SpaceX (general discussion)

TomcatViP said:
It would be funny if they didn't just because the trollosphere said so.
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Pretty sure Elon Musk would give the trollsphere two big birds.
 
Whilst Elon was talking about sending artists to space his number two at Space X had other matters to address. Unlike Tesla Space X has a strong number two and hence why it seems a much less troubled company along with it not being publicly listed.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell: ‘We would launch a weapon to defend the U.S.’

https://spacenews.com/spacex-president-gwynne-shotwell-we-would-launch-a-weapon-to-defend-the-u-s/
 
The arsTechnica article is a fabulous read Flyaway, thanks for posting the link!
 
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Japan_firm_signs_with_SpaceX_for_lunar_missions_999.html
 
https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/28/17906158/nasa-spacex-oneweb-satellite-large-constellations-orbital-debris
 
A shadowy op-ed campaign is now smearing SpaceX in space cities

Around this time, half a dozen newspapers across the country—several in key space markets—began publishing an op-ed that criticized the process by which Boeing competitor SpaceX fuels its Falcon 9 rocket. The first op-ed appeared in a Memphis newspaper a week before the commercial crew announcement. In recent weeks, copies of the op-ed have also appeared in the Houston Chronicle, various Alabama newspapers, Albuquerque Journal, Florida Today, and The Washington Times.
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Flyaway said:
A shadowy op-ed campaign is now smearing SpaceX in space cities

Around this time, half a dozen newspapers across the country—several in key space markets—began publishing an op-ed that criticized the process by which Boeing competitor SpaceX fuels its Falcon 9 rocket. The first op-ed appeared in a Memphis newspaper a week before the commercial crew announcement. In recent weeks, copies of the op-ed have also appeared in the Houston Chronicle, various Alabama newspapers, Albuquerque Journal, Florida Today, and The Washington Times.
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It's called sour grapes. SpaceX isn't going to change it and NASA has already signed off on it for manned flight.
 
The shadows fade if you simply ponder who would actually spend money to organize something like this and leaves you with a fairly limited cast of suspects.
 
Cross posting this as this launch has fallen back into 2019.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/commercialcrew/2018/10/04/nasas-commercial-crew-program-target-test-flight-dates-4/
Test Flight Planning Dates:
SpaceX Demo-1 (uncrewed): January 2019
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fredymac said:
The shadows fade if you simply ponder who would actually spend money to organize something like this and leaves you with a fairly limited cast of suspects.
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Rumor is it's Boeing. (Then again, who else would it be?)
 
First return landing back to Vandenberg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw4X8p5zVZE
 
Despite the seemingly endless repetition, it will stand for long as an amazing sight. Congrats SpaceX!
 
sferrin said:
Did it tweak on of the legs? ???
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Having looked at the above video for a long time, it may have suffered from a not so perfect landing, but at least it never fell over and exploded this time round.
 
TomcatViP said:
it seems an oleo didn't function properly
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IIRC this happened on one other landing as well. Good thing there is enough margin of stability not to tip over. :eek:
 
Makes me wonder about BFS tripod landing. How will they compensate for uneven surfaces if there are issues on a dead-level concrete pad?
 
NeilChapman said:
Makes me wonder about BFS tripod landing. How will they compensate for uneven surfaces if there are issues on a dead-level concrete pad?
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What are the "issues"? That a leg didn't fully deploy had nothing to do with the surface.
 
I am sure that they have enough margin on tilting angle to make this a secondary (or more) issue. We have to realize that the thing keep only enough fuel to land; hence the CG might be very low (completing what Sferrin just said).
 
I believe that Falcon landed perfectly straight, the tilting angle may be due to the rocket being off center a wide angle lens.

BFS tripod stability on unprepared surfaces is certainly a valid concern. If I was wearing a SpaceX tee shirt, I would work on BFS having the ability to immediately hop a short distance away for another landing attempt before any excessive tilt is reached. The lower Mars gravity and sheer size of BFS makes this all happen in slow motion anyway, so it is not as far fetched as if you were trying to do that on Earth.
 
The leg mechanism in the BFS will have to be different from the F9 anyway. For starters, there are mission profiles where it will need to work twice, once on Mars and again back on Earth. So I assume the BFR version is retractable and offers more range of adjustment than the F9 legs. It probably won't rely on a crush core like F9 does.
 
Elon Musk pegs SpaceX BFR program at $5B as NASA’s rocket booster nears $5B in cost overruns

During a September 17th update to the next-gen SpaceX rocket’s steady progress, CEO Elon Musk offered a rough cost estimate of $5B to complete its development – no less than $2B and no more than $10B. According to NASA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), Boeing – primary contractor for NASA’s SLS “Core Stage” or booster – is all but guaranteed to burn through a minimum of $8.9B between 2012 and the rocket’s tentative 2021 launch debut.
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https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-spacex-bfr-nasa-rocket-over-budget/
 
Being serious to reach that goal will probably trigger vivid discontentement among the industry (abroad and in the US).

One remark although: this is probably marking the end of the segregated systems responsibility, a policy that has led the Space industry since its early soaring and expansion during the cold war. SpaceX being the only (mostly) competitor that embraces all of the key competencies in their design.

Mr. J. Leland Atwood (North American Aviation CEO) discussing NAA early space effort:

the Secretary of the Air Force was man named Harold Talbott who was from Dayton, and I guess his family was a very strong Dayton group, and they were part of the Dayton-Wright airplane organization during World War I and so forth. Harold Talbott was a pretty gutsy type, and he had his ideas of how the industry ought to be organized, and aircraft people were starting to make fringe items like accessories for airplanes, and he didn't like it.

He passed an edict, in other words, that airplane makers were going to stick to airplanes, engine makers were going to stick to engines, and people who made the radios and starters were going to stick to their business. It was really quite dogmatic, and could hardly have been propagated these days, but in the days after the war, wartime control and mobilization still had fairly strong overtones, I guess.
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TomcatViP said:
Being serious to reach that goal will probably trigger vivid discontentement among the industry (abroad and in the US).
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Could you elaborate?
 
the business model of some will then look questionable forcing them to react to still appear relevant to their backer; the public.

Think fighter jets.
 
Not really any specific thread for this so I'll park it here.

edit: looks like they don't want to share it. Just right click the video to get the URL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_GkdQ2X_Eo
 
SpaceX lines up five launches to close out 2018

SpaceX’s launch manifest for the remainder of 2018 is beginning to take shape. The company has five launches remaining on its schedule for the year. Executing all of them would take SpaceX’s 2018 launch total to 22 – surpassing the launch provider’s previous record of 18 launches in a single year.

The next mission on SpaceX’s manifest is Es’hail 2. Scheduled for no earlier than November 14th, a Falcon 9 will launch the communications spacecraft from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center for the Qatar Satellite Company.
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If they pull off 5 in the rest of the year I'll be surprised. They seem to be plagued with delays.
 
sferrin said:
If they pull off 5 in the rest of the year I'll be surprised. They seem to be plagued with delays.
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Lately the delays have been all about the payloads. They used to have a lot of SpaceX-caused delays, and it seems that a lot of their customers learned that the deadlines given are very flexible and you don't need to be awfully strict about your own work because the rocket will not be ready anyway. Now that reuse finally works and they have a lineup of half a dozen launchers ready to launch whenever, and the customers go "oops, our satellite is not even close to ready".

It'll clear out given a little time.
 
SpaceX official says company about to launch a Falcon 9 for the third time

"We've launched Falcon 9 over 60 times," Hoffman said at the Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium on Wednesday afternoon. "We've landed our first stage booster 30 times now. And relaunched 16 times. We're about to relaunch a booster for the third time. So we're turning this into routine access to space. High-reliability, higher-performance, lower-cost access to space; that opens it up to everybody."
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Viasat confirms SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy will launch next-gen broadband satellite

Viasat announced Thursday that a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will launch a next-generation broadband satellite from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center some time between 2020 and 2022, joining Arianespace and United Launch Alliance in a three-way split for Viasat’s new launch contracts.

The fresh launch deal is the second commercial Falcon Heavy launch contract signed by SpaceX in recent weeks. The Swedish company Ovzon announced Oct. 16 its selection of a Falcon Heavy rocket to haul its first geostationary communications satellite to orbit from Florida’s Space Coast as soon as the fourth quarter of 2020.
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Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spacex-starlink-insight/musk-shakes-up-spacex-in-race-to-make-satellite-launch-window-sources-idUSKCN1N50FC

Musk had fired at least seven members of the program’s senior management team at the Redmond, Washington, office, the culmination of disagreements over the pace at which the team was developing and testing its Starlink satellites, according to the two SpaceX employees with direct knowledge of the situation.
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SpaceX employees told Reuters that two Starlink test satellites launched in February, dubbed Tintin A and B, were functioning as intended.
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SpaceX has said it would launch its satellites in phases through 2024. It goal of having Internet service available in 2020 is “pretty much on target” with an initial satellite launch by mid-2019, one of the sources said.
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Mod to SpaceX tech tree build: Falcon 9 second stage will be upgraded to be like a mini-BFR Ship
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https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1060253333116473344

Twitter thread says first flight in June.

Won’t land propulsively for those reasons. Ultra light heat shield & high Mach control surfaces are what we can’t test well without orbital entry. I think we have a handle on propulsive landings.
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https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1060265065276825601

Looks like it's to be a tech demonstrator.

More here.

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-miniature-bfr-spaceship-falcon-9-launch-elon-musk/
 

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