BeechTalk - BT

Username Protected · **Posted:** 15 Jan 2023, 11:41

Falcon 9 Heavy Liftoff is scheduled for 5:56 p.m. ET. this afternoon. Both side boosters will return, but not the core stage.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 15 Jan 2023, 19:54

Launch successful. Seeing those two side-boosters touch down at the Cape literally brings tears to my eyes. The engineering to pull that off is WAY beyond anything I ever learned in engineering school. Congratulations, Space X.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 15 Jan 2023, 21:17

Username Protected wrote:

Launch successful. Seeing those two side-boosters touch down at the Cape literally brings tears to my eyes. The engineering to pull that off is WAY beyond anything I ever learned in engineering school. Congratulations, Space X.

Why no core-return, though? Inquiring minds..........

Username Protected · **Posted:** 15 Jan 2023, 21:21

I saw the booster return firing from the west coast of FL. Amazing this can be seen from over 150 miles away.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 15 Jan 2023, 21:26

They needed the extra performance of the full fuel load to be expended on the core booster so it was expended.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 15 Jan 2023, 21:28

Username Protected wrote:

Launch successful. Seeing those two side-boosters touch down at the Cape literally brings tears to my eyes. The engineering to pull that off is WAY beyond anything I ever learned in engineering school. Congratulations, Space X.

Why no core-return, though? Inquiring minds..........

Username Protected · **Posted:** 16 Jan 2023, 08:54

Username Protected wrote:

They needed the extra performance of the full fuel load to be expended on the core booster so it was expended.

or (maybe, just a thought) the trajectory observed while landing it would give clues to the destination of the cargo. Either way, we all paid for it!

Username Protected · **Posted:** 16 Jan 2023, 10:09

I’m pretty sure any global actor that wants to know where it’s going has the tracking resources to watch real time.

We watched the launch from the beach. Wow! Probably the best launch I’ve ever witnessed. The setting sun illuminated the exhaust plumes and vehicles such that they seemed far closer. Could easily see the separation, braking burn, tracking back to cape, then descent burns. :bow:

Username Protected · **Posted:** 16 Jan 2023, 10:41

My daughter took this shot of the booster "turnaround burn" from her back yard in Melbourne, FL:

Username Protected · **Posted:** 16 Jan 2023, 11:51

Now that what I call a drone!!

Username Protected · **Posted:** 16 Jan 2023, 12:38

Username Protected wrote:

My daughter took this shot of the booster "turnaround burn" from her back yard in Melbourne, FL:

You know, the teenager in me really wants to make a comment on that photo. The adult in me is too much of a gentleman.

edit: Also, I'm stealing that photo to send to my friend in Cocoa Beach.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 16 Jan 2023, 16:17

Great balls a-fire!

Username Protected · **Posted:** 17 Jan 2023, 00:52

Radar tracking image. Musk=Dr. Evil :scratch:

Username Protected · **Posted:** 17 Jan 2023, 13:30

Username Protected wrote:

They needed the extra performance of the full fuel load to be expended on the core booster so it was expended.

You'll also notice that the center booster has no landing legs or grid fins; all left off to save weight and enable it, along with the remaining fuel, to get to the desired orbit.