SpaceX Updates (Thread 8)

[Draggendrop Veteran]

I thought this was interesting...the image...

 

 

 

little larger...

 

 

 

[DocM]

That image was created by okan170, a user on NSF. From his DeviantArt gallery.

 

http://okan170.deviantart.com

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

1 minute ago, DocM said:

That image was created by okan170, a user on NSF. From his DeviantArt gallery.

 

 

This looks great...very talented....

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Really cool Photoshop of the original (which is one of my favorite images of the shuttles)

 

You can also see the beginnings of the lightning towers around 39B.

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

bits and bytes...from the 39A outside presser for CRS-10, with Gwynne Shotwell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

[DocM]

Heading to McGregor

 

https://imgur.com/a/t9UAX

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Gossip has this as CRS-11 due to Intelsat probably being expendable as well (more mass than Echostar, ref to leg attachment).....?

[DocM]

CRS-11 looks to be targeting April 9. So, 3-4 weeks to test and get it to KSC 2 weeks before launch, plus giving them a fudge factor for the March launch delays, seems to work.

[Unobscured Vision]

Seems to me they'd wanna move all their operations to Texas soon. California is kinda "out of the way" as far as Rocket companies go ... and trucking those boosters cross-country seems rather impractical to me after a while. 

 

/shrug

[DocM]

SpaceX's contract with the city of Hawthorne is up in 2022. 

 

If they were to move some ops would have to stay in California to support Vandenberg, but they'd save a ton in taxes by having their major facilities in places like Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia & Florida.

[DocM]

This CRS-10 video isn't much, but near the end they caught the stage landings triple sonic boom in its full glory.

 

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

16 hours ago, Unobscured Vision said:

Seems to me they'd wanna move all their operations to Texas soon. California is kinda "out of the way" as far as Rocket companies go ... and trucking those boosters cross-country seems rather impractical to me after a while. 

 

/shrug

Just my opinion on this...purely a business decision...here is why...

 Location is everything for a business...

1) Taxation incentives for a large company..as Doc has mentioned, Hawthorne works great with a lot of support.

2) Location to a major port...location to a major airport...rail corridor...highway transport...climate

3) Location to a large population base..very important for vendors and skilled labor.

4) Location to other ventures...All of Elon's companies are in reasonable range to Hawthorne and afford access to the same vendors and personnel.

5) Skilled labor force in STEM fields...a certain "valley" rings a bell.

6) Proximity to other large corporations....The west coast, California in particular, is a tech hotbed...this ensures a vast vendor base as well as a labor pool.

In short, ideal situation in Hawthorne for local political support, access to a skilled labor force, access to a large vendor base, access to Elon's other ventures along the coast and transportation needs.

 The cost to "truck" a stage around is deemed a "cost of doing business" and factored into the operation. It would cost more to ship this volume by air.

In short...trucking would be of little concern when weighed against all the corporate benefits of their present HQ and plants.

It's just business...

 

[Unobscured Vision]

All true.  And in the grand scheme of things, it really isn't much of an issue where your operations are located. Those Falcon-9's are relatively light when they aren't loaded with fuel -- just long. And they sure keep going, don't they?

[anthdci]

15 hours ago, DocM said:

This CRS-10 video isn't much, but near the end they caught the stage landings triple sonic boom in its full glory.

 

 

we are planning on going back over to orlando in jan 2018, this time I am going to the space centre with my brother and father in law to hopefully see a launch. My wife and mother in law want to spend the day at cocoa beach while we are there so we were just talking on friday night about how much they could see from the beach. That video answers that question!

[DocM]

Imagine two landing at once from a FH launch.

[DocM]

Spacesuits? FH maiden payload? Perhaps a formal partnering with Google for CommX. Google has slowed their fiber deployment and the speculation has been some form of wireless would take the lead.

 

 

Edited February 27, 2017 by DocM

[+John. Subscriber¹]

7 hours ago, DocM said:

Spacesuits? FH maiden payload? Perhaps a formal partnering with Google for CommX. Google has slowed their fiber deployment and the speculation has been some form of wireless would take the lead.

 

My vote is on spacesuits, considering Boeing just showed theirs off on the Colbert show, and orbitaloutfitters.com is down

 

Happy for any sort of announcement though. Any news is good news

[PaulRocket]

I'm guessing its suits too, but I would love a briefing about the first reflight of a booster. Talk about things they've learned, how often they expect to reuse Block 3/4 and how often they expect to reuse Block 5. Also maybe detail the future inspection and testing process. 

This is what I'm hoping but probably unrealistic because most of this information is proprietary...

[DocM]

Eric Berger at Ars thinks it's their spacesuits, and maybe another item or two but mainly the suits. Hints of very cool.

[FloatingFatMan]

So, given the time Elon tweeted that, does he mean today (27th), or actually tomorrow (28th)?

 

[DocM]

Today. 1300 Pacific, 1600 Eastern.

[+John. Subscriber¹]

37 minutes ago, DocM said:

Today. 1300 Pacific, 1600 Eastern.

2100 GMT/UTC for us Brits

[philcruicks]

Can't find a stream...

Anyone else?

 

Edit: got one

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2017/02/27/watch-live-elon-musk-makes-mystery-spacex-announcement/98492204/

thanks @John.