Forgive me if this is slightly OT and/or ignorant but is there any information at all about these so called DragonLab missions? What are they about? Who is the customer?
Quote from: Borklund on 07/31/2013 08:49 pmForgive me if this is slightly OT and/or ignorant but is there any information at all about these so called DragonLab missions? What are they about? Who is the customer? This would be to demonstrate the utility of Dragon as a lab. I don't believe they have a customer signed on for the DragonLab demo. I think SpaceX would be the customer assuming no one buys these missions.
Thanks for the comparison table.It's clear that the manifested Orbcomm flight for 2013 doesn't refer to the secondary payload on a past NASA flight. The Orbcomm satellite fleet deployment clearly involves two dedicated flights, the first of which is manifested - optimistically or otherwise - to start integration in 2013.
YearF9FHCargo DragonCrew DragonDragonLabCoresNotes20136020061 completed201411131016Grasshopper 2 replacement, abort test201513231019Crew dragon test2016603006I've added a Grasshopper 2 replacement, as they expect to crash one. Also added the CCiCAP abort test for next year and rather speculatively a crewed dragon test for the end of 2015.Looks like their sales team needs to go out and fill the order books for 2016 and beyond.
Quote from: Joffan on 07/31/2013 08:02 pmThanks for the comparison table.It's clear that the manifested Orbcomm flight for 2013 doesn't refer to the secondary payload on a past NASA flight. The Orbcomm satellite fleet deployment clearly involves two dedicated flights, the first of which is manifested - optimistically or otherwise - to start integration in 2013.Over on the "How many Launches" section, most people are very pessimistic, and feel that SpaceX will only have two more flights this year. But with this new manifest, not only are they still saying they are going to have Cassiope, SES8, Thiacom, and SpX3 this year, they have added Orbcomm! Of course all this hinges on successful flights, of which Cassiope will be the most analyzed for anomalies. So even given a perfect flight on September 5, it is hard to believe the next flight would be before a month later. That would mean 4 flights in 3 months. And note that the heading used to say "Vehicle arrival at launch site" and now says "Launches".
Looks like their sales team needs to go out and fill the order books for 2016 and beyond.
Quote from: MikeAtkinson on 08/03/2013 09:49 amLooks like their sales team needs to go out and fill the order books for 2016 and beyond.It looks like they need to shut up & launch some rockets. When that happens the 16' manifest will fill right up.
Seems to me customers are as well otherwise they'd be cancelling their contracts and moving launch providers, something which has happened previously.
No place to run, IMO.. With recent Proton Failures. (2 in 6 months) and a overbooked Proton and Ariane5 launch manifest. Not really anywhere for anyone to "move to". Not easy moving from 2 launches a year to 6, let alone 12. Any bobble at all in the Cassiope launch will require extensive analysis. (Probably even without a bobble). If they get the launch off, by lets say early October.. I think they will be hard pressed to get a third one launched by Y/E.Still stick by my 2 launches prediction. Quote from: beancounter on 08/05/2013 09:49 amSeems to me customers are as well otherwise they'd be cancelling their contracts and moving launch providers, something which has happened previously.
No place to run, IMO.. With recent Proton Failures. (2 in 6 months) and a overbooked Proton and Ariane5 launch manifest. Not really anywhere for anyone to "move to".
Quote from: PCSTEL on 08/06/2013 03:45 amNo place to run, IMO.. With recent Proton Failures. (2 in 6 months) and a overbooked Proton and Ariane5 launch manifest. Not really anywhere for anyone to "move to". CZ-3(A/B/C) ?
CZ: 58 (1) R-7: 57 (2)Proton : 37 (5)Ariane 5 : 21 (0)