Three’s Company - JCSAT-14 Falcon 9 Arrives At LC-39A.

Three’s Company - JCSAT-14 Falcon 9 arrives at LC-39A.

Eight days after lofting the JCSAT-14 satellite to orbit, Falcon 9 #024 arrived at the Horizontal Integration Facility at LC-39A late Saturday afternoon (May 14).

In the photos above released by SpaceX, the three recovered rocket stages can be seen in the HIF where they have been undergoing disassembly, thorough inspection, and testing. F9-024 - JCSAT-14 - is in the middle, flanked by F9-021 (Orbcomm OG2) on left and F9-023 (CRS-8) on right.

The second picture shows the aft end of each rocket, with Orbcomm on the left, JCSAT-14 center, and CRS-8 on right. It’s interesting to compare the level of disassembly of the prior two recovered stages. Falcon 9′s nine Merlin 1D engines have been entirely removed from F9-023, while the same five engines from F9-021 first seen missing in April are still removed. It is believed that the engines from both Orbcomm and CRS-8 will be tested at the company’s McGregor facility before returning to the cape for reintegration and, in the case of F9-023, reflight.

Also note that both previously recovered rockets are missing the aerodynamic grid fins, which help direct the rocket as it falls through the atmosphere towards a precision landing on the droneship.

Initial inspection of F9-024 - JCSAT-14  - once it arrived in the HIF showed that the stage experienced what Elon Musk called “maximum damage.” Since Falcon 9 delivered JCSAT-14 to Geostationary Transfer orbit, the rocket landed at twice the speed and with eight times the energy of a normal landing.

Musk’s tweet implies that the rocket was damaged as much as possible without actually breaking, and won’t actually be flown again. He goes on to state that it will be used as a benchmark for future GTO-recovered stages, comparing their damages with that of F9-024. This will help determine if they can be reused again.