Part of a SpaceX rocket washes up on Scilly

tres · 26 Nov 2015 at 19:20

Had some interesting photos from some friends at home this evening - they found this big thing floating in the water off of the island. They dragged it in, cleaned some of the barnacles off and uncovered a US flag and a bit of a logo.

A bit of internet research, and it turns out it's from a Falcon 9 rocket, launched by SpaceX sometime in the last couple of years.

Photos: http://imgur.com/a/Ybb6f

tres · 26 Nov 2015 at 19:22

I've had emails from people asking to buy it already after putting pics online for 10 mins.

Probably not. It's very heavy. Maybe on the roof.

tres · 26 Nov 2015 at 20:26

Reddit doing it's usual great thing

Okay, thanks to ocean debris simulations, we can place a few bounds on what vehicle this is from.
I plotted a few originating locations off the coast of Florida (both to the northeast to simulate an ISS launch and to the southeast to simulate a GTO msision) on the map courtesy of /u/darga89 's hazard maps.
It is unlikely that it is a launch from the last 18 months. In fact, if it is from a GTO mission, it is unlikely it is from the last 2 years. Using 18 months as our bound, this leaves the following 5 possible launches:
SES-8
Thaicom 6
CRS-3
OG2 L1
AsiaSat 8
I do not believe it is from a F9v1.0. I would suggest it has the highest probability of originating from one of these missions.

ChroniC said:
Surely only scrap value. It's after all just a bit of random bit of metal (on a not very well known space rocket) Hardly the Space shuttle, and then even it's probably not worth squat.

SELL SELL SELL

CRS-3 would fit that and if so, it would be a somewhat historical stage - first soft landing of an used orbital stage

tres · 26 Nov 2015 at 22:19

N17 said:
I'll take it off your hands @Tres, If you don't need it on the islands, or it could be a nice feature for the Valhala collection

I like that - very old ship bits with very new ship bits

tres · 26 Nov 2015 at 23:04

If SpaceX want it back, the island will be happy to give it back. It's a fascinating and interesting find.

tres · 27 Nov 2015 at 09:33

The rockets don't land in one piece. They get destroyed by the high impact. Airbags wouldn't work.
I think this is from the CRS-3 launch, where they tried to re-land it, but unfortunately tipped into the sea and was lost in big seas.

tres · 27 Nov 2015 at 10:37

We've narrowed down which launch it could be to one of 5...

tres · 27 Nov 2015 at 13:50

ANYWAY, back to the little investigation, I think we've worked it out to come from CRS-4 launch, September 2014

tres · 27 Nov 2015 at 16:42