SpaceX Updates (Thread 9)

[DocM]

Yep, it'll be damned interesting. 

 

Blue Origin is operating at a bit of a disadvantage because the BE-4 is not a full flow engine like Raptor, and it won't be operating at the chamber pressures Raptor will operate at.

 

Russia tried a full flow engine and it never got off the test stand, and  the US didn't get any further than building the power head. SpaceX is the first group to get this far with one.

[DocM]

 

[+John. Subscriber¹]

[DocM]

Just saw a note that SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell visited Bigelow Aerospace on Thursday. To be a fly on the wall.....

 

Almost makes you wonder if Fairing 2.0 will include a version which meets the EELV-2 'Large' fairing spec.

[DocM]

Goodbye (almost all of LC-39A's) rotating service structure,

 

 

[DocM]

 

[DocM]

SpaceX is testing Fairing 2.0 at NASA Plum Brook, which is near Sandusky, Ohio.

 

 

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/story/201712260025

 

Quote

SpaceX marks its testing spot at NASA Plum Brook

 

PERKINS TWP. — It’s the second go-round for first-class spacecraft undergoing tests at a heralded station in Erie County.

SpaceX personnel recently brought back a refined version of its Falcon 9 payload fairing to the NASA Plum Brook Station for additional analysis.

First arriving at Plum Brook in 2013, officials characterize a payload fairing as a shroud situated atop a missile. The cone-like covering shields items it brings aloft, protecting spacecraft against impacts created by dynamic pressures and aerodynamic heating experienced during a launch.

The newest rounds of testing started in September and should continue into February.
>
Inside the world’s most powerful sound chamber, which can replicate noise spacecraft typically experiences while in orbit

Future tests will help determine whether the payload fairings can withstand the shockwaves generated throughout and after a launch.
>
Representatives of SpaceX — touted as the world’s fastest-growing and leading launch services provider, it designs manufacturers and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft — declined an opportunity to interview for this news story. They also prohibited any media, such as photography and video, inside the testing venue.

Though NASA officials did comment, expressing their gratitude for SpaceX returning to Plum Brook.

 

Edited December 28, 2017 by DocM

[Unobscured Vision]

Very, very serious stuff goes on at that facility. My kind of place. Materials, statics (non-moving objects such as fairings and panels) and such are put through hell to see what pops and when in order to find the failure points. Quite necessary if you're building something that needs to withstand forces they've been designed for -- and then they test beyond those forces to find the true failure levels if they haven't already broken said item. Good stuff and I personally love testing like this.

 

SpaceX probably had this lined up for a while, the facility is usually booked up solid.

[+John. Subscriber¹]

 

 

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Time lapse of it going vertical...

https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/12/28/time-lapse-video-falcon-heavy-goes-vertical/

 

...do not see the video on YouTube yet.

 

Per spaceflight now...

 

Launch window: TBD
Launch site: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch on its first demonstration flight. The heavy-lift rocket is formed of three Falcon 9 rocket cores strapped together with 27 Merlin 1D engines firing at liftoff. The first Falcon Heavy rocket will attempt to place a Tesla Roadster on an Earth escape trajectory into a heliocentric orbit. Delayed from 3rd Quarter of 2015 and April, September and December 2016. Delayed from 1st Quarter 2017, 2nd Quarter 2017 and 3rd Quarter 2017. Delayed from November and December 2017. [Nov. 28]

[DocM]

 

Credit to @ExploreSpaceKSC, via NASASpaceflight.com

 

 

[DocM]

SpacefFlightNow has time lapse video of it going up

 

https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/12/28/time-lapse-video-falcon-heavy-goes-vertical/

 

[DocM]

 

[DocM]

 

[IsItPluggedIn]

19 hours ago, DocM said:

SpaceX is testing Fairing 2.0 at NASA Plum Brook, which is near Sandusky, Ohio.

 

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/story/201712260025

 

 

Hey Doc,

 

Do you know if this is just a better version of their current fairing. Or do you thinking they are testing a larger one, my thought around this is a that Gwynne was at Bigalow the other day, and they need a larger fairing for the B330.

 

As SpaceX cant launch the B330 without the larger faring im not sure what else they would need to talk about.

[Unobscured Vision]

9 hours ago, Jim K said:

Time lapse of it going vertical...

https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/12/28/time-lapse-video-falcon-heavy-goes-vertical/

 

...do not see the video on YouTube yet.

 

Per spaceflight now...

 

Launch window: TBD
Launch site: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch on its first demonstration flight. The heavy-lift rocket is formed of three Falcon 9 rocket cores strapped together with 27 Merlin 1D engines firing at liftoff. The first Falcon Heavy rocket will attempt to place a Tesla Roadster on an Earth escape trajectory into a heliocentric orbit. Delayed from 3rd Quarter of 2015 and April, September and December 2016. Delayed from 1st Quarter 2017, 2nd Quarter 2017 and 3rd Quarter 2017. Delayed from November and December 2017. [Nov. 28]

Nobody would ever believe it if it were any other space company doing the flight  ... gotta love SpaceX's whimsy. Smart and funny.

 

"The first Falcon Heavy rocket will attempt to place a Tesla Roadster on an Earth escape trajectory into a heliocentric orbit."

 

[Jim K Global Moderator]

2 minutes ago, Unobscured Vision said:

Nobody would ever believe it if it were any other space company doing the flight  ... gotta love SpaceX's whimsy. Smart and funny.

 

"The first Falcon Heavy rocket will attempt to place a Tesla Roadster on an Earth escape trajectory into a heliocentric orbit."

 

Yea... I chuckled at that.

[Unobscured Vision]

1 minute ago, Jim K said:

Yea... I chuckled at that.

I know ... I read it and I thought "I know that is the payload and all ... but seeing it as the official payload is soooooo funny ...." 

[Unobscured Vision]

OH ... and ya gotta imagine that it's a big, fat, nacho-cheese-covered thumb in the eye of OldSpace. Out of anything in the world SpaceX could send uphill on the workhorse rocket's debut, and what do they send?! Elon's Tesla Roadster. Bwahaha ... bwahahahahaha .... cracks me up.

[DocM]

 

3 hours ago, IsItPluggedIn said:

 

Hey Doc,

 

Do you know if this is just a better version of their current fairing. Or do you thinking they are testing a larger one, my thought around this is a that Gwynne was at Bigalow the other day, and they need a larger fairing for the B330.

 

As SpaceX cant launch the B330 without the larger faring im not sure what else they would need to talk about.

 

Fairing 2.0 will be optimized for fairing recovery, which they've been flight testing for almost a year. At $5-$6 million a pop, they want them back.

 

Based on SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell visiting Bigelow Aerospace last week, odds are they're also thinking about a longer fairing, which would be needed to launch Bigelow modules and qualify for the new USAF EELV 2 solicitations "Large" payload launches. 

 

The EELV 2 Large fairing has a much longer internal space than SpaceX's 5.2x13.9 meter fairing.

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2017 by DocM

[Unobscured Vision]

2 hours ago, DocM said:

Based on SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell visiting Bigelow Aerospace last week, odds are they're also thinking about a longer fairing, which would be needed to launch Bigelow modules

 

The Colbert, and everyone else, approves.  

[DocM]

Yep. I don't think she stopped in Nevada just to have coffee with Blair (Bob's daughter, who's tuning up to take over.) She's cut from aerospace cloth,

 

[Beittil]

She is his grand daughter I believe. 23 or 24 ish. 

[DocM]

Right, granddaughter, and VP of Corporate Strategy.

[Unobscured Vision]

The writing was on the wall ... Bigelow's a NewSpace company that inherited legacy NASA tech and put a completely new and outrageously good evolution on it (just like SpaceX), which in turn has helped lead to the rebirth and revitalization of the Space Industry and public interest in Space like never before.

 

I fully support Bigelow and SpaceX doing business together. It'd be a literal "match made in heaven". It's appropriate. The two most visible NewSpace "upstarts" combining efforts in their endeavours? Heh ... yeah ... it's quite appropriate.

 

Expect many, many good things from this once the deal is signed -- and it will be signed.