SpaceX to restart launches

Started by spuwho, December 16, 2015, 08:30:55 PM

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spuwho

December 16, 2015, 08:30:55 PM Last Edit: December 16, 2015, 08:39:50 PM by spuwho
SpaceX is scheduled to restart their commercial launches Saturday down at the Cape with one big change.

They wont be using the Jacksonville based landing barge anymore. The firm has built a landing pad and booster processing facility on the Canaveral AF grounds.

The next launch for ORBComm will attempt to land the booster back at Canaveral hundreds of meters from the SLC where it left.

For those who saw the press hype on the Blue Origin launch, return and landing, that booster didnt carry any payloads and only reached the technical height of space before coming straight back down. Not as difficult as carrying a payload into orbit and coming back to land.

spuwho

#1
December 21, 2015, 01:52:51 AM
Quote from: spuwho on December 16, 2015, 08:30:55 PM
SpaceX is scheduled to restart their commercial launches Saturday down at the Cape with one big change.

They wont be using the Jacksonville based landing barge anymore. The firm has built a landing pad and booster processing facility on the Canaveral AF grounds.

The next launch for ORBComm will attempt to land the booster back at Canaveral hundreds of meters from the SLC where it left.

For those who saw the press hype on the Blue Origin launch, return and landing, that booster didnt carry any payloads and only reached the technical height of space before coming straight back down. Not as difficult as carrying a payload into orbit and coming back to land.

Launch delayed to Monday.

Per Yahoo News:

http://news.yahoo.com/spacex-counts-down-first-rocket-launch-since-blast-145338613.html

Miami (AFP) - SpaceX postponed until Monday its first rocket launch since an explosion after liftoff destroyed its unmanned Dragon cargo ship bound for the International Space Station six months ago.

After liftoff, SpaceX will attempt to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket in an upright position on solid ground for the first time, a milestone it sees as key to making rockets as reusable as commercial airplanes one day.

The Falcon 9 rocket is now scheduled to launch at 8:33 pm Monday (0133 GMT Tuesday) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the California-based company said.

Monday "has a 10 percent higher chance of a good landing. Punting 24 hours," Internet tycoon Elon Musk announced on Twitter Sunday afternoon, several hours before its initially planned launch.

Several previous attempts at landing the rocket on a floating ocean platform have failed, but SpaceX says each try has taught them more about how to succeed in the future.

"If successful, this test would mark the first time in history an orbital rocket has successfully achieved a land landing," SpaceX said in a statement.

While the landing is key to SpaceX's plans, the primary goal of the mission is to deliver 11 satellites to low-Earth orbit for ORBCOMM, a global communications company.

- Competition heats up -

Last month, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos -- who also owns the rocket company Blue Origin -- announced he had successfully landed his New Shepard rocket after a suborbital flight.

New Shepard flew to a lower altitude than the Falcon 9, making the landing an easier feat for Bezos's rocket than it would be for Musk's, analysts say.

Both companies are aiming to boost savings and efficiency in modern rocketry by creating a new generation of complex machines that can be re-used after launch.

Presently, rocket components costing many millions of dollars are jettisoned as debris after takeoff.

The Falcon 9 poised for launch Monday is 30 percent stronger than previous versions, SpaceX said.

The return to flight is an important milestone for SpaceX following the June 28 accident when the Falcon 9 exploded just over two minutes after launching from Cape Canaveral.

The blast also destroyed a Dragon cargo ship loaded with supplies for the astronauts living in space, and came just eight months after a space station-bound rocket belonging to competitor Orbital blew up over a Virginia launch pad.

Musk said the Falcon 9 explosion was due to a faulty strut.

The accident came after a series of successful launches for SpaceX, which was the first commercial outfit to send a cargo craft to space under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.

Spitfire

#2
December 21, 2015, 09:13:04 PM
Space X just landed their first Falcon 9 at Cape Canaveral!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B6oiLNyKKI

spuwho

#3
December 21, 2015, 10:28:38 PM
Quote from: Spitfire on December 21, 2015, 09:13:04 PM
Space X just landed their first Falcon 9 at Cape Canaveral!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B6oiLNyKKI

Pretty cool. I wanted to see it from here, but I was tied up in St Augustine this evening.

This is a big launch for SpaceX for 3 reasons.

The big one was the return to launch after the strut failure. 

The second one was that this is a launch of a new version of the Merlin engine using the "super-cryo" approach for higher specific thrust. (Also the basis of the Falcon Heavy)

And finally the return to Canaveral of the booster.

A great way to get SpaceX back in the game!

BridgeTroll

#4
December 22, 2015, 05:31:26 AM
Outstanding!  8)
In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On being remonstrating with, he answered, "I am only boring under my own seat." "Yes," said his companions, "but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you."

BridgeTroll

#5
April 08, 2016, 07:19:43 AM
View the launch and landing (hopefully) here today at 4:43...

http://www.spacex.com/webcast
In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On being remonstrating with, he answered, "I am only boring under my own seat." "Yes," said his companions, "but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you."

Tacachale

#6
April 08, 2016, 04:58:02 PM
Holy crap they landed the rocket on the barge!
Do you believe that when the blue jay or another bird sings and the body is trembling, that is a signal that people are coming or something important is about to happen?

spuwho

#8
April 11, 2016, 01:14:58 PM
A historic photo taken yesterday morning by astronaut Tim Peake on the ISS shows the following:

All 3 supply modules are shown docked with the ISS at the same time. Just like an airport taking on arriving flights!



- the SpaceX Dragon
- the Orbital ATK Cygnus
- Russian Progress

First time all 3 have been berthed at the same time.

If we had an Ariane ATV there that would be even more incredible. But France finished paying for their participation with ATV-5 in 2014.

Arianespace has moved its funding into the development of the Orion Service Module.

The Japanese HTV still has 4 more missions to the ISS to complete. The last one left back in December 2015.

BridgeTroll

#9
April 12, 2016, 10:46:26 AM
The big question now is... Is it actually reusable?

http://www.popsci.com/drone-ship-has-returned-its-captured-falcon-9-to-land



QuoteDRONE SHIP HAS RETURNED ITS CAPTURED FALCON 9 ROCKET TO PORT
NEXT STOP: CAPE CANAVERAL?
By Sarah Fecht

The Falcon 9 has landed. On Friday, SpaceX's rocket booster launched 7,000 pounds of supplies toward the International Space Station, then came back down for a landing on a drone ship. Early this morning, the booster came back home.
After Friday's landing, SpaceX clapped steel boots onto the rocket's landing legs, welding the 14-story-tall rocket to the ship so it wouldn't tip over. Then they began the process of bringing it into port.
The ship was originally scheduled to arrive on Sunday, but it didn't arrive until about 3 AM Tuesday.
Now they've got to get it off the ship. Huge cranes -- 273 feet high, according to Florida Today -- will pick it up off of the barge, put it on a stand, and turn it horizontally so that it can be transported back to Cape Canaveral.
SpaceX will inspect the rocket and test fire it 10 times to see if it is fit to fly again. They hope to launch it again as soon as May or June. If that works, it could usher in a new era of reusable (and thus less expensive) rides into orbit.
In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On being remonstrating with, he answered, "I am only boring under my own seat." "Yes," said his companions, "but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you."

spuwho

#10
April 12, 2016, 11:37:12 AM
Satellite operator SES has already filed a formal request with SpaceX to be the first customer to use a recovered booster for a sat launch.

SpaceX hasn't approved or acted on it because they havent determined what the pricing will be for a refurbished rocket yet.

SES is so interested in getting a discounted price, they want to be the first in line.

BridgeTroll

#11
September 07, 2016, 08:06:35 AM
A bad day at Pad 40... a rapid unscheduled disassembly...  ;D

https://www.youtube.com/v/_BgJEXQkjNQ



In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On being remonstrating with, he answered, "I am only boring under my own seat." "Yes," said his companions, "but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you."

spuwho

#12
September 07, 2016, 01:46:12 PM
SpaceX reported no anomolies in the Falcon 9 itself when the explosion occurred, however, replays of the explosion show 2 objects flying out in front of the flame wave.

The 2 parts appear to be the O2 interface plate and a check valve that controls back pressure when the tank reaches flight pressure.

An over pressure event alone doesnt cause an explosion like this one, so I can only speculate that the check valve failed which caused an over pressure which created an expansion of metal causing a spark to ignite the supercooled O2.

Any flow of electrons either by static or by friction (metal rubbing) will ignite raw O2 with major results.

SpaceX is looking to accelerate pad assembly at 39 while they assess the damage on 40.

SpaceX has plans to build a new lauch pad in Texas but its not done. SpaceX has a launch pad at Vandenberg, but this for polar LEO launches and wont work for GTO or ISS equitorial flights.

This delay will cause some short term grief for NASA, but ultimately becuase this is a first time this has happened at this part of the test, it may be easily solvable.

spuwho

#13
September 15, 2016, 10:56:57 PM
SpaceX announced today they expect to go back to flight in November.

While the cause of the explosion is still under investigation, the timeline for accident investigations usually run about 90 days based on a set of standard policies.

While this may rank up there with Hillary is terminally ill conspiracies, it was noted today that a 50 cal from a mile away could have easily pierced the second stage O2 tank. No one is backing up that theory today due to lack of evidence to be displayed. The blogosphere have noted that SpaceX, while glorious in their efforts, have caused a great deal of layoffs at competitor ULA, a large employer in Florida. All it would take is one disgruntled person.

Hopefully that is just imaginative speculation at work.

BridgeTroll

#14
September 28, 2016, 08:26:12 AM
In a boat at sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On being remonstrating with, he answered, "I am only boring under my own seat." "Yes," said his companions, "but when the sea rushes in we shall all be drowned with you."
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