AUTOMATED – Falcon9 Block5

This is a fully autonomous replica of the SpaceX Falcon 9 capable of launch and landing on both the drone ship and at the DSC launch site. Just spawn the rocket at any location at DSC and the flight computers will do the rest. Once the rocket has completed its ascent and boost back burn, take control of the second stage to boost your payload into a higher trajectory. Just make sure to switch back to the booster before its entry and landing burns!

This craft is the latest in a series of rockets ultimately leading to a fully autonomous Starship, Superheavy and Chopstick system. Featuring a fully overhauled code base and working aerodynamics and grid-fins compared with my previous craft. As before, landing sites can be configured in the flight code (see notes). Next up will hopefully be a fully reusable falcon heavy to finalise the code structure allowing for multiple boosters to be controlled at once (or boosters and chopsticks…)!

Checkout the previous Automated SN8 flight test
Credit to GreenGalaxyAeroSpace for designing the SpaceX logos on this rocket!

NOTES:

-Payload is configurable up to 12T (Ideally keep the weight around this value)

-Can be launched from any location at DSC (Please do not launch at the Launch Pad Large for RTLS landings)

-To switch between landing locations, change the “DroneShipLanding” variable in the code to
0 = Return to Launch Site
1 = Drons Ship

-If switching crafts back to the booster, sometimes the landing site needs to be reset as a target for the entry burn to work properly (Do this when switching back from the second stage if the booster is not targeting anything!)

-Any problems please let me know in the comments