Jump to content

SpaceX Discussion Thread


Skylon

Recommended Posts

24 minutes ago, Flying dutchman said:

It's not true though is it?

No, of course not. No Falcon first stage has actually "flown to orbit".

Right now I think SpaceX is in the slightly confusing position of wanting to clearly separate Falcon from things like New Shepard. Thus the mention of "flown to orbit", except that the actual recovered boosters never get into orbit themselves. I expect that if Starship eventually works, then SpaceX will suddenly get religion about differentiating between boosters that launch something else into orbit versus hardware that actually does achieve orbit.

Edited by mikegarrison
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

No, of course not. No Falcon first stage has actually "flown to orbit".

Right now I think SpaceX is in the slightly confusing position of wanting to clearly separate Falcon from things like New Shepard. Thus the mention of "flown to orbit", except that the actual recovered boosters never get into orbit themselves. I expect that if Starship eventually works, then SpaceX will suddenly get religion about differentiating between boosters that launch something else into orbit versus hardware that actually does achieve orbit.

I can understand that from their perspective. I mean new sheppard is impressive in it's own right but it doesn't hold a candle to the falcon 9 booster.

If SpaceX will have starship flying before- or at roughly the same time as NG spacex will still be one step ahead.

I think NG really drives the pace of ss/sh development. They need to stay one step ahead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If they wanted, they probably could launch one of the falcon heavy boosters into a low orbit, then land it again. Didn’t they say at one point that theoretically F9 boosters could ssto?  No payload except fuel, nose cone already attached. 
the only problem I see is I don’t think they’d have the fuel to slow down enough to survive reentry. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

You mean the center stage that they haven't yet landed without it coming from orbit?

They landed one center core, but lost it in rough seas... https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/15/18311945/spacex-falcon-heavy-center-core-drone-ship-rough-ocean

But yeah, I can't see a core coming back from orbit. It would require too much props to slow down to survivable velocities.

Edited by StrandedonEarth
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the recent Ars Technica article Elon said that they are (eventually) going to build a new Starship every 72 hours or so. If it’s only Starships and no Super Heavies, then they need to produce a Raptor every 12 hours, right? How can this pace be even remotely close to reality?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

In the recent Ars Technica article Elon said that they are (eventually) going to build a new Starship every 72 hours or so. If it’s only Starships and no Super Heavies, then they need to produce a Raptor every 12 hours, right? How can this pace be even remotely close to reality?

They were able to make a Merlin a day a while ago, and I think normal business hours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, cubinator said:

I bet they will.

I bet they will not. It was designed to be reused after landing on land. It was when they switched to ocean landings that they cancelled any human re-use. I fail to see why that would be different if the humans are tourists.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, tater said:

NASA wanted new vehicles for each flight as I recall, don't think SpaceX cares.

This is not true. Boeing is planning on reusing their (ground-landed) capsules and NASA is fine with that. I am positive that SpaceX dropped their human reuse when they decided to switch to ocean landings.

My speculation is that they had never initially designed the capsules for saltwater immersion and were not willing to go through whatever certification and refurb would be required to crew-rate a capsule that was previously immersed in saltwater.

Also recall that NASA invented the reusable human-rated spacecraft.

Edited by mikegarrison
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...