SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You arrives at Panama Canal

by

in

Ten days and one unexpected detour after SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) departed Port Canaveral, Florida for what could be the last time ever, the ship has arrived at the Panama Canal.

The five thousand mile (~8000 km) journey began almost exactly on June 10th and saw drone ship OCISLY towed to the Bahamas – an unanticipated development. Unlike drone ship sibling Just Read The Instructions (JRTI), which made the same journey in reverse about a year and a half ago, OCISLY was loaded onto the deck of large semi-submersible transport ship known as Mighty Servant 1 (MS1). Normally used to transporting entire ships and oil and gas equipment weighing tens of thousands of tons, a SpaceX drone ship – while still huge – is a featherweight load in comparison.

As a result, despite a several days spent waiting in the Bahamas, MS1 – carrying drone ship OCISLY – sped to the Panama Canal’s Atlantic harbor in just five days, nearly averaging its top speed with a load.

Barring surprises, OCISLY and Mighty Servant 1 will transit no later than Friday, June 25th. I suspect it will actually occur on June 21st or 22nd. MS1 then has ~3300 mi (5300 km) left to reach Port of Long Beach, which should take about 10 days at ~12 knots. https://t.co/vXjhh1zzOg

— Eric Ralph (@13ericralph31) June 21, 2021

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Following a midday June 20th arrival just outside of the canal’s protected harbor, MS1 and OCISLY have simply been waiting their turn – one in a queue of around 70 other large ships. It remains to be seen how long the SpaceX drone ship will have to wait before transiting the canal and beginning the last major leg of its journey to Port of Long Beach, California. Due to the massive dimensions of MS1’s drone ship ‘cargo,’ special permission was needed from the Panama Canal Authority to (slightly) surpass its normal size limits.

The exceptionally small margin of error for this particular transit – leaving just a few feet (~1m) between OCISLY and the canal walls – may require special attention and a longer journey than usual. In other words, SpaceX could have to wait days for a unique window or – as part of its one-time wide-load transit permit – its transit window may already have been scheduled within a day or two of arrival.

SpaceX drone ship heads to the Bahamas for its ride to California

The latter scenario is more likely and could see Mighty Servant 1 reach the Pacific Ocean as early as Wednesday or Thursday. Last-second transit slots are still available on Friday, June 25th as of Monday, indicating that the Panama Canal isn’t particularly congested at the moment.

Once MS1 and OCISLY complete their transit and reach the Pacific, the pair will have approximately 3300 miles (~5300 km) to go to reach Port of Long Beach, the drone ship’s new home. Assuming Mighty Servant 1 can manage a similarly impressive average speed on the last leg of its journey, the trip from Panama City to Los Angeles could take less than ten days, culminating in an arrival within the first several days of July. That would leave SpaceX several weeks to check out the drone ship after its long journey and prepare it for its first West Coast booster recovery.

Long Beach CA will soon be welcoming SpaceX’s OCISLY, currently making her journey from Cape Canaveral FL. No activity here at Pier T as of yesterday, but ohhhhh there will be. pic.twitter.com/6srBjFIwpR

— Pauline Acalin (@w00ki33) June 20, 2021

For several months, SpaceX has been angling to return its quiet West Coast launch facilities to flight with a string of dedicated polar Starlink launches – the first of which could happen as early as July. While very little else is known about the status of that launch, OCISLY arriving in the first week of the month would all but guarantee that drone ship availability won’t be the cause of any hypothetical upcoming delays.

The post SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You arrives at Panama Canal appeared first on TESLARATI.

Article Source and Credit teslarati.com https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-west-coast-drone-ship-panama-canal-arrival/ Buy Tickets for every event – Sports, Concerts, Festivals and more buytickets.com

Discover more from Teslas Only

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading