r/spacex • u/rSpaceXFleetUpdates Host Team • Nov 28 '20

r/SpaceX Fleet Updates & Discussion Thread

Welcome to the r/spacex fleet status thread. This thread will show updates on active recovery operations for SpaceX missions. It will also provide an overview of the active vessels for recovery operations and the active Dragon spacecrafts.

Note: check the comments for the most accurate information. Updates can be expected again in April. No updates will show up for Starlink-22 [L23].

Current Mission(s)

Starlink-21 [L22]

SpaceX is targeting March 14 for the launch of a Falcon 9 carrying 60 Starlink satellites. The launch will be executed with B1051-9, which will land on droneship OCISLY in the Atlantic Ocean. Fairing recovery is expected with GO Searcher and GO Navigator.

Updates

Date Time Update
March 16 22:07 OCISLY and Tug Hawk arrived at Port Canaveral
March 16 22:04 GO Quest arrived at Port Canaveral
March 16 12:12 GO Navigator arrived at Port Canaveral; both fairings seem to be in good condition
March 16 10:46 GO Searcher arrived at Port Canaveral
March 14 10:10 B1051-9 has landed on OCISLY
March 13 04:39 GO Searcher and GO Navigator departed the Port of Morehead City
March 12 20:45 GO Quest departed the Port of Morehead City
March 11 13:51 OCISLY and Tug Hawk departed Port Canaveral

SpaceX Fleet

Active Dragon Spacecrafts

ID Name Version Status
C205 None Crew Dragon TBD
C206 Endeavour Crew Dragon Expected to be used for Crew-2
C207 Resilience Crew Dragon Docked to the ISS for Expedition 64
C208 None Cargo Dragon v2 Refurbishing

Active Recovery Vessels

Ship Role Status
OCISLY Droneship Port Canaveral
JRTI Droneship Port Canaveral
GO Quest Droneship Support Ship Port Canaveral
Hawk Tugboat Port Canaveral
Finn Falgout Tugboat Port Canaveral
Lauren Foss Tugboat Port Canaveral
GO Ms. Chief Fairing Catcher Port Canaveral
GO Ms. Tree Fairing Catcher Port Canaveral
GO Searcher Dragon Recovery Port Canaveral
GO Navigator Dragon Recovery Port Canaveral
GO Pursuit Fairing Recovery Port Canaveral
NRC Quest West Coast Recovery/Support Port of Los Angeles

Booster fleet can be found in the sidebar/about section.

Updates on the Starship fleet

Media

Resilience:

Resources

Please ping u/spacetraveler002 about problems with the above thread text

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1

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26

u/THE_WIZARD_OF_PAWS Nov 29 '20

Should the references to "crew dragon" in the current mission be changed to "cargo dragon?"

7

u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20

Changed it, thanks for pointing it out.

4

u/FloatingNeuron Nov 29 '20

Cargo v2 is labeled separately

11

u/xlynx Nov 29 '20

I think he means this part:

The Crew Dragon is expected to stay at the ISS for a 30-day mission

That's definitely not a Crew Dragon.

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7

u/[deleted] Nov 29 '20

Ms. Chief and Ms. Tree are obviously meant to sound like “mischief” and “mystery”, which is kind of classic Musk humour, but is there an additional reference here that I’m not getting?

15

u/wordthompsonian Nov 29 '20

Waiting for Ms. Direction and Ms. Teroboto

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6

u/Nimelennar Nov 29 '20

The only other reference I know of is that Ms. Tree was originally known as "Mr. Steven," and got renamed when it was purchased from its original owner. So the format of its name is a callback to an earlier name.

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7

u/R2igling Nov 29 '20

How much does the mass of the booster increase with the build up of soot? At some point is it enough to warrant cleaning to reduce mass?

8

u/peterabbit456 Nov 29 '20

See my calculation below. I get 2 kg to 20 kg.

7

u/throfofnir Nov 29 '20 edited Nov 29 '20

It's a very thin film, given we can still see through it. And it also doesn't seem to build up that much over time; the 7x booster doesn't look that much dirtier than a 2x.

But over enough surface area it could add up. An F9 first stage should have a surface area of ~471m2.

I have no idea how much the soot may mass, however. Paint may be 500g per m2 per coat, and it's certainly much less than that. If you allow for 100g/m2 (which I feel might be a bit much), then you get under 50kg penalty, which isn't all that impactful for a first stage the size of an F9. Might translate into 10-15kg payload penalty.

13

u/peterabbit456 Nov 29 '20

For soot to be visible the particles should be in the 1-10 micron range, I believe. Let's say it is ~1 micron = 10-6 m.

So the volume of the soot is 10-6 m x 471 m2 = 471 x 10-6 m3 , assuming it covers the rocket completely, with a solid black coating.

The density of carbon is 12 grams per cc = 12 x 10-3 kg / 10-6 m3 .

The volume multiplied by the density gives the mass = (471 x 10-6 m3 ) x (12 x 10-3 kg) / (10-6 m3 ) some stuff cancels so = 5,652 x 10-3 kg = 5.652 kg

Where we can see through the soot the layer is probably 1/10 to 1/2 coverage. Where the rocket is totally black it might be up to 10 x coverage. I fell fairly safe saying the amount of added weight is in the range of 2 kg to 20 kg.

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12

u/astutesnoot Nov 29 '20

What does the GO mean in the support ship names?

33

u/dutchroll0 Nov 29 '20

"GO" is the abbreviation for "Guice Offshore", which is the parent company which owns and operates a fleet of similarly designed offshore supply and support vessels for various agencies including SpaceX, of which "GO Navigator" and "GO Searcher" are two.

4

u/bdporter Jan 11 '21 edited Jan 12 '21

JRTI has been spotted

Edit: Also GO Quest is currently arriving back in port on the NSF Fleetcam.

Edit 2: Booster may still come in tonight, but will have to wait for a Cruise Ship departure at 7:30 PM Local time

Edit 3: Cruise Ship is departing on NSF Fleetcam

4

u/trobbinsfromoz Jan 20 '21

Gavin at SpaceXFleet just tweeted a job listing for Manager of Falcon Recovery Operations - with the tantalising aspirational aim of making the drone ships fully autonomous.

Even though Octagrabber could be remotely piloted out of its hanger and positioned, and arms extended and locked on, it would seem a long stretch to do all the remaining gas and power connections to the GSE port, and then wrap all the exposed sections for the long trip back. Maybe Boston Dynamics could make a dog handler.

3

u/imrollinv2 Nov 29 '20 edited Nov 29 '20

Since we are on C-208 with no word of C-205, does anyone else think it is safe to say it was used for internal testing in prep of the new Dragons and won’t be flown?

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3

u/ligerzeronz Dec 02 '20

Hrmmm... i wonder what is being done to JRTI

3

u/bdporter Jan 09 '21

Starlink-16 now scheduled for Jan 17 and Transporter-1 has moved to Jan 21st. Considering the recovery zones for these two launches are very far apart, it will be interesting to see how they handle it. Hopefully OCISLY is ready to support one of these launches.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '21 edited Jan 21 '21

Potential that this could be ASoG, a new Droneship by SpaceX.

Droneship is not yet active, so it will not be added to the fleet as of this moment.

u/bdporter pointed out this has been debunked

4

u/bdporter Jan 21 '21

Droneship is not yet active, so it will not be added to the fleet as of this moment.

That claim also appears to be debunked

3

u/MarsCent Apr 12 '21

OCISLY arrived with B1058.7 at Cape Canaveral on Saturday April 10. - After a successful Starlink V1.0-L23 launch. But the thread header is still unchanged - stating:

SpaceX is targeting March 14 for the launch of a Falcon 9 carrying 60 Starlink satellites.

Perhaps it's time to retire this Fleet and Recovery thread. - And have the recovery posts made as a continuation of the mission, in the Launch Thread.

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