SpaceX Updates (Thread 7)

[+John. Subscriber¹]

10 hours ago, DocM said:

F9 Super-Synchronous performance with a 5,330 kg satellite

 

 

Falcon 9 delivered apogee: 40,648 km

 

F9 Full Thrust is an over-achiever.

 

Circularization to GEO now even easier than planned, SES is bloody ecstatic. 

 

Elsewhere; paranoia setting in over F9's expendable performance and what this means for Falcon Heavy.

People moaning that it didn't hit the barge landing. The above is what they should be looking at instead. Brilliant news.

[Blue-Vision]

Oh yeah, SES has got to be pretty happy with those results. And the fact that SpaceX tried to recover and very nearly pulled it off says volumes.

 

Darn well right paranoia setting in -- on whose part? ULA's? Just imagine if SpaceX is doing a launch to GEO and not going for a recover ... would we then be talking 6,500 kg or even 7,000? Or more?

[DocM]

The 5.5t plus launches will likely be moved to FH, which with reusability may be cheaper than an expendable F9.

[anthdci]

are they looking at recovering the side boosters and losing the centre for the first few, before going to recover all 3?

[+John. Subscriber¹]

59 minutes ago, anthdci said:

are they looking at recovering the side boosters and losing the centre for the first few, before going to recover all 3?

 

on the FH? I don't think we know how they're going to do the first few recoveries. Assuming It's all 3 first stages at once 

 

 

 

[anthdci]

12 minutes ago, John. said:

 

on the FH? I don't think we know how they're going to do the first few recoveries. Assuming It's all 3 first stages at once 

 

 

yea I've seen that animation as a best case. Was just wondering if they would be trying to pull that off first time considering the extra distance the centre core will have to travel.

[DocM]

As far as we know FH #1 will try to recover all 3 cores. SpaceX is being cagey about the payload, but we can assume that if it's on the light side they'll go for RTLS, and if heavier they'll go for ASDS downrange. 

 

Of course "light" for Falcon Heavy could be a 20+ tonne mass simulator to LEO, and "heavier" could be a refitted used Dragon launched around the Moon on a free return trajectory. Or something we have no clue of.

[SALSN]

A Dragon around the moon would be so cool!
Or I guess they could just bring up 20 tons of cheese to LEO. :-P

[DocM]

The last we heard NASA Ames was still working on sending a Dragon 2 to Mars. Larry Lemke gave this presentation at SETI in 2014. About 70 minutes.

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

 

IMHO, SpaceX is the place to be, in this field, and I hope all the employed young ones there realize how fortunate they are.   

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Everything in this post is tentative...not confirmed

 

 

 

spaceflightnow.com  launch schedule    (rough guide...grain of salt)

http://spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule/

 

Quote

Date	Vehicle	Mission	Orbit
April 4	Falcon 9	SpaceX CRS 8	LEO
Mid-April	Falcon 9	JCSAT 14	GTO
May 3	Falcon 9	Eutelsat 117 West B & ABS 2A	GTO
June 24	Falcon 9	SpaceX CRS 9	LEO
July	Falcon 9	Iridium Next 1-10	LEO
July	Falcon 9	Amos 6	GTO
Aug. 1	Falcon 9	SpaceX CRS 10	LEO
Aug. 15	Falcon 9	SpaceX CRS 11	LEO
September	Falcon Heavy	Demo Flight
October	Falcon 9	Iridium Next 11-20	LEO
Dec. 15	Falcon 9	SpaceX CRS 12	LEO
December	Falcon 9	Crew Dragon Demo 1	LEO
March	Falcon Heavy	STP-2	LEO

table from reddit r/space, from spaceflightnow.com launch schedule

 

CRS-11 and CRS-12 are next year, SHERPA in May and Thiacom-8 in June, this year. This will all change soon enough, but I hope FHFT holds, they need the "income generator" up and launching. NSF probably has a better handle on this.

 

Don't shoot the messenger.....

[DocM]

4 hours ago, Draggendrop said:

Everything in this post is tentative...not confirmed

 

 

 

spaceflightnow.com  launch schedule    (rough guide...grain of salt)

http://spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule/

 

table from reddit r/space, from spaceflightnow.com launch schedule

 

CRS-11 and CRS-12 are next year, SHERPA in May and Thiacom-8 in June, this year. This will all change soon enough, but I hope FHFT holds, they need the "income generator" up and launching. NSF probably has a better handle on this.

 

Don't shoot the messenger.....

 

ABS/EutelSat will be a dual Boeing 702SP ion  propulsion commsat launch. They'll go into a Super-Synchronous orbit, probably over 65-70,000 km.

 

 

Edited March 9, 2016 by DocM

[DocM]

A single engine per core Falcon Heavy? A big Raptor that can thtottle enough for landings??

 

 

 

Edited March 9, 2016 by DocM

[Beittil]

No, those are just shiney aluminum stands to keep the model up. If you look closely you will see the individual engine bells on the model just above it. You can also see the individual engine bell shadows 

 

Look here for full size and you can see it better: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CdCwacDWEAAW99u.jpg:orig

 

I also wonder if SpaceX would ever go for such a setup btw, it kinda kills their whole engine out principle.

[DocM]

Whew....duh. Skipped a beat or three...

[PaulRocket]

12 hours ago, Draggendrop said:

Everything in this post is tentative...not confirmed

 

 

 

spaceflightnow.com  launch schedule    (rough guide...grain of salt)

http://spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule/

 

table from reddit r/space, from spaceflightnow.com launch schedule

 

CRS-11 and CRS-12 are next year, SHERPA in May and Thiacom-8 in June, this year. This will all change soon enough, but I hope FHFT holds, they need the "income generator" up and launching. NSF probably has a better handle on this.

 

Don't shoot the messenger.....

Do we know if they have enough margin for some GTO missions to do RTLS or is it strictly LEO RTLS and GTO ASDS landing? For example could SpaceX pull of a RTLS with a light GTO satellite?

[DocM]

5 minutes ago, PaulRocket said:

Do we know if they have enough margin for some GTO missions to do RTLS or is it strictly LEO RTLS and GTO ASDS landing? For example could SpaceX pull of a RTLS with a light GTO satellite?

 

Yes. 

[PaulRocket]

Just now, DocM said:

 

Yes. 

Thanks! Do you know how light? SES-9 was about 5mt and it was even difficult to do a ASDS landing. So for RTLS something like 2mt?

[Beittil]

It was difficult to do the ASDS landing because they sped up the booster in order to reach a higher injection orbit, roughly 15.000km higher than originally agreed I believe. That alone pretty much wrecked the fuel margin for S1.

[DocM]

George Bush's speech writer, now journalist. Wife is Staff Director of the Senate Republican Policy Committee. Maybe she can put a leash on Shelby

 

Edited March 9, 2016 by DocM

[DocM]

 

 

[SarK0Y]

next try to land?

[DocM]

April 6, CRS-8

[SarK0Y]

4 minutes ago, DocM said:

April 6, CRS-8

thanks.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

I will wait for Doc to open a new CRS-8 thread, but here is the mission patch, with #7 dark star and no ASDS.