SpaceX Falcon 9

[igorvs]

Элон говорит о 700 тонн в  вакуме

[Salo]

Сферический конь... тьфу, небоскрёб в вакууме.

[SFN]

А твитит другое: Over 1M lbs thrust, enough to lift skyscraper
Хотя 700т тоже Over 1M lbs

[Salo]

SFN пишет:
по нашему несколько более 453 тонн, какие-то подозрительно легкие небоскребы а Техасе.

Ну дык OSB и каркасные канадские технологии.

[Salo]

SFN пишет:
А твитит другое: Over 1M lbs thrust, enough to lift skyscraper
Хотя 700т тоже Over 1M lbs  

https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/341441460215889920?p=v

50% higher. ~1.3 M lbs sea level and ~1.5 M lbs vacuum thrust. Will be 60% higher with some tweaks.

[Salo]

Продолжительность испытаний осталась за кадром...

[SFN]

Вспомнил. В обмен на башню в Восточном ЗАО Мир обещает построить Эйфелеву башню в 50т весом. Так что Элону зачот.

[igorvs]

По продолжительности в пятницу говорили о 30 сек. Чтож, ждем видео и полного 3 минутного теста.
Интересно, а что со второй ступенью, может уже прошла тестирование, если да, то скоро увидим ракету в Ванде.

[Salo]

igorvs пишет:

Интересно, а что со второй ступенью, может уже прошла тестирование

И Маск об этом даже твитта не написал?  

[Salo]

igorvs пишет:
По продолжительности в пятницу говорили о 30 сек.

Обещать, не означает жениться. Как-то длительность теста осталась в стороне от обсуждения.

[ilan]

Salo пишет:

igorvs пишет:
По продолжительности в пятницу говорили о 30 сек.

Обещать, не означает жениться. Как-то длительность теста осталась в стороне от обсуждения.

Я, что-то думаю, что до выхода на максимальную тягу. В свете предыдущих приключений с вакуумом. А дальше опять будет диагностика.

[igorvs]

Позже наверное будет известно

[Salo]

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=31734.msg1060282#msg1060282

Chris Bergin пишет:

I can confirm via L2 that the photo was from the latest v1.1 test, on Saturday night. Not saying any more in this thread, per that or the other tests so far, for various reasons. In other words, it's for SpaceX to provide to release more info into the mainstream....this public thread being "mainstream" via the amount of readers.

L2 Members refer to: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=31605.0

[Salo]

http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/joe_science/spacex-finally-tests-new-rocket/article_0411a902-cc9d-11e2-9b7b-0019bb2963f4.html

SpaceX finally tests new rocket
 
Posted: Monday, June 3, 2013 5:29 pm | Updated: 6:30 pm, Mon Jun 3, 2013.

By JOSEPH ABBOTT jabbott@wacotrib.com

So, apparently, SpaceX finally had its long-anticipated test Saturday at the McGregor development site:
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/341405518566395904

Elon Musk ‏@elonmusk 1 ч

1st firing of Falcon 9-R advanced prototype rocket. Over 1M lbs thrust, enough to lift skyscraper pic.twitter.com/AUCsWTw77E

That tweet by SpaceX's founder and CEO was posted late last night. Company communications director Christina Ra confirmed the test today by email, saying it took place Saturday and lasted 10 seconds.

... which was the original plan, as opposed to what Ra said late last week was the revised plan to start with a test of at least 30 seconds.

More as I get it.

[igorvs]

Я кажется понял, F9R это эксперементальная ступень с многоразовым зажиганием и системой управления от Кузнечика с заложенной баллистической траекторией, в которой отсутствуют пока остальные части. Именно она повезет канадский спутник и попробует вернуться.
И насколько я понял последующие 2-4 пуска будут делаться на стандартных F9 V1.1, а за это время соберут все данные с F9R и подготовят следующий портотип к полету.

[Salo]

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28332.msg1060627#msg1060627

Chris Bergin пишет:
And now a report notes the 10 seconds, I can note that per the L2 coverage link above, it was an abort after 10 seconds - they were aiming for up to three minutes. This followed a test the day before, which was also an abort, but at TEA-TEB ignition.

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/article/military-space/35599us-air-force-soliciting-input-on-launch-services#.Ua3g9djgnpM

U.S. Air Force Soliciting Input on Launch Services
By SpaceNews Staff | Jun. 3, 2013

The U.S. Air Force is asking industry for feedback on ways to enhance competition in the national security launch market, according to a notice published in the Federal Register May 29.

The feedback is being requested by the deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for space, Richard McKinney, as part of an ongoing strategic National Security Space Launch Assessment.

The notice asks launch companies for information including short- and long-term plans for offering launch services to the Defense Department, any critical issues of concern and recommendations for improving or lowering the cost of launch services.

The Air Force procures launch services under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, whose costs have soared in the past several years.

Currently, the Air Force is negotiating the purchase of up to 36 rocket cores over five years from the incumbent EELV contractor, United Launch Alliance of Denver, and plans to competitively award an additional 14 missions to give newcomers such as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. a chance.

[Ну-и-ну]

Salo пишет:
it was an abort after 10 seconds

Халявы нет.

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/article/launch-report/35611spacex-test-fires-merlin-1-d-equipped-rocket-core-in-texas#.Ua4Zs9iBXTo

SpaceX Test Fires Merlin 1-D-equipped Rocket Core in Texas
By Dan Leone | Jun. 4, 2013

WASHINGTON — Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), Hawthorne, Calif., test fired a rocket stage outfitted with nine Merlin1-D engines June 1 at its rocket test facility in McGregor, Texas.

News of the test was announced early June 3 by Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and chief.

"1st firing of Falcon 9-R advanced prototype rocket. Over [1 million pounds of] thrust, enough to lift skyscraper," Musk wrote in the short online message, which was accompanied by a picture of the test.

Falcon 9-R is the name SpaceX is using for a planned Falcon 9 variant with a fully reusable first stage. The company has been testing reusable launch vehicle technology under its Grasshopper technology demonstrator program.

The test lasted about 10 seconds, SpaceX spokeswoman Christina Ra said in a June 3 email. The test rig included nine Merlin 1-D engines, the latest in SpaceX's in-house line of kerosene-fueled rocket motors, Ra said. The photo Musk tweeted showed them attached to what appeared to be a long fuel tank.

Nine Merlin 1-Ds will power the Falcon 9 1.1, a rocket that has been booked by numerous commercial satellite customers, and which SpaceX is banking on for its first launches to geostationary orbit this year.

Ra would not explain why Musk referred the difference, if any, between the Falcon 9 1.1 core stage and the core stage SpaceX tested June 1. Musk did not elaborate in several tweets about the test, in which he discussed the Merlin 1-D's performance, and the approximate size of the skyscraper the stack tested June 1 could lift.

SpaceX announced back in March that Merlin 1-D had completed 28 preflight hot-fire test and was ready to be integrated with a rocket. Looking ahead, Falcon 9 1.1 is set to make its debut July 9, launching Canada's Cassiope space-weather satellite. If that flight is a success, SpaceX will be clear to start launching commercial telecommunications satellites, the first of which would be SES-8, owned by SES of Luxembourg. That launch will take place at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

To fly commercial satellites, SpaceX will also have to have finish  testing a 5.2-meter-diameter fairing the company has been putting through its paces at NASA's Plum Brook Station near Sandusky, Ohio. The Plum Brook tests are not yet complete, Ra said June 3.

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/article/launch-report/35562spacex-chief-says-reusable-first-stage-will-slash-launch-costs#.Ua4dbNiBXTo

SpaceX Chief Says Reusable First Stage Will Slash Launch Costs
By Peter B. de Selding | May. 31, 2013


SpaceX Chairman Elon Musk: "Clearly people were doing something silly in how they put those materials together. By eliminating those foolish things, we were able to make a rocket for much less." Credit: NASA photo by Dennis Bonilla

PARIS — SpaceX Chairman Elon Musk said the company's Dragon capasule, now used to ferry cargo to the international space station, should be ready to carry astronauts to and from space within two or three years, and that he is more optimistic than ever that a partially reusable rocket will accelerate the reduction in launch costs that SpaceX has already caused with its Falcon 9.

Speaking at the All things Digital conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Musk said his ultimate goal with Hawthorne, Calif.-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has not changed since he founded the company: placing humans on Mars to start a permanent colony there.

For now, Musk said SpaceX's success in building and launching rockets less expensively than established launch service suppliers is "an incremental, not a revolutionary" breakthrough. "Our aspiration is to have a revolutionary breakthrough," he said.

Musk reiterated the origin of the SpaceX production model, saying fuel is only 0.3 percent of the total cost of a rocket, with construction materials accounting for no more than 2 percent of the total cost, which for the Falcon 9 is about $60 million.

Given that the rocket's constituent materials are such a small part of the total vehicle cost, he said: "Clearly people were doing something silly in how they put those materials together. By eliminating those foolish things, we were able to make a rocket for much less."

Musk said that a rocket's first stage accounts for three-quarters of its total price tag, so a vehicle with a reusable first stage can be produced at far less cost — assuming the hardware is fully and rapidly reusable.

SpaceX is developing a reusable first stage for the Falcon 9 under a program dubbed Grasshopper.

Meanwhile, SpaceX's upgraded, but still expendable, Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to make its inaugural launch sometime this summer from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., carrying Canada's Cassiope science satellite into low Earth orbit. The launch will flight-qualify the rocket's new engine and fairing sufficiently to trigger a series of Falcon 9 commercial missions that the company has booked.

SpaceX said May 30 that the date of the inaugural flight of the new Falcon 9 remains uncertain. Following a successful Cassiope launch, the new Falcon 9 is scheduled to begin commercial operations from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

The company said the SES-8 commercial telecommunications satellite owned by SES of Luxembourg will be the payload on Falcon 9's first flight to geostationary transfer orbit, the destination of most commercial satellites. The SES launch will be followed by the launch of Thai satellite operator Thaicom's Thaicom 6 telecommunications satellite.

After Thaicom, SpaceX has scheduled the launch, this time into low Earth orbit, of the first batch of satellites for Rochelle Park, N.J.-based Orbcomm's machine-to-machine messaging satellite constellation.