SpaceX Updates (Thread 7)

[DocM]

Won't happen. Those cores are already integrated with engines.

[PaulRocket]

Ok! We'll see! The only thing we do know is that's going to get exciting.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

bits and bytes....

 

I watched the US  "State of the Union" last night, but on PBS and missed this. The .gov feed had shown this image while talking of innovation....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the pic going in at 39A

 

 

 

This pick was mentioned on reddit as stage movement to LC40...but had no mention of time or a time stamp...if a photo buff could zoom to cleaned grid fins, it would tell us time placement....

 

 

 

 

Thought this was neat...Kamag haulers, each wheel independent, steerable and independent suspension.....same company but different model...

 

SPMT Film SCHEUERLE NICOLAS KAMAG TII Group, video is 7:34 min.

 

 

 

 

[Beittil]

Ok, so there is news popping up all over Twitter that SpaceX received an AF contract to help them develop the Raptor engine on the path to RD180 replacement. This surprises me to be honest, because:

 

1. Like the BE-4 this will be a Methalox engine.

2. As such it cannot drop in on Atlas V as a mere replacement with some minimal tooling.

3. Does this imply that SpaceX would eventually be interested in selling their engines to a third party that builds a rocket around them?

 

What is going on here?

[DocM]

When SpaceX's Jeff Thornburg testified before Congress in June 2015 he said of Raptor,

 

http://spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=47400

 

Quote

 

>

Raptor could have significant applications for national security space launch, all while significantly advancing U.S. industrial capability and technology with respect to liquid rocket engines. With a highly scalable engine cycle, Raptor's "light and tight" design is built for operational functionality, cost efficiency and long life in high production volume, which makes it ideal for NSS needs.

The engine utilizes a closed cycle with the objective of achieving the highest performance possible for a methane rocket engine while also delivering extended reusability through new SpaceX technologies and more benign turbine environments.

Key engine components and large structures have been additively manufactured, and Raptor will be the first large liquid engine in the world constructed largely with printed parts.

Raptor directly contributes to the rapid advancement of oxygen-rich and full-flow staged combustion and additive manufacturing technologies for the United Statesenhancing U.S. industrial capability.

Further, the engine enhances state-of-the-art, high-performing EELV-class propulsive capabilities for future flight engine systems to support commercial and NSS applications in accordance with Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (FY15 NDAA), Section 1604.

The flexibility of the Raptor design enables the technology to be applied to existing EELV-certified launch vehicles.

>

 

I would predict that being a full flow staged combustion engine, the first operation engine of this type, it'll have serious thrust/weight advantages over BE-4 which uses a more conventional cycle.

[DocM]

Crosspost from the news thread

 

Raptor upper stage!!

http://www.losangeles.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123466879

1/13/2016 - LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.  -- Today the Space and Missile Systems Center awarded the first two Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs) for shared public-private investments in Rocket Propulsion System (RPS) prototypes to SpaceX for development testing of the Raptor upper stage engine and Orbital ATK for development of the Common Booster Segment main stage, the Graphite Epoxy Motor (GEM) 63XL strap-on booster, and an extendable nozzle for Blue Origin's BE-3U/EN upper stage engine. 

>

[DocM]

ASDS Just Read the Instructions LIVES!!!!

 

 

Port of LA home 

 

    

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Marmac 303, JRTI on the Pacific

Marmac 304, OCISLY, on the Atlantic

 

OK...time for some paint scratching...hate that new barge smell....

 

in other news.....

 

 

 

 

[DocM]

ISS Commercial Resupply Sdevices  2 contract awards today at 1600 Eastern

 

Quote

 

January 14, 2016 

 

MEDIA ADVISORY M16-002

 

NASA to Make Major Space Station Cargo Transport Announcement Today 

 

NASA will make a major announcement today at 4 p.m. EST regarding the future of commercial resupply launches to the International Space Station (ISS). The announcement will be made during a news conference from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency’s website at:

 

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

 

The event will include a brief question-and-answer session with media.

 

The news conference participants are:

 

Ellen Ochoa, Johnson Space Center director

 

Sam Scimemi, ISS Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington

 

Kirk Shireman, ISS program manager at Johnson

 

Julie Robinson, ISS chief scientist at Johnson

 

Media may attend the briefing at Johnson, or ask questions by phone by calling the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 3:45 p.m. Accreditation for international media is closed for this event.

 

For more information on the International Space Station, visit:

 

http://www.nasa.gov/station

 

For breaking news and features, follow the station on Twitter:

 

https://twitter.com/Space_Station

 

 

[DocM]

Landed stage static fire this afternoon, about the same time as the CRS-2 contracts presser. 

 

Also,

 

 

 

 

[PaulRocket]

Any news on the static fire?

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

6 hours ago, DocM said:

 

 

 

In reference to this...

 

With Eutelsat Win, SpaceX has Business with All 5 Top Satellite Fleet Owners

 

Quote

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Satellite fleet operator Eutelsat has selected SpaceX to launch the Eutelsat Quantum or another Eutelsat telecommunications satellite, a contract that gives SpaceX business with all of the world’s top five commercial fleet owners, industry officials said.

 

Paris-based Eutelsat declined to comment on whether it had sealed an order with SpaceX, as did Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX. But industry officials said that Eutelsat booked a firm order in the latter half of 2015.

 

SpaceX received two satellite-launch orders from Canada’s Telesat in 2015. The Eutelsat contract means SpaceX has in its backlog — for the Falcon 9 Full Thrust or the future Falcon Heavy version — orders from SES of Luxembourg; Intelsat of Luxembourg and McLean, Virginia; Eutelsat; Telesat and Inmarsat of London.

 

While satellite owners usually insist that their satellites be compatible with all the major commercial rockets — the Ariane 5, Falcon 9 and Russia’s Proton — they have preferences that are often based on their comfort with launch providers. Conducting a successful launch is the best way to build comfort and make the next launch contract that much easier to win.

 

The bigger its fleet, the more often an operator must launch just to maintain its current business. SES and Intelsat, for example, together operate around 100 satellites, meaning they must book a combined six satellites per year in replacement capacity alone. Growth capacity would add to that number.

 

Despite the many one-satellite national satellite owners being created mainly in emerging-market nations, a launch service provider, like the neighborhood restaurant, cannot survive without repeat business.

 

Eutelsat launched its 115 West B satellite aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket in March 2015. But the launch had been booked by Satmex of Mexico before Eutelsat’s purchase of Satmex. Eutelsat’s 117 West B is scheduled for a SpaceX launch in 2016, a contract that also came with the Satmex acquisition.

 

Eutelsat officials said they were impressed with the accuracy of the Falcon 9, which enabled their all-electric 115 West B to reach its operating position several weeks ahead of schedule, enabling an early start to service and revenue.

 

More than any of its rivals, Eutelsat has wrapped itself in the European flag. Almost all its satellites are from European manufacturers, and it has been one of Arianespace’s best customers.

 

SpaceX’s lower-cost commercial offering has been the bête noire of Europe’s launch sector, and of some European politicians, for several years, making any choice of the California company by a European operator a source of controversy.

 

In 2015, when Airbus Defence and Space tentatively selected SpaceX to launch the Airbus-owned EDRS-C data-relay satellite — whose mission received financial support from the European Space Agency and European Commission – French politicians lined up to protest the deal.

 

Airbus ultimately switched to Arianespace after what industry officials said was supplemental European government financing so that the Ariane 5 launch cost Airbus not much more than a SpaceX launch.

 

One European industry official said the same thing may happen again, especially if Eutelsat decides that it is the Eutelsat Quantum flexible-payload satellite that will launch on SpaceX. Quantum is a European Space Agency-financed effort, with the British government the principal backer.

 

Eutelsat said Jan. 12 that it had made no decision on what rocket will launch Quantum.

 

Eutelsat is free to select its own launcher, even in a public-private partnership such as Eutelsat Quantum — just as was Airbus for EDRS-C. But the political fallout may be more than the company would want to bear, especially without a British government signal that it was comfortable with the choice.

 

The kind of pressure that even private-sector operators feel when the go outside Europe for procurement was in clear evidence here Jan. 12-13 during the 8th Conference on European Space Policy, held at the European Commission.

 

Several European government officials and parliament members called for stricter rules binding all European governments to select European launchers.

 

But Europe’s private sector and some of its governments continue to go outside Europe for satellites and launches.

 

The German government used Russian rockets for its first-generation radar reconnaissance system, and has purchased two launches from SpaceX for the three-satellite SARah second-generation constellation. The program’s prime contractor, OHB SE of Bremen, Germany, has said only by using an old Airbus launch option with SpaceX was it able to meet the contract specifications and stay within the German government’s SARah budget.

Hispasat of Spain is the most recent European operator to select SpaceX, with an order placed in 2015. A second Hispasat order went to International Launch Services of Reston, Virginia, for Russia’s Proton rocket.

 

Hispasat Chief Technical Officer Antonio Abad told the conference that Hispasat had selected Ariane for eight of its 11 satellites so far, with the remaining three going to SpaceX, Proton and the U.S. Atlas 5.

 

“Diversification is important for us,” Abad said. “We are very good friends of [Arianespace], but we need to maintain alternative suppliers. We need to have competition to make sure the launchers are competitive, and to maintain schedule assurance. We need several launcher providers.”

 

Abad said that a company like Hispasat must  “maintain neutrality among our suppliers. We want to be able to select the satellite we want, and to launch it on the launcher we want. Don’t forget that.”

http://spacenews.com/with-eutelsat-win-spacex-has-business-with-all-5-top-satellite-fleet-owners/

 

Nothing id being said due to the above. Gets bad when one has to hide a launch till last minute from a subsidized launcher or it gets overturned.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Still no word...but, have a few images...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Beittil]

Heh, weird to see a rocket on that spot without the strongback holding it... then again, the strongback can't hold it like this anyway since it grabs Falcon 9 by the 2nd stage

 

Also... why does that Ben Brockert guy keep calling it Falcon 9.2 That is just as silly as all those masses of people that keep spelling the company name wrong (the short version at least)... 'Spacex', 'Space x', 'Space-x', 'Space-X'... Geez guys... how hard can it be... it's 'SpaceX'! No more, no less. Ah well... /rant off

[DocM]

The strongback is there, its just laying horizontal on the other side.

 

They brought it in, attached its launch mount (which has the hold down clamps), unlocked the tower and laid it flat. Then they craned in the launcher and attached it to the mount. No need for fancy stuff if you have a practical design and a good crew of crane jockeys on staff.

 

Gotta love those SpaceX pad rats.

[anthdci]

so do we know when they will announce that the static fire of the used first stage is a success?

[DocM]

After its been completed would be preferable.

[anthdci]

16 minutes ago, DocM said:

After its been completed would be preferable.

Yea sorry it wasn't clear at all there! Do we know when the test will be completed, and how long it will take them to announce that it was a success? I am presuming there wont be a live video of it.

[DocM]

The static fire is only part of this test, signs are they are also fine tuning the new LC-40A propellant supercooling system using the landed stage. The supercooling system was a tad twitchy during the ORBCOMM 2 wet dress rehearsal & static fire and they'd want to nail it down before the SES-8 commsat launch campaign in 3 weeks. Once they do a static fire long enough to get good data (all 9 engines reach 100%) they'll issue a tweet, then report on the data analysis shortly after. A day or two is typical.

 

This process with Falcon Heavy may take time to smooth out as well since it'll have 3 cores and 27 engines. Due to happen this spring.

Edited January 15, 2016 by DocM

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Rumour has it that the stage would have sat a long time waiting for 39A to be ready and therefore decided to use 40 instead. As Doc said, now kills two birds with one stone (metaphorical in case PETA on the prowl).

 

 

 

[DocM]

Today's static fire attempt was slowed by that damned twitchy Florida weather; winds, rain and lightning, but it's cleared now. Well see if they can pull it off in what's left of the day.

[DocM]

Landed stage static fire attempt within an hour or so.

 

Yesterday's attempt was prevented because of ground support equipment issues, not the stage.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Only saw this, but you probably already saw this Doc...

 

 

 

[DocM]

No, I hadn't. Another source.

 

EDIT: THEY SHOOT, THEY SCORE!!

 

Nailed the T-0 target. Waiting for the data review, but it looks good.

Edited January 16, 2016 by DocM