Fairing Recovery Attempts

Fairing half landing in the Ms. Tree’s net during the Amos-17 mission (Credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX has been working for years towards recovering and reusing payload fairings. Fairing is a two-piece protective shell made of aluminum and carbon composite at the tip of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. Its purpose is to protect the payload from acoustic and atmospheric effects during launch. A Falcon fairing is almost 14 meters tall. Due to its size and the materials used, fairing production is time-consuming and costly (SpaceX produces the fairings in-house and the total cost for two fairing halves is 5 or 6 million dollars). So it is no wonder that the company would like to recover the fairings in order to use them repeatedly, just as it does with its rocket boosters.

Each fairing half is equipped with a steerable parafoil and small thrusters which allow the fairings to reenter the atmosphere intact and guide them toward a recovery zone. They then attempt to land in the ocean or on modified ships Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief equipped with large nets. Landing in the net is preferable because contact with salt water makes reusing the fairings harder (but still possible).

This list of fairing recovery attempts recognizes three generations of fairings: v1.0, v2.0 and v2.5. These are unofficial designations and there might actually be fewer or more fairing types. Version 1.0 was used until early 2018 with only one fairing half containing parachutes. Version 2.0 was used for most of 2018, was slightly wider and both of its halves could be recovered. Version 2.5 is the most recent type which added a metal thermal protection on the tip of the fairing.

» Much more detailed article about fairing recovery and the ships Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief «

Changelog:

• Jul 2, 2020 – Added photos of recovered fairings from the GPSIII-SV03 mission
• Jun 30, 2020 – Added information and photos from the GPSIII-SV03 recovery attempt
• Jun 15, 2020 – Added information and photos from the Starlink v1-8 recovery attempt
• Jun 12, 2020 – Fairing halves from Starlink v1-2 and JCSAT-18 missions will fly again on Starlink v1-8
• Jun 6, 2020 – Added information and photos from the Starlink v1-7 recovery attempt
• Apr 24, 2020 – Added information and photos from the Starlink v1-6 recovery attempt
• Apr 17, 2020 – Fairings from Amos-17 will be reflown on Starlink v1-6
• Mar 21, 2020 – List first published

Legend: YES means either that the fairing successfully landed in the net, or that it was recovered intact after a PLANNED ocean landing. YES means that the fairing missed the net but was then recovered from the ocean intact. NO means that the fairing wasn’t recovered intact (regardless of planned landing method).