The [fairing recovery boat was just noticed in mid December last year][1]. So it's possible, but [the way he discussed fairing recovery during the news conference][2], hours after the fairing would have splashed down, suggests that the fairing was not caught this time: > The black-T-shirt-wearing exec also described a new, unusual type of > drone ship SpaceX is building that could be used to help recover > Dragon and fairings (the nose cone that covers the payload on cargo > unmanned flights). > > "We've got a special boat to catch the fairing... it's like a giant > catcher's mitt in boat form... I think it might be able to do the same > thing with Dragon." Looks like this, taken on the Pacific coast: [![Fairing Recovery Ship][3]][3] It was not used in this launch. However the ASDS support ships have been collecting fairings when they land, and likely were at least out there looking. It's unknown whether an attempt was made, and whether the main core splashdown affected the fairing recovery ship if a fairing recovery was planned. I finally watched the news conference, here's the quote: > Fairing recovery has proven surprisingly difficult. I'm pretty sure we'll [solve/sort] fairing recovery in the next six months but it turns out that if you pop the parachute in the fairing you've got this giant awkward thing it tends to interfere with the airflow on the parachute and gets all twisty. Obviously it was a low priority too. Also we have fairing version two, that's the important one we want to recover, so even if we recovered fairing version one that wouldn't be - we wouldn't be reflying it in the future. So fairing two and recovery that's very important and my guess is next six months we've got fairing recovery figured out. We've got a special boat to catch the fairing, just like a catchers mitt, a giant catcher's mitt, just in boat form it's going to run around and catch the fairing. I think we can do the same thing with Dragon. About 26 minutes into [this video][4]. It's safe to say it was not caught. [1]: https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-fairing-grabber-claw-recovery-boat/ [2]: https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-reveals-spacex-plans-after-falcon-heavy-launch/ [3]: https://i.sstatic.net/SS2aJ.jpg [4]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sytrrdOPYzA