SpaceX lunar (PDF)

[Dr Mordrid]

SpaceX lunar capabilities....(PDF)

(Does not include the huge Falcon 9 Heavy)

[Jammrock]

Cool. Never realized they launch from the Marshall Isles.

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup, and they just last week demo'ed the old Titan IV tower at the Kennedy Space Center's LC-40. NASA is providfing it so they can launch their Dragon spaceship at the proper inclination for flights to the ISS.

Soon as they haul away the remains their Falcon 9 facility starts construction. They kept the main pad, water quenching system, flame chute etc., but are putting in state-of-the-art launch control systems.

Believe it or not their setup runs the whole launch with ~24 laptops. These run the whole show including their exclusive ability to recover rapidly after a faulty engine start; they can defuel, do simple repairs, refuel then launch in less than an hour.

This turnaround capability was actually used & proven in the 2nd Falcon 1 launch then a turbopump froze up from the humidity and an unexpectedly long hold forcing an engine shutdown; they defueled, thawed it out then refueld and launched in a little less than an hour. A-freakin-mazing as such a set of events would have taken NASA days to weeks to recover from.

The internals of the rocket sytems, internal diagnostics, avionics and the launch system use an off the shelf ethernet instead of discrete wiring.