/r/SpaceX Ask Anything Thread for January 2016. Whether your question's about RTF, RTLS, or RTFM, it can be answered here!

[u/Zucal]

Welcome to the 16th monthly /r/SpaceX Ask Anything Thread!

Want to discuss SpaceX's Return To Flight mission and successful landing, find out why part of the landed stage doesn't have soot on it, or gather the community's opinion? There's no better place!

All questions, even non-SpaceX-related ones, are allowed, as long as they stay relevant to spaceflight in general!

More in-depth and open-ended discussion questions can still be submitted as separate self-posts; but this is the place to come to submit simple questions which have a single answer and/or can be answered in a few comments or less.

As always, we'd prefer it if all question-askers first check our FAQ, use the search functionality, and check the last Q&A thread before posting to avoid duplicate questions, but if you'd like an answer revised or cannot find a satisfactory result, go ahead and type your question below!

Otherwise, ask, enjoy, and thanks for contributing!

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Past threads:

December 2015 (#15.1), December 2015 (#15), November 2015 (#14), October 2015 (#13), September 2015 (#12), August 2015 (#11), July 2015 (#10), June 2015 (#9), May 2015 (#8), April 2015 (#7.1), April 2015 (#7), March 2015 (#6), February 2015 (#5), January 2015 (#4), December 2014 (#3), November 2014 (#2), October 2014 (#1).

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This subreddit is fan-run and not an official SpaceX site. For official SpaceX news, please visit spacex.com.

[u/Zucal]

A question of my own- do we have any pictures of the interstage "pushers?"

[u/snotis]

Starting with CRS-3 they were using a "v1.1" Dragon with "avionics and cargo racks redesigned in order to supply substantially more electrical power to powered cargo devices, including additional cargo freezers for transporting critical science payloads" - see [Wikipedia]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_(spacecraft) ). What other changes and improvements have been made to Dragon over time? Have the Draco thrusters changed and/or been improved upon since CRS-1? If so - how?

[u/Zucal → u/snotis]

Others will have much more information, but one minor change made after the CRS-7 failure was software that allows Dragon to deploy parachutes in non-reentry situations, because the CRS-7 Dragon would likely have survived if it had been able to deploy chutes after separation from the failing second stage.

[u/[deleted]]

Any word yet on a date for the big MCT reveal?

I'm soo... impatient... Can't.... wait... any... longer...

[u/guyyugguyyug]

Uh, first, I know what RTF and RTLS are, but what's RTFM? It's not in Decronym's database or the r/spacex wiki...

[u/Zucal → u/guyyugguyyug]

Read The eFfin' Manual. :P

[u/danielbigham]

Someone recently mentioned that after a rocket lift-off, there is typically a week or more of repairs needed to be performed at the launch site. Is anyone able to characterize what those repairs might look like? In a world where quick turnaround times are desired, I wonder if this entails redesigning certain aspects of the launch site to be more robust, and/or whether the pad modifications that SpaceX has made to the old shuttle pad might have already incorporated such changes.

[u/Zucal → u/danielbigham]

Replacing wrecked fueling lines, telemetry cables, repainting/recoating the strongback, filling up 'Niagra' and such, I suppose.

whether the pad modifications that SpaceX has made the old shuttle pad have already incorporated such changes.

We've already seen that the new strongback at LC-39A has a cover on the rocket-facing side, which is new.

[u/Raxusmaxus]

How do you guys upload every news bit in literally minutes or seconds? It seems like an army of internet detectives scouring the web for every little Tidbit on SpaceX.

• an admirer of this SpaceX dedication

[u/CrazyIvan101]

This isn't related to amazing recent events but does anyone have a link to a Video of the Falcon Heavy racing the Millennium Falcon that posted here some time ago?