How about we focus on ACTUAL upcoming launches (less than 3 months) use a new thread for FH
When the thread began...... it was still so "outlandish" that a real working rocket booster might be able to land itself safely for re-use.
Well, when this thread started, Blue Origin had already accomplished that.
Well, when this thread started, Blue Origin had already accomplished that.
After the Echostar launch that is now set for Jan 30th at 39A, is CRS-10 (ISS resupply), which is currently set to launch from 39A on Feb 8th. Well, the Feb 8th NET date was set when Echostar was listed as Jan 26th. Even at the fastest pace at LC-40 before it got blowed up, they never got prepared for the next launch in such a short timeframe.
So, good news is CRS-10 is set to launch Feb 8th. Bad news is it just does not sound practical they can repair and refurbish the pad that fast..... especially for the first time it will be used to launch since modified for Falcons. So I would not be surprised if CRS-10's NET is pushed back a few days soon. Then after the Echostar launch, possibly pushed back a few more days once they look the pad over and evaluate what needs to be done to get 39A ready to launch CRS-10.
From SpaceX:
"SpaceX announced today that its first launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida will be the CRS-10 mission to the International Space Station. The launch is currently targeted for no earlier than mid-February. Following the launch of CRS-10, first commercial mission from 39A is currently slated to be EchoStar XXIII. This schedule change allows time for additional testing of ground systems ahead of the CRS-10 mission. The launch vehicles, Dragon, and the EchoStar satellite are all healthy and prepared for launch."
Very much still working this, but despite some good TEL testing at the pad over recent days (including a cool test relating to how the TEL will work differently than you've seen before at SLC-40), there's a lot of doubt about making Feb 3, or even close to that.
This is literally like a brand new pad, there's bound to be teething issues and you really don't want something failing on your pad at T-0!
Working is as it's not documented (where you see "X company requesting change to NET....") but what I'm being told. Could get interesting as CRS-10 is fast becoming a priority, with Dragon barging her shoulders in the line saying "I'm more important than a ComSat launch!”
SpaceX engineers are preparing to mount a Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center’s historic launch pad 39A for the first time this week as the company declares the modified facility ready to support a new era of commercial space missions.
The two-stage rocket, without its payload, could roll out of SpaceX’s hangar at the southern perimeter of pad 39A and up the ramp to the launch mount as soon as Thursday.
SpaceX aims to fill the rocket with super-chilled kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants Friday — if everything goes according to plan — for a hotfire test of the Falcon 9’s first stage engines. The nine Merlin 1D powerplants will fire and power up to 1.7 million pounds of thrust for several seconds, sending a plume of exhaust out of pad 39A’s redesigned flame trench.
Sensors in each engine will measure many performance parameters during the brief ignition at the launch pad. Hold-down restraints will keep the rocket on the ground.
SpaceX is prepping the rocket for a launch targeted for around 10:01 a.m. EST (1501 GMT) on Feb. 18 with a Dragon cargo craft flying to the International Space Station. The commercial supply ship is slated to carry 5,266 pounds (2,389 kilograms) of equipment and experiments to the orbiting laboratory.
The crucial static fire test will double as a check of the rocket’s readiness for flight and the function of the launch pad’s fueling, telemetry and water deluge systems, all of which were overhauled by SpaceX in recent months.
Once the test is complete, ground crews will lower the rocket and attach the Dragon cargo freighter for launch next weekend.
Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s vice president of flight reliability, said Wednesday that testing of the new ground systems at 39A was nearly complete, allowing managers to move ahead with rollout of the rocket.
“This is a huge pad,” Koenigsmann said. “The runs from the LOX (liquid oxygen) farm and the fuel farm down to the launch head are huge. The transporter-erector is huge. It’s like one-and-a-half million pounds of steel, and (it has) so much technology because this thing controls all the interfaces (with the rocket).”
The transporter-erector will carry rockets from the hangar up the incline to the pad, then lift the vehicles vertical. The rocket carrier was observed vertical at pad 39A in the last few weeks, and on Wednesday it was seen moving back toward the hangar, where the Falcon 9 rocket sits awaiting the static fire.
The hotfire test marked the first time a rocket ignited at pad 39A since July 8, 2011, when the final space shuttle mission blasted off there. The launch complex sat dormant for three years until SpaceX signed a 20-year lease to take over the pad in 2014.
The milestone static fire test is a major step leading to SpaceX’s first-ever launch from pad 39A scheduled for next Saturday, Feb. 18, with a Dragon supply ship carrying 5,266 pounds (2,389 kilograms) of equipment and experiments to the International Space Station.
They are investigating a small leak in the second stage...
Update on upper stage leak from Nasa TV 39A: Helium leak in the spin system on the second stage, "I believe we found it...as far as I know we're going to proceed into the count"
"Looks like we are go for launch. Added an abort trigger at T-60 secs for pressure decay of upper stage helium spin start system."
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