SpaceX Tuesday...

[Sylvaforever]

I didn't know the reason behind the sudden re-scheduling but thought it may be of some interest due to the sudden cancellation. The last asteroid that came so close (that I know of) was inside the Clark Belt i.e. inside your Sky satellites



ETA

Play nicely now!

Edited by Big Al. on Monday 30th January 20:22

[MartG]

Interesting pic taken by the Worldview 2 satellite of a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg carrying Worldview 4

[MartG]

Falcon Heavy side booster on its way to McGregor for test firing. This one was previously Thaicom 8's 1st stage which is being reused.

Edited by MartG on Wednesday 8th February 20:54

[Caruso]

MartG said:

Falcon Heavy side booster on its way to McGregor for test firing. This one was previously Thaicom 8's 1st stage which is being reused.

Will it actually fly, or just for testing? It would be bold/brave of them to re-use a booster in a new configuration.

[p1stonhead]

MartG said:

Falcon Heavy side booster on its way to McGregor for test firing. This one was previously Thaicom 8's 1st stage which is being reused.

Edited by MartG on Wednesday 8th February 20:54

So Awesome! Would this just be a single falcon 9 then? I thought falcon heavy was just three of them effectively?

P.S - easy 'your mums delivery' jokes possible

[MartG]

p1stonhead said:

MartG said:

Falcon Heavy side booster on its way to McGregor for test firing. This one was previously Thaicom 8's 1st stage which is being reused.

Edited by MartG on Wednesday 8th February 20:54

So Awesome! Would this just be a single falcon 9 then? I thought falcon heavy was just three of them effectively?

P.S - easy 'your mums delivery' jokes possible

No - this is one of the two side boosters - you can tell as it has a nosecone instead of being flat for the 2nd stage to be attached

[RobDickinson]

I'm surprised they are reusing a booster for the f9h testing. That adds some unwanted variables I thought, and there is a certain amount of reworking to be done on the booster to connect to the central f9 core etc.

[MartG]

[Flooble]

Caruso said:

ill it actually fly, or just for testing? It would be bold/brave of them to re-use a booster in a new configuration.

Maybe they figure that they have a lot of "spare" boosters now.

[MartG]

I'd guess the probability of successfully recovering the boosters on the first Heavy flight will be relatively low, so using recycled boosters will keep the cost down

[annodomini2]

The first launch is to have either no payload or a dummy payload so they may be thinking, kill 2 birds with one stone.

New vehicle launch and re-use.

There's no paying customer for this launch, so minimising costs would be plausible, if potentially risky.

[MartG]

I wonder if they'll take the opportunity to pop a Dragon on top and send it around the moon or something like that

[SystemParanoia]

MartG said:

I wonder if they'll take the opportunity to pop a Dragon on top and send it around the moon or something like that

Yeah, use an old one with a ruined heat shield that was going to be thrown out anyway

[MartG]

SystemParanoia said:

MartG said:

I wonder if they'll take the opportunity to pop a Dragon on top and send it around the moon or something like that

Yeah, use an old one with a ruined heat shield that was going to be thrown out anyway

Or use it to test the heatshield at a higher velocity than seen during Earth-orbit return by coming in from a higher altitude - a bit like NASA did with Apollo 4 and 6

[Eric Mc]

And the Orion test conducted in December 2014.

[MartG]

http://spaceflightnow.com/2017/02/08/spacex-readie...

[MartG]

It's on the pad

http://spaceflightnow.com/2017/02/10/pad-39a-missi...

[MartG]

"KSC workforce provided with a notification there won't be a SpaceX Static Fire today. Saturday's window opens at 1700, ends 0500 Eastern."

[MartG]

Upright

[Eric Mc]

Is the old Shuttle rotating structure still going to be used and, if so, for what?