Sooo will this finally be a Falcon X/XX?
The above got me thinking, is the ITS diameter also limited by the 9m maximum? If so, the "flairing" shape of the current ITS, which is wider than the booster itself, will not be possible, limiting the ship to the booster diameter, I would guess.
Suggest that the stakes (is that what we should call them?) can be added at the launch site just as the landing legs are now.
Quote from: MikeAtkinson on 07/22/2017 08:44 pmSuggest that the stakes (is that what we should call them?) can be added at the launch site just as the landing legs are now.You mean strakes?
Since we know the use of existing factory and launch pad, how will SpaceX transport it between the two? Road, train or water still seem very difficult for 9m diameter booster. Airlift it similar to Energia/Buran booster?
Quote from: CTC on 07/22/2017 09:28 pmSince we know the use of existing factory and launch pad, how will SpaceX transport it between the two? Road, train or water still seem very difficult for 9m diameter booster. Airlift it similar to Energia/Buran booster?The answer is located here, but L2 membership is required.
Would they use scaled versions, or full sized?What about the spacecraft? Scaled to 6 vac and 3regular, or 3 vac and 3 at the full ~4m and ~2m sizes?
Quote from: tater on 07/22/2017 10:05 pmWould they use scaled versions, or full sized?What about the spacecraft? Scaled to 6 vac and 3regular, or 3 vac and 3 at the full ~4m and ~2m sizes?With a sub scale Raptor roughly equivalent to a Merlin in thrust, that would give a 21 engine ITSy less thrust than a Falcon Heavy. Of course, it might well be much more efficient in its single core configuration than the FH is with three cores.
I get a maximum of 21 engines as well, or about 14.4mlbf. I suspect Raptor won't be quite as powerful in its initial implementation, so ITS-21 is in the ballpark of 39A capability. It's hard to imagine using sub scale raptor on the booster, but it might be useful on the spaceship.Now that I think about it, if SpaceX starts with spaceship suborbital tests, using sub scale raptor might speed things up a bit. Musk has already talked about increasing the expansion ratio to 150 on the sub scale engine, perfect for doing suborbital tests with a 9m BFS...