SpaceX Tuesday...

[RobDickinson]

Oh also - slow motion video of some of Spacex's previous launches, cool..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKqY8sy3nkM

[Beati Dogu]

There wouldn't physically be room for 30 engines on such a small diameter rocket. Unless they're going to scale up what they're doing with the Falcon Heavy and have 3 large cores bolted together (as in the 27 engine Falcon Heavy). It would certainly be easier to manufacture and transport that way.

The Soviet N1 moon rocket had 30 engines on the first stage, but it was huge: (17.0 meters (55.8 ft) wide at the base) and it didn't exactly work very well.

[RobDickinson]

Supposedly more plans later in the year for BFR/MCT.

Could be a 3 core * 9 engine beast

wiki said:

Early plans for the MCT launch vehicle, made public in April 2014, consisted of one or three cores with a 10-meter (33 ft) diameter which is comparable to the Saturn V. At the time, the rocket was slated to use nine Raptor LOX/methane engines to power each core.[14][3] The possibility of eliminating any tri-core version design, and modifying the MCT launch vehicle design to a single-core but larger-diameter vehicle—12.5 to 15 meters (41 to 49 ft) core diameter—was raised in late 2014[16] and further confirmed by Musk in early 2015.

Edited by RobDickinson on Wednesday 10th August 01:28

[Beati Dogu]

Here's a methane / LOX engine test firing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHQz5s_XtqY

Love the sounds that thing makes. It's the XCOR XR-5M15

Makes a mean creme brûlée too.


http://aerospace.xcor.com/rocket-engines/main-prop...

Edited by Beati Dogu on Wednesday 10th August 13:49

[hidetheelephants]

Beati Dogu said:

The Soviet N1 moon rocket had 30 engines on the first stage, but it was huge: (17.0 meters (55.8 ft) wide at the base) and it didn't exactly work very well.

You spell 'exploded on lift-off every time' in such a funny way.

[Beati Dogu]

I was underplaying it Russian style. It took them 30 years to admit it was terrible.

[MartG]

IIRC some of the N-1 debris was reused - a tank dome as the roof of a park bandstand being one !

[hidetheelephants]

MartG said:

IIRC some of the N-1 debris was reused - a tank dome as the roof of a park bandstand being one !

Was that not Buran shuttle leftovers? Even now they're a bit shy about revealing info about things that went wrong, hardly a good basis for the kind of safety culture space flight needs.

[Beati Dogu]

Just your typical lying, paranoid, secretive Russians. They didn't admit to the Chernobyl disaster until radioactive detectors started going off all over Scandinavia. Although no doubt US early warning launch detection satellites picked up the blast and fire immediately.

Back in 1960 the commanding officer of the Soviet Union's Strategic Rocket Forces, Mitrofan Nedelin ordered the crews to work on a fully fuelled R-16 ICBM rocket, rather than lose time by emptying it first. Unfortunately, the second stage motor ignited right into the first stage below. The resulting explosion and fireball killed around 100 people, including Marshal Nedelin.

The usual Russian cover up began and they didn't admit to it until 1989.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpX6HHBdEwo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nedelin_catastrophe

[Flooble]

At least in that case the guy who gave the order paid the same price as everyone else ...

[Beati Dogu]

The next Falcon 9 launch is coming up this weekend from Cape Canaveral with the JCSAT 16 communications satellite onboard.

The launch window opens on Sunday morning at 6.26 am UK time and stays open for 2 hours. The weather forecast is looking good.

They've done the test fire already (minus the payload, in case it went boom (client's choice apparently))

They'll try to land it on the Atlantic drone ship soon after.

[MartG]

Live video stream will be here http://www.spacex.com/webcast

Apparently due to the high velocity chances of a successful landing are low. Unlike previous landings three engines will be used

[Beati Dogu]

Here's the 2 page press kit with details about the mission:

http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/spacex_jc...

[RobDickinson]

2:30 ish until jcsat-16 launch.
http://www.spacex.com/webcast

[callmedave]

All systems nominal!

That could be the most precise landing yet!

[Sylvaforever]

legs look equally splayed all round but it looks stable!

[Sylvaforever]

Frankly incredible images from 300 plus km looking back on the planet.

[MartG]

Could even see the moon during some of the 2nd stage burn

[MartG]

Some stills have been uploaded here https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacex

[Sylvaforever]

Okay, going back a launch or so what is the effect seem between 00:36 and 00:50 in the link below?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DKqY8sy3nkM

Edited by Sylvaforever on Sunday 14th August 11:34