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Chat has once again led me to ask a question.

Geoffc suggest that the "two bottom feeds were from the same camera" as they aimed at the same landing site. I then started to collect some images to see if they were indeed identical (listed below):

Image 1: Booster footage showing the ignition of the other side booster with identical orientation.

Launch pad in site, with ignition of booster that lands on LZ-1

Image 2: Pre-separation, The land is clearly identical in orientation, although the flame is only nearly identical.

Same booster pre-separation

Now I'm of the opinion that the same identical camera was used, this is especially clear at the end, when both cameras are shown aiming for LZ-2. But was this the case throughout the flight? Or did something go wrong shortly before landing requiring them to resort to using the same footage twice.

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you look at the feed where the shoreline starts to become visible? I thought I saw a marked rotation difference in those shots. $\endgroup$
    – JPhi1618
    Commented Feb 6, 2018 at 22:09
  • $\begingroup$ At some point during the sequence the two images are visibly offset a little bit compared to each other. That could either be due to a single feed having been cropped slightly different or two cameras both mounted on the same booster. $\endgroup$
    – kasperd
    Commented Feb 6, 2018 at 22:12
  • $\begingroup$ @kasperd I think that was due to a time delay of a frame or three, rather than a crop or two different cameras. $\endgroup$
    – Russell Borogove
    Commented Feb 6, 2018 at 22:13
  • $\begingroup$ @RussellBorogove To me it looked like every single burn on the way down happened simultaneously in the two views, so I doubt it was due to delay. $\endgroup$
    – kasperd
    Commented Feb 6, 2018 at 22:14
  • $\begingroup$ I had the same suspicion, the jet firings, plumes, etc looked identical. $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Feb 6, 2018 at 22:26

9 Answers 9

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The feeds were identical throughout the flight. It was definitely recorded from the same booster. At booster separation you can clearly see the shoreline. If it was the camera view from the other booster the background would be rotated by 180°, which it wasn't:

enter image description here

Also the RCS puffs happened at the exact same time, which is highly unlikely as the boosters have to make their own individual corrections:

enter image description here

Note that the frames (timing) and viewport are not identical, but this is most likely a side-effect of rendering them into one video.

Update: SpaceX has uploaded an edited version of the video, now correctly showing the feeds from both boosters:

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  • $\begingroup$ Just before touchdown, both views show the southernmost booster (top of frame) with the water to the east (left) while independent views would have at least one of those references reversed. The live announcer got it wrong but said it only once, when he referenced two different cameras. $\endgroup$
    – fred_dot_u
    Commented Feb 6, 2018 at 22:40
  • $\begingroup$ The differences are due to timing; one of the sides was delayed slightly compared to the other. $\endgroup$
    – 2012rcampion
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 0:49
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    $\begingroup$ SpaceX has now uploaded an updated version with both side booster camera feeds visible: youtube.com/watch?v=bCc16uozHVE $\endgroup$
    – Aleksi Torhamo
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 4:29
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    $\begingroup$ @NestorLedon The URL changed for whatever reason.. It's here now: youtube.com/watch?v=wbSwFU6tY1c $\endgroup$
    – Floern
    Commented Feb 8, 2018 at 22:40
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    $\begingroup$ @NestorLedon: It seems SpaceX replaced the original video with the updated one; I'm not sure if that's a thing that's normally possible on YouTube or if they pulled some strings. At the moment there's only one Falcon Heavy Launch video on SpaceX's channel (which Floern also linked to, above), and it's URL is the same as the original livestream (non-updated video), but the contents are definitely the updated video (whose URL no longer works) with both side booster camera feeds visible etc. $\endgroup$
    – Aleksi Torhamo
    Commented Feb 8, 2018 at 22:51
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Confirmed.

SpaceX has updated their launch video with the proper views.

24 minutes in

Read the description

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    $\begingroup$ I saw this too but for some reason it has now been removed! $\endgroup$
    – PeterVermont
    Commented Feb 8, 2018 at 0:06
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It was definitely the same camera - its most obvious when they land. You can see the other landing platform (for the other booster) in the same place in both feeds.

Just an easy mistake. Still amazing!

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  • $\begingroup$ I realise that at the end were the same, but is that to say they were the same the whole time? $\endgroup$
    – Edlothiad
    Commented Feb 6, 2018 at 22:50
  • $\begingroup$ @Edlothiad They were the same from the start. $\endgroup$
    – Saiboogu
    Commented Feb 10, 2018 at 20:39
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https://twitter.com/enuminous/status/961676405141536768 I used Smarter Every Day's capture and the re-uploaded, edited SpaceX version. Totally edited.

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  • $\begingroup$ Welcome to Space Exploration! Can you expand your answer to include some details that answer the question? $\endgroup$
    – Machavity
    Commented Feb 8, 2018 at 21:33
  • $\begingroup$ When I saw the feed, live, I noted that we did not see different views in the two lower frames, other than a slight edge difference. I then noticed that SpaceX had, indeed changed the video, because when I watched the replay, I saw they had updated a live feed. I know of another time Google has intervened for a client, but contractually cannot be more specific. $\endgroup$
    – Matthew Wright
    Commented Feb 9, 2018 at 0:07
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At least the last part of the video frames for the two side boosters were both definitely from the same camera. I support the arguments above. The landing itself (a single video of both pads) looks genuine and awesome to me.

Altogether amazing. Go SpaceX !!

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  • $\begingroup$ In rockets, weight should be reduced on any costs. Thus, also I can't imagine, why would they use multiple cameras on the same location of the rocket. :-) $\endgroup$
    – peterh
    Commented Feb 8, 2018 at 3:45
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I watched this on an iPad and did a cross eyed stereo superimposition of the booster windows from just before separation all the way to ground, they are identical. Stereo "lock" was never lost and they clearly both landed on the same pad. Great launch and landing.

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Originally, yes. It was edited at some point. The problem with that is that no where does it notate the edit. A simple camera feed mistake could easily have been fixed and the edit noted. That Google allowed an exception to their usual policy due to the extraordinary nature of the live feed would have been justified and understandable. That it was done without acknowledging the edit calls the credibility of both Spacex and Google into question. JMHO

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The booster footage was the same. What probably happened was they were not getting a good signal from one of the boosters (the bottom right video) during the live stream of the landing, and so they doubled one video. What I don't understand is why they made it slightly out of synch so it would look like two feeds. I have a copy of the original footage, and updated footage they posted later, and it looks like they inserted the proper video footage in it's place. Here is a picture of both booster landing videos just before landing:The top half is the updated SpaceX video and the bottom is the original feed.

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This question has been clearly answered - the live video feed was definitely from just one booster, and I wish SpaceX would just be open about it. I'm sure it was a simple mistake in real-time, but the poor cover-up sucks.
And while we're at it... it was obvious watching the live event that the center booster crashed. The two commentators got the news in their ears, and struggled to not let on what happened. And later everyone noticeably didn't mention the status. The live video showed the camera lens instantly washed over with water/etc that obstructed the view, but the feed was still live, showing the empty landing pad, with no booster. I knew right then that it crashed, and I'm sure you all did too.

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  • $\begingroup$ and struggled to not let on what happened That is your interpretation. $\endgroup$
    – user10509
    Commented Feb 12, 2018 at 18:47

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