SpaceX Grasshopper and re-usable plans

[DonLorenzo]

Indeed it is, however that's not what we were talking about. The question was whether they'd perform the test essentially where the stage would come down anyway, or if it would also fly back to(wards) the launch location as the finished version would. That's what my guess was referring to

[sojourner]

I'm guessing they're not bringing it back. Doing so would incur a big dV hit, and they're doing this as an 'extra' on a regular paid launch. So I'm guessing it's not got the dV headroom to do so (since otherwise why would the customer not use a lighter launcher)

1. They plan to reuse the first stages on future Dragon missions, so if the d/v ain't there on this one, they have a basic math problem.

2. NASA (the customer) is paying for a certain amount of cargo delivery to ISS and is not concerned with which rocket SpaceX uses to get it there.

3. As sgt_flyer pointed out, Dragon is volume limited, not weight limited. Falcon actually exceeds performance requirements for the payload in this case.

ETA: Next flight has been delayed to March 30. Preliminary reason given is something to do with correcting contamination of the cargo.

Edited March 14, 2014 by sojourner

[bigdad84]

Any details as to what the "cargo contamination" entails?

[bigdad84]

The contamination appears to be "oil" from a sewing machine that was on the thread used to sew the fabric on the trunk of the Dragon spacecraft.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/03/sewing-machine-contamination-spacexs-crs-3-dragon/

[LordOfTheOrbits]

The launch date of CRS-3 is now confirmed to be march 30, 10:50 pm EDT

[bigdad84]

Interesting to see that SpaceX is going to launch at night, and try returning their first stage for a soft water landing in the dark.

[sojourner]

CRS-3 launch delayed again (along with every other rocket from the cape) due to a fire at one of the Airforce's radar tracking stations. No new launch date yet.

[sgt_flyer]

The only 'initial' delay known for the moment is for the atlas V carrying NROL-67 is delayed until at least april 10.

So i guess the other launch should be delayed by at least that amount too - we're looking for at least two weeks delay (as the atlas V should have been launched on March 25.

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/03/eastern-range-radar-upcoming-launches/

Edited March 27, 2014 by sgt_flyer

[Pretender6]

I guess this is a real-life discussion of the SpaceX Grasshopper and SSTO, but you may find the following link interesting