SpaceX successfully lands its Falcon 9 rocket at Vandenberg for the first time | Hacker News Reader

SpaceX successfully lands its Falcon 9 rocket at Vandenberg for the first time

theverge.com

108 pointsaphextron14 comments

The video of the stage maneuvering is great (1 minute):

https://twitter.com/RogerCraigSmith/status/10491304561578106...

Another longer video (8 minutes):

Official livestream with views from the rocket and some views from the ground (at the time the interesting things happen):

https://youtu.be/vr_C6LQ7mHc?t=1148

What we see is the shutdown of the 9 engines of the first stage, separation of the the first stage from the second stage, ignition of the engine on the second stage, turn of the first stage to point engines-back, ignition of 3 engines on the first stage to boost back toward the launch site, separation of the two halves of the payload fairing from the second stage and them falling, the first stage maneuvering using cold gas thrusters to navigate to the launch site. The first stage eventually lands ~1400 feet (~420 meters) from the launch site. The second stage reaches 600x600km polar orbit [1], separates from the satellite payload and usually for LEO de-orbits to sink in the ocean. There was no attempt to recover the payload fairings this time because of waves, apparently.

1 - https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1049167565904388096

I do not understand what's happening here but man it looks like an alien spacecraft doing something.

I was about 4.5 miles from the launch/landing site for this one. Incredible experience. The "nebula" overhead was one of the more beautiful things I've seen in my life.

I'm envious a little bit - the "nebula puffs" were awesome to watch even just on the webcast, I can't imagine how beautiful it must have been seeing them with one's own eyes right above you. :)

Then imagine what it was like for me, when I hadn't heard anything about it and just by coincidence happened to be out staring at the night sky when that crazy "nebula" erupted right in front of me. Incredible, glowing, rainbow-colored, great-nebula-in-orion-looking thing exploding outward, churning with stars or spacecraft or somethings shining spotlights here and there through clouds that rippled with shockwaves.

What in the world...?! Jaw dropping.

Man, that must've been something! I was fully forewarned that it would be crossing into sunlight and probably would be quite spectacular, and it still took my breath away. Can't imagine what it must've been like to be caught unawares.

The podcast actually really underplayed how gorgeous it was. This photo does a pretty good job of capturing how it looked to the naked eye:

https://twitter.com/somersalt67/status/1049130741303394305

There are amateur videos that do a better job of capturing it than the podcast, but none which fully replicate the experience.

Holy crap, that's a whole another level of beautiful. Thanks!

View from my house: https://twitter.com/jrhunt/status/1049126465487269890?s=21

The twitter commenter's pics are incredible. Looks like a flare inside a nebula.

I was visiting my in-laws in Arroyo Grande and we watched it; the pictures don't really do it justice. The night was amazingly clear, and it was very bright. It was even possible to see some of the longer firings of the maneuvering jets after the stage separation.

The waves caused by the RCS pulses were stunning. Heavenly. It was like a special effect.

My son and I saw it when we were leaving Home Depot, and actually looking for parts for our rocket project.

Is there a way to take a tour of, or get onto a base for a launch?

Didn’t quite get to hear the sonic boom, but did get a muted rumbling from the booster in re-entry. Overall a very enjoyable experience!

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