SpaceX (general discussion)

Hopefully we'll see some interesting stuff from the prototypes to keep us occupied until then.
 
Elon confirmed it was a TVC failure.


On the same thread he confirms it then probably did an intentional divert.


Elon on why the centre core was on the limit:


If we were to save more Delta V for the centre core landing, would the second stage have spare Delta V enough to complete the STP-2 mission? Cause then the core wouldn't have crash landed......I guess


Yes, but we couldn’t take a chance on 2nd stage failing it’s 4th maneuver. This mission was more complex than anything I’m aware of in history of rockets. RIP center core, you did your duty well.
 
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SpaceX - Falcon Heavy - 1st Night Launch - STP2 06-25-2019

USLaunchReport

Published on Jun 25, 2019

Filmed in all 4K using Blackmagic raw and ProRes. Filming thru 1-18in and 1-7in telescopes. Along with a 1400mm Canon Box Camera. Difficult to film in 99% humidity.

 
why i not surprised on that news ?

The European Commission revealed a new three-year project to develop technologies needed for two proposed reusable launch vehicles
the program called RETALT will copy the Falcon 9 ability to land and fly again


 
June 27, 2019

RELEASE 19-052

NASA Selects Flying Mission to Study Titan for Origins, Signs of Life

NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft-lander

This illustration shows NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft-lander approaching a site on Saturn’s exotic moon, Titan. Taking advantage of Titan’s dense atmosphere and low gravity, Dragonfly will explore dozens of locations across the icy world, sampling and measuring the compositions of Titan's organic surface materials to characterize the habitability of Titan’s environment and investigate the progression of prebiotic chemistry.

Credits: NASA/JHU-APL



NASA has announced that our next destination in the solar system is the unique, richly organic world Titan. Advancing our search for the building blocks of life, the Dragonfly mission will fly multiple sorties to sample and examine sites around Saturn’s icy moon.



Dragonfly will launch in 2026 and arrive in 2034. The rotorcraft will fly to dozens of promising locations on Titan looking for prebiotic chemical processes common on both Titan and Earth. Dragonfly marks the first time NASA will fly a multi-rotor vehicle for science on another planet; it has eight rotors and flies like a large drone. It will take advantage of Titan’s dense atmosphere – four times denser than Earth’s – to become the first vehicle ever to fly its entire science payload to new places for repeatable and targeted access to surface materials.



Titan is an analog to the very early Earth, and can provide clues to how life may have arisen on our planet. During its 2.7-year baseline mission, Dragonfly will explore diverse environments from organic dunes to the floor of an impact crater where liquid water and complex organic materials key to life once existed together for possibly tens of thousands of years. Its instruments will study how far prebiotic chemistry may have progressed. They also will investigate the moon’s atmospheric and surface properties and its subsurface ocean and liquid reservoirs. Additionally, instruments will search for chemical evidence of past or extant life.



“With the Dragonfly mission, NASA will once again do what no one else can do,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “Visiting this mysterious ocean world could revolutionize what we know about life in the universe. This cutting-edge mission would have been unthinkable even just a few years ago, but we’re now ready for Dragonfly’s amazing flight.”



Dragonfly took advantage of 13 years’ worth of Cassini data to choose a calm weather period to land, along with a safe initial landing site and scientifically interesting targets. It will first land at the equatorial “Shangri-La” dune fields, which are terrestrially similar to the linear dunes in Namibia in southern Africa and offer a diverse sampling location. Dragonfly will explore this region in short flights, building up to a series of longer “leapfrog” flights of up to 5 miles (8 kilometers), stopping along the way to take samples from compelling areas with diverse geography. It will finally reach the Selk impact crater, where there is evidence of past liquid water, organics – the complex molecules that contain carbon, combined with hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen – and energy, which together make up the recipe for life. The lander will eventually fly more than 108 miles (175 kilometers) – nearly double the distance traveled to date by all the Mars rovers combined.



“Titan is unlike any other place in the solar system, and Dragonfly is like no other mission,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for Science at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “It’s remarkable to think of this rotorcraft flying miles and miles across the organic sand dunes of Saturn’s largest moon, exploring the processes that shape this extraordinary environment. Dragonfly will visit a world filled with a wide variety of organic compounds, which are the building blocks of life and could teach us about the origin of life itself.”



Titan has a nitrogen-based atmosphere like Earth. Unlike Earth, Titan has clouds and rain of methane. Other organics are formed in the atmosphere and fall like light snow. The moon’s weather and surface processes have combined complex organics, energy, and water similar to those that may have sparked life on our planet.



Titan is larger than the planet Mercury and is the second largest moon in our solar system. As it orbits Saturn, it is about 886 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) away from the Sun, about 10 times farther than Earth. Because it is so far from the Sun, its surface temperature is around -290 degrees Fahrenheit (-179 degrees Celsius). Its surface pressure is also 50 percent higher than Earth’s.



Dragonfly was selected as part of the agency’s New Frontiers program, which includes the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, Juno to Jupiter, and OSIRIS-REx to the asteroid Bennu. Dragonfly is led by Principal Investigator Elizabeth Turtle, who is based at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. New Frontiers supports missions that have been identified as top solar system exploration priorities by the planetary community. The program is managed by the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Planetary Science Division in Washington.



“The New Frontiers program has transformed our understanding of the solar system, uncovering the inner structure and composition of Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere, discovering the icy secrets of Pluto’s landscape, revealing mysterious objects in the Kuiper belt, and exploring a near-Earth asteroid for the building blocks of life,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division. “Now we can add Titan to the list of enigmatic worlds NASA will explore.”



For more information about Titan, visit:






Read more about NASA’s New Frontiers Program and missions at:



 
They haven't picked a launcher yet for Dragonfly. It's not a given that it will ride on Falcon Heavy.
 
They haven't picked a launcher yet for Dragonfly. It's not a given that it will ride on Falcon Heavy.
Launch date is 2026
you got
NASA: SLS unclear if continue to expensive compare to other launchers
ULA: Vulcan would be since 3 years in operation
Blue Origin: New Glenn launching since 6 years and New Armstrong arrive
SpaceX: the Falcon Heavy is in phase out an replaced by Superheavy/Starship (so Musk in various Tweets and interview)
ESA: Ariane 6 launching also since 5~6 years.

what Dragonfly need is a powerful upper stage on one of those rockets to cut transit time of 8 years to Saturn...
 
To call this an ambitious target date would be an understatement I feel.

SpaceX targets 2021 commercial Starship launch

The first commercial mission for SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy launch system will likely take place in 2021, a company executive said June 26.

Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX’s vice president of commercial sales, said the company is in talks with prospective customers for the first commercial launch of that system roughly two years from now.

“We are in discussions with three different customers as we speak right now to be that first mission,” Hofeller said at the APSAT conference here. “Those are all telecom companies.”
 
To call this an ambitious target date would be an understatement I feel.

SpaceX targets 2021 commercial Starship launch

The first commercial mission for SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy launch system will likely take place in 2021, a company executive said June 26.

Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX’s vice president of commercial sales, said the company is in talks with prospective customers for the first commercial launch of that system roughly two years from now.

“We are in discussions with three different customers as we speak right now to be that first mission,” Hofeller said at the APSAT conference here. “Those are all telecom companies.”

I wonder when the first proper test launch will be? Or will the first launch in 2021 be the test? :confused::eek:
 
On test launch
Falcon Heavy was unveiled in 2011 with goal first flight 2013
actually the Tesla in Spaaaaaaceeeeee flight in 2018
That just 5 years behind schedule...

Elon Musk in 2017 - "It actually ended up being way harder to do Falcon Heavy than we thought. ... Really way, way more difficult than we originally thought. We were pretty naive about that."
i hope SpaceX more mature now
 
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says major Starship engine bug is fixed as Raptor testing continues

Partly due to Musk’s own involvement in the program, SpaceX’s propulsion development team have struggled to get any single Raptor engine to survive more than 50-100 seconds of cumulative test fires. According to information from sources familiar with the program, Musk has enforced an exceptionally hardware-rich development program for the first full-scale Raptor engines to such an extent that several have been destroyed so completely that they could barely be used to inform design optimization work. Although likely more strenuous and inefficient than it needed to be, the exceptionally hardware-rich test program appears to have begun to show fruit, with the sixth engine built (SN06) passing its first tests without exhibiting signs of a problem that has plagued most of the five Raptors that came before it.

SpaceX has been chewing through an average of one Raptor engine per month since February 2019 – by testing engines to destruction and aggressively comparing engineering expectations with observed behavior and post-test hardware conditions, rapid progress can (theoretically) be made.

Instead of spending another year or more analyzing models and testing subscale engines and components, SpaceX dove into integrated testing of a sort of minimum-viable-product Raptor design, accepting that the path to a flightworthy, finalized design would likely be paved with one or several dozen destroyed engines.
 
Seems a very expensive approach this “hardware rich” approach where you’re literally chewing through full scale engines.
 
IIRC in the book V-2 by Walter Dornberger, that's just about how they developed the V-2, full scale launches. It would launch (or maybe not), explode, then they would try to figure out what failed --
 
Seems a very expensive approach this “hardware rich” approach where you’re literally chewing through full scale engines.

It's their choice. It works. Imagine how long it would take if they took NASA's approach. A more interesting comparison would be a comparison of time-lines, methodologies, and progress between SpaceX's Raptor and Blue Origin's BE-4.
 
Seems a very expensive approach this “hardware rich” approach where you’re literally chewing through full scale engines.

Meh, the engines cost $1-2M apiece. Imagine doing this with entire rockets (as the Soviets did with the N-1).
 
IIRC in the book V-2 by Walter Dornberger, that's just about how they developed the V-2, full scale launches. It would launch (or maybe not), explode, then they would try to figure out what failed --

Meh, the engines cost $1-2M apiece. Imagine doing this with entire rockets (as the Soviets did with the N-1).

I'd actually forgotten about those two examples.
 
July 08, 2019

CONTRACT RELEASE C19-018

NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for Groundbreaking Astrophysics Mission

NASA has selected SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the agency’s Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission, which will allow astronomers to discover, for the first time, the hidden details of some of the most exotic astronomical objects in our universe.

The total cost for NASA to launch IXPE is approximately $50.3 million, which includes the launch service and other mission-related costs.

IXPE measures polarized X-rays from objects, such as black holes and neutron stars to better understand these types of cosmic phenomena and extreme environments.

The IXPE mission currently is targeted to launch in April 2021 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A in Florida. IXPE will fly three space telescopes with sensitive detectors capable of measuring the polarization of cosmic X-rays, allowing scientists to answer fundamental questions about these turbulent environments where gravitational, electric and magnetic fields are at their limits.

NASA’s Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will manage the SpaceX launch service. The IXPE project office is located at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and is managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about NASA programs and missions, visit: http://www.nasa.gov

What’s interesting is the launch price for this payload in comparison to Pegasus XL.

See Tweet below.


To add to this: NASA says SpaceX can use a previously flown booster on this mission.

IXPE is a small satellite, but this launch contract is less than what NASA paid for for the still-pending Pegasus XL launch of ICON ($56.3M in a 2014 contract). Think about that…
 
Sounds like Raptor SN006 will soon be making a road trip.


Hmm...Anyone out there interested in a *certain* rocket engine??! ✨-You know, I can’t be certain until EM himself gives the confirmation (@elonmusk) But @ 8:41:11pm, there was a deep & powerful, rumbling roar heard from @SpaceX McGregor! 8:42:35 hard stop! #spacextests


Almost time for Raptor to go to the Seaside again and for lots of us to be watching webcams muttering "Fire Truck leaving? VENTING! FLARE STACK! More venting. Ooh, big flare stack!"
 
Local amateur photographer and spaceflight fan Michael Tapes has graciously shared a new aerial view of SpaceX’s Florida Starship facility, where dozens of workers can be seen buzzing around what is hoped to become the first orbital-class prototype of the massive spaceship and upper stage.

Tapes’ aerial footage offers a unique look at the layout of SpaceX’s Florida site as of July 9th, illustrating just how active and expansive it is. Some workers can be seen building something (perhaps preparing a new worksite) under a large, white tent, while another group surveys two large Starship segments and a third works to prepare new stainless steel ring sections. Of note, those two large Starship segments appear to be bereft of any obvious activity, perhaps a consequence of a fire that caused about $100,000 in damage the day prior (July 8th).



 
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Rumour is that there'll be a static / tethered fire (of the Starship Hopper) test on Monday 2pm, followed by another static or just an untethered flight of the Starship Hopper at 2pm on Tuesday.
 
Rumour is that there'll be a static / tethered fire (of the Starship Hopper) test on Monday 2pm, followed by another static or just an untethered flight of the Starship Hopper at 2pm on Tuesday.

Will SpaceX be televising the event? Or will it be behind closed doors.
 
Rumour is that there'll be a static / tethered fire (of the Starship Hopper) test on Monday 2pm, followed by another static or just an untethered flight of the Starship Hopper at 2pm on Tuesday.

Will SpaceX be televising the event? Or will it be behind closed doors.

There are usually live feeds by people. I am not sure they’ve done the pre-burner tests yet.


Road closing soon!
 
SpaceX publish the Reason why the Crew Dragon exploded during Engine testing

the cause lies in a more exotic and unanticipated chemical/material interaction between a plumbing valve, liquid oxidizer, and a helium-based pressurization system
a titanium valve of Helium pressurization system got contaminated by “slug” of nitrogen tetroxide and on contact both start to burn

Good news there only four of those valves in Crew Dragon so replacement is easy

Source
 

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