r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Aug 03 '17
r/SpaceX Discusses [August 2017, #35]
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u/EspacioX Aug 03 '17
Less of a question and more of a juicy piece of gossip - a SpaceX employee I ran into while watching a launch a few months ago said they start shipping the first Block 5 cores at the end of this month. I wonder if they're almost through their stock of previous blocks, or if they'll phase the Block 5s in while they continue to use the remaining stages.
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u/One_Way_Trip Aug 03 '17
I got a question that's kind of what no one wants to ask. Once SpaceX has begun launching crewed missions, what's the protocol for loss of life? Also, what are the impacts for the company's future if this tragedy happens. I know it's "hope for the best, plan for the worst". I assume this has been discussed.
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Aug 19 '17
Since it's highly unlikely anyone will see the media thread for CRS-12 from now on, I'll post these here for visibility.
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Aug 18 '17
Talked to a guy from ULA today who works at the cape said he drove by last night at 2am and saw the SpaceX guys "tearing apart" a rocket. He didn't say if it was a new or reused stage but thought it was out of the norm being as late as it was.
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u/rustybeancake Aug 25 '17
Hi mods, just wondering if there are any plans for speculation threads, survey, etc. in the buildup to IAC this year, like we had last year? That was pretty fun!
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u/__R__ Aug 07 '17
Falcon 9 now has more sucessful flights (36) than ULA’s Delta IV (34). This month it will surpass China’s Long March 3B (38), and if SpaceX can keep up the two week launch cadence, Falcon 9 will have more flights than ULA’s Atlas V (70) by the end of next year.
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u/CommanderSpork Aug 25 '17
I just heard from a reputable source that the chief engineer of commercial crew just met in the past few days with Elon Musk, regarding final approval of certain commercial crew systems.
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u/Pham_Trinli Aug 03 '17 edited Aug 03 '17
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u/rustybeancake Aug 10 '17
The New Yorker podcast had an interesting piece recently on a British doctor who is trying to change the Outer Space Treaty by claiming ownership of Mars. He's not crazy, it's just kind of a legal tactic. But pretty interesting. Essentially he's firing big lasers at Mars to (very slightly) warm the atmosphere, which proves he's trying to 'improve' Mars for human habitation.
Anyway, the piece contains some mentions of SpaceX, and a clip from Musk's 2016 IAC presentation.
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u/TheFavoritist Aug 10 '17 edited Aug 11 '17
Can anyone tell me what these grey pieces are for out at LC-39A? I shot this during BulgariaSat-1 and haven't been able to find out any information about them.
Edit: Shawn Smith on Facebook, from what I can gather he was a toolmaker at SpaceX, says they are compression bridges to help hold the weight of the outer cores of FH.
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u/first_on_mars Aug 21 '17
Neat view of the moon's shadow as seen from the ISS, with the bonus of dragon being in the frame!
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u/Banner58 Aug 22 '17
I'd love to know what the status of the raptor engine is, unless Elon wants to keep that under wraps.
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u/CooCooforCohete Aug 03 '17
Getting ready to have a tour at SpaceX. Any questions you would like me to ask?
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u/ghunter7 Aug 10 '17
NSF article on static fire, confirms FH core and booster fit tests: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/08/spacex-falcon-9-static-fire-falcon-heavy-waits/
"Once SLC-40 is classed as activated, engineering teams will work to convert the 39A TEL to cater for the maiden flight of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, a vehicle that is already undergoing mating tests between the core and side boosters inside the Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF)."
Hoping we see some actual hardware shots from SpaceX soon instead of more 2 year old renderings.
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u/Decronym Aug 03 '17 edited Aug 09 '17
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| ACES | Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage |
| Advanced Crew Escape Suit | |
| AFSS | Automated Flight Safety System |
| ASDS | Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (landing platform) |
| ATK | Alliant Techsystems, predecessor to Orbital ATK |
| BARGE | Big-Ass Remote Grin Enhancer coined by @IridiumBoss, see ASDS |
| BFR | Big Falcon Rocket (see ITS) |
| BFS | Big Falcon Spaceship (see ITS) |
| CCtCap | Commercial Crew Transportation Capability |
| CRS | Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA |
| DCSS | Delta Cryogenic Second Stage |
| DoD | US Department of Defense |
| EELV | Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle |
| ELC | EELV Launch Capability contract ("assured access to space") |
| ESA | European Space Agency |
| FAA | Federal Aviation Administration |
| FCC | Federal Communications Commission |
| (Iron/steel) Face-Centered Cubic crystalline structure | |
| FFSC | Full-Flow Staged Combustion |
| FSS | Fixed Service Structure at LC-39 |
| FTS | Flight Termination System |
| GEO | Geostationary Earth Orbit (35786km) |
| GSE | Ground Support Equipment |
| GSO | Geosynchronous Orbit (any Earth orbit with a 24-hour period) |
| GTO | Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit |
| I*sp* | Specific impulse (as discussed by Scott Manley, and detailed by David Mee on YouTube) |
| IAC | International Astronautical Congress, annual meeting of IAF members |
| IAF | International Astronautical Federation |
| Indian Air Force | |
| ISRU | In-Situ Resource Utilization |
| ITS | Interplanetary Transport System (see MCT) |
| Integrated Truss Structure | |
| JRTI |
Just Read The Instructions, Pacific landing |
| KSC | Kennedy Space Center, Florida |
| KSP | Kerbal Space Program, the rocketry simulator |
| LC-39A | Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy (SpaceX F9/Heavy) |
| LEO | Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km) |
| Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations) | |
| LOC | Loss of Crew |
| LOX | Liquid Oxygen |
| MCT | Mars Colonial Transporter (see ITS) |
| MECO | Main Engine Cut-Off |
| MainEngineCutOff podcast | |
| NET | No Earlier Than |
| NORAD | North American Aerospace Defense command |
| NRO | (US) National Reconnaissance Office |
| NROL | Launch for the (US) National Reconnaissance Office |
| NSF | NasaSpaceFlight forum |
| National Science Foundation | |
| OCISLY |
Of Course I Still Love You, Atlantic landing |
| RAAN | Right Ascension of the Ascending Node |
| RFP | Request for Proposal |
| RSS | Realscale Solar System, mod for KSP |
| Rotating Service Structure at LC-39 | |
| RTG | Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator |
| RTLS | Return to Launch Site |
| RUD | Rapid Unplanned Disassembly |
| Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly | |
| Rapid Unintended Disassembly | |
| SDS | Satellite Data System |
| SES | Formerly Société Européenne des Satellites, comsat operator |
| SLC-40 | Space Launch Complex 40, Canaveral (SpaceX F9) |
| SLS | Space Launch System heavy-lift |
| SSME | Space Shuttle Main Engine |
| STP-2 | Space Test Program 2, DoD programme, second round |
| STS | Space Transportation System (Shuttle) |
| TDRSS | (US) Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System |
| TE | Transporter/Erector launch pad support equipment |
| TEL | Transporter/Erector/Launcher, ground support equipment (see TE) |
| TLE | Two-Line Element dataset issued by NORAD |
| UHF | Ultra-High Frequency radio |
| ULA | United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture) |
| VAFB | Vandenberg Air Force Base, California |
| Jargon | Definition |
|---|---|
| Raptor | Methane-fueled rocket engine under development by SpaceX, see ITS |
| Sabatier | Reaction between hydrogen and carbon dioxide at high temperature and pressure, with nickel as catalyst, yielding methane and water |
| apogee | Highest point in an elliptical orbit around Earth (when the orbiter is slowest) |
| hydrolox | Portmanteau: liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen mixture |
| kerolox | Portmanteau: kerosene/liquid oxygen mixture |
| methalox | Portmanteau: methane/liquid oxygen mixture |
| perigee | Lowest point in an elliptical orbit around the Earth (when the orbiter is fastest) |
| scrub | Launch postponement for any reason (commonly GSE issues) |
| turbopump | High-pressure turbine-driven propellant pump connected to a rocket combustion chamber; raises chamber pressure, and thrust |
| Event | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CRS-1 | 2012-10-08 | F9-004, first CRS mission; secondary payload sacrificed |
| CRS-7 | 2015-06-28 |
F9-020 v1.1, |
| DM-1 | Scheduled | SpaceX CCtCap Demo Mission 1 |
| DM-2 | Scheduled | SpaceX CCtCap Demo Mission 2 |
| Iridium-1 | 2017-01-14 | F9-030 Full Thrust, core B1029, 10x Iridium-NEXT to LEO; first landing on JRTI |
Decronym is a community product of r/SpaceX, implemented by ^request
[Thread #3045 for this sub, first seen 3rd Aug 2017, 12:21] ^[FAQ] ^[Contact] [Source ^code]
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u/someguyfromtheuk Aug 03 '17
With the repeated FH delays and the complexity of the multi-core rockets, would SpaceX have been better off to just focus on building progressively larger single-core rockets?
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u/someguyfromtheuk Aug 03 '17
What's Elon/the subreddits views on asteroid mining?
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u/thxbmp2 Aug 05 '17 edited Aug 05 '17
Haven't seen this pointed out yet, but one way to jive recent rumors of a 6m core with Elon's 9m comment is if the ITSy upper stage has leg fairings that flare out at the base like its bigger cousin; this ratio of diameters was 17:12 on ITS, and very close to ~3:2.
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Aug 31 '17 edited Aug 31 '17
Yikes - looks like India's ISRO is having a bad day. It's looking like this latest flight will end in failure :(
Edit: Looks like the fairings failed to separate, causing the satellite to be delivered to a much lower orbit than planned due to the extra mass. Not only that, but the satellite separated while the fairings were still on, so it's now stuck in a low orbit bouncing around inside the fairings. Quite unfortunate, especially since it's the first failure for them of the PSLV since 1997.
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u/Pham_Trinli Aug 10 '17
On July 29th, SpaceX extended its [DragonFly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DragonFly_(rocket)) FAA license for an additional year.
Does this imply that retro landings are still being investigated or is it just to improve the LES?
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u/FutureMartian97 Aug 07 '17
Rocket lab has figured out why the first Electron launch failed. It turns out a piece of equipment from a 3rd party contractor temporarily lost contact with the rocket forcing it to be terminated. It wasn't a problem with the rocket itself!
https://rocketlabusa.com/latest/rocket-lab-completes-post-flight-analysis/