The Pod Bay

T-minus 82 minutes and counting. Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and chief executive, just spoke with reporters about the maiden flight of the Falcon 9 Block 5, the last major upgrade of the company's workhorse rocket before the debut of a giant new booster dubbed the Big Falcon Rocket in the 2020s.

"This will be the last major version of Falcon 9 before BFR," Musk said a few minutes ago. "We expect this to be a mainstay of SpaceX's business. We think (it) will probably wind up with something on the order of 300 flights, maybe more, of Falcon 9 Block 5 before retirement."

As many as 300 flights before BFR. They will not be building all that many Block 5 first stages then I would guess.

geoffc

8:56 PM

This is interesting: "We replaced the old composite structure with a high-temperature titanium structure to support rapid reuse," Musk said. "The base heat shield will also be, in some parts, actively cooled with water."

This seems wrong: "T-minus 45 minutes. The SpaceX launch conductor is now polling his team for a "go" to begin loading propellant into the Falcon 9 rocket."

I thought they loaded much earlier than T-45. Did they change that with Block 5?

Hmm, this says for Falcon 9 FT (aka Block 3 or Block 4), it says 1:10 for RP1 load, and T-35 for LOX load, so I would guess that meant Go for loading oxidizer not propellant.

spaceflight101.com/falcon-9-ft-countdown-timeline

PearsonArtPhoto

9:13 PM

Yeah, the timeline is condensed...

I imagine the number of cores built will be around 50, given 300 launches.

geoffc

Intersting one: "Falcon 9 cost breakdown is roughly 60% booster, 20% second stage, 10% fairing, 10% for launch. Propellant is only $300,000 to $400,000"

Falcon 9 cost breakdown is roughly 60% booster, 20% second stage, 10% fairing, 10% for launch. Propellant is only $300,000 to $400,000

3rd and 4th flights of a given Block V booster should occur in late 2018. By late 2019 they should have cores reaching their 10th flight.

Boca Chica, Texas launch site will be dedicated to BFR launches. Source

SpaceX's inventory of Block V boosters expected to eventually reach 30 to 50 boosters, depending on the demand for brand new cores.

There you go, 30-50 boosters.

From the horses mouth.

Good summary post: reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/8ii206/…

Answering my question: "With the Block 5 upgrade to the Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX now loads RP-1 and kerosene propellants simultaneously. On the previous generation of Falcon 9s, kerosene was loaded into the Falcon 9 rocket starting at T-minus 70 minutes, followed by the start of liquid oxygen tanking at T-minus 35 minutes."

PearsonArtPhoto

Lots of really interesting stuff.

The second most exciting launch of the year!

geoffc

9:31 PM

More Roadster ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcowbell

PearsonArtPhoto

48000 km/hour.

I think that's a bit off...

kim holder

is it just me, or is the venting a little different?

PearsonArtPhoto

Seems a bit lower.

kim holder

it looks like it's emerging from the whole 'raceway' stripy thing

gee, heavy rain on the barge

PearsonArtPhoto

Return of the fly...

You can see the GSE line that takes some of the venting away from the pad - bottom right:

Tweeted by NASASpaceflight on May 10, 2018 at 9:37 PM

kim holder

9:40 PM

i checked an old broadcast, i'm wrong about venting from the booster itself, i just haven't watched one in a while

PearsonArtPhoto

I remember it similar to how it is now for the Falcon Heavy launch.

Huh, constant thrust.

geoffc

Lots of new changes we had not heard about before. How interesting.

PearsonArtPhoto

I bet they have been chomping at the bit to let some of those details go.

Drone shot.

Must have done that per the New Sheppard flight.

geoffc

Someone posted a 90 megapixel image from the pad this morning but I still could not quite make out the core number under the grid fins.

Curious if the shockwave affects the drone after lauch?

PearsonArtPhoto

The calm before the launch of the last minute or two...

kim holder

9:46 PM

launch abort sequence

PearsonArtPhoto

Sigh, missed that...

geoffc

Drat/

PearsonArtPhoto

I think there is still time in the window...

geoffc

It was pretty wide as I recall. They are already 1 hour delayed into it.

PearsonArtPhoto

25 minutes.

geoffc

9:48 PM

Well this is an awkward silence!

This 220Mpix one you CAN read the 46.

easyzoom.com/image/110651

PearsonArtPhoto

So, 10 more minutes before a scrub for the day.

geoffc

I cannot i magine they launch today, at this point.

PearsonArtPhoto

It is possible, but...

That doesn't seem promising, a dump of the oxidizer?

I know if I turn away it will actually launch today, so...

geoffc

I guess it is warming up. Venters gonna vent.

Ya, me too.

PearsonArtPhoto

10:03 PM

I'll wait until the window is basically closed...

geoffc

3 more minutes?

PearsonArtPhoto

Maybe only 2. It probably isn't going to happen.

First time a launch has been delayed for a rocket issue for a while...

geoffc

Agreed. Oh well. Sabbath is not til 8PM EST tomorrow so I should be able to launch.

And it happened right as the onboard computer took over... Which is suspicious.

I.e. Computer problem not real problem.

PearsonArtPhoto

The computer obviously checked something the humans didn't and didn't like it.

geoffc

And I believe we are done for today...

PearsonArtPhoto

10:07 PM

Yep.

geoffc

@PearsonArtPhoto Which is odd, since they must have the same equivalent software on the ground stations as well. Which is why I think the onboard must have an issue

PearsonArtPhoto

Just made the announcement, scrub.

geoffc

And scrubbed.

1 hour later…

Erin Anne

11:11 PM

space.stackexchange.com/questions/27036/… this question is troubling me :/ Two self-answers, the accepted one doesn't really look correct... I know uhoh has seen and commented on it, but are folks generally alright with it? I just find it...quite odd.

kim holder

@uhoh can you talk to Erin Anne about their concern here?

welcome to chat @ErinAnne. i'm no use to you, and uhoh is usually on earlier in the day. some of the other regulars might have insight.

but they seem like someone who is learning, and who muscled through the issue when there wasn't an answer or a comment that gave them what they needed in a timely manner.

as such, it's not a very professional job. but in the end, the purpose of this site is to provide answers, and the way that happens leads to situations like this.

Erin Anne

I don't think I need more from uhoh, I just wanted to note I knew uhoh had participated for sure

kim holder

yeah, i mention him because he knows the math involved in this, and i don't

but after reading more, i see there are other issues.

Erin Anne

I think the core question is actually pretty good--it's essentially what motivated the development of Kepler's laws and physics in the first place--just the rest of it is...occluding all of that.

I'm probably off for the rest of the night. Thanks for having a look, hopefully a few others do too

kim holder

this is the kind of situation where to sort out what the asker needs, and improve the question, it would probably be necessary to have an extended conversation with them.

if there is a long enough string of comments, an option to move to a chat room automatically pops up.

because this question now has 2 answers by the asker, the window of opportunity for it may be gone.

we're a small site. sometimes a person who has the knowledge you need is around and in the mood to do some teaching. sometimes not.

my first experience here was with someone who very patiently explained some basics of how launch works, and i had to edit my question several times in order to sort of get it to make sense.

frankly - summer is upon us. there is less activity on the site at this time of year.

but it's always a little hit and miss.

you posted a comment that seems like it could have begun a dialogue about this. didn't work out this time.

« first day (1758 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (2199 days later) »

all rooms