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Not only did they recover both of the Falcon 9's fairing halves, but they were recovered, undamaged, ^from the water^. He also Tweeted that they will be reused later this year for a Starlink launch. (I've long mused that it should be feasible to make seaworthy payload fairings out of composites, metal, or a combination of the two, which could be recovered from the water and reused with little or no refurbishment besides a fresh water wash-down and post-drying inspection. If floatation material is needed, it could double as the acoustic dampening interior liner material [that may be what SpaceX has done].) Also: This SpaceFlightNow article https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/04/...mmercial-debut/ covered these and other developments (NASA is also looking at the Falcon Heavy--with an Interim Cryogenic Stage on top--as a possible SLS replacement...), and *this* https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/04/...-future-launch/ article covered the fairing recovery (and it includes a picture of a fairing half, descending under its parafoil, after a Falcon 9 launch; Elon Musk tweeted that recovering and reusing ocean-landed ones isn't a show-stopper, as they had feared earlier).
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511 All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com. NAR #54895 SR Last edited by blackshire : 04-13-2019 at 05:29 AM. |
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