sevenperforce

The typical coast phase is 30 minutes to an hour. This will be a six-hour coast. They have done up to three firings of the MVac before, but never with this long a coast.

Up to 850k on the stream.

Extra helium in the upper stage. Presumably for extended restart after boil-off.

Simultaneous landings planned; no 15-second delay.

Timeline: Startup Liftoff Max-Q Booster Engine Cutoff Main Engine Cutoff Fairing Deploy Boosters Land Stage 2 Shutdown Core Lands

Second stage RP-1 load complete. THEY USED THE STATIC FIRE VIDEO FOR THE OPENING CRAWL

On this auspicious occasion, I believe we should all remember this 1920 editorial from the New York Times: FAKE NEWS. Also, we have a new theme: HEAVY!

LIVESTREEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMM

Fair's fair.

Side cores at full RP-1 load. No fuel loading issues. Looks like all those WDRs paid off.

You got one of my Likes for today. Stage 2 prop loading underway. Center core RP-1 loading complete!!

454k right now.

WE ARE GO FOR PROP LOAD For reference, this means we now have chillled RP-1 flowing into all three first-stage cores. LOX and upper-stage loading comes later.

It's structural. Differential wind shear can rip a high-fineness rocket apart. Two minutes to fueling poll.

LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE

For reference, this means upper level winds are currently OK for liftoff at 3:45 EST. But winds change.

You're going to make me run out of likes! I can't afford that today!

Dammit, you sniped me. Presumably, yes.

Doubt it. The final version of the STS was nothing compared to what it should have been, and hampered at every level. BFR is clean-sheet.

Slip to 2:50 EST. But it cannae abort. Which is why it needs to be as reliable as an airliner. Which isn't possible to know until it has been flying for a LONG time.

But it cannae abort.

So, 6 to 12 months. Kidding, kidding. They just have to build another core and they're good to go; they have side boosters for days.

UNLIKE! That was the plan, but per Elon (see recent presser), this plan has been suspended in favor of BFR.

Lunar Dragon and man-rating FH is still a possibility if BFR slips. If BFR does not slip too badly, FH will not be man-rated. Personally, I think man-rating BFR will be harder than it would be to man-rate FH. Dollars to donuts, the first manned flights on BFR launch on Falcon 9 and Dragon 2. From the mouth of Elon: So we have fairing splashdown but no net-catch. Also note boostback for the core.

RP-1 loading starts 85mins before liftoff LOX load starts 45mins.