{"id":24533,"date":"2022-08-04T00:53:28","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T16:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-working-to-improve-fairing-recovery-for-continued-success\/"},"modified":"2022-08-04T00:53:28","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T16:53:28","slug":"spacex-working-to-improve-fairing-recovery-for-continued-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-working-to-improve-fairing-recovery-for-continued-success\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX working to improve fairing recovery for continued success"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a year of solid success with Falcon 9 fairing recovery and reuse, SpaceX has once again started tinkering with the recovery operation.<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s fairing recovery program has been in development for many years and has evolved into a largely underappreciated, but highly successful, operation. Fairings are now regularly flying on multiple missions in a consistent manner, and it\u2019s rare for a fairing to be recovered in a damaged state or not at all. The current confirmed flight record is six reuses of a fairing half.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Since the introduction of multi-purpose SpaceX vessels Bob<\/em> and Doug<\/em>, SpaceX has enjoyed this success in the wake of several years of inconsistency during which time SpaceX pursued catching the fairing with vessels Ms. Tree<\/em> and Ms. Chief<\/em>. Having ultimately abandoned the catching method\u2013and Ms. Tree<\/em> and Chief<\/em>\u2013the company started using cranes to recover the fairing halves.<\/p>\n

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Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief near Port Canaveral. (Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF)<\/p>\n

For this to work, SpaceX positioned a vessel with a crane downrange in a pre-determined area. The fairing would descend towards the ocean under parafoil and then make a soft splashdown.<\/p>\n

The recovery ship would then move in and deploy a fast boat and the crane. Workers on the fast boat would then rig the fairing to the crane, and it would be lifted onto the ship and brought back to land. Starting with contracted vessels in March 2021, SpaceX ultimately designed their own custom vessels for the task and introduced Bob<\/em> and Doug<\/em> in August 2021.<\/p>\n

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Multi-purpose vessel Bob in Port Canaveral. (Credit: Stephen Marr for NSF)<\/p>\n

Further optimizations<\/p>\n

In the last few weeks, SpaceX has started to tinker with the recovery system used by Bob<\/em> and Doug<\/em>. A new rig that is hoisted by the cranes on each vessel has been used in a series of faring recovery tests.<\/p>\n

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The rig being tested appears to compromise three inflatables with a net strung between them. The crane lowers this net down into the water, and the fairing either drifts into the net or is nudged into it with a small support boat.<\/p>\n