On Jul/25/2020 at 19:37, JF Mezei wrote :
On 2020-07-25 14:49, Alain Fournier wrote:
Not nearly as important as recovering the first stage, but still
recovering the nose cone reduces yet again launch costs for SpaceX.
Their fairing recovery ships caught both halves of the nose cone on
their launch Monday.


How is this done?

is there logic on the fairing to control parachutes to steeer to the
location of ship with the net?

Or does the ship with the net have high speed capability to position
itself under the arriving fairing?

My understanding is that it is the latter, the ships are high speed and
go to where the fairing will fall.

In the first case, I assume the awaiting ships are pre-positioned to
area where the fairings are expected to drop based on wind etc.

From orbital mechanics point of view, was this a question of SpaceX
learning how long it takes for the fairings to tumble in space before
they "hit" atmosphere and start to fall? Or it is a calculated thing?


Alain Fournier