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First Falcon 9 now getting assembled for launch



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 23rd 08, 09:19 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Pat Flannery
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Default First Falcon 9 now getting assembled for launch

It's supposed to be fully stacked at KSC by New Year's Day:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=27259

Pat
  #2  
Old December 23rd 08, 09:36 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Pat Flannery
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Posts: 18,465
Default First Falcon 9 now getting assembled for launch



Pat Flannery wrote:
It's supposed to be fully stacked at KSC by New Year's Day:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=27259


Whoops; correction there - it will be all in one piece, but still
horizontal...until the erector is ready for it in early January.
It will be interesting to see how fast the first launch attempt follows
getting it on the pad.
Knowing SpaceX, not long at all.

Pat
  #3  
Old December 23rd 08, 09:48 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)
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Default First Falcon 9 now getting assembled for launch

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
dakotatelephone...


Pat Flannery wrote:
It's supposed to be fully stacked at KSC by New Year's Day:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=27259


Whoops; correction there - it will be all in one piece, but still
horizontal...until the erector is ready for it in early January.
It will be interesting to see how fast the first launch attempt follows
getting it on the pad.
Knowing SpaceX, not long at all.


Also, I don't think SLC-40 is technically part of KSC, it's part of Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station.



Pat




--
Greg Moore
Ask me about lily, an RPI based CMC.


  #4  
Old December 23rd 08, 09:50 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Anthony Frost
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Default First Falcon 9 now getting assembled for launch

In message tatelephone
Pat Flannery wrote:

It's supposed to be fully stacked at KSC by New Year's Day:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=27259


The same thing with it's predecessors direct from the Ox's mouth...

http://www.spacex.com/updates.php

Anthony

  #5  
Old December 23rd 08, 10:02 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Pat Flannery
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Posts: 18,465
Default First Falcon 9 now getting assembled for launch



Greg D. Moore (Strider) wrote:
Also, I don't think SLC-40 is technically part of KSC, it's part of Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station.


Splitter. :-D
The first stage isn't as big as I pictured it would be; it looks more
like a Atlas/Titan sized stage rather than the Saturn I I thought it
would resemble.
It will be interesting to see if they can get this thing working on the
first try; I still think they should have had a few more successful
Falcon 1 launches under their belt before engaging in this degree of
scaling things up in regards to the number of Merlin engines used on it.

Pat
  #6  
Old December 23rd 08, 10:24 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Pat Flannery
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Posts: 18,465
Default First Falcon 9 now getting assembled for launch



Anthony Frost wrote:

The same thing with it's predecessors direct from the Ox's mouth...

http://www.spacex.com/updates.php


That layout of the nine Merlins in a square looks really odd, doesn't it?

Pat
  #7  
Old December 23rd 08, 10:37 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Pat Flannery
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Posts: 18,465
Default First Falcon 9 now getting assembled for launch



Pat Flannery wrote:

That layout of the nine Merlins in a square looks really odd, doesn't it?


As a follow-up to that, are they gimbaling all nine engines?
They'd only have to gimbal the four corner engines to control the ascent
trajectory.
Although wasteful in fuel, you could also control the pitch and yaw by
shifting the engines outward in matched pairs on one side of the square
rather than varying thrust on them.

Pat
  #8  
Old December 23rd 08, 11:39 AM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Bob S.
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Default First Falcon 9 now getting assembled for launch


"Anthony Frost" wrote in message
...
In message tatelephone
Pat Flannery wrote:

It's supposed to be fully stacked at KSC by New Year's Day:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=27259


The same thing with it's predecessors direct from the Ox's mouth...

http://www.spacex.com/updates.php


I wonder how Boeing and LockMart are feeling about all this. If this thing
actually works than Atlas and Delta are cooked, Falcon 9 launches are
one-third their price.

My guess is that in the end, one or the other will simply try to buy SpaceX.
Will the authoritiet allow this, you guys reckon?



  #9  
Old December 23rd 08, 01:07 PM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Alan Erskine[_2_]
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Posts: 1,316
Default First Falcon 9 now getting assembled for launch

"Bob S." wrote in message
...

I wonder how Boeing and LockMart are feeling about all this. If this thing
actually works than Atlas and Delta are cooked, Falcon 9 launches are
one-third their price.

My guess is that in the end, one or the other will simply try to buy
SpaceX. Will the authoritiet allow this, you guys reckon?


Sure; there's still competition - just two launch providers instead of the
possible (probable) three if SpaceX make it happen.

I think both Boeing and Lockhead are shaking in their boots. Falcon 9 has a
major advantage over the Atlas - it's all-American (engine on the Atlas V
first stage is Russian); that makes the F9 more attractive to the U.S.
military for reconsat launches.

And the payload of the F9Heavy is more than sufficient for polar orbital
work. Once the F9 has flown a couple of times, the F9H will be able to
prove itself very easily. Then, either Boeing or Lockheed, and perhaps
both, will be out of the space business without a new launcher that can
compete with SpaceX.

I've been saying it for a while now - the next couple of years are going to
be very interesting!


  #10  
Old December 23rd 08, 01:41 PM posted to sci.space.history,sci.space.policy
Bob S.
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Posts: 12
Default First Falcon 9 now getting assembled for launch


"Alan Erskine" wrote in message
...
"Bob S." wrote in message
...

I wonder how Boeing and LockMart are feeling about all this. If this
thing actually works than Atlas and Delta are cooked, Falcon 9 launches
are one-third their price.

My guess is that in the end, one or the other will simply try to buy
SpaceX. Will the authoritiet allow this, you guys reckon?


Sure; there's still competition - just two launch providers instead of the
possible (probable) three if SpaceX make it happen.

I think both Boeing and Lockhead are shaking in their boots. Falcon 9 has
a major advantage over the Atlas - it's all-American (engine on the Atlas
V first stage is Russian); that makes the F9 more attractive to the U.S.
military for reconsat launches.

And the payload of the F9Heavy is more than sufficient for polar orbital
work. Once the F9 has flown a couple of times, the F9H will be able to
prove itself very easily. Then, either Boeing or Lockheed, and perhaps
both, will be out of the space business without a new launcher that can
compete with SpaceX.


I doubt that. The U.S. DoD doesn't want a monooply either, no matter how
good or cheap SpaceX is. The Delta is still the workhorse for most NASA
launches so I believe they won't be out of a job very soon.


I've been saying it for a while now - the next couple of years are going
to be very interesting!


The most interesting part will be when Dragon is launched. I'm very
interested if Bigelow and SpaceX are going to team up to make commercial
space (including tourism) a reality. I think Musk, Bigelow and Branson are
true visionaries since they decided that waiting for the government to open
up space for the ordinay Jole wasn't going to work, they decided to do it
themselves. I commend them for that.


 




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