Falcon 9 first stage landing at KSC (landed stage to be test fired)

[Dr Mordrid]

The landed F9 is in the 39A hangar getting a bath, inspected and fit tests for the pad hardware before a static fire to prove its re-launchable. Not to mention a ton of visitors from NASA and the USAF.

12346057_156465868051366_1354539608_n.jpg

[Umfriend]

Of course. No sea state to worry about, hauling it back to port etc., but the ASDS's will still be used for launches with low margins.

On land everything is stable, the refurb facility is a mile down the road, and you have multiple landing pads for when you have three Falcon Heavy cores coming back - the first two simultaneously. That'll be one helluva sight.

So then why are they trying to land on sea as well? Does it have to do with trajectory / launch site?

[Dr Mordrid]

So then why are they trying to land on sea as well? Does it have to do with trajectory / launch site?

It takes about 25-30% of your propellant to do a return to launch site (RTLS) land touchdown, and about 12-15% to do an autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) sea touchdown. It varies a bit by payload mass and trajectory. That extra ASDS propellant margin can be used to launch heavier payloads to higher energy destinations.

Lighter and LEO payloads like Dragon can use RTLS, heavy commsats going to geostationary treansfer orbit (GTO) or deep space probes use the ASDS. In extreme cases recovery may not be possible.

In the case of Falcon Heavy its center stage will go so far down range RTLS may only be possible with lighter payloads, such as those barely too heavy for Falcon 9. It's main payloads; very heavy commsats, large military payloads and Mars precursor missions, will require ASDS to catch the center stage. Some of these may also have to be expendable. In any case, the Falcon Heavy side boosters stage low and can RTLS.

The BFR (Big F'ing Rocket) will launch the BFS (Big F'ing Spaceship) (Mars system development names) into orbit then do an RTLS. Each BFS will refuel in orbit from large tankers, then head to Mars or some other beyond Earth orbit (BEO) destination - perhaps the Moon or some other body. With a very large crew and/or payload. Musk and others have said up to 100 tonnes of cargo to a Mars landing, and the ability to launch itself back to Earth.

The BFR and BFS will be huge systems, more like enormous, and they're closer than most people think. Much closer. Their Mars architecture should be announced in early 2016, and the Raptor methane engine components have been undergoing tests at NASA Stennis since 2014.

[cjolley]

Some more photos and commentary:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/12/28/gallery_of_spacex_photos_of_the_december_2015_falcon_9_rocket_landing.html

[Dr Mordrid]

They're talking about KSC LC-39A, the pad that launched Apollo 11 and serviced the Shuttle fleet. More after the article.

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/te...-39a/78010074/

The [ORBCOMM 2] booster will be placed on a transporter designed to roll rockets horizontally from the hangar up to the pads stand on rails, then push them upright. Tests will confirm that mechanical, electrical and fueling systems are working properly.

They have made huge strides in this past year to go get that (pad) ready to where theyre ready to start doing some processing, said Carol Scott of NASAs Commercial Crew Program, during a media tour in early December.

Then, with the booster bolted to the pad, SpaceX plans to fire its nine Merlin main engines again at full thrust in a test, to show it could have been launched again.

That would be the first smoke and fire to pour through the flame trench at pad 39A since Atlantis blasted off on the space shuttle programs final mission in July 2011.

Musk thinks another Falcon booster could be recovered and re-launched sometime in 2016.

LC-39A is to be a Falcon Heavy, Falcon 9 FT, Commercial Crew, Commercial Cargo & DoD military payloads launch pad.

It's nearly finished. They need to demo the Shuttle's Rotating Service Structure (RSS), which happens in January, and put up 3 new lightning towers around the pad. The single stick lightning tower on the Fixed Service Structure (FSS) has to come down to add more levels to FSS, it's not high enough for some Commercial Crew addons, and it's insufficient anyhow. The 39A F9/FH transporter-erector is done and currently has the ORBCOMM 2 landed stage on it for checkouts and a static fire. There's a bit more work to do on the launch mount, but that too is close.

Falcon Heavy itself is in the Hawthorne factory floor. The cores and booster parts have been seen, and a pic shown during the ORBCOMM 2 coverage shows a Falcon Heavy Octaweb (engine mount, with 9 armored engine bays) with its engines installed.

Pics

Note: this hangar can hold 5 cores; 5 F9's, or an FH and two F9's.


What gets removed


CONOPS

[Dr Mordrid]

W00T!!

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/682717803166695425

@elonmusk
Falcon 9 back in the hangar at Cape Canaveral. No damage found, ready to fire again. https://t.co/7w6IfJGtXM

[Dr Mordrid]

Compilation with new landing footage

[cjolley]

That was great video. Wish they had a version without the music though.

[Dr Mordrid]

Can you even imagine what it's like to work for SpaceX?

They are closing in on 5,000 mostly young, aggressive top 5% people with leadership headhunted from NASA, ESA and other aerospace companies. ULA has 3,600. SpaceXers on another forum have said their black R&D projects are so advanced that if we had details people would call them nuts.

Outsiders have begun referring to that black end of their operation as Dragon Works.

[Dr Mordrid]

https://twitter.com/flatoday_jdean/status/687284449151709184

SpaceX as soon as Thursday could perform static fire test of Falcon 9 booster landed Dec. 21 at Cape Canaveral: https://t.co/941J5riKkf

Yessss....

They'll do the test at LC-40. Pic of the stage being transported,