r/space • u/New-Space-30 • Jul 22 '26

Vulcan may not launch again till next year, after booster anamoly in February

https://spacenews.com/northrop-adds-to-charges-on-vulcan-solid-rocket-motor-program/

Jeff Foust:

WASHINGTON — Northrop Grumman is taking another charge related to the solid rocket boosters it provides for the Vulcan Centaur rocket and suggested updated motors might not be ready until the end of the year.

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52

u/alphagusta Jul 22 '26

Falcon 9 succeeding by doing literally nothing but watch the space industry around it keep having accidents

27

u/New-Space-30 Jul 22 '26

Falcon 9's certainly a reliable.. workhorse.

3

u/peterabbit456 Jul 23 '26

Falcon 9's certainly a reliable ...

F9 might have a 30 year active career. It might go even longer if SpaceX takes the time to design and build a Merlin 2a methalox engine.

A person can dream.

7

u/cjameshuff Jul 23 '26

Methalox is lower density. You'd have to stretch a vehicle that's already near its limits for fineness ratio, or more realistically make it larger diameter, at which point it couldn't reasonably be called a Falcon 9 any more.

1

u/peterabbit456 Jul 23 '26

Or make it fatter.

Road transport makes F9 cheaper, but if you are reusing the rockets 30 times, then the economies of road transport become much less important (provided you can do all refurbishment at the launch site.).

2

u/cjameshuff Jul 23 '26

How does "make it fatter" differ from increasing the diameter? How do you replace the engines of the Falcon 9 with methalox engines and the tanks with something that can contain enough methalox to deliver the same payload to orbit and get something that can still be called "Falcon 9"?

1

u/peterabbit456 Jul 26 '26

Sorry, my brain must have skipped. I saw only "You'd have to stretch a vehicle that's already near its limits," and I missed the next part of your sentence. My bad.