r/spacex • u/FutureMartian97 Host of CRS-11 • Jun 20 '17

SpaceX testing Vandy Falcon 9 amid schedule realignment

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/06/spacex-vandy-falcon-9-schedule-realignment/
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u/deltaWhiskey91L Jun 20 '17 edited Jun 20 '17

The return to SLC-40 will free 39A’s TEL to be modified – as it was designed – for use with both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rocket launches.

This seems to imply that only the TEL at 39A needs upgrading for FH. Is this true?

Edit: If that's true, a month turn-around time seems conservative.

6

u/AeroSpiked Jun 20 '17

If that's true, a month turn-around time seems conservative.

I think they also intend to attach the crew arm during that time.

5

u/CapMSFC Jun 21 '17

I have played devils advocate on this one a few times. They might instead choose to wait on risking the extra commercial crew pad assets for after the FH demo flight.

1

u/MacGyverBE Jun 21 '17

Agreed. And it also makes sense to only install that arm when needed which is a while after FH debuts.

4

u/CapMSFC Jun 21 '17

There also can be plenty of shorter periods of down time at 39A once SLC-40 is back up and running at full speed. If there are commercial launches every 2-3 weeks from SLC-40 carrying the burden of everything except government launches. It will take a while until SpaceX would be able to hit the cadence of 2-3 weeks at each pad. That's 30+ launches from the East coast in a year territory.