Rocket Ignition!

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June 27, 2024
Port Canaveral Florida

Rocket Nose cone (Payload Fairings)
Returned to Land for Refurbishing

Cargo Ship 'Bob' returned to Port Canaveral with rocket nose cone fairing halves
from 2 different launches!

Each fairing half costs about $5 million, so resusing these is important to keeping down costs.
These fairing halves have flown for up to 20 times each (saving $100 million).
There are 4 haves on this ship, so over their lifetime as much as $800 million has been saved.

A Tesla Roadster car can fit inside the fairings with room to spare (and did and has traveled past Mars)

PHOTOS
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View 1	RoadsterScale	RoadsterInside

This is one way that SpaceX outcompetes all it's competitors, bringing the cost of launches and satellite service down dramatically.
The Fairing descends by parchute, floats on the ocean like a very large boat, and are then they picked up by a cargo ship like 'Bob'

I did not see Bob come into port, but I did see the fairings (for my first time) while docket awating transport back to SpaceX factory or refurbishing and re-use. Most oter rocket companies (including NASA) have not recovered any hardware, and No other rocket company has ever landed a booster except SpaceX.

These Fairings/Rocket Flight Data

Falcon 9 Starlink Group 10-2
Cape Canaveral, FL
Launched Sunday, June 23, 2024 at 1:15:00 PM

Record 20th flight for this payload fairing half
The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, B1078, launched for an 11th time.
22 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation Internet communication system.

Falcon Heavy GOES-U Weather Satellite
Cape Canaveral, FL
Launched Tuesday, June 25, 2024 at 5:26 PM

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-U (GOES-U) is the fourth of the next generation of geostationary weather satellites, known as the GOES-R series.
The four satellites of the series provide advanced imaging for more accurate forecasts, real-time mapping of lightning activity, and improved monitoring of solar activity.
Once GOES-U reaches orbit, it will drop U designation and be renamed GOES-19.