IINM, they already have a booster allocated for the in-flight abort test. I think it only has 3 engines instead of the full 9. Nope, this stage will carry a live bird for a paying customer, assuming they don't find anything obviously wrong with it.
Quote from: bob the martian on 04/20/2016 09:35 pmIINM, they already have a booster allocated for the in-flight abort test. I think it only has 3 engines instead of the full 9. Nope, this stage will carry a live bird for a paying customer, assuming they don't find anything obviously wrong with it. IIRC it will be the stage originally known as F9R Dev 2 - which was built with 3 engines and was due to fly after the loss of F9R Dev 1 (the successor to Grasshopper).
I believe something like this had been seen in Vandenberg, before they switched back to F9 table. Do I remember wrong?
looks like they are really stripping the orbcomm one
There is a new photo of both recovered boosters in HIF on SpaceX instagram:https://www.instagram.com/p/BEcJwlBF8RR/
didn't see this video in the forums...if it is, sorry.
I wonder if there has been any discussion of the damage seen at the base of the booster.In this video (from around 3:00 onwards), a panel seems to look bent open - it's at about the 2 o'clock position on the base of the booster. I've attached an image of the orbcomm booster highlighting what I think are the panels in an undamaged state (about the right location in relation to other features, and two notches/holes above it).
Quote from: Danny452 on 04/20/2016 12:55 amWhy 10 static fires? After the first static fire, what is the purpose of the remaining 9? Have other stages been subject to 10 static fires?Well no one has ever done this before, so they can kind of make up their own rules based on some judgement. 10 is a lot but with that much data they may learn how many fires are reasonable. 1,2,3 who knows. Also, I suspect the Elon knew this would be at 39A and that it would be advantageous if they run their shiny new pad through that many cycles as well. Length of burns would be interesting. Will it be a few seconds like a usual Static fire or will it be longer?
Why 10 static fires? After the first static fire, what is the purpose of the remaining 9? Have other stages been subject to 10 static fires?