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Blue Origin Thread (merged)


Aethon

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15 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Everest. Top of the Everest.
No air drag, close to equator, 8 km altitude bonus.

Only if you plug all the holes (including the ones on top and bottom) and suck the air out.

And somehow very quickly plug it back after your rocket shoots out at the top end.

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Perhaps both Delta and Falcon will fly on the same day. The Eastern Range has been doing a lot of work recently to support rapid and even concurrent flights, such as with the autonomous flight termination system that premiered with the previous F9 launch.

But well, the WGS-9 launch is still "No Earlier Than March 14th", with everything else like exact launch window given as "TBD". It looks like the Falcon has priority here, given that they've already publicly announced their window.

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According to that article I posted a little ways back about their newfangled self-destruct system, multiple launches in a single day is definitely on the horizon, but not for "several  years" IIRC. But yeah, given that F9 has an actual launch time and Delta doesn't, sounds like SpaceX has more of their stuff in order for the day.

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25 minutes ago, Streetwind said:

Because we're talking about the Eastern Range in Florida today, not about cold war era Baikonur...

This. @kerbiloid IIRC the only time they've done two launches in a day out of Florida was back during the Gemini program. There's all sorts of complications with the differing hardware.

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On 3/10/2017 at 0:05 PM, CatastrophicFailure said:

This. @kerbiloid IIRC the only time they've done two launches in a day out of Florida was back during the Gemini program. There's all sorts of complications with the differing hardware.

and that was with 2 different vehicles, a Titan II and a Atlas Agena. 2 different pads

 

On 3/10/2017 at 4:29 AM, Streetwind said:

Perhaps both Delta and Falcon will fly on the same day. The Eastern Range has been doing a lot of work recently to support rapid and even concurrent flights, such as with the autonomous flight termination system that premiered with the previous F9 launch.

But well, the WGS-9 launch is still "No Earlier Than March 14th", with everything else like exact launch window given as "TBD". It looks like the Falcon has priority here, given that they've already publicly announced their window.

it seems that Echo 23 doesnt have this AFTS, since it was to fly before CRS-10 and CRS-10 was the first. 

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1 hour ago, DarthVader said:

and that was with 2 different vehicles, a Titan II and a Atlas Agena. 2 different pads

 

it seems that Echo 23 doesnt have this AFTS, since it was to fly before CRS-10 and CRS-10 was the first. 

Not sure, but I think rumor was AFTS was already in activated in background, "it just wasn't connected to the actual explosive charges". So I'd guess that this booster also has AFTS.

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To lift a bigger payload. There were late modifications to the satellite that increased the weight beyond what the Falcon 9 could reliably launch and land after. It needs that extra first stage fuel to give the second stage enough speed to continue to orbit. I think a barge landing was still marginally possible, but well one small error and it busts up the drone ship. Elon Musk was reportedly annoyed about it but well, if the Echostar folks are paying for a launch then they're getting a launch.

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I wouldn't be surprised if smart people at SpaceX R&D were ordered to look for more improvements to first stage. Just to squeeze some extra performance out of the old horse :P

Edited by Scotius
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Elon Musk announced it last October, it's called "Falcon 9 Block 5" because SpaceX obviously think consistent naming is for the weak. It will feature even more thrust, improved landing legs, and dozens of other minor changes.

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