Re:Second Landing of Falcon 9 First Stage at Landing Zone 1
by Animats on Monday July 18, 2016 @02:01AM
(#12113434)
The video coverage is much better this time, with a distant camera on the landing and a camera on the booster. Then, after the landing, they bring up spotlights on the booster. The barge doesn't have all that, but it probably will in time.
Re:Second Landing of Falcon 9 First Stage at Landing Zone 1
by dlgeek on Monday July 18, 2016 @03:32AM
(#12113659)
That's because they're landing on a fixed landing pad on land, where you get nice hard-wired cameras right to the video processing facility. On the ship, they're doing it by trying to punch a limited-bandwidth satellite data link through the thermal bloom of the landing rocket. It makes a big different.
Re:Second Landing of Falcon 9 First Stage at Landing Zone 1
by nicolapcweek94 on Monday July 18, 2016 @03:40AM
(#12113684)
This was also a NASA launch, so they probably provided additional cameras and/or stuff like that, like they did with CRS8's chase plane (the first successful landing on the ship, the plane circling the boat was provided by NASA since that too was a ISS mission)
Re:Second Landing of Falcon 9 First Stage at Landing Zone 1
by dlgeek on Monday July 18, 2016 @03:56AM
(#12113740)
I am guessing that NASA (or more likely the USAF who owns the range) has a lot of the cameras on the launch complex, but not at the landing complex. You can see this on NASA TV which runs a different camera angle during launch, and immediately follows the launch broadcast with a series of replays from a bunch of different camera (running each camera's footage straight). However, during the landing, NASA TV just re-ran SpaceX's content (complete with overlays) and the landing replay was just a single camera shot from the same ground camera.
(However, I totally believe that the tracking camera during the re-entry burn was a NASA/USAF asset).
Given that the launch complex had/has a lot of existing infrastructure predating SpaceX and the landing complex was bulldozed to basically a giant concrete pad and a fire suppression system, that's not out of the question.
Re:Second Landing of Falcon 9 First Stage at Landing Zone 1
by niels_olson on Monday July 18, 2016 @01:01PM
(#12116353)
Landing large vehicles will never be routine. Every ship that moors, every plane that lands, is a life-threatening event that can go wrong in ways the public will never anticipate but the professionals have entire subsystems designed to manage.
Hopefully they will release the entire on-board footage, would be really interesting to watch the launch from the rocket's perspective.
0 - https://youtube.com/watch?v=4jEz03Z8azc
What I'd love to see is that view for the entire launch and landing, in real time instead of sped up.
I didn't think about it, but you're right in that the view wouldn't be great for this one as it was at night time.
(However, I totally believe that the tracking camera during the re-entry burn was a NASA/USAF asset).
Given that the launch complex had/has a lot of existing infrastructure predating SpaceX and the landing complex was bulldozed to basically a giant concrete pad and a fire suppression system, that's not out of the question.