Will Falcon Heavy fly in 2017?

[jongoff]

In my 2017 predictions I said that Falcon Heavy would at least make it to the pad, but might not fly. I think it's close to 50/50 on them making it to flight this year, but since this poll didn't allow as much weasling, I'm going to be a contrarian and say Nay. While there may be no obvious reason why they couldn't make FH fly this year, there are still things that could go wrong, and we don't know what their priority is for FH now that F9 FT has started to fly.

But as I said, I think there's a decent chance I may be wrong.

~Jon

[Lar]

I said yes.

Red Dragon shouldn't be the first FH flight. I expect there would be learnings from that one and maybe one more before they launch Red Dragon. Right to left planning then suggests that the first flight needs to be in 2017 unless Red Dragon slips. And I don't see Elon wanting it to slip.

Metal is being bent for FH as we speak. So yes, I think it will fly in '17.

[sdsds]

I don't think Red Dragon can be the first FH launch either. There's a reason for that which I haven't seen explicitly mentioned yet: arrival speed at Mars for a 2018 conjunction class mission. Keeping that low gives Dragon the best chance of successfully reaching the surface. And the launch window for low speed Mars approach is narrow.

SpaceX does amazing things, yes. But launching the first-ever vehicle of a particular type within a specific 10 day window? Hmm, that's asking a lot even of them!

[EDIT: The plot is from https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19980210557.pdf.]

[high road]

If FH doesn't fly in 2017 then Red Dragon 2018 isn't going to happen either; it's launch window is April to May (Wikipedia). My vote: Yes.

I voted yes. They'll do a test flight this year. First times always run into unforeseen issues, so assuming they've become more careful since september, they won't launch commercially this year until all of those issues are adressed. But the word was 'fly', not 'paid flight'.

Even if they do put a payload on a hardly tested FH, there will be no red dragon before 2022. They still have to relaunch a booster and get Dragon v2 flying. Things take time.

[Kansan52]

Not until SLC-40 is operational. They will not risk the only East coast operational launch site for this test.

[alang]

If SpaceX is at all serious about falcon heavy then it has to fly before development stops on the falcon 9, in order to validate the falcon 9 design that will form part of it. For the heavy to fly often it needs reuse to work well, otherwise it is too expensive, unless the military thinks it is worth supporting.
Too many variables and if further launch failures hit the SpaceX manifest then I can see it being cancelled.
My bet is for a launch at either the end of 2017 or Q1 2018.

[Zed_Noir]

If SpaceX is at all serious about falcon heavy then it has to fly before development stops on the falcon 9, in order to validate the falcon 9 design that will form part of it. For the heavy to fly often it needs reuse to work well, otherwise it is too expensive, unless the military thinks it is worth supporting.
...

The Falcon Heavy as currently configured can lift about twice as much payload mass to LEO & GTO than the Delta IV Heavy at less than a third of the cost. Even in the fully expendable mode. So the USAF will be interested. Heck, ULA is probably hoping for the Falcon Heavy to enter service sooner so they can walk away from SLC-6 and LC-37B along with the retirement of the Delta IV Heavy.

IMO the Falcon Heavy will fly shortly after the first Falcon 9 Block 5.

[MATTBLAK]

...And me...

[QuantumG]

Just noticed this poll. I would have voted nay. It's always 6 months away.

[moreno7798]

Interestingly, now that the back to launch is out of the way SpaceX's Launch manifest has the FH as the next launch for ARABSAT. Can anyone confirm this?

[Zed_Noir]

Interestingly, now that the back to launch is out of the way SpaceX's Launch manifest has the FH as the next launch for ARABSAT. Can anyone confirm this?

The SpaceX launch manifest on their website just list flights alphabetically not which one is next.

Interestingly there are 6 Falcon Heavy flights listed. But no Red Dragon flights.

ARABSAT (ARABSAT 6A)
FALCON HEAVY DEMO
INMARSAT
INTELSAT
US AIR FORCE (STP-2)
VIASAT

[ccdengr]

VIASAT

I thought Viasat gave up waiting and jumped to Arianespace... https://spaceflightnow.com/2016/02/15/viasat-trades-in-falcon-heavy-launch-for-ariane-5/

[Galactic Penguin SST]

VIASAT

I thought Viasat gave up waiting and jumped to Arianespace... https://spaceflightnow.com/2016/02/15/viasat-trades-in-falcon-heavy-launch-for-ariane-5/

They keep the order for a future launch around 2020-ish if I remember correctly.

[sdsds]

Interestingly there are 6 Falcon Heavy flights listed. But no Red Dragon flights.

I think this underlines a subtle distinction between the FH Demo flight and RD. FH Demo is ... actually for a particular customer. RD will be purely an internally motivated flight.

[high road]

Just noticed this poll. I would have voted nay. It's always 6 months away.

Well, IIRC it was 'end of the year' before CRS-7, 'next year' for four years before that, and 'two years' before that. The trend seems to be good, anyway.

[rockets4life97]

Actual hardware! 2017 is looking like the year FH finally flies.

[AncientU]

Maybe this is the year that everyone will have to choose an alternate vehicle to mock SpaceX's overly-optimistic schedules... may I suggest the BFR?

[high road]

Straigth to BFS? What about Crew Dragon and Red Dragon?

No need to limit 'vehicle' to 'launch vehicle' 

[QuantumG]

Actual hardware is a good sign, but I still think we're a year or two away. Hopefully only a year, then Red Dragon in 2018 is a real possibility.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

SpaceX are sticking to 2017, at least for now:

SpaceX are still saying FH demo flight this year:

SpaceX's Shotwell: Falcon Heavy to fly this year #satshow

https://twitter.com/chenry_sn/status/839590030511386625