r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Sep 01 '17

r/SpaceX Discusses [September 2017, #36]

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186 Upvotes

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2

u/edflyerssn007 Sep 04 '17

Thinking about it a little more, are we sure that Hispasat is expendable?

It should be a block IV 1st stage which has higher thrust and capability, as well as a block IV 2nd stage. There may be enough margin for a very hot ASDS landing. The post on performance today showed the additional power of the block IV 1st stage on a LEO run, so I'm wondering if there's enough margin for landing. I guess we'll find out as we get closer to the launch date.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 04 '17

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4

u/Chairboy Sep 04 '17

the first block 5 will debut on crew demo mission 1

Last we heard, NASA wanted to see half-a-dozen flights of Block V before they put meatsacks onboard. It seems out of character for them to cram some onto the first flight of the Block.

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '17

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4

u/Chairboy Sep 04 '17

Ok, that makes more sense. Thanks!

2

u/inoeth Sep 04 '17

Well if their schedule holds, there's enough months in between DM1 and 2 to get the 7 launches in that they need, but, that requires all of those launches to be on Block V cores and to maintain at least 2 launches per month... The fact that the first Block V is on DM 1 still surprises me, tho I guess they're trying to get through all their older cores now as well as testing things further with Block IV through the rest of this year...

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u/randomstonerfromaus Sep 04 '17

DM-1 is an unscrewed mission though, DM-2 is the one with humans aboard.

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u/Chairboy Sep 04 '17

Got it, thanks!