SpaceX Tuesday...

[Sylvaforever]

MartG said:

Looks like SpaceX may be facing an unforseen price hike from the Port of Canaveral for bringing their boosters into port there. The Authority is considering creating a new category of cargo for 'aerospace items' which will be charged a higher tariff than SpaceX are currently paying.

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/spa...

Seems a good way to ps off a customer and force them to look elsewhere - like building their own dock on the lagoon right next to their assembly building at Pad 39A, using the navigable channel created for delivering Saturn V parts

It would tie them to that location though..saying that Elon Musk is the man to take the bull by the horns I guess it comes down to how much capital is floating around between Tesla (big construction program ongoing) solar city and SpaceX

[hidetheelephants]

Einion Yrth said:

Eric Mc said:

It looks like it was almost OK. Whatever went wrong must have gone wrong in the last few seconds. Did it actually fall over and/or explode?

From what I can glean from other sites, fuel depletion caused its last 20-50 feet of descent to occur rather faster than was optimal. The legs concertinaed, as indeed, sadly, did the engines, this resulted in a fireball, presumably from split fuel lines, and it caught fire. Still seems to be vertical, what's left of it.

Sounds a bit like pogoing in reverse.

[RobDickinson]

Sylvaforever said:

It would tie them to that location though..

So? They have one barge for each launch location, does it matter if it takes an extra day or two or whatever to bring it in?

Though they dont own the pad there afik just lease it it might be tricky to start building a new wharf but as saturnV parts were brought in that way why not?

I would be pissed if someone tried to do this to me, raise prices just because.

[MartG]

RobDickinson said:

Sylvaforever said:

It would tie them to that location though..

So? They have one barge for each launch location, does it matter if it takes an extra day or two or whatever to bring it in?

Though they dont own the pad there afik just lease it it might be tricky to start building a new wharf but as saturnV parts were brought in that way why not?

I would be pissed if someone tried to do this to me, raise prices just because.

If they built a new wharf on the lagoon next to their assembly building it could save them having to transship the boosters onto a truck to drive them from the dock to the building

Edited by MartG on Tuesday 21st June 21:34

[Simpo Two]

hidetheelephants said:

Einion Yrth said:

From what I can glean from other sites, fuel depletion caused its last 20-50 feet of descent to occur rather faster than was optimal. The legs concertinaed, as indeed, sadly, did the engines, this resulted in a fireball, presumably from split fuel lines, and it caught fire. Still seems to be vertical, what's left of it.

Sounds a bit like pogoing in reverse.

Sounds a bit like a crash.

[MartG]

hidetheelephants said:

Einion Yrth said:

Eric Mc said:

It looks like it was almost OK. Whatever went wrong must have gone wrong in the last few seconds. Did it actually fall over and/or explode?

From what I can glean from other sites, fuel depletion caused its last 20-50 feet of descent to occur rather faster than was optimal. The legs concertinaed, as indeed, sadly, did the engines, this resulted in a fireball, presumably from split fuel lines, and it caught fire. Still seems to be vertical, what's left of it.

Sounds a bit like pogoing in reverse.

Pogoing is something totally different - a longitudinal oscillation due to thrust variation occuring in tune with structural vibration frequency. This was simply a crash due to running out of oxidiser

[scubadude]

MartG said:

Looks like SpaceX may be facing an unforseen price hike from the Port of Canaveral for bringing their boosters into port there. The Authority is considering creating a new category of cargo for 'aerospace items' which will be charged a higher tariff than SpaceX are currently paying.

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/spa...

Seems a good way to ps off a customer and force them to look elsewhere - like building their own dock on the lagoon right next to their assembly building at Pad 39A, using the navigable channel created for delivering Saturn V parts

Seems like a good was to p*ss off SpaceX and Musk isn't known for taking "No" and "It can't be done" as answers... he'll probably just build his own version of Tracey Island 200miles offshore both Eastern and Western US to catch and refurbish his rockets, then fly the things back to the pad with a raised finger on the side to port Canaveral.

[callmedave]

scubadude said:

Seems like a good was to p*ss off SpaceX and Musk isn't known for taking "No" and "It can't be done" as answers... he'll probably just build his own version of Tracey Island 200miles offshore both Eastern and Western US to catch and refurbish his rockets, then fly the things back to the pad with a raised finger on the side to port Canaveral.

I want to see him build a booster that will return to the launch pad and do away with the barge altogether.

[MartG]

callmedave said:

scubadude said:

Seems like a good was to p*ss off SpaceX and Musk isn't known for taking "No" and "It can't be done" as answers... he'll probably just build his own version of Tracey Island 200miles offshore both Eastern and Western US to catch and refurbish his rockets, then fly the things back to the pad with a raised finger on the side to port Canaveral.

I want to see him build a booster that will return to the launch pad and do away with the barge altogether.

For certain missions ( non-geostationary and/or light payload ) they can already do this, as already demonstrated.

[MartG]

Falcon 9 being unwrapped after returning to Hawthorne

http://imgur.com/a/q7yoL

[Eric Mc]

callmedave said:

I want to see him build a booster that will return to the launch pad and do away with the barge altogether.

Getting back to land is a lot more difficult than continuing the parabolic flight onwards to a barge landing. However, it can be done in certain circumstances and they will do this when it is an option.

[Sylvaforever]

RobDickinson said:

Sylvaforever said:

It would tie them to that location though..

So? They have one barge for each launch location, does it matter if it takes an extra day or two or whatever to bring it in?

Though they dont own the pad there afik just lease it it might be tricky to start building a new wharf but as saturnV parts were brought in that way why not?

I would be pissed if someone tried to do this to me, raise prices just because.

so. All this costs money, BIG money.

Thus they may not wish to make themselves vulnerable to then being gazumped on their other facilities.
I believe Space X may stagnate for a while whilst the other supporting Musk industries get onstream and deliver profit and technical transfer....imo.

[RobDickinson]

Well the port has backed down.

And tbh the location they are launching from is only leased so they cant start building wharfs.

And the numbers were small, $15,000 or something.

[Flooble]

And SpaceX is part of the Musk empire which just had to bail out SolarCity ...

[Sylvaforever]

What was 15k!

[MartG]

Sylvaforever said:

What was 15k!

The increased price the Port of Canaveral were thinking of charging for bringing used Falcon boosters ashore there

[MartG]

Just posted by SpaceX:

"In 2017, Crew Dragon, the crew-carrying version of the upgraded Dragon 2 spacecraft, will restore the United States’ capability to fly humans to orbit.

The backbone of Dragon 2 is a metallic welded pressure vessel. SpaceX has completed manufacturing of the first two pressure vessels to be used for ground testing, and is currently manufacturing two Crew Dragon flight articles. The pressure vessel is the primary structure of the spacecraft that protects astronauts during ascent, while in outer space, and during entry and landing to provide a safe and controlled environment in which to travel and work.

Here is a picture of the first test article undergoing structural load testing. This demonstrates the spacecraft’s ability to withstand the tremendous forces it’s exposed to during space flight.

When we transport astronauts on Crew Dragon to the International Space Station next year, it will be within one of these pressure vessels that over the coming months will turn into a fully functional spacecraft."

[Beati Dogu]

It looks like Robbie the Robot in that shot.

[MartG]

NASA has given SpaceX authority to proceed to a manned launch in 2017 ( assuming NASA gets the required budget )

https://thespacereporter.com/2016/06/nasa-orders-f...

[callmedave]

MartG said:

NASA has given SpaceX authority to proceed to a manned launch in 2017 ( assuming NASA gets the required budget )

https://thespacereporter.com/2016/06/nasa-orders-f...

Its a no brainer really!

Dragon has 4 person capacity and Soyuz has 3 i believe?

Be great to watch this launch and so much of it recovered and re-used!