Falcon 9 Launch & Recovery Operations Options

[Greg Hullender]

SpaceX just sent a press release with an update on the Falcon 9. They successfully did a 5-engine test. They also mentioned the next Falcon 1 attempt will be late June "or July," presumably meaning "late June or early July," but you never know. :-)

Here's the full text. This isn't on their web page yet, the last I looked:

McGregor TX – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) conducted the first five-engine firing of its Falcon 9 medium to heavy lift rocket at its Texas Test Facility outside McGregor on Thursday, May 29. At full power the engines generated almost half a million pounds of force, and consumed 1,750 lbs of fuel and liquid oxygen per second. This five engine test again sets the record as the most powerful test yet on the towering 235-foot tall test stand.
The test of the five Merlin 1C engines, arranged in a cross pattern like the Saturn V moon rocket, is the last step before firing the full complement of nine engines, scheduled for this summer. With all engines operating, the Falcon 9 generates over one million pounds of thrust in vacuum - four times the maximum thrust of a 747 aircraft.
“This is the first time that we’ve added more than one engine at a time, and all phases of integration and testing went smoothly,” said Tom Mueller, Vice President of Propulsion for SpaceX. “As with previous tests, we saw no unexpected interactions between the engines, and are on schedule for adding four more engines.”
The first Falcon 9 will arrive at the SpaceX launch site at Cape Canaveral by the end of 2008. The next flight of SpaceX’s smaller Falcon 1 rocket is scheduled for late June or July of 2008.

[Explorer1]

Incredible.... these things never fail to impress!

[Greg Hullender]

New Update, summarizing the test fire.

http://spacex.com/updates.php

This bit was new to me:

This was the final step for the rocket and launch pad before launch itself. We are now waiting for completion of the final set of tests of the flight termination system, specifically the explosives and initiators, and the acceptance of that test documentation by Air Force range safety. As soon as the tests are complete and the Air Force has signed off, we will move forward with launch.
If all goes as hoped, the first countdown attempt may be as soon as next month. It's important to note this is not a prediction of when we will launch, just when we will probably try a countdown.

[Greg Hullender]

Spaceflight Now says the current launch estimate for Falcon 9 is no sooner than May 8, 2010.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/

This is at around 15:30 minutes in "This week in space."

--Greg

[Greg Hullender]

Now we're looking at May 11, at the earliest.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/001/status.html

If that doesn't happen, it'll probably slip all the way to the end of May.

The hold up is the air force, which still hasn't approved the self-destruct mechanism. Apparently even Elon doesn't have a clue when the Air Force will wrap that up, so even end-of-May is a guess.

--Greg

[ugordan]

The hold up is the air force, which still hasn't approved the self-destruct mechanism. Apparently even Elon doesn't have a clue when the Air Force will wrap that up, so even end-of-May is a guess.

What makes you think it's USAF that's holding everything down and not SpaceX and their FTS contractor not having completed all the qualification tests and generated required documentation?

[nprev]

It's a very reasonable inference, Gordan. Range safety evaluations presumably are very painstaking activities, and there's probably a lot of back-and-forth discussion going on to clarify every detail. SpaceX is also a newbie to Cape operations, so this is part of the learning process.

[ugordan]

Good Aviation Week article on who, why and how the launch is delayed here.

[nprev]

Good article, thanks!

As usual, it's a complex systemic exercise. There's nothing simple about launch campaigns, period.

[climber]

Good article, thanks!

As usual, it's a complex systemic exercise. There's nothing simple about launch campaigns, period.

It's surely very complex but one could be surprised it's still an issue so close to maiden flight. As you may have learnt, Guenter Wendt died on Monday and reading this: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-052102a.html today I thought rocket developement would be now without this kind of issue; my comment is of no offence, just of surprise.

[ugordan]

I thought rocket developement would be now without this kind of issue

What kind of issue? Having pacing items in development? That always happens. I suppose even this is better than having major issues with the recent pad tests with the vehicle itself.

[helvick]

Any reasonably complex procedure that involves people and communication, let alone one that also involves cutting edge technology and large explosive components is hard to do. My day job involves building fairly complex IT infrastructure and while the new technology I'm bringing in is complex (and ever changing) the hardest part is always interfacing with the pre-existing systems, standards and procedures of the customers organization. Even when you have detailed and accurate test requirements up front that you have tested [exhaustively] prior to integration with a live environment there are always issues that crop up that need re-validation, clarification and resolution. And in my case the worst that can happen is some servers fail and some lawyers get rich, I'm not in the least bit surprised that there are a lot of final t's to be crossed and i's to be dotted, in triplicate, given the risks involved with launching a brand new space craft.

[climber]

I've got the point and I experience myself this kind of thing everyday... and I'm not working in (litteraly) rocket science. I understand "everything" is new from hardware to processes.

[Greg Hullender]

A new update from Elon: http://spacex.com/updates.php

Lots of info (and pictures), but nothing earthshakingly new as far as this launch goes. He says the FTS testing is an iterative process, so it's hard to be sure when it'll be complete, but he does say it's the LAST issue.

It was nice to learn that they plan to attempt to recover the first stage this time. Be interested to hear how that goes.

The second F9 flight will be "a few months later", and most of this update is about Flight #2. Basically, SpaceX builds the pieces of their rockets in California, sends them to Texas for testing and to Florida (or Kwajalein) for launch. For Flight #2, the California phase is complete, and the Texas work is maybe half done or more. The big new thing for Launch #2 is Dragon, and they intend for it to orbit and reenter, so this'll be the first time they needed a heat shield to work. (I'm not clear on where the Dragon physically is right now; I'd guess California, since they haven't attached the heat shield yet.)

The third F9 flight will be later this year, according to the manifest, and they're in the middle of making the parts in California.

--Greg

[ugordan]

It was nice to learn that they plan to attempt to recover the first stage this time.

This was known for months already, also mentioned in previous updates (see the guys with the recovery raft in the Jan 4th update).

While we're waiting for the darn FTS testing to complete, here's a previously unseen static fire image from March 13th. This one seems to be chronologically the first:


Check out the cover over the other, unused Titan SRMU flame opening being blown open at the right edge. In the video you can see it clearly and puffs of vapor being expelled up. I wonder if they anticipated that. Imagine that thing being completely torn off and crashing into the vehicle...

[climber]

Could be May 27th or 28th: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/001/status.html