Space X 2nd stage recovery

In article ,
says...

"JF Mezei" wrote in message ...

On 2018-04-24 07:10, Jeff Findley wrote:

I'm glad they're working on upper stage recovery. My guess is that
BFR/BFS will take a bit longer than Elon's aspirational schedule
products.


If SpaceX truly stops production of Merlin engine as it moves its
operatiosn to BFR/BFS, despite recovering stage 1s, won't they
eventually run out of engines for stage 2?

I suspect they'll keep building engines for awhile, simply to have enough
and to build in improvements.
But the rate will probably decrease.

Improvements are pretty much over for Merlin. The Block 5 confguration
is the last for Falcon. They have to standardize due to NASA's crewed
requirements for Dragon 2. Any changes would require a lengthy and
costly recertification process.


or will SpaceX in reality continue to produce the engines at least for
the upper stage config ?

If they can recover stage 2 engines reliably, this could enable ending
production of the engines to retool for BFR/BFS ?

Eh, I'm not sure it's a huge problem.

Me either, especially since they're building a new factory specifically
for BFR/BFS production. It's been all over the news.

Jeff
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