Posted on 12/27/2023 12:01:00 AM PST by cabojoe
A piece of America’s space history is now on the ocean’s floor. During its return voyage to Port Canaveral in Central Florida, a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster toppled over and broke in half.
This particular booster, tail number B1058, was coming back from its record-breaking 19th mission when it had its fatal fall. The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Dec. 23 carrying 23 Starlink satellites. The booster made a successful landing eight and a half minutes after launch on the drone ship ‘Just Read the Instructions’ which was stationed east of the Bahamas. SpaceX said in a statement on social media that it succumbed to “high winds and waves.”
The company stated that “Newer Falcon boosters have upgraded landing legs with the capability to self-level and mitigate this type of issue.
In a separate post, Kiko Deontchev, the Vice President of Launch for SpaceX, elaborated by added that while they “mostly outfitted” the rest of the operational Falcon booster fleet, B1058 was left as it was, “given its age.” The rocket “met its fate when it hit intense wind and waves resulting in failure of a partially secured [octo-grabber] less than 100 miles from home.”
(Excerpt) Read more at spaceflightnow.com ...
How many kegs went with Bob and Doug, eh?
The rocket “met its fate when it hit intense wind and waves resulting in failure of a partially secured [octo-grabber] less than 100 miles from home.”
What do they expect would happen to that booster in a wind storm? Because of that poorly designed “Octo-grabber, they will have to recover that booster from the sea bottom. Good luck there.
Without such news, the spirit and tenacity of the booster might not be recognized.
Great opportunity to tear the booster apart, and see what 19 launches and recoveries can do to the structure and the engines. It will be an interesting autopsy.
Can’t they buff it out?
That’s one way to phase out an obsolete booster rocket.
“How many kegs went with Bob and Doug, eh?”
LOL
What a hoser
Check that Crab Key and Dr. No are still defunct
The top.half broke off and was lost the bottom half made it back and the engines will be savaged.
The top half broke off and was lost the bottom half made it back and the engines will be salvaged.
SpaceX has landed and recovered boosters over 250 times, probably half on drone ships at sea. The octograbber has done a pretty good job.
“Lost at sea”. And, here’s a picture of it arriving in port. Correct headline should have been “damaged during sea travel”.
The remains of Falcon 9 booster 1058 arrive at Port Canaveral after the vehicle toppled over and broke apart in bad weather....A collection of photographers, reporters and on-lookers gathered along the entryway to the port to catch a glimpse of what was left of the booster.
And all the people that have only ever been able to use a booster once think SpaceX is an abject failure because of an unrelated incident when moving one used 19 times.
Happened around the same time as that dude fell overboard on a Bahamas cruise ship and was not found. Very bad weather.
One more Thoroughly Modern Miscellany topic, no ping.
Didn’t hear about that one, thanks. I know they were sort of threading the needle on launch dates because of weather and launch equipment.
SpaceX’s Loses Its Best Booster - 1058 - 19 Launches, 260 tons!
13:00
Scott Manley
1.64M subscribers
456,764 views
December 27, 2023
On Christmas day we heard that Booster 1058 wasn’t going to make any more flights, after setting the records for 3 1/2 years the booster toppled in high seas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sG8msSS6Mg
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