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SpaceX Discussion Thread


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4 hours ago, Scotius said:

I'd love to hear their opinions about practicality of Dragon's cabin setup. And SpaceX spacesuits :)

Especially from the astronauts that have flown in multiple vehicles. Tim Dodd said that the Boeing suit was like wearing pajamas (comfortable and lightweight). I'd be interested to see how the SpaceX suits compare to the Boeing ones and to other vehicles.

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58 minutes ago, Racescort666 said:

Especially from the astronauts that have flown in multiple vehicles. Tim Dodd said that the Boeing suit was like wearing pajamas (comfortable and lightweight). I'd be interested to see how the SpaceX suits compare to the Boeing ones and to other vehicles.

"What are you doing?"

"Docking."

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Pasted from the SLS thread:

9 hours ago, Kerbal7 said:

The BFR will never become operational. Ever. There is no customer for this rocket. And despite Musk claiming to develop and build this rocket using his own money, rubbish. No customers, no investors, no rocket. Period. It's going to become a money pit and canceled. End of story.

SpaceX needs it for a few reasons.

1. They have to loft at least 2218 Starlink sats in 5.5 years.

2. Blue Origin's first orbital rocket has a 7m flush fairing, and could easily get a fully SLS-sized fairing (as if SLS Block 2 will ever fly) as well. This positions Blue to launch payloads that no one else can. If Jeff Bezos says he's coming to eat your lunch, he's coming to eat your lunch. It takes years to develop a new launch vehicle, and SpaceX needs to have started already (BFR) if they want to stay competitive.

3. They have investors.

4. It's already being built. I see you've changed from it will never even fly once to not becoming operational. As I said, you always move the goal posts. If it flies operationally, you'll talk about some other milestone it misses. You're constantly arguing straw men, there are a few unabashed fan boys here, but most of us don't expect the end product of an iterative design culture to match the original sketches precisely. The only thing that must stay on the table is reusability.

 

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And it could never be made safe enough for human spaceflight anyways. Retro-burning a giant rocket full of people Tintin style . Give me a break. How many times until that goes tragically wrong? :unsure:Think about it.

Full of people? So now you're presumably talking about Point to Point. Most everyone here thinks that while it might be cool to dream about, it's not a very likely use case for a myriad of reasons. There have been numerous discussions about this here, and it's safe to say you're arguing a straw man here, few if any here think P2P would even be able to pass regulatory limits, much less convincing people it was safe.

As for crew missions (far smaller numbers of people), I've said it bothers me as well without a LES. They will need a lot of launches and landings (uncrewed version) before they even consider putting people on it. I see it as a SHLV, not a space airliner.

 

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NASA learned its lesson with the Space Shuttle. Something the Russians are keen about. Paramount in human spaceflight is safety.  Flight systems need to be simple and robust. That makes it safe. You get complicated and people get killed. 

That's the very reason Orion is a capsule and the BFR is a pipedream.  

Crew Dragon is also a capsule. As is CST-100. NASA continued to fly Shuttle long after an accident that crew in in a capsule would easily have survived. If loss of crew is lower than 1:270, it's already safer than what NASA demands for commercial crew (and that number is safer than Shuttle or Soyuz).

 

Edited by tater
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Based on SpaceX's track record and history; I think they'll shoot for BFR until they get it right, or die trying.
I don't think it'll be on schedule, but I do think the BFR stack will fly sometime in the 2020s.

And after that? We'll have to wait and see. I'm not going to predict much past that, but I really hope it's something great.

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2 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Elon, what the Falcon? You've said no, yes, no, yes... Which is it?

Well, he has mention second stage recovery was on the table again a couple times. Maybe they’ve been working on this all along, to test BFS concepts? Adding the skydiver fins is probably a small mass penalty, maybe combine that with the ballute that was mentioned? Not a full clone of the BFS landing profile, but close enough to start getting data...

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41 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

Wat.

 

So, does that imply a Raptor on the second stage? Or just a possible reuse with the current Merlin's? Either way, I hope we get some pics soon. Both renditions, and real.

Edited by Spaceception
Turns out it's reNditions, not reditions
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One F9 upper stage to LFS conversion kit please.

1. [RP-1] or methane? Sea level engine?

2. CF or [LiAl]?

3. TPS, drag fins and upgrade to structural strength for skydiving entry?

4. Landing with thrusters? superDracs? [chutes]? bouncy castle?

5. Dry mass will go up a lot. 4200kg -> ?

Edit : looks like it is just a demonstrator to test TPS, drag fins, and reentry profile.

I'll bet they are testing launch characteristics, maxq as well.

Edited by RedKraken
reentry tests
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2 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

So, does that imply a Raptor on the second stage? Or just a possible reuse with the current Merlin's? Either way, I hope we get some pics soon. Both reditions, and real.

Funny thing, just couple of hours ago I thought that if Blue Origin made a returnable upper stage for New Glenn, it would be VERY useful and profitable, even if mass to LEO would be lowered to that of F9.

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Musk has said that reuse of S2 could drop marginal launch cost of F9 below 10M.

My guess is no Raptor, the facilities are already plumbed for kerlox. Vac Merlin.

They will have to use super Draco to land. They’ll lose a lot of payload capacity, but with the upgrades they’ve already made it overkill anyway. Maybe reuse only for LEO payloads.

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7 minutes ago, tater said:

Maybe reuse only for LEO payloads.

Which means it would launch from Vandenberg most likely. 

I also think that Raptor upper stage is possible, they need to test it before BFR. Pad upgrades for methane shouldn’t be that hard to do.

edit: ok, it’s Merlin Vac. And it won’t land propulsively.

 

Edited by sh1pman
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3 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

Funny thing, just couple of hours ago I thought that if Blue Origin made a returnable upper stage for New Glenn, it would be VERY useful and profitable, even if mass to LEO would be lowered to that of F9.

Thats a bingo.

BO might be able to undercut current F9 big GTO payloads by quite a margin - is 10M per Launch reasonable?

But time to market is also key. BO have not launched anything to orbit yet.

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7 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

Which means it would launch from Vandenberg most likely. 

I also think that Raptor upper stage is possible, they need to test it before BFR. Pad upgrades for methane shouldn’t be that hard to do.

edit: ok, it’s Merlin Vac. And it won’t land propulsively.

 

Keep tweeting Elon!

Edited by RedKraken
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From the article I shared a few posts ago:

Quote

In the interview, which focused more on his other company, electric car manufacturer Tesla, Musk offered little news on SpaceX’s activities. He said SpaceX was “still aiming for 2024” for its first mission to Mars, but said that mission with the company’s Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) could be without a crew. “I’m not sure if there’ll be people onboard or not.” Musk had said in a September 2017 speech that the crew crewed missions would fly to Mars 2024, a timeline he admitted at the time was “aspirational.”

“Hopefully, there are people on board,” he said of the 2024 mission. “But I think there’s a pretty good chance of at least having an unmanned craft go to Mars. I think we will try to do this.”

He added he was also considering changing BFR’s official name to “Heart of Gold,” the spaceship from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

 

 

And this aswell:

https://www.recode.net/2018/11/2/18053428/recode-decode-full-podcast-transcript-elon-musk-tesla-spacex-boring-company-kara-swisher

Edited by Barzon Kerman
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