SpaceX BFR Discussion.

[Nibb31]

Texas is the launch site.

4 hours ago, Wjolcz said:

Do you guys think BFS might do orbital hops from LA to Florida, or at least to the Mexican Bay?

No way are they getting FAA authorization for ferry flights over inhabited areas. Certainly not before the vehicle is properly certified with hundreds of flight hours.

 

[PB666]

22 minutes ago, Nibb31 said:

Texas is the launch site.

No way are they getting FAA authorization for ferry flights over inhabited areas. Certainly not before the vehicle is properly certified with hundreds of flight hours.

 

They must be shipping by barge. If I understand correctly they are building somekind of facility on the Port of Brownsville, which is the southern Endpoint of the Intercoastal canal. I looked on google maps nothing, but then again all they show is a dirt heap for the launch facility at BC.

[DAL59]

9 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

12 hours ago, Mitchz95 said:

I wonder if someday we'll have a BFR serving as Air Force One.

Who'll be a Rocketman then?..

(not politics)

Space Force

[PB666]

4 hours ago, Nibb31 said:

Texas is the launch site.

No way are they getting FAA authorization for ferry flights over inhabited areas. Certainly not before the vehicle is properly certified with hundreds of flight hours.

 

The BFR fuselag is 30 feet in diameter, there is virtually no way to get it from McGregor to BocaChica. They will have to fly it somehow.

[tater]

2 minutes ago, PB666 said:

The BFR fuselag is 30 feet in diameter, there is virtually no way to get it from McGregor to BocaChica. They will have to fly it somehow.

I doubt it ever goes to McGregor in the first place.

[NSEP]

8 hours ago, PB666 said:

How do the plan to get BFR from Texas to its launch sites?

By flying it?

I know it will never happend, because flying it over land would cause concern, but it would be hecka cool if it actually transported itself to the launch site. Right? 

[PB666]

1 minute ago, NSEP said:

By flying it?

I know it will never happend, because flying it over land would cause concern, but it would be hecka cool if it actually transported itself to the launch site. Right? 

Im ruling out solutions, I think they are going to assemble the core at BC from parts made elsewhere. Port of Brownsville is the only heightwise clear egress into the facility, that barge traffic. Even if they were to ship it through the Panama canal from Hawthorne, there's a problem at Hawthorne of getting a  30 ft cylinder to the port. 

[StrandedonEarth]

Stick it on top of a AN-225 or a 747-SCA? I just checked that it won't fit inside a Beluga XL or a Super Guppy.

[Bill Phil]

Why not airships?

Well, besides the obvious reasons for why not, a large airship could easily have the necessary volume. I'm not sure about lifting capacity though.

9 m diameter, something like 58 meters long for the booster. Dry mass of something like 275 tonnes. Perhaps a hybrid that combines dynamic and static lift? Maybe carry it in sections...?

The ship would be a bit easier to transport, as it is much lighter.

Edited March 18, 2018 by Bill Phil

[PB666]

2 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Stick it on top of a AN-225 or a 747-SCA? I just checked that it won't fit inside a Beluga XL or a Super Guppy.

Too much form drag it would create alot of turbulance.

If they go north to the 105 they can take it down to the San Diego freeway and on to the port of LA, which means it going through the panama canal. Once its at Boca chica it can go by barge to Florida or vice versa.
 

[Kerbart]

I wonder if there's any transport device that makes things the size of rockets and jumbo jets look like the size of gnats.

OH MY GOD OCEAN GOING SHIPS! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?!

With the new locks it probably even fits through the Panama canal.

[Bill Phil]

1 hour ago, Kerbart said:

I wonder if there's any transport device that makes things the size of rockets and jumbo jets look like the size of gnats.

OH MY GOD OCEAN GOING SHIPS! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?!

With the new locks it probably even fits through the Panama canal.

Oh, yeah, certainly.

[Wjolcz]

How about a launch from west coast? It could only go polar orbit, deploy whatever it needs to deploy, reenter, land near BC/Florida to be relaunched from there to an orbit with a different inclination.

Now, the only problem is they would need a water-based launch platform (since the official SpaceX video suggests it would launch that way anyway). AFAIK they are not planning to build anything like that anywhere near the factory in Hawthorne. So a floating factory that is also a launch pad? There's also Vandenberg but I don't even want to know how much modification the launch pad would need. It would probably be easier and cheaper to build a floating one (the factory?). Besides, It makes sense that they keep the Vandenberg launch site the way it is for F9 and FH.

Another thing is how would the reentry be treated if it's over the continent. If I'm not mistaken Stardust reentered over a desert? And if it was aiming for the Mexican Bay/Atlantic even if it broke up during reentry the debris would fall into the water so it wouldn't matter if the reentry was performed over inhabited areas or not.

[PB666]

6 minutes ago, Wjolcz said:

How about a launch from west coast? It could only go polar orbit, deploy whatever it needs to deploy, reenter, land near BC/Florida to be relaunched from there to an orbit with a different inclination.

Now, the only problem is they would need a water-based launch platform (since the official SpaceX video suggests it would launch that way anyway). AFAIK they are not planning to build anything like that anywhere near the factory in Hawthorne. So a floating factory that is also a launch pad? There's also Vandenberg but I don't even want to know how much modification the launch pad would need. It would probably be easier and cheaper to build a floating one (the factory?). Besides, It makes sense that they keep the Vandenberg launch site the way it is for F9 and FH.

Another thing is how would the reentry be treated if it's over the continent. If I'm not mistaken Stardust reentered over a desert? And if it was aiming for the Mexican Bay/Atlantic even if it broke up during reentry the debris would fall into the water so it wouldn't matter if the reentry was performed over inhabited areas or not.

The launch vehicle was designed to go a few km/sec then return to launch site, to place an object into orbit and return to another site it would need 11,000 dV.

 

[tater]

 

[Wjolcz]

59 minutes ago, PB666 said:

The launch vehicle was designed to go a few km/sec then return to launch site, to place an object into orbit and return to another site it would need 11,000 dV.

 

That doesn't really answer my question. But then I guess I won't really get the answer before the thing flies or they announce what the plan is.

I also just remembered the booster will be built on Florida. So no significant payload from the west coast could be launched.

Eh, seems like assuming it will travel through the Panama Canal via boat is the most sensible bet for now.

[tater]

They're putting it on a ship, obviously (as was said above).

[PB666]

1 hour ago, tater said:

 

Isn't funny how we ask random questions here and in some other unrelated forum they get answered.

[tater]

Hehe, yeah. To be fair, this (or a similar) site was discussed last year, possibly in reference to ITS (which was 12m, not 9m) (!). SO that a port facility was under consideration is not a huge surprise.