>SpaceX is counting down to liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 10:31 a.m. PST (1:31 p.m. EST; 1831 GMT) Monday. The launch, under contract to Spaceflight, will carry into orbit 64 small satellites from 17 countries, the largest multi-payload rideshare mission ever flown on a U.S. rocket. The Falcon 9’s first stage booster previously flew on two missions from Florida, and will be recovered again on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean after Monday’s launch.
Yea, on a droneship like 20mi off shore Could have been a pad landing, but they had to delay for weather and there's another rocket+payload being readied near the launch site and they don't want to risk it being damaged by a sonic boom or crash.
Aiden Long
That sucked, not as cool to watch as the night ones.
They're gonna try, Mr Steven is out with the big net... takes a while to glide back though
Henry Williams
ah great should be interesting didn't realise its literally a net, kek
Kevin Harris
I remember someone asking elon on twitter and he said no
Ian Hall
Why? Heat?
Colton Long
Yes, the sun heats the fuel, it can cause a lot of issues and rockets has exploded in the past because of it, its also the reason you cant wait forever until you have to scrub.
Isaiah Nguyen
we need to have a thread for every launch when the African-Canadian-American starts putting up rockets each day we'll finally have a space/pol/ general
The fairing has some built in thrusters to orient it for re-entry, then it deploys a parafoil to glide in and land on the net. They haven't perfect it yet, but they've successfully glided into the water.
