SpaceX Falcon 9

[Salo]

http://spacenews.com/ses-rethinking-being-first-to-fly-on-a-full-throttle-falcon-9/

Александр Ч. пишет:

ronatu пишет:
18-й - полет пилотируемого CT-100

А мужики в курсе?

John Elbon, vice president and general manager of Boeing's space exploration division, said the CST-100 is already reserved for slots in ULA's manifest for an unmanned test flight in April 2017 and the piloted mission in July 2017 .

Более того CST-100 пока главный претендент на первый полёт в качестве USCV к МКС.

[Salo]

http://spacenews.com/ses-rethinking-being-first-to-fly-on-a-full-throttle-falcon-9/

SES Rethinking Being First To Fly a Full-throttle Falcon 9
by Peter B. de Selding — January 30, 2015

"You know SpaceX is introducing into their manifest ... a modification of the current engine, with about a 20 percent increase in thrust," said Martin Halliwell, SES's chief technical officer. "We're making a decision internally as to whether we want to be the first to fly it." Credit: SpaceX
 
PARIS — Satellite fleet operator SES said it is likely to trade its midyear launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for a slot later in the year rather than be the first to fly a Falcon 9 with Merlin 1D engines adjusted for improved thrust.
The company's decision is unrelated to Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX's ongoing effort to win U.S. Air Force certification to bid against United Launch Alliance of Denver on military launches. But SES's internal debate – the company said no formal decision had been made – shows the often complicated trade-offs each organization, government or commercial, must make before signing up with a launch service provider.
NASA, which is working through its own Falcon 9 certification, has already delayed a planned Falcon 9 launch this spring until later this year in part to wait for the certification process to complete.
While NASA relies on SpaceX to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, NASA has not certified the Falcon 9 rocket to launch science satellites, which is why the Jason-3 ocean-topography satellite, a U.S.-European mission, will not launch until mid-year despite the fact that its predecessor, Jason-2, is well past its scheduled retirement date.
Luxembourg-based SES in December 2013 flew its SES-8 satellite on the Falcon 9's first mission to geostationary transfer orbit – an extraordinary step the conservative company took to show how much it believed in the Falcon 9's importance to the commercial launch sector. SES-8 was successfully placed into orbit.

Second Thoughts about Being First

SpaceX has been working since then to coax more thrust out of the Merlin 1D engine, which the company said before the SES-8 launch was operating at only 85 percent of its potential.
In a briefing with reporters here Jan. 22, SES officials said they retain full confidence in SpaceX and have seen the data showing the Merlin 1D engine's improved performance on the ground.
But the SES-9 satellite scheduled for launch this year is not SES-8, and the cost-benefit trade-offs on whether to be the first to trust your satellite to an upgraded rocket engine are not the same, either, said Martin Halliwell, SES's chief technical officer.
"The situation we have now with SpaceX is that we are awaiting manifest updates," Halliwell said. "You know SpaceX is introducing into their manifest a new engine, or a modification of the current engine, with about a 20 percent increase in thrust. We're making a decision internally as to whether we want to be the first to fly it."

Спойлер

Boeing illustration of its 702-HP satellite model

SES-9, a Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems 702-HP spacecraft expected to weigh 5,300 kilograms at launch, is near the limit of what the current Falcon 9 v1.1 vehicle can carry and was to be placed into a subsynchronous orbit.SES-9 then would use its on-board propulsion to climb to final geostationary orbit.
SES-9 carries 81 transponder, 53 of which are designed to capture new business in the Indian Ocean region, including maritime customers, from is operating slot at 108.2 degrees east.
SES-8, by comparison, weighed just 3,200 kilograms at launch. It carries a payload of up to 33 transponders, including 21 for new business.
Halliwell said completion of SES-9 is on track for April or May.
One of the trade-offs that SES will look at is whether, having allowed one SpaceX launch slot to pass, it will have another in short order. SpaceX has stopped publishing its launch schedule but at last count it had well over a dozen missions planned this year from both the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and  Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
"If we decide we are not going to be the first to fly this, then we will be launching later in the manifest, Halliwell said. "It'll be probably later in the year, in the August-September time frame."
One of the benefits of the Merlin 1D performance upgrade is that it will permit SpaceX to launch payloads with the same maximum weight as it does currently while at the same time preserving capacity so that the first stage can power itself to an unmanned oceangoing barge to be recovered and reused.
As he has been for several years, Halliwell said he is rooting for SpaceX to succeed with a first-stage recovery as the company advances toward its goal of reusing the stage to cut launch costs.
"We know the rocket has done a lot of testing and has run many, many hours," Halliwell said. "It looks like a good solution. However, we'll be making a decision soon. From a power-to-weight point of view this is already a powerful engine and now we're stretching it another 20 percent. So we'll have to take a very close look at this."

[свернуть]

[ВВК]

Пуск 12.02.15 прошел как обычно с задержками, даже интересно будет когда , чтоб раз и тама, но с этого пуска по-моему мнению они стали наверно обыкновенными и даже ПН ему доверило чуть ли не военное ведомоство, пусть и с задержками, но обыкновенными рутинными, и шоу ждем уже не от пуска  и не от ПН,  а от приземления ступени, но это что-то другое, это как дополнение, потом он получается решил вроде все свои детские болезни, даже видеокамеры на ступени не "потеют" и ножницами ничего на старте не подрезают . Но теперь наверно можно будет и поговорить скоро о рентабельности проекта , Маск конечно пытается оттянуть этот приятный момент, ступенями всякими прикрывается. Но все же ему-то самому-то тоже должно быть интересно.
Конечно интересно с точки зрения технических новаций получить комплекс для РКН с возможностью посадки хотя 1-ой ступени, заодно посмотреть на все + и - , а заодно и оценить творческий гений масковых конструкторов, выбравших  подобную схему РН, а заодно стоимость 1 кг на орбите. Может кто-то ведет такую статистику и поделится.

[vadimr]

Плейшнер пишет:

Team.1 пишет:
Какова точность этих приемников и каковы размеры баржи?. Боюсь студенты здесь ничего не решат )

Учтите, что приемники на барже и на ракете будут в одинаковых условиях по отношению к таким основополагающим факторам влияющих на погрешность как нестабильность часов спутника, неточность эфемерид, ионосферная и тропосферная задержки.

Только в том случае, если оба приёмника будут работать по одинаковому рабочему созвездию навигационных аппаратов. Что малореально, учитывая размещение антенны бортового приёмника.

Говоря по-простому, ракета будет принимать сигналы от меньшего количества спутников, чем баржа, и с этим будет связана погрешность.

[Плейшнер]

Система дифференциальной коррекции работает на том же принципе - считается что в одном районе все навигаторы врут одинаково. При ее использовании погрешность уменьшается, но естественно не становится равной нулю.

[Плейшнер]

Соответственно, два навигатора "найдут" друг друга с такой же точностью, как если бы использовали Систему Дифференциальной коррекции

[Salo]

Deflang пишет:
Один из разработчиков SpaceX при общении ответил мне на вопрос о бизнесе - Вся команда считает Маска "crazy man" и очень уважает за то, что для него это не бизнес, а средство осуществления мечты отправить человека на Марс. Он просто повернут на этой идее. Так что, лично я делаю вывод, что нет никакого прикрытия ступенями и т.д.

Дениса Тито он однако по-настоящему не поддержал. Сложно повёрнут?

[Kap]

Salo пишет:
Дениса Тито он однако по-настоящему не поддержал.

1) А Тито за поддержкой обращался? В Инспирейшене вроде с самого начала закладывались на локхидовский крафт.
2) Проект Тито, неожиданно, облет Марса на в принципе существующей технике. С идеями Маска о доступных межпланетных полетах за счет многоразовости носителей это соотносится слабо.

[Salo]

Kap пишет:

Salo пишет:
Дениса Тито он однако по-настоящему не поддержал.

1) А Тито за поддержкой обращался? В Инспирейшене вроде с самого начала закладывались на локхидовский крафт.
2) Проект Тито, неожиданно, облет Марса на в принципе существующей технике. С идеями Маска о доступных межпланетных полетах за счет многоразовости носителей это соотносится слабо.

А як жеж Драгон великолепный, на котором Маск готов был лететь прям сразу сам в его текущем старом варианте?  
Кроме того и Орион, и FH на тот момент ещё были наполовину в чертежах.

[Kap]

Salo пишет:
А як жеж Драгон великолепный, на котором Маск готов был лететь прям сразу сам в его текущем старом варианте?  
Кроме того и Орион, и FH на тот момент ещё были наполовину в чертежах.
 
               

Ну не возжелал Тито уже готовый на тот момент Дракон, Маск и все прочие-то тут при чем?

Salo пишет:
на котором Маск готов был лететь прям сразу сам в его текущем старом варианте?

Можно подробности? А технически на первом Драконе летать-то можно - живность он возит. Да и на Шаттлах без САС летали.

[Salo]

И без СЖО тоже?

[Kap]

Salo пишет:
И без СЖО тоже?

Еще раз, животину на МКС он возил. Без СЖО это несколько затруднительно.

[Salo]

Животина весила 80 кг?

[ВВК]

Deflang пишет:

ВВК пишет:
ступенями всякими прикрывается. Но все же ему-то самому-то тоже должно быть интересно.

Один из разработчиков SpaceX при общении ответил мне на вопрос о бизнесе - Вся команда считает Маска "crazy man" и очень уважает за то, что для него это не бизнес, а средство осуществления мечты отправить человека на Марс. Он просто повернут на этой идее. Так что, лично я делаю вывод, что нет никакого прикрытия ступенями и т.д.

Так и хочется сказать:" Как не странно и это похоже на правду".   Но в свете его высказывания относительно Ариан и Протона после того как стал летать Сокол , и  что он говорит относительно его борьбы за заказы с ULA, то получается что не такой он и альтруист.

[Apollo13]

ВВК пишет:
получается что не такой он и альтруист.

Он Дартаньян а все кругом... Робин Гуд. Хочет забрать у богатой ЮЛЫ и отдать бедным марсианам

[Александр Ч.]

А между тем Маску разрешили строить площадку для посадок на мысе Канаверал
http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/565808/45th-space-wing-spacex-sign-first-ever-landing-pad-agreement-at-cape-canaveral.aspx

45th Space Wing, SpaceX sign first-ever landing pad agreement at Cape Canaveral
By 45th Space Wing Public Affairs, / Published February 10, 2015

PHOTO DETAILS
Launch Complex 13 was originally used for operational and test launches of the Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, in addition to Atlas B, D, E and F missiles, which were also test launched from there. It was the most-used and longest-serving of the original four Atlas pads.

PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) -- Brig. Gen. Nina Armagno, the 45th Space Wing commander, recently signed a five-year leasing agreement with SpaceX that will allow for the creation of the first-ever "Landing Pad" at Launch Complex 13 at historic Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

SpaceX plans to repurpose the launch complex to successfully support their construction of a vertical-landing facility suitable for the return of reusable first-stage boosters of their Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles that are currently launched from LC-40 at CCAFS.

"The way we see it, this is a classic combination of a highly successful launch past morphing into an equally promising future," Armagno said. "It's a whole new world, and the 45th Space Wing is committed to defining and building the Spaceport of the future."

LC-13 was originally used for operational and test launches of the Atlas ICBM, and Atlas B, D, E and F missiles were also test launched from there.

It was the most-used and longest-serving of the original four Atlas pads.

Now it will be used in an amazing new way.

"For decades, we have been refining our procedures for getting successful launches skyward here on the Eastern Range. Now we're looking at processes on how to bring first-stage rockets back to earth at the first landing pad at the Cape," she said. "We live in exciting times here on the space coast."

Т.е. то видео про FHR может стать явью

[Grus]

Salo пишет:
И без СЖО тоже?  ;)  

И кресла, кресла не забыть!111 И почитать.

Вы, надеюсь, не всерьез и не о Маске. Жизнеобеспечение на неделю - давно отработанное оборудование.

[Salo]

Дык вперёд и с песней: до 2018-го ещё три года.

[Salo]

http://spacenews.com/despite-6-iss-flights-spacex-still-awaits-nasa-launch-certification/

Despite 6 ISS Flights, SpaceX Still Awaits NASA Launch Certification
by Dan Leone — February 13, 2015

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is getting closer to clinching NASA's formal seal of approval, but "has not yet achieved NASA certification," said Jim Norman, director of launch services. Credit: SpaceX  
 
WASHINGTON — After almost three years of waiting — and six successful cargo flights to the International Space Station — SpaceX's Falcon 9 should finally win approval to loft NASA science satellites this year, NASA's lead launch services buyer said.
SpaceX has been working toward NASA certification since it won an $82 million contract in 2012 to launch the French-U.S. Jason-3 ocean altimetry satellite aboard a Falcon 9. The rocket is getting closer to clinching NASA's formal seal of approval, but "has not yet achieved NASA certification," said Jim Norman, director of launch services at NASA Headquarters here.
NASA rocket certification consists of three tiers, called categories, that determine which NASA payloads a rocket is cleared to launch. The lowest is Category 1; the highest is Category 3. The higher a rocket's rating, the more valuable the payloads NASA will entrust to it. Rockets that have never flown must normally start at Category 1 and work their way up the certification ladder with successful launches.
 
"For over a decade NASA has relied on using propulsion system changes as the most significant factor in declaring a unique configuration that requires certification."
 
Falcon 9, Norman said, is skipping Category 1 and proceeding straight to Category 2, thanks to a combination of commercial bookings and ISS missions paid for under a 2008 Commercial Resupply Services contract that, legally speaking, certified SpaceX for cargo deliveries, not rocket launches.
SpaceX's launch of the Deep Space Climate Observatory on Feb. 11 did not need NASA certification because the $97 million launch was paid for by the Air Force, which is in the midst of certifying Falcon 9 for high-value military launches. The roughly $200 million satellite, originally built by NASA for Earth observations, sat in a hangar for more than a decade before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration adopted it and turned it into a space weather satellite.
Category 2 certification calls for at least one successful mission and possibly as many as six. The current Falcon 9 configuration, which was introduced in September 2013 following five launches powered by the since-retired Merlin 1C engine, has flown nine times. But SpaceX still needs NASA to formally sign off on the success of those launches and the rocket's design before certification is finalized.
None of that has happened yet, but Norman said sign-off is on track to happen before late May or early June, when the Jason-3 satellite is scheduled for launch.
 SpaceX spokesman John Taylor declined to comment on SpaceX's certification efforts at NASA.
 
Credit: SpaceNews
When SpaceX got the Jason-3 launch contract nearly three years ago, NASA anticipated a December 2014 liftoff. According to Norman, Falcon 9 certification issues are only partly to blame for delaying the launch. Another contributor was the Oct. 28 Antares launch failure that destroyed a shipment of ISS cargo being handled by NASA's other contract carrier, Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia. The Antares accident forced SpaceX to launch one of its ISS supply runs sooner than expected, which forced other Falcon 9 launches to take a back seat, Norman said.
 Meanwhile, SpaceX's main U.S. competitor, United Launch Alliance of Denver, has its own NASA certification journey ahead.
Besides the U.S. military launches ULA has had largely to itself since its inception in 2006, the company has a near lock on flagship NASA science missions, such as the $2.5 billion Curiosity rover that landed on Mars in 2012. Such critical NASA payloads are entrusted only to rockets with a Category 3 certification, which so far only ULA's flagship Atlas 5 and out-of-production Delta 2 rockets have earned. In a few years, the Atlas 5 will have to earn certification again, because of ULA's plans to change the rocket's main propulsion system.
"For over a decade NASA has relied on using propulsion system changes as the most significant factor in declaring a unique configuration that requires certification," Norman said.
SpaceX had to deal with the ramifications of that rule in 2013, when the company exchanged the Merlin 1C engine that powered the first five Falcon 9 launches for the Merlin 1D the rocket has used ever since. The swap meant Falcon 9 flights that might have counted toward NASA certification suddenly did not.
ULA, unlike SpaceX, is not changing engines wholly of its own volition.
In December, as part of the Defense Authorization Act of 2015, Congress banned the use of Russian-made RD-180 engines for military launches after 2019. Banning the RD-180, which has powered Atlas 5 since 2002 under an exclusive import arrangement with engine maker NPO Energomash of Khimki, Russia, prompted ULA to move out ahead of the law's passage to secure a permanent replacement.
In September, ULA announced it had chosen the BE-5, a hydrogen-fueled engine made by Blue Origin, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos' secretive Kent, Washington-based spacecraft company.
ULA has said it will unveil details of the revamped Atlas 5 in April. Once the design is settled, the new Atlas 5 can reclaim its Category 3 NASA certification after as few as three flights or as many as 14, depending on the level of NASA scrutiny new ULA Chief Executive Tory Bruno is willing to accept.
"While the new system will require certification, we're confident this new system will enable us to further reduce costs while continuing to provide the most affordable and reliable launch services to our customers," ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye wrote in an email.
In the meantime, NASA can lean on the reliable RD-180 to launch flagship science missions for at least another four years.

[Salo]

http://spacenews.com/as-spacex-turns-up-rhetoric-air-force-taps-retired-four-star-for-certification-review/

As SpaceX Turns up Rhetoric, USAF Taps Welch for Certification Review
by Peter B. de Selding and Mike Gruss — January 16, 2015

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James announced that retired Gen. Larry Welch would lead an independent review of the service's launch vehicle certification process, as she fended off allegations by SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk that the service is dragging its feet to appease United Launch Alliance. Credit: U.S. Air Force/Scott Ash
 
WASHINGTON — Retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Larry D. Welch, a former chief of staff, will lead an independent review of the service's launch vehicle certification process, which has come under criticism for the time it is taking to certify SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket to carry military payloads.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James announced that Welch, who most recently led a study that identified problems with the service's handling of nuclear weapons, would troubleshoot the certification issue as she fended off public allegations by SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk that the service is dragging its feet to appease its current monopoly launch provider, United Launch Alliance.
In an audio interview with Bloomberg Businessweek Jan. 13, Musk portrayed his Hawthorne, California-based company as a small fighting force going up against Denver-based ULA and the combined lobbying might of ULA's shareholders, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The Air Force recently disclosed that Falcon 9 certification, which had been expected by the end of 2014, could take until the middle of 2015.
 
Gen. Larry Welch. Credit: U.S. Air Force

"The people fighting it [Falcon 9 certification to bid for military launches] are really in the bureaucracy of the Pentagon, and the procurement officers, who then go and work at Boeing and Lockheed Martin, the prime contractors — which has actually happened," Musk said, returning to a theme he has invoked before.
"It's easy to understand fr om a game theory standpoint. Essentially we're asking them to award a contract to a company where they are probably not going to get a job, against a company wh ere their friends are. So they've got to go against their friends, and their future retirement program. This is a difficult thing to expect."
In a press briefing here Jan. 15, James called Musk's remarks "rather unfortunate."
"I only wish that Mr. Musk would have said some of this to me directly when I called him to tell him that SpaceX had not quite made it," she said.
James also shed a small amount of some light on the reasons for the delay. "This is real engineering work that needs to be demonstrated," she said. "This is not a paperwork shuffle."
While certification is still "months away," James said, the end result has become a question of when, not if.
ULA, meanwhile, also took umbrage at Musk's allegations. "ULA is aware of the comments recently made by Mr. Musk to Bloomberg News and subsequently published in Space News, and we take great offense at his gross aspersions regarding the integrity of our company, its corporate partners, and the dedicated men and women of the United States Air Force that are committed to ensuring the security of this nation," ULA General Counsel Kevin MacCary said in a written statement to SpaceNews. "More importantly, we believe Mr. Musk's comments about the case pending in the Court of Federal Claims has flagrantly violated the Court's repeated admonitions to the parties not to discuss the litigation in the media. ULA has and will continue to respect the court's direction, and we will not attempt to litigate the dispute in the press."
SpaceX in April filed a lawsuit challenging the Air Force's sole-source contract, awarded in 2013, for a large number of rockets from ULA. The judge presiding over that case has directed the parties not to speak to media on the matter.
Musk said the combined lobbying power in Washington of Boeing and Lockheed Martin is such that "if they send them all out, the skies darken. They have entire buildings. We have half of one floor. If this were simply a matter of lobbying power, then we would have no chance."
Musk conceded that at SpaceX, which has grown to slightly more than 4,000 employees, about one-third of the workforce comes from established aerospace companies including Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Musk said the recent decision by Blue Origin, a company formed by Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, to join forces with ULA to build a rocket engine "is a compliment of sorts [to SpaceX], if all our competitors are going up against us. Clearly there are some strange bedfellows there. I'm not sure Blue Origin understands how stringent the Defense Department's requirements are for a new engine. They're really quite intense."
The Falcon 9 also is undergoing certification by NASA, which expects to have its work done by midyear — in time to launch a U.S.-European ocean-altimetry satellite. The rocket is used to launch cargo to the International Space Station on a commercial basis but has not been certified to carry high-value NASA satellites. While NASA and the Air Force are coordinating their certification processes, these efforts are independent.
In any event, Musk did not mention NASA's certification process in his interview, during which he also said SpaceX would be creating a satellite design plant in Seattle that will employ about 60 people at the outset before growing to several hundred. The idea, he said, is to shake up the satellite production industry in the same way that SpaceX has shaken the launcher sector.