Thursday, March 29, 2018

Elon Musk Will Try For Another Fairing Catch

Elon Musk is getting set to attempt the capture of the fairing off the upcoming, Iridium-5 NEXT mission, based on the movement of the SpaceX marine vessel the "Mr. Steven". According to marine tracking of the ocean vessel from Long Beach Harbor on Thursday, the vessel is now sitting out in the Pacific near where the fairing for the SpaceX Falcon's payload is expected to land, if tomorrow's launch is successful. SpaceX is aiming to launch the Iridium-5 NEXT mission at 7:13 a.m. PDT from Vandenberg Air Force Base, with the payload heading South past Los Angeles and San Diego--typical for launches from Vandenberg for the Iridium satellite constellation. SpaceX attempted a capture of the fairing from the launch of the Spanish PAZ satellite from Vandenberg on February 22nd, without success. According to SpaceX, it will not attempt to recover the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 on this attempt. In the tongue-in-cheeck humor which seems to characterize Musk's various ventures, the Mr. Steven has set its destination as "YOUR MOM'S HOUSE". Path of the "Mr. Steven", courtesy AIS marine traffic captured by the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club.