semicolon]

Let's be a bit fair to Elon

... he is gaining more "Tony Stark" points by the day!

[JJKing]

Cost Savings?

I would like to know how much the exulted one's company is saving for each recovered first stage. It's absolutely incredible IMO and also "catching" the fairings for reuse again. I read that those things are $5 Million (each or a pair, can't remember) so the saves a little more as well.