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Old May 15th 18, 04:00 AM posted to sci.space.policy
Fred J. McCall[_3_]
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Default First flight of Block 5 successful launch and landing

JF Mezei wrote on Mon, 14 May 2018
17:00:27 -0400:

On 2018-05-14 06:23, Jeff Findley wrote:

What we saw has been described as the end of the beginning for SpaceX.
At this point Block 5 should be standardized as much as possible so that
NASA will certify it for crewed flights. NASA really won't tolerate the
sort of continuous tweaking that SpaceX did on the first 50+ flights.


During launch commentary, the commentator mentioned no planned major
changes for Falcon 9 anymore, but that tweaks would likely continue to
be done for minor improvements.


Want to bet they won't be flying those tweaks on manned missions until
they're proven in?


Does NASA require "brand spanking new" Stage I for crewed flights or
tolerate re-used stages ?


Unknown, since there are no crewed flights to date. They 'tolerate'
previously flown stages and capsules on cargo missions. There's no
known reason to not do the same on manned flights. They'll probably
fly new until there have been 7 or so 'reused' launches that are
successful.


It should be noted that the very first Block 5 not only managed to land,
but landed on "I still love you" for its very first flight.


That's not a 'but'. I Still Love You is the name of the barge. It's
the only thing out there to land on, so if the stage successfully
landed that would be where.


--
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