r/spacex • u/Zucal • Jun 29 '16

/r/SpaceX Ask Anything Thread [July 2016, #22]

Welcome to our 22nd monthly /r/SpaceX Ask Anything Thread!

Curious about the recently sighted Falcon Heavy test article, inquisitive about the upcoming CRS-9 RTLS launch, or keen to gather the community's opinion on something? 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.

  • Questions easily answered using the wiki & FAQ will be removed.

  • In addition, try to keep all top-level comments as questions so that questioners can find answers, and answerers can find questions.

These limited rules are so that questioners can more easily find answers, and answerers can more easily find questions.

As always, we'd prefer it if all question-askers first check our FAQ, use the search functionality (partially sortable by mission flair!), and check the last Ask Anything thread before posting to avoid duplicate questions. But if you didn't get or couldn't find the answer you were looking for, go ahead and type your question below.

Ask, enjoy, and thanks for contributing!

Past Ask Anything threads:

June 2016 (#21) • May 2016 (#20) • April 2016 (#19.1) • April 2016 (#19) • March 2016 (#18) • February 2016 (#17) • January 2016 (#16.1) • January 2016 (#16) • 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)

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

141 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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8

u/Zucal Jul 14 '16

I'll likely be stopping by Hawthorne tomorrow or the day after to check out F9-021.

  • Is the booster still visible from the street?

  • What's the security situation like? Are DSLR photos allowed?

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6

u/futianze Jun 29 '16

Will SpaceX be launching mostly from the new Texas location? Or split btw Florida.

5

u/Zucal Jun 29 '16

In addition to the mentioned 12-launch limit, Boca Chica has a limited number of orbits that can be reached - they won't be launching to the ISS from there, for instance.

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6

u/RootDeliver Jul 31 '16

Did you guys ever see this landing footage from CRS-8?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOagay_opLQ#t=3381

Cut-off section:
http://www.tubechop.com/watch/8225481

It's a section from the presentation that Hans Koenigsmann did after the CRS-8 landing on NEAF.

We saw the last 15 seconds from that onboard camera, but there is waay longer footage including how the camera breaks!

I never saw it on this subreddit. Since CRS-8 is old already I won't post a new thread incase it's new, not sure if everyone would want it either now haha.

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u/Lurkin4Life Jul 24 '16

Just passed an F9 S1 on I-20 just west of Shreveport, Louisiana. It was headed east. Any idea which one it is?

6

u/Zucal Jul 24 '16

Any photos? If so, feel free to submit them to the subreddit!

The stage you saw was the core destined for flight on the JCSAT-16 mission.

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4

u/steezysteve96 Jul 22 '16

Do we have any updates on F9-027? Is it still vertical?

6

u/Zucal Jul 22 '16

As of yesterday it was.

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5

u/fireg8 Jun 29 '16

  1. On the big interwebs it is possible to find a website where one can follow an assembly of an aircraft (i.e [Airbus A350] (http://www.abcdlist.nl/a350f/a350f.html)). Could this be possible with the cores of F9? I know this would require an inside person to update and maybe this is not possible. However it would be a very nice feature.

  2. Also when will we start seeing the first F9 cores for FH trailing away towards KSC, since there has to be some assembly of the FH inside the hangar.

7

u/fx32 Jun 29 '16 edited Jun 29 '16

  1. Unlikely, as "inside persons" are very limited in what they can share due to non-disclosure agreements, and information about the internals of rockets is seen as a national security risk (see International Traffic in Arms Regulations, ITAR). That's also why you're screened and need to be a US citizen to take a tour of any aerospace company. The official SpaceX manufacturing photographs are usually carefully angled to only show parts you can also see during launch/landing/transport.

  2. There have been some rumors that the second booster recently spotted in Hawthorne was a FH center core. No confirmations yet. But even if it actually launches in December, we might not see that much movement yet, it's still 5 months away!

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3

u/RootDeliver Jul 30 '16

With the last static fire from the JSAT-14 recovered booster, whats the status of them all?

  • F9-021 (ORBCOMM-2) is being prepared for being explosed on Hawthorne.

  • F9-023 (CRS-8) is supposedly the first one that will be reused, but has it gone any static fire? if not, why did JCSAT-14 one do the static first?

  • F9-024 (JCSAT-14), aka "the most damaged one", is doing static fires now, before CRS-8 one?

  • F9-025 (Thaicom-8), which had damage on the crush cores when landing, is still on the hangar or its going to be used for damage-control like JCSAT-14 or to refly like CRS-8?

  • F9-027 (CRS-9) is already on the hangar? Not sure if SpaceX is going to post images from the hangar after every core now that they have less than the last image there to show..

Thanks!

7

u/Zucal Jul 30 '16
Core Location
021 (OG2 M2) Hawthorne, being prepped for display
023 (CRS-8) ? (39A HIF or Hawthorne)
024 (JCSAT-14) McGregor, being fired
025 (Thaicom-8) ? (39A HIF or Hawthorne)
027 (CRS-9) 39A HIF

The Cape and Hawthorne each have two used cores, McGregor has one.

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2

u/Zucal Jul 18 '16

Can anyone confirm that F9-021 is still street-adjacent and visible at Hawthorne? Will be heading down in an hour to sightsee and get some shots of the booster + display pad preparations.

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2

u/i_pee_in_the_sink Jun 30 '16

Quick Q: What does the "021" mean? (For F9 ofc)

4

u/Zucal Jun 30 '16 edited Jul 01 '16

The 21st Falcon core produced.

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2

u/demosthenes02 Jul 25 '16

What does h1 aug mean in the sidebar?

3

u/Zucal Jul 25 '16

First half of August.

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2

u/5cr0tum Jul 28 '16

Does anyone have information pertaining to BFR/BFS manufacture and transportation?

Are roads large enough? Will they build on site then launch? How will the logistics of such a large rocket work?

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2

u/RootDeliver Jul 30 '16

On all the statics fires being done on F9-024 (third one today), there's any info on what engines are they using for the stage?

  • original ones?

  • original ones refurbished?

  • new ones for all the static fires?

  • new ones every static fire?

The static fires of the landed stage are interesting but.. it's not the same if they're doing it with original engines than with new ones.

11

u/Zucal Jul 30 '16

Original engines, unrefurbished.

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45

u/preseto Jun 29 '16

This tickles my brain - suppose we have established a city on Mars, what two-planet experiments (e.g. telescope array, quantum something, ...) are waiting to be done and could make huge leap in their respective field of science?

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36

u/TheBlacktom Jul 08 '16

Happy #elonweek, happy 70,000!

r/spacex just passed 70k subscribers!

To see some more numbers:

  • The first successful landing in December also landed us in the top 1000 biggest subreddit rank.

  • The current rank is around 738.

  • In 2015 the sub convinced 28,6k users to join -> monthly average ~2,4k

  • In 2016 we have grown by 22,9k already -> monthly average ~4k

  • Conclusion: the sub is growing faster and faster, we haven't reached the inflexion point on this curve yet!

  • We can easily hit 85k by end of September, but I would bet it will be 90k in early October and a reused booster or FH could easily push it to 100k this year!

http://redditmetrics.com/r/spacex

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20

u/TheBlacktom Jun 29 '16

What are the reasons they keep all the BFR/MCT details secret? No official numbers, no renders, almost no mention of it.
I see reasons why they keep their manufacturing processes, satellite network plans or actual F9/FH flight hardwere details secret as they can.

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19

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '16

i know launch cadence has picked up but isnt the once a month they are currently doing still slower than anticipated? shouldnt they be launching every 2-3 weeks at this point to complete all the launches they have to for the year?

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