SpaceX Updates (Thread 6)

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Just like Doc mentioned......

SpaceX To Debut Upgraded Falcon 9 on Return to Flight Mission

A SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Falcon 9 return-to-flight mission will be the first of an upgraded version with increased performance. Credit: SpaceX

PASADENA, Calif. — The return to flight of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, still a “couple of months” away, will also be the first launch of an upgraded version of the vehicle with increased performance, the company’s president said Aug. 31.

Speaking at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Space 2015 conference here, Gwynne Shotwell said the company was working through a series of intensive reviews of the Falcon 9 after its June failure while preparing the latest upgrade to the vehicle to increase its performance.

“Our next flight will be both the return to flight and the first flight of the upgraded vehicle,” she said. “So whenever people ask me what keeps me up at night, it’s getting ready for that flight.”

 

SpaceX had been working for some time on a upgrade to the current Falcon 9 v1.1, sometimes called v1.2, that features engines with increased thrust, providing an increase in performance of about 30 percent. That first launch of the upgraded Falcon 9 was scheduled for September before the June 28 launch failure.

Shotwell said after her panel session that there is a payload assigned to that return-to-flight mission, but could not name it without the permission of the customer. Prior to the launch failure, SES was scheduled to launch its SES-9 satellite on the first upgraded Falcon launch.

SpaceX blamed the June launch failure on a broken strut holding down a helium bottle in a propellant tank in the rocket’s upper stage. Helium leaking from the bottle then caused the tank to overpressurize and burst. Shotwell said SpaceX still believes that is the root cause of the failure.

Shotwell added that while this problem is relatively straightforward to correct, SpaceX is also examining the vehicle for other potential issues. “What we wanted to do was to take advantage of the lessons that we learned from that particular failure and make sure we’re not seeing something like that anywhere throughout the vehicle,” she said. That includes a series of top-down reviews, and having the work done by every company engineer checked by another engineer.

That additional investigation has delayed the vehicle’s next launch. While SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said in July the vehicle could return to flight in September, Shotwell suggested it may be November before that launch takes place. “It’s taking more time than we originally envisioned to get back to flight,” she acknowledged. “We’re a couple of months away from the next flight.”

Shotwell remained optimistic about not just returning the Falcon 9 to flight this year, but also successfully landing the vehicle’s first stage, either on an oceangoing platform or a pad on land, as part of SpaceX’s efforts to develop a reusable version of the vehicle. The company has attempted landings of the first stage on its “autonomous spaceport drone ship” after launches in January and April, but neither was successful.

“I want to see a Falcon 9 first stage land on a drone ship or land on my landing site this year,” she said. “I want to stick a landing this year.”

 

 

 http://spacenews.com/spacex-to-debut-upgraded-falcon-9-on-return-to-flight-mission/

 

[DocM]

And the v1.2 is going to be significantly taller, about 4.5 meters +/-, with the standard 5.2x13.1 meter fairing. This will also translate to a longer Falcon Heavy. A stretched fairing for future large USAF payloads or Bigelow habitats has also been rumored, which would make it several more meters taller.

[DocM]

Booyah....  

Court order...

http://www.geekwire.com/2015/blue-origins-rocket-landing-patent-canceled-in-victory-for-spacex/

Blue Origin’s rocket-landing patent canceled in victory for SpaceX

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture has capitulated to Elon Musk’s SpaceX in a dispute over a Blue Origin patent covering the landing of rockets at sea.

In an order made public today, the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board granted a motion to cancel the remaining 13 of 15 claims in the Blue Origin rocket-landing patent. Blue Origin itself had made the motion to cancel those claims, effectively acknowledging that its case was lost.
>

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Yessssss....Although this took awhile 

/s..commentary by Ed the sock..."The only Blue Origin I know is what comes out after pretzels and beer"

Ed gets a little grumpy at times.....

 

[BetaguyGZT]

Not sure where Blue Origin got the idea that they could patent "Rocket landings at sea". Glad they saw the light and dropped it.

So there are, what 2/15 claims left to deal with in court? Or are those already dealt with?

[DocM]

The rest were dropped by the court months ago, with comments that hinted strongly that this was coming. Way too much prior NASA and AIAA art, sci-fi depictions, novel descriptions etc. Also it flunked the obviousness test.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Actually, I can't fathom why one would even attempt to patent "idea's", knowing full well that they had no pioneering work in such "idea's". Leads me to one of two conclusions....problems with the patent process itself, being "watered down", or too much time hanging around Bruno..... 

[DocM]

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Now we are getting somewhere....can't wait......Is that a photo of the "real deal" without the landing legs?

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Newer article with a bit of goodies...

Falcon 9 rocket to be grounded longer than expected

 

File photo of a Falcon 9 launch in February 2015. Credit: NASA/KSC

The beginning of November will be the earliest SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket can resume launching after a June 28 failure blamed on a deficient structural support brace inside the the vehicle’s second stage, a SpaceX executive said Monday.

The next launch will be the 20th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket and the first with up-rated engines operating at higher thrust levels than previous missions, according to Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer.

“Obviously, we’ve got a return-to-flight sitting in front of us here coupled with the latest upgrade to the Falcon 9 launch vehicle,” Shotwell said Monday at a conference in California sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “Our next flight will be both the return-to-flight and the first flight of the upgraded vehicle, so whenever people ask me what keeps me up at night, it’s that flight — getting ready for that flight.”

Speaking to reporters in July, SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said he expected the Falcon 9 could resume flying as soon as September.

“We’re taking more time than we originally envisioned to get back to flight, but I don’t think any one of our customers wants us to race to the cliff and fail again,” Shotwell said. “So we’re a couple of months away from the next flight and we will have been through a pretty thorough top-down single-point failure review.

“Every engineer in the company is having a buddy check their work, and we’re doing deep dives throughout our supply chain to make sure we don’t see what we saw on our last flight,” Shotwell said.

Shotwell said Monday the diagnosis of the failure shared by Musk in July still stands. The investigation into the June 28 launch failure, which is led by SpaceX with support from federal agencies, narrowed in on a strut supporting a helium pressurant tank suspended inside the second stage liquid oxygen tank.

Engineers believe the strut broke under launch loads, causing the high-pressure helium gas tank to break free, leading to the disintegration the liquid oxygen tank and the upper stage.

Musk said the strut came from a supplier and future structural braces will be more stringently tested by SpaceX to ensure they meet specifications.

“What we’re trying to do is not only go fix that particular problem,” Shotwell said. “That’s an easy problem to go fix, but what we wanted to do is to take advantage of the lessons we had learned from that particular failure and make sure we’re not seeing something like that anywhere throughout the vehicle or the supply chain.”

A Dragon supply ship heading for the International Space Station was destroyed in the crash. SpaceX holds a multibillion-dollar contract to NASA to ferry cargo, provisions and experiments to and from the space station.

The flight was the seventh in a series of at least 15 resupply missions SpaceX has under contract with NASA.

SpaceX says it has more than 50 missions on its manifest in the coming years. The company’s customers say their payloads set to go up on the next few Falcon 9 flights are complete as they await a launch date from SpaceX.

Shotwell did not identify which mission would fly next, but it is expected to be the SES 9 television broadcasting satellite, which was set to go up on the first upgraded Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral before the June failure. SES officials did not respond to questions on the matter.

The eighth Dragon resupply launch from Florida could follow SES 9. Its launch is expected no earlier than mid-November, according to former Apollo astronaut Tom Stafford, chairman of the International Space Station Advisory Committee.

Mike Suffredini, NASA’s outgoing space station program manager said in an interview with Spaceflight Now he expects SpaceX can be ready to launch its next cargo flight to the complex around December. Suffredini told Spaceflight Now that NASA has requested not to be be first in line to fly on the Falcon 9’s new upgraded configuration.

The new Falcon 9 will have nine Merlin 1D first stage engines qualified to run at higher throttle settings, reaching a maximum power of about 170,000 pounds of thrust, up from 147,000 pounds of thrust at its current levels.

An up-rated Merlin vacuum engine on the second stage will generate 210,000 pounds of thrust, according to presentations by NASA officials.

The engines will burn kerosene fuel chilled to give it greater density, a metric that improves rocket performance.

Other Falcon 9 missions that could fly before the end of the year include a launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California with the U.S.-French Jason 3 oceanography satellite, which was supposed to launch in early August before delays due to the June rocket mishap.

A NASA spokesperson said the Falcon 9 second stage set to launch the Jason 3 spacecraft was shipped back to SpaceX’s factory in Hawthorne, California, from its launch site at Vandenberg.

And 11 new satellites for Orbcomm’s mobile communications and asset tracking fleet are expected to be aboard the second or third launch of the new full-thrust Falcon 9, according to Marc Eisenberg, Orbcomm’s CEO.

 

 http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/09/01/falcon-9-rocket-to-be-grounded-longer-than-expected/

[BetaguyGZT]

“We’re taking more time than we originally envisioned to get back to flight, but I don’t think any one of our customers wants us to race to the cliff and fail again,” Shotwell said. “So we’re a couple of months away from the next flight and we will have been through a pretty thorough top-down single-point failure review.

“Every engineer in the company is having a buddy check their work, and we’re doing deep dives throughout our supply chain to make sure we don’t see what we saw on our last flight,” Shotwell said.

This. I saw this statement and I smiled. For those of us who know just how involved a "deep-dive" is in Engineering terms, I'll explain it. They're checking every part, every process, and every Engineer is doing peer-review with one or more Engineers (and even Specialists) to make sure everything is up to snuff. It's a safe bet that every worker in the assembly process is triple-checking every rivet, weld, joint, fitting, and assemblage to make sure there's nothing on their station that's out of sorts (and likely running it through a peer-review procedure of their own) before it's sent off to the next station to continue the assembly process.

Yeah ... do your thing, SpaceX. No such thing as being too careful.

[BetaguyGZT]

Now we are getting somewhere....can't wait......Is that a photo of the "real deal" without the landing legs?

Sure looks real enough, but I doubt it. Unless they've got a Test Launch planned that they haven't said anything about.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

I think I had a brain cramp...multitasking again and one got away.......

[DocM]

Sure looks real enough, but I doubt it. Unless they've got a Test Launch planned that they haven't said anything about.

 

Thats an excellent bit of artwork by one of NSF's resident graphics guys. Even SpaceXers download their images for desktops etc, and they love 'm. You should also see their guesstimated L2 BFR and MCT images....wow, just wow. Really drives home what beasts they'll be.

Now for SpaceX's own artwork of F9 v1.2 and FH v1.2 on LC-39A. They're going to remove the Shuttle Rotating Service Structure (RSS) and enclose the Fixed Service Structure (FSS tower). A new transporter erector (TE) and enclosed ramp and rails for the TE. The FSS will also get 2 more levels to house the Dragon 2 crew access structure and a few other goodies.

The hangar looks small in these images,  but it can hold 5 Falcon 9's or a Falcon Heavy and 2 Falcon 9's for processing. The idea is to eventually have a Run 'n Gun rapid launch capability. 1 hour from rollout to T-0.

The hangar and launch mount are up, the ramp is graded but not yet fully clad, the rails are going in, and the TE is under construction. FSS tower work is also being done, but remoing RSS will wait a while.  Full sized images on their FB page.

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Doc...The guys do great work there......hard to wait for the real deal when you know it is just around the corner.....

// On another note.....

"there back........"

Colorado Lawmaker Pushes U.S. Air Force To Scrutinize SpaceX

blah...blah...blah

http://spacenews.com/colorado-lawmaker-pushes-u-s-air-force-to-scrutinize-spacex/

This article doesn't deserve any "air time".

I feel frustrated when "these people" continually bash SpaceX for personal gain. If they have something of "merit", we're all ears.....but not this. I must admit, SpaceX handles this well by not retaliating and referring to the proper authorities for analysis. Actions speak louder than words for Spacex, and they will do well for themselves, as other startups are doing.

All that I can hope, is that knowledgeable American taxpayers can see through the ongoing ruse(s).

Later.....

[DocM]

NEWS FLASH:

Congresscritter from Colorado, home of ULA, earns his campaign donations. An unusual display of bipartisanship.

Details at 11

/s

[bguy_1986]

Taxpayer money to ULA then ULA pays politicians to get them more taxpayer money.

[DocM]

Yup. If it weren't for the money Boeing wouldn't be building CST-100, and proof is they did little beyond paper milestones, and recertifying hardware they'd already certified for other projects,  before they got their CCtCap contract. Only after did they bend metal. All else was plywood and Styrofoam mockups.

SpaceX was going to build Crew Dagon 2 regardless, it'd just take longer.

[BetaguyGZT]

More proof that what Trump said during the debate was true. The U.S. Political System, top to bottom, is horribly broken. He stopped just short of saying it was an Oligarchy. I don't want to mix politics with Science and Space Exploration, but sadly the two are intertwined and have been since the beginning; and it needs to change. It's always about money and power, ultimately -- and it's a crime against humanity because Space Exploration and Achievement benefits all of us, not just one power group (or nation) over another. The pi**ing contests need to end. YESTERDAY.

Sorry, everyone .. those of us who grew up during the Cold War Era are tired of the old rivalries being rekindled, and new ones popping up because the "Old Guard" can't function without their arbitrary "Us-Versus-Them" mentality. Some of us have actually evolved past the need to have an enemy.

[DocM]

But have our past enemies moved past needing an enemy? No sign yet that some have. 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

In politics, there will always be an enemy for the need to fill the "gravy train"...In science...no...case in point, North America, most of South America, the European union, many far east countries and especially Russia, all want to co-operate and exchange scientific data...has been for a long time, it's the politicians inflicting the damage. Science has NO seats for politicians.

[BetaguyGZT]

But have our past enemies moved past needing an enemy? No sign yet that some have. 

And this really is the problem. Everyone has legitimate issues with everyone else. Everyone is messing with someone else, to one degree or another. Some more than others, but no single Nation is free of wrongdoing. Until everyone can honestly agree to cease any and all "shenanigans" and stick to it, stop poking others with sharp sticks, and decide that we're all better off together than apart, things will only continue to deteriorate.

The old mentalities, mindsets, backstabbing and "being ugly towards one another" will destroy Humanity. It's not if, but when.

Maybe that's the whole plan. We certainly have it in ourselves to evolve and accomplish great things; but we need to overcome this petty, barbaric, and childish compulsion to destroy first.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

[bguy_1986]

I'm not sure having "enemies" is totally a bad thing as long as we don't spend all our time fighting each other.  I think of "enemies" as more of a competitor.  The science and studies will eventually get shared one way or another.  Competition often brings out the best in people (and sometimes the worst too).  If we didn't get into a space race with Russia, would have we been on the moon already?  I'm not so sure we would have, or if we did, it would have took many years longer to get there and loads of more money.  I think we would all get lazy if it weren't for competition or enemies.

 

Just my 2 cents..

[Draggendrop Veteran]

We have healthy competition in the workplace all the time, competing against the projects "enemy"........But, it does Not mean we want to Kill them....For the 21st century, this ludicrous attitude has to stop. Just my opinion here, but as a cold war veteran, after the patriotism wears thin, you begin to realize that you are a lunch box worker, pawn or drone...who is no different than any lunch box worker in other countries....at the end of the day, all you want to do is care and feed your family......lunch box workers have a common bond, one to take care of our families, and the other, a dislike how politicians treat others. If you have ever sat  on a bar stool, in a foreign country, and "talked" to others from many countries...you know what I am talking about.  We have enough resources to put a big dent in poverty, sickness and malnutrition, world wide and still explore for the betterment of mankind......once you reign in the (insert verb) military/industrial/political network. Others may have different views and they are entitled to them. My view has been formed from my personal experience...nothing more...nothing less.

Later.....