SpaceX Tuesday...

[RobDickinson]

Dragon or dragon 2?

[Einion Yrth]

RobDickinson said:

Dragon or dragon 2?

If referring to the pic that's Dragon, it has the berthing adapter; dragon 2 is due to come with a docking port, which is smaller.

[RobDickinson]

Einion Yrth said:

If referring to the pic that's Dragon, it has the berthing adapter; dragon 2 is due to come with a docking port, which is smaller.

yep - found out its a used dragon not the 2.

[Eric Mc]

Loskey said:

My view of the launch

https://youtu.be/EgzWdd9RxqY

Nice shot. Did you keep the camera on the rocket long enough to catch the brief contrail? The official cameras rarely pull back far enough to show the contrail forming - which I always like to see.

[AshVX220]

Loskey said:

My view of the launch

https://youtu.be/EgzWdd9RxqY

That looks like a brilliant spot, how was the traffic getting in and out (before and after launch)?

[SystemParanoia]

Are people banned from walking closer along the beach?

[AshVX220]

Awesome shots Loskey and thanks for the reply about parking etc.

[p1stonhead]

I'm so desperate to see a launch in person. One day soon I hope considering the regularity nowadays!

[Beati Dogu]

Shouldn't be too difficult, it's just getting round to it.

SpaceX alone have launched 10 Falcon 9s this year alone and they hope launch another 12.

Hopefully at least one of those will be a Falcon 9 Heavy.

[Beati Dogu]

Here's some incredible time lapse ISS footage of the Earth for the hell of it:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sb_Hplah-w


The tenuous link is that there's a SpaceX Dragon in there too.

[Eric Mc]

Loskey - you NEARLY got a contrail shot. The vapour was just beginning to appear when you stopped recording.

Edited by Eric Mc on Friday 7th July 21:46

[Beati Dogu]

Thanks for the photos. What was the noise like? Any faint whiff of kerosene in the air?


The next launch from the Cape is looking like an Atlas 5 rocket on August 3rd.

That'll be from SLC-41, which is the next pad south from where that Falcon 9 launched from.

[ninja-lewis]

Elon Musk's keynote speech at the 2017 ISSR&D Conference:

Reddit summary said:

• Dragon 2 propulsive landing has been dropped. Crew Dragon and next-gen Cargo Dragon will both use parachutes to land, and next-gen
• Cargo Dragon will lack the SuperDraco system entirely. The risk factor is too high, legs protruding from the heatshield were deemed unworkable.
• Red Dragon missions have been cancelled. This is a result of the propulsive landing decision and that Red Dragon's Mars atmospheric entry in no way resembles ITS's planned entry.
• Scaled-down ITS to be used for commercial missions.
• Falcon Heavy demo flight stands a good chance of failure. Elon would be happy if SpaceX gets away with an undamaged pad LC-39A. "Real good chance that vehicle does not make it to orbit", and "major pucker factor".
• Boca Chica launch site can serve as a backup pad for ISS flights. If a hurricane renders Cape launch facilities inoperable, SpaceX's in-progress southern Texas pad can pick up the slack.
• First Dragon 1 reflight cost as much or more than a new Dragon. Elon expects this to improve drastically, first refurbishment had to deal with issues like water intrusion into the capsule.
• Fairing recovery and eventual reuse is progressing well. First successful recovery is expected later this year, with the first fairing reflights late 2017 or early 2018. Repeated figure of '5 to 6 million dollars' for the fairings.
• Second stage recovery and reuse is still on the table. It's not a priority until after streamlined first stage reuse and Dragon 2 flights, but it's there. Second stage is approximately 20% of total mission costs.
• 12 flights still planned this year. SpaceX should have 3 pads firing on all cylinders by Q4.
• Goal for end of 2018 is 24-hour first stage turnaround. Zero refurbishment, including paint.

https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/6oax7b/official_discussion_recap_thread_elon_musk/

[Eric Mc]

Very interesting set of amendments to their original plans. I was always a bit sceptical about lowering a manned capsule back to earth purely using rocket propulsion. Even though they seem to have cracked the issue with returning Falcon 9 first stages, retrieving a capsule following an entry from orbit - with people on board - is a different matter.

[MartG]

Good article here https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/07/falcon-hea...

[Eric Mc]

Interesting.

It looks like the Shuttle era RSS structure will be practically gone by the next flight off Pad 39A.

Edited by Eric Mc on Thursday 20th July 23:37

[Beati Dogu]

I hope so, it's pretty ugly.

They cleared if from Pad 39B back in 2011 and it looks the better for it.

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

[Sylvaforever]

Reality bites SpaceX....

There's been an awful lot of enginering and financial resources and sheer bloody effort spent on these cancelled projects.

If you don't try you'll never get anywhere: However the upside of this is that the resources can be redirected onto "core" projects....

[Koje]

Sylvaforever said:

Reality bites SpaceX....

There's been an awful lot of enginering and financial resources and sheer bloody effort spent on these cancelled projects.

If you don't try you'll never get anywhere: However the upside of this is that the resources can be redirected onto "core" projects....

Indeed. To innovate you have to R&D but % of turnover to spend is a tough decision to make. Especially for a company like spacex which is still very new and to a point finding its place in the world. Oil companies spend a huge amount on R&D which is needed to keep them going but they are so diverse they can swallow the huge costs.

[MartG]

Interesting article

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/07/elon-musk-...