Launch News SpaceX Falcon Heavy Arabsat-6A

[Thunder Chicken]

Surprised that there wasn't a post for this.


SpaceX launched their Falcon Heavy with all Block 5 cores today for the Arabsat 6A mission.


They recovered both boosters on the LZs and the core on the ASDS.


Yawn. /s

 

[llarian]

Don't know why you say "Yawn". It never fails to amaze me watching the successful dual landings. After all, who else is doing it? (Ok, they are landing one rocket in Texas, but not dual landings.)

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Don't know why you say "Yawn".

That was sarcastic. I'm just surprised how quiet the forum is.

 

[Screamer7]

Yes, I was also very surprised by the lack of info here at OF.
Thanks for opening this thread, Thunder Chicken

They achieved a hat trick today.

Congratulations, SpaceX

 

[Kyle]

I did try to make a consolidated launch thread, but nobody seemed interested in posting in it besides myself.

 

[Screamer7]

"I did try to make a consolidated launch thread, but nobody seemed interested in posting in it besides myself."

Sorry Kyle, I was not aware of that.

If somebody stumbled upon other videos of that booster landings, post it here, please.
That landings never fail to amaze me.

 

[IronRain]

My bad as well, as I said I would spent more time creating news articles.

Congrats SpaceX though!

 

[RisingFury]

They also recovered both fairings. Was that a first?

 

[4throck]

Well we are too few to create posting dynamic. It's not lack of interest.

But having flown the Falcon Heavy previously in Orbiter did spoil it a bit!
I knew exactly what to expect, the camera views, speed, etc.
On this particular launch they did go a little faster than before.

But in general it looked familiar, like seeing Orbiter with better graphics

 

[Donamy]

At least in Orbiter, the Drone camera doesn't fail. Hey, maybe that would be a cool addon. :hmm:

:lol:

 

[barrygolden]

we here really do not understand how hard that is to make work. FH is a beast but not many payloads for it. this really could have been flown on a Falcon 9 as it was the replacement for the one that blew up on the pad. I think Space X just trying to get flights under their belts to be able to compete for the larger DOD sats like Keyhole, magnum and lacrosse.

 

[Dantassii]

According to a friend of mine whose daughter works for SpaceX the reason this was flown on a FH was because there were too many changes since the 1st FH for the Air Force and they required a 2nd FH launch before they would allow SpaceX to fly the mission next month. So SpaceX convinced the Arabsat-6A owners to fly on a FH in full reusable mode instead of a F9 in disposable mode.

Dantassii
HUMONGOUS IMS shipbuilder

 

[Thunder Chicken]

They also recovered both fairings. Was that a first?

Not for the first time, but this is the first time that they said that they were reusable on another mission. They were recovered from the water, so it seems they did something to make that OK.

 

[Notebook]

At 11:00 minutes in, the landed booster on the right has a slight lean to the left. Anyone know anything about that?

Also where did the core stage land, or was that not reusable?

Thanks, N.

 

[Screamer7]

This video is the best I could find from external sources so far. Truly amazing how they do it.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLCXn445-eQ"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLCXn445-eQ[/ame]

 

[BrianJ]

Quite a show! Well done SpaceX.

But having flown the Falcon Heavy previously in Orbiter did spoil it a bit!I knew exactly what to expect, the camera views, speed, etc.

I know what you mean ;-)

At 11:00 minutes in, the landed booster on the right has a slight lean to the left. Anyone know anything about that?

Also where did the core stage land, or was that not reusable?

Thanks, N.

Don't know about the lean to the left - might just be "fisheye" lens effect - or maybe a wonky leg on the booster. Core stage landed on OCISLY about 1000km downrange.


Cheers,
Brian

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Apparently the center core tipped and fell over on the ASDS due to rough seas.


https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/15/18311945/spacex-falcon-heavy-center-core-drone-ship-rough-ocean


The ASDS was farther out at sea to catch the center F9H core vs. when it recovers normal F9s. Apparently the Roomba can't hold the F9H core because of it's configuration.

 

[Messierhunter]

Here's my video of launch to landing: