SpaceX Tuesday...

[MartG]

Flight worthy Dragon V2 spotted at Hawthorne

[lost in espace]

I was at Kennedy Space Centre today, and was lucky enough to go down to the pads along the crawler roads and back up again. Spotted a Lotus. The strongarm was out at 39A which is very unusual I was told.

[Eric Mc]

Lucky you. Looks like further work is being carried out on that pad.

[RobDickinson]

They are removing the space shuttle launch assembly and guess prepping for the FH stuff

when is the other pad back in action?

[Beati Dogu]

RobDickinson said:

when is the other pad back in action?

Any day now hopefully, although the first launch likely won't be until the end of the September (SES-11 / Echostar-105, using a reused Falcon 9 I would guess).

The X-37B OTV-5 Falcon 9 mission on 7th September will probably be the last flight at Pad 39a until Falcon Heavy at the end of the year.

After that launch, they can move Falcon 9 operations back to SLC-40. As soon as they do that, they'll shut down Pad 39a for two months while they upgrade it for Falcon Heavy operations. They need to work on the TEL (Transporter/Erector/Launcher) and Tail Service Masts (TSMs) to cater for fuelling the two side rockets.

[AshVX220]

lost in espace said:

I was at Kennedy Space Centre today, and was lucky enough to go down to the pads along the crawler roads and back up again. Spotted a Lotus. The strongarm was out at 39A which is very unusual I was told.

I was there yesterday, it was a fantastic day, really humbling! I actually got quite emotional in the Saturn V hall (the presentation before you see the rocket itself) and the memorial area for Apollo 1 and again when you are first faced with Atlantis, a brilliant place to go and highly recommend anyone with even a remote interest in space travel to visit. EricMc, book your tickets, I am sure you would absolutely love it!

[Eric Mc]

Next year I am having a special birthday. I think I know what my birthday present to myself might be.

[anonymous-user]

Eric Mc said:

Next year I am having a special birthday. I think I know what my birthday present to myself might be.

Century already Eric?

[Eric Mc]

garyhun said:

Century already Eric?

Not quite - although it can seem like that sometimes.

[AshVX220]

Eric Mc said:

Next year I am having a special birthday. I think I know what my birthday present to myself might be.

Well , it will certainly be a worthy pilgrimage Eric, might I suggest you book it all last minute .com to try and get out here for a launch, maybe an early birthday present to see F9H go up, which should be an amazing spectacle!

[Eric Mc]

I was hoping to get to see the first SLS launch - but I might need top live to be a hundred to see that.

[AshVX220]

Eric Mc said:

I was hoping to get to see the first SLS launch - but I might need top live to be a hundred to see that.

Indeed, I can't see SLS happening any time soon.

[Beati Dogu]

They're going to static fire a Falcon 9 shortly. Ready for next Thursday's launch (no time given as it's hush hush).


https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/08/31/falcon-9-x-3...

[Beati Dogu]

The static fire went OK, so on to the launch.

Recap of the month:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kQpg0JEE3c

[MartG]

Test firing of Heavy's 2nd side booster completed OK

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYheQbWF0dm/

[Sylvaforever]

cheers Marti, is all the ground infrastructure in place?

[RobDickinson]

No 39a is still in use until they fix the other pad then it can be updated

[Beati Dogu]

Despite initial reports years ago, the two side boosters won't be feeding fuel to the centre rocket.

The boosters will run at higher thrust than the centre rocket. When they separate, they'll throttle up the centre rocket.

[RobDickinson]

yeah no asparagus fuelling until later

[MartG]

Yes - turned out to be a lot harder to implement than it is in KSP