SpaceX Updates (Thread 7)

By DocM
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Grand Master

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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.

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BetaguyGZT

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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?

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anthdci

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

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Grand Master

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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 :)

 

 

 

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anthdci

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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.

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DocM

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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.

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DocM

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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.

 

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Grand Master

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

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Grand Master

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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.....:D

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DocM

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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.....:D

 

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.

 

two-new-customers-sharing-spacex-falcon-

 

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Beittil

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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.

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PaulRocket

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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.....:D

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?

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DocM

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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. 

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Beittil

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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.

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DocM

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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 ;)

 

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Grand Master

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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.

 

YN1t3MQ.png

 

SpaceX_CRS-8_Patchsss.thumb.jpg.99a7fde3

 

:)

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