After a troublesome time in the Atlantic Ocean, the SpaceX barge has finally returned ‘home’ to Jacksonville, battered and bruised by the stormy conditions out at sea.
The barge was first seen on the Mayport webcam at the mouth of the St Johns River. Once back in port, the barge came into view on the Carnival Fascination webcam, a cruise ship positioned just behind the barge. From this view the damage to the crates on board is clear to see, with many of the crates featuring significant concave bending. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that he hopes to strengthen the barge to be much more resilient to the weather conditions for the next landing attempt in April’s CRS-6 launch.
The barge has many names. Elon Musk considers it to be an automated spaceport drone ship, so the acronym ASDS has been used frequently. Prior to DSCOVR's launch Musk decided to give it a more personal name of 'Just Read the Instructions', with reference to sci-fi writer Iain M. Banks. Indeed, the words were printed just below the SpaceX logo on the barge, as the new images show.
He further mentioned that a West Coast ASDS currently under construction would have the name 'Of Course I Still Love You' (another reference to Banks), which is particularly interesting as it indicates Musk sees the barge landings as a long term system for recovering first stages from both Cape Canaveral in Florida and Vandenberg in California. Many have gone on to speculate the central core of the Falcon Heavy due to fly for the first time later this year may require a barge landing if crossfeed was implemented. Another possibility is that Musk is pessimistic with regard to getting permission to land on American soil any time soon, so it is simply more worthwhile developing and advancing the two barges until permission is given, which could still be a year or two away.
Whatever the case, the first stage recovery is sure to be one of the most interesting and incredible achievements in spaceflight of recent times!
The barge was first seen on the Mayport webcam at the mouth of the St Johns River. Once back in port, the barge came into view on the Carnival Fascination webcam, a cruise ship positioned just behind the barge. From this view the damage to the crates on board is clear to see, with many of the crates featuring significant concave bending. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that he hopes to strengthen the barge to be much more resilient to the weather conditions for the next landing attempt in April’s CRS-6 launch.
The barge has many names. Elon Musk considers it to be an automated spaceport drone ship, so the acronym ASDS has been used frequently. Prior to DSCOVR's launch Musk decided to give it a more personal name of 'Just Read the Instructions', with reference to sci-fi writer Iain M. Banks. Indeed, the words were printed just below the SpaceX logo on the barge, as the new images show.
He further mentioned that a West Coast ASDS currently under construction would have the name 'Of Course I Still Love You' (another reference to Banks), which is particularly interesting as it indicates Musk sees the barge landings as a long term system for recovering first stages from both Cape Canaveral in Florida and Vandenberg in California. Many have gone on to speculate the central core of the Falcon Heavy due to fly for the first time later this year may require a barge landing if crossfeed was implemented. Another possibility is that Musk is pessimistic with regard to getting permission to land on American soil any time soon, so it is simply more worthwhile developing and advancing the two barges until permission is given, which could still be a year or two away.
Whatever the case, the first stage recovery is sure to be one of the most interesting and incredible achievements in spaceflight of recent times!