I kind of figured that happened when they lost the video. Still a really amazing accomplishment--the video of the boosters landing was like something out of a sci-fi movie. It's the best space launch since the first Space Shuttle in 1981.
Regardless, it was absolutely wonderful to watch! I think the Youtube stream had 2,500,000 viewers at one point. I can’t wait for more footage of the launch the coming days.
In this flight, the side boosters and center core were Blocks 3 and 4. So SpaceX definitely wants to recover the boosters, to perfect reusability, but they never intend to re-fly any of these boosters, so better to get back the one with the expensive and reusable titanium grid fins.
I'm also a bit surprised the grid find are so pricey, they seem pretty small? Not that I really know how much titanium costs to buy and machine.
Either that or they were specially made castings, which are similarly expensive in low volume, if not more.
Why are rocket versions specified with the word "Block"? The Saturn launchers did the same thing, but it seems like a strange word to use.
Keep in mind that we got kicked off the backbone because we were using too much bandwidth and 'the internet wasn't made for video' (which is why we moved to Canada to begin with).
They both say Oh exactly at the moment when the smoke clears, meaning that they themselves are looking at the live feed while pretending it was lost.
Also the chances that Spacex doesn't have any other presence next to the droneship are zero. There in no reason for them to be beaming the data feed via a finicky satellite connection only.
Would you keep manned boats in the area where a rocket is coming down?
They have said in the past that it's "solveable", but it's not exactly a high priority by any means as they can always retrieve the footage when they get to the barge.