Dragon/Falcon 9 Update

Pat Flannery wrote:
Derek Lyons wrote:
(from the same source)
:"This gives us the best flight data in advance of our first COTS
:mission," Musk said. "It also removes the (payload) fairing from
:the schedule critical path and allows us to spend more time on
:making the fairing lighter and more reliable."

Which sounds fishy as hell... Almost like there is a problem with
the fairing, and thus they are unable to launch the (as yet
unannounced) originally intended payload.

Hmm, now that you mention it, that does sound odd...but they
probably want to get Dragon up and running ASAP, so they can get a
major lead over Orbital Sciences.

If what Derek suggested is correct - that SpaceX are having trouble
with the fairing, then could this be an attempt at an Apollo-8-esque
lemonade from lemons situation?

SpaceX had an issue with vibration that delayed their last launch on
Falcon1 - might that vibration issue also have manifested itself in
Falcon9? If so, perhaps a "not quite just boilerplate" Dragon capsule
wouldn't care and so they can shuffle their ordering while issues are
worked?

rick jones
--
web2.0 n, the dot.com reunion tour...
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...

Rick Jones wrote:

Pat Flannery wrote:
Derek Lyons wrote:
(from the same source)
:"This gives us the best flight data in advance of our first COTS
:mission," Musk said. "It also removes the (payload) fairing from
:the schedule critical path and allows us to spend more time on
:making the fairing lighter and more reliable."

Which sounds fishy as hell... Almost like there is a problem with
the fairing, and thus they are unable to launch the (as yet
unannounced) originally intended payload.

Hmm, now that you mention it, that does sound odd...but they
probably want to get Dragon up and running ASAP, so they can get a
major lead over Orbital Sciences.

If what Derek suggested is correct - that SpaceX are having trouble
with the fairing, then could this be an attempt at an Apollo-8-esque
lemonade from lemons situation?

There's not many other ways to read Elon's statement - unless they are
intentionally sidelining the commercial version of the Falcon 9 in
favor of going hell-for-leather for the COTS flights.

Even so, flying a unit that (AFAIK) was never intended to be flown
smells of desperation. If they loose the booster (highly likely),
they lose the capsule too.

Was the unamed original customer scared off given the problematic
history of the Falcon I?

SpaceX had an issue with vibration that delayed their last launch on
Falcon1 - might that vibration issue also have manifested itself in
Falcon9? If so, perhaps a "not quite just boilerplate" Dragon capsule
wouldn't care and so they can shuffle their ordering while issues are
worked?

There's any number of issues, as well as customer perception, that
could lead to skittishness on the part of potential customers to
commit to the Falcon 9.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL

(Derek Lyons) writes:
Which sounds fishy as hell... Almost like there is a problem with the
fairing, and thus they are unable to launch the (as yet unannounced)
originally intended payload.

D.

To restore customer confidence they should stage a PR stunt for the
next Dragon flight, the one planned w/RCS + re-entry.

I have a suggestion. In the would-be astronaut seats, stuff bags
of cash, in small enough denominations to simulate the weight of
an astronaut, but enough so that all bags total $1 MEEELION DOLLARS!

I can't help it, the parallels between Elon Musk and Mike Meyers
playing Dr. Evil are just unavoidable!

:-D

Dave

David Spain wrote:
To restore customer confidence they should stage a PR stunt for the
next Dragon flight, the one planned w/RCS + re-entry.

I have a suggestion. In the would-be astronaut seats, stuff bags
of cash, in small enough denominations to simulate the weight of
an astronaut, but enough so that all bags total $1 MEEELION DOLLARS!

Compared to how much money they are spending on the thing itself I
suspect your one meeelion dollars would be saltmarsh harvest mouse
nuts. To truly restore customer confidence, it would have to be much
more, or perhaps Elon himself doing a Victor Kiam - "I loved it so
much, I bet my life on it!"

Now, a meeesly 1 meeelion dollars *would* make for an interesting
experiment in the durability of U.S. currency when Dragon
breaks/burns-up on reentry There was a shot on www.spacex.com that
suggested the thermal shield is actually in many discrete peices, not
too unlike Shuttle tiles, rather than the "one big heatshield"
variety.

rick jones
--
oxymoron n, Hummer H2 with California Save Our Coasts and Oceans plates
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...

Rick Jones wrote:

Now, a meeesly 1 meeelion dollars *would* make for an interesting
experiment in the durability of U.S. currency when Dragon
breaks/burns-up on reentry There was a shot on www.spacex.com that
suggested the thermal shield is actually in many discrete peices, not
too unlike Shuttle tiles, rather than the "one big heatshield"
variety.

Are you proposing a heatshield made out of dollar bills?

--
Mvh./Regards, Niels Jørgen Kruse, Vanløse, Denmark

Niels J?rgen Kruse wrote:
Rick Jones wrote:

Now, a meeesly 1 meeelion dollars *would* make for an interesting
experiment in the durability of U.S. currency when Dragon
breaks/burns-up on reentry There was a shot on www.spacex.com that
suggested the thermal shield is actually in many discrete peices, not
too unlike Shuttle tiles, rather than the "one big heatshield"
variety.

Are you proposing a heatshield made out of dollar bills?

Um, ah, sure - the folks who consider the whole endeavour burning
money would probably find it apt I was thinking more whether or not
the individual bills would survive reentry after the capsule
containing them broke-up though

rick jones
--
the road to hell is paved with business decisions...
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...

"Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is preparing to
conduct static fire testing of the first and second stages of
the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, following the completion of
acceptance testing of the stages themselves.

The milestone, completed at the company's McGregor,
Texas, test site, moves SpaceX a step closer to launching
the Falcon 9 demonstrator at Cape Canaveral, Fla. This has
always been ambitiously targeted for sometime before the
end of the year, though with the expected delivery of the
stages to the Cape in November the company now appears
to be hinting at a potential slip into January or February 2010."

See:

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/gener...eadline=SpaceX
Readies For Final Static Fire Tests&channel=space