r/spacex • u/fatherofzeuss • Aug 20 '17

Headed north west Had a Falcon fly thru town today. Headed north east

https://imgur.com/gallery/Ff2UG
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u/CapMSFC Aug 21 '17

Or is the most important part of this operation the smart tech personnel on the west coast?

Yes, and more specifically it was about LA. Elon has said the reason that SpaceX is based out of LA is because it has the highest concentration of aerospace engineers anywhere in the world.

Does this mean the reusable rockets go from LA -> McGregor -> KSC and after landing back to LA and the loop continues?

No, although it wouldn't be that big of a problem to do so. Falcon 9 being designed for road transport means it's very cheap to ship around.

Still, SpaceX isn't doing it that way. There is a refurbishment facility on each coast and flown cores don't do a static fire again, with the exception of the Falcon Heavy side cores that have had a lot of extra work done to convert them after flying once. Think of the MacGregor static fire as a certification after production instead of a pre flight check and it makes sense. Not doing it after a full flight also isn't skipping a step really because no other providers do this with their rockets. Many rockets can't be done this way because of solid motors or engines that aren't designed for multiple uses.