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SpaceX fairing recovery program

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Ms. Tree
Ms. Tree during its second successful catch of a fairing in 2019
History
Name
  • Ms. Tree since June 2019
  • Mr. Steven 2014–2019
Owner
  • Guice Offshore June 2019–present
  • SeaTran Marine 2014–2019
OperatorGuice Offshore
BuilderGulf Craft
ChristenedNovember 2014
Identification
General characteristics
TypePlatform supply vessel
Tonnage
Length205 ft (62 m)
Beam34 ft (10 m)
Draft5 ft (1.5 m)
Depth13 ft (4.0 m)
Installed power10,300 bhp (7,700 kW)
Propulsion4 × Cat 3516C DH
Speed32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)
Capacity84 (maximum)
Notes[1][2][3]

The SpaceX fairing recovery program was an experimental program by SpaceX, begun in 2017 in an effort to determine if it might be possible to economically recover and reuse expended launch vehicle payload fairings from suborbital space. The experimental program became an operational program as, by late 2020, the company was routinely recovering fairings from many flights, and by 2021 were successfully refurbishing and reflying previously flown fairings on the majority of their satellite launches.

During the early years of the program, SpaceX attempted to catch the descending payload fairings, under parachute, in a very large net on a moving ship in the Atlantic Ocean east of the Space Coast of Florida. Two former platform supply vessels—Ms. Tree, formerly known as Mr. Steven,[4] and its sister ship, Ms. Chief—were chartered by SpaceX and used 2018–2021[5] as experimental platforms for recovery of rocket fairings from Falcon 9 orbital launch trajectories. These fast ships were retrofitted with large nets intended to catch fairings—and prevent the fairings from making contact with seawater—as part of an iterative development program to create technology that will eventually allow rocket payload fairings to be economically reused and reflown. Ms. Tree was used for SpaceX Falcon 9 fairing recovery experiments on a number of occasions in 2018 and early 2019, while named Mr. Steven. Ms. Tree first successfully caught a fairing on 25 June 2019 during Falcon Heavy launch 3, which carried the DoD's STP-2 mission. This was the ship's first fairing recovery voyage after its renaming, change of ownership, and net upgrade.[4] By 2020, the program reached operational status where fairings from most Falcon 9 satellite launches were recovered, either "in the net" or from the water, and for the first time, both fairing halves of a single flight were caught in the nets of two different ships. The final fairing that was successfully caught in a net was in October 2020.[6] In early 2021, the nets were removed from the two fast ships and SpaceX ended the ship leases, with both ships returned to their owner.

SpaceX found that recovery of the fairings floating on the ocean surface was adequate to support economic reuse of payload fairings on subsequent Falcon 9 launches.[5] After the end of the experimental "catch" recovery program, SpaceX entered an operational phase and as of April 2021 was using the contracted[7] ships Shelia Bordelon and Hos Briarwood[8] to recover parachute-descended payload fairings that reached the sea surface in good condition using ship mounted cranes.

In May 2021, SpaceX purchased and began converting two offshore supply ships named Ella G and Ingrid for towing and supporting droneships as well as fairing recovery operations on the east coast. They are registered to Falcon Landing LLC, a SpaceX-linked company that also owns Elon Musk's private jet. These two ships were renamed in honor of Demo-2 astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken as Doug[9] and Bob[10] respectively for their contribution to SpaceX's Crew Dragon development.[11] Currently, both support ships Bob and Doug are operating out of Port Canaveral, Florida along with other SpaceX recovery assets. To ease the recovery of these fairings out of water, SpaceX bought two small fast boats in February 2022, Maverick and Goose, named for Top Gun characters Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise) and Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), for both of these multipurpose ships.[12]

SpaceX performs some amount of cleaning and refurbishing before using the previously flown fairings on a subsequent flight. SpaceX has reflown fairing halves more than 300 times, with some being reflown for eleven or more times.[13]

History

[edit]

Ms. Tree was originally built in 2014 for SeaTran as a platform supply vessel to support fast crew transport operations. The vessel was named Mr. Steven after Steven Miguez, the father of SeaTran CEO Blake J. Miguez.[14]

The vessel subsequently was chartered by SpaceX in 2018 for an experimental program to provide surface marine "catch and recovery" operations for a test program attempting to bring the large 5.2 by 13.2 meters (17 ft × 43 ft)[15] Falcon 9 launch vehicle satellite fairings—separated at high speed and high altitude—through atmospheric reentry and parachute descent to the ocean surface in a controlled way, and then recover them for evaluation and potential reuse. Since satellite fairings are traditionally expended into the ocean, the fairings used for these tests were somewhat modified test articles. As part of that effort, Mr. Steven was fitted in July 2018 with four large arms to support an elevated horizontal net, similar to a giant trampoline or trapeze net.[16]

In July 2018, Mr. Steven was upgraded and refitted with a much larger net with an area of 3,700 m2 (0.91 acres), four times the original net size.[17] The upgrade included replacing the original rigid arms and fitting four new arms, which are each supported and positioned by two extendable shock-absorbing booms.[18] Each arm can be removed and disassembled into six subsections.[19]

In June 2019, Mr. Steven was renamed Ms. Tree (a play on the word mystery), after being purchased by Guice Offshore (GO), a company with a long-standing contractual relationship to SpaceX as a provider of a variety of marine services.[4][20]

On June 25, 2019, SpaceX successfully caught its first fairing half on Ms. Tree in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast as part of the Falcon Heavy STP-2 mission.[21]

On August 6, 2019, Ms. Tree was used to successfully catch another fairing half from a Falcon 9 that successfully launched Amos-17.[22] SpaceX now had two complete fairing halves that have reentered from space and been recovered dry, without contacting the saltwater.[23] Although a dry recovery is preferable to maintain a cleaner environment inside the fairing to protect future payloads, eventually SpaceX would drop it as a requirement.

In August 2019, SpaceX chartered the sister ship to Ms. Tree, the Ms. Chief (a play on the word mischief), as the second fairing catcher vessel so that it could be possible to retrieve both halves of the same fairing on a Falcon 9 launch.[24][20] This second ship is also operated by Guice Offshore, and is therefore titled "GO Ms. Chief" on the ship sides. Ms. Chief was outfitted with a matching set of four wide arms and a catch net by October 2019, in preparation for dual simultaneous fairing recovery attempts.[25]

On 11 November 2019, during the Starlink L1 mission both ships were sent to sea but were recalled due to rough seas so a recovery was not attempted.[26]

On 16 December 2019, both ships were positioned in the Atlantic ocean for a recovery attempt, but both ships narrowly missed catching the fairing halves.[27]

On 29 January 2020, both ships were positioned for a recovery attempt for the Starlink 3 launch. Ms. Tree caught one fairing half, but Ms. Chief narrowly missed the other fairing half.[28]

On 20 July 2020, both fairing halves were successfully caught for the first time by both ships during the Anasis-2 mission.[29] The final payload fairing ever caught by SpaceX was in October 2020 on the Starlink v1.0 L13 mission.[6] In February 2021, both ships were taken out of service to have their catching arms removed.[6] On 6 April 2021, both ships departed Port Canaveral for the final time with a water salute.[30]

SpaceX abandoned the experimental program to recover descending-under-parachute payload fairings dry, in a net on a fast ship, by April 2021. SpaceX has decided to do "wet recovery" of fairings on future Falcon 9 flights, having found that they can clean, refurbish, and reuse such fairings more economically, and so their subordinate company, Falcon Landing LLC purchased two ships to support wet recovery and droneship operations and named them Bob and Doug.[11] Simultaneously with fairing recovery, they will also support booster towing and recovery missions along with their secondary fast boats, Maverick and Goose.[citation needed]

Fairing reuse

[edit]
Main article: SpaceX reusable launch system development program § Fairing reuse
SpaceX payload fairing before the launch of TESS

During the first six decades of spaceflight, payload fairings were expended by atmospheric reentry and allowed to drop into the ocean as debris.

In 2018, SpaceX began flight test experiments with fairings descending from sub-orbital trajectories above the atmosphere on its Falcon 9 rockets.

As a part of the SES-10 mission in March 2017, SpaceX successfully performed a controlled landing of the payload fairing into the ocean for the first time. SpaceX was able to recover the fairing half from the water after it landed, aided by attitude-control thrusters and a steerable parachute, gently on water.[31][32] At the SES-10 news conference, the company announced its intent to land the fairings on a dry flexible structure, jokingly described by Elon Musk as a "floating bouncy castle", with the goal of reusing the fairings.[33][34] The cost of a fairing is about $6 million which accounts for 10 percent of overall Falcon 9 launch costs.[16]

The "bouncy castle" idea led to SpaceX contracting for the fast vessel Mr. Steven which was subsequently modified to facilitate a large net being strung between long arms that extend considerably beyond the width of the ship. Mr. Steven was equipped with a dynamic positioning system and was first tested after the launch of the Paz satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in February 2018.[35][36] The test was not fully successful because the fairing missed the boat by a few hundred meters but landed safely in the water[37] before being recovered and taken back to port.[36] All four attempts in the first half of 2018 to land a fairing on the recovery ship failed, despite fitting Mr. Steven with larger nets before the July 2018 attempt.[38][39]

In October 2018, to practice recovery outside mission situations, SpaceX performed drop tests of a fairing half from a helicopter with Mr. Steven below.[40] The outcome of the tests has not been publicly released.[41]

On the ArabSat-6A mission on April 11, 2019, SpaceX used the recovery boats GO Searcher and GO Navigator to recover both fairing halves quickly after they landed in the sea; Musk declared the recovery successful and reused the fairings in a later Starlink mission.[26][42] SpaceX used the same recovery method in May 2019 on another Starlink launch.[43]

The first successful fairing catch was made as part of the STP-2 mission on 25 June 2019.[21] The final payload fairing ever caught in a net was in October 2020 on the Starlink v1.0 L13 mission, and fairings began more frequently to be scooped out of the ocean.[6]

By January 2021, SpaceX had modified the design of the fairing to better accommodate water recoveries. The ascent vents on the fairing halves were moved closer to the seam between the two fairing halves "so that water is less likely to enter the fairing through the holes when the halves are floating in the ocean."[6] By April 2021, the company had publicly abandoned net recovery and switched to water recovery as an ordinary operational practice.[5]

See also

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Mr. Steven". www.seatranmarine.com. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  2. ^ "Mr. Steven". MarineTraffic. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  3. ^ "Vessel Documentation Query". www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  4. ^ a b c Ralph, Eric (30 June 2019). "SpaceX successfully catches first Falcon Heavy fairing in Mr. Steven's/Ms. Tree's net". Teslarati. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  5. ^ a b c Eric Berger (9 April 2021). "Rocket Report: SpaceX abandons catching fairings". Archived from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d e Fletcher, Colin; Burghardt, Thomas (9 March 2021). "SpaceX evolving fairing recovery plans, taking advantage of Octagrabber in pursuit of rapid reusability". NASASpaceFlight.com. Archived from the original on 22 April 2021. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  7. ^ SpaceX Starlink webcast Archived 29 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine, 29 April 2021, at T-10:30
  8. ^ "Shelia Bordelon". Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  9. ^ "DOUG (Offshore Supply Ship) Registered in USA - Vessel details, Current position and Voyage information - IMO 9529889, MMSI 368485000, Call Sign WDF2598". www.marinetraffic.com. Archived from the original on 25 August 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  10. ^ "Ship BOB (Offshore Supply Ship) Registered in USA - Vessel details, Current position and Voyage information - IMO 9529695, MMSI 368456000, Call Sign WDE9523". www.marinetraffic.com. Archived from the original on 2 January 2022. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  11. ^ a b "[UPDATE: New Pictures] Scoop: SpaceX purchases and outfits two ships, potentially for fairing recovery". Space Explored. 12 August 2021. Archived from the original on 2 January 2022. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  12. ^ @SpaceOffshore (7 March 2022). "One of these new SpaceX fast boats has had its tracker turned on and these boats do have names!Introducing... Mav…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  13. ^ "In 2023, SpaceX completed 96 successful missions, safely flew 12 more astronauts to orbit, launched two flight tests of Starship, and more than doubled the number of people around the world connected by @Starlink. Watch @elonmusk deliver a company update:". X (formerly Twitter). Archived from the original on 13 January 2024. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  14. ^ Wattles, Jackie (31 March 2018). "SpaceX's latest launch and recovery attempt: We explain it all". CNNMoney. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  15. ^ "Falcon 9 Launch Vehicle Payload User's Guide, Rev 2" (PDF). October 21, 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 14, 2017. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
  16. ^ a b Clark, Stephen (1 June 2018). "New photos illustrate progress in SpaceX's fairing recovery attempts". Spaceflight Now. Archived from the original on 16 June 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  17. ^ Miley, Jessica (18 July 2018). "SpaceX's Recovery Vessel 'Mr. Steven' Gets a Massive Net Upgrade". Interesting Engineering. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  18. ^ "SpaceX fairing catcher Mr Steven armless once more for maintenance and upgrades". www.teslarati.com. 27 August 2018. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  19. ^ Ralph, Eric (1 October 2018). "SpaceX's Falcon 9 fairing catcher Mr Steven preps for October recovery attempt". www.teslarati.com. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  20. ^ a b Ralph, Eric (14 October 2019). "SpaceX to catch two Falcon 9 fairings at once with twin nets". TESLARATI. Archived from the original on 14 October 2019. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  21. ^ a b Etherington, Darrell (25 June 2019). "SpaceX records another first for reusable rocketry by catching Falcon Heavy fairing with a boat". TechCrunch. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  22. ^ Etherington, Darrell (6 August 2019). "SpaceX successfully launches twice-flown Falcon 9, catches fairing at sea". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 9 December 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  23. ^ "Watch SpaceX's droneship catch a rocket part that fell from space : SpaceX is getting good at this". CNET. 6 August 2019. Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  24. ^ Ralph, Eric (13 August 2019). "SpaceX adds new ship to fleet after fairing catcher Ms. Tree nails second recovery in a row". Teslarati. Archived from the original on 13 August 2019. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  25. ^ @realChefJared (10 October 2019). "The big 4 of #SpaceX east coast. @GOmsChief, GO MS. TREE, GO NAVIGATOR, and @OCISLYDroneship" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  26. ^ a b "Successful launch continues deployment of SpaceX's Starlink network". 11 November 2019. Archived from the original on 17 November 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  27. ^ "SpaceX launches satellites to orbit, but misses catching nose cone". 18 December 2019. Archived from the original on 18 December 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  28. ^ "SpaceX launches 60 Starlink satellites, catches a fairing". 29 January 2020. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  29. ^ "SpaceX successfully catches both Anasis-2 fairing halves". SpaceFlight Insider. 21 July 2020. Archived from the original on 22 July 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  30. ^ Thompson, Amy (27 July 2021). "SpaceX retires giant net boats that caught rocket nose cones". Space.com. Archived from the original on 6 October 2021. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  31. ^ Henry, Caleb (30 March 2017). "SpaceX demonstrates reusability". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on 6 September 2021. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  32. ^ Lopatto, Elizabeth (30 March 2017). "SpaceX even landed the nose cone from its historic used Falcon 9 rocket launch". The Verge. Archived from the original on 30 June 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  33. ^ DeArmond, Chris (24 April 2017). "Full Transcript: 3/30/17 SpaceX SES-10 Press Conference". Expedited Transcripts. Archived from the original on 24 June 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  34. ^ Kelly, Emre (31 March 2017). "Things we learned after SpaceX's historic Falcon 9 relaunch and landing". Florida Today. Archived from the original on 9 March 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  35. ^ Etherington, Darrell (18 February 2018). "SpaceX to use a net boat called 'Mr. Steven' to recover next rocket fairing". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 20 February 2018. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  36. ^ a b Baylor, Michael (25 February 2018). "SpaceX's Mr. Steven, the FSV fairing catcher – NASASpaceFlight.com". NASASpaceFlight.com. Archived from the original on 25 February 2018. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  37. ^ @elonmusk (22 February 2018). "Missed by a few hundred meters, but fairing landed intact in water. Should be able catch it with slightly bigger chutes to slow down descent" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  38. ^ Bartels, Meghan (25 July 2018). "SpaceX Lands Rocket in Harshest Conditions to Date and Attempts to Catch Fairing". Space.com. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  39. ^ Wall, Mike (13 July 2018). "SpaceX Gives Nose-Cone-Catching Boat 'Mr. Steven' a Bigger Net". Space.com. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  40. ^ Ralph, Eric (11 October 2018). "SpaceX's Mr. Steven returns with Falcon fairing half in net after drop test practice". Teslarati. Archived from the original on 13 October 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  41. ^ Ralph, Eric (19 October 2018). "SpaceX's Mr. Steven highlights ambiguity of Falcon fairing catches with port return". Teslarati. Archived from the original on 30 October 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  42. ^ "SpaceX launches re-flown fairing for the first time and breaks a Falcon 9 booster re-use record". TechCrunch. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  43. ^ @elonmusk (23 May 2019). "@SpaceX Fairing halves recovered" (Tweet). Retrieved 16 June 2019 – via Twitter.

External references

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