Since the year 2020, the Falcon 9 has been the most experienced, active rocket in the United States, when it surpassed the Atlas V rocket in total launches....Speaking of safety, this is where the Falcon 9 rocket has really shone of late. Since the Amos-6 failure during its static fire test, SpaceX has completed a record-setting run of 111 successful Falcon 9 missions in a row. It probably will be 112 after Thursday.
Targeting Sunday, July 17 for a Falcon 9 launch of 53 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from SLC-40 in Florida → spacex.com/launches/sl4-2…
Barring delays, this will be SpaceX's 8th launch in 30 days 😳 this is actually not that far away from what I believe is the all-time 30-day cadence record, which is likely 10 R--7 family launches from Sept 2 to Oct 1 1975.
If we want to be more literal, four different R-7 variants completed those 10 launches. So I honestly don't think it would be inaccurate to say that Falcon 9 will hold the record for number of launches completed in 30 days by a single rocket if Starlink 4-22 launches on time.
F9 has a few more hills to climb to truly trounce most of the R-7 family's records, though. 6 Soyuz-U launches in 15 days, for example. SpaceX has managed 5 F9 launches in 18 days.But F9 is now halfway through its July manifest of 6 launches in 17 days, so it's not far off...
At this point, the only R-7 variant record Falcon 9 is unlikely to break is total lifetime launches, as Soyuz-U has flown 786 times.
Quote Falcon 9 has completed 31 missions so far this year, delivering ~351 metric tons to orbit – carrying astronauts & research to the @space_station, deploying Starlink to provide global high-speed internet, as well as many other critical payloads for our commercial & gov customers
Falcon 9 has completed 31 missions so far this year, delivering ~351 metric tons to orbit – carrying astronauts & research to the @space_station, deploying Starlink to provide global high-speed internet, as well as many other critical payloads for our commercial & gov customers
This may be a good thread for this or OT. Quote from: FutureSpaceTourist on 07/18/2022 05:07 pmQuote Falcon 9 has completed 31 missions so far this year, delivering ~351 metric tons to orbit – carrying astronauts & research to the @space_station, deploying Starlink to provide global high-speed internet, as well as many other critical payloads for our commercial & gov customersFor our statistically gifted contributors:In 1969 NASA’s Saturn V launched Apollo 9, 10, 11, & 12. The total mass to orbit that year, the peak of the Apollo program, must have been comparable to the above 351 metric tons (387 of those scrawny “tons” NASA still likes to use) orbited by the Falcon 9 in little more than a half year. Anyone have a more accurate total mass?
Quote from: Comga on 07/18/2022 06:00 pmThis may be a good thread for this or OT. Quote from: FutureSpaceTourist on 07/18/2022 05:07 pmQuote Falcon 9 has completed 31 missions so far this year, delivering ~351 metric tons to orbit – carrying astronauts & research to the @space_station, deploying Starlink to provide global high-speed internet, as well as many other critical payloads for our commercial & gov customersFor our statistically gifted contributors:In 1969 NASA’s Saturn V launched Apollo 9, 10, 11, & 12. The total mass to orbit that year, the peak of the Apollo program, must have been comparable to the above 351 metric tons (387 of those scrawny “tons” NASA still likes to use) orbited by the Falcon 9 in little more than a half year. Anyone have a more accurate total mass?Elon claimed in a tweet that F9 carried two thirds of the Earth's payload mass to orbit in 2021. I wonder what it will be this year?
For our statistically gifted contributors:In 1969 NASA’s Saturn V launched Apollo 9, 10, 11, & 12. The total mass to orbit that year, the peak of the Apollo program, must have been comparable to the above 351 metric tons (387 of those scrawny “tons” NASA still likes to use) orbited by the Falcon 9 in little more than a half year. Anyone have a more accurate total mass?
Quote from: Comga on 07/18/2022 06:00 pmFor our statistically gifted contributors:In 1969 NASA’s Saturn V launched Apollo 9, 10, 11, & 12. The total mass to orbit that year, the peak of the Apollo program, must have been comparable to the above 351 metric tons (387 of those scrawny “tons” NASA still likes to use) orbited by the Falcon 9 in little more than a half year. Anyone have a more accurate total mass?If you count the mass of the SIV & propellant that made it to parking orbit, plus the payloads of Apollo 9,10,11,& 12, I add up a mass of around 531 tons.
Quote from: Stan-1967 on 07/18/2022 10:39 pmQuote from: Comga on 07/18/2022 06:00 pmFor our statistically gifted contributors:In 1969 NASA’s Saturn V launched Apollo 9, 10, 11, & 12. The total mass to orbit that year, the peak of the Apollo program, must have been comparable to the above 351 metric tons (387 of those scrawny “tons” NASA still likes to use) orbited by the Falcon 9 in little more than a half year. Anyone have a more accurate total mass?If you count the mass of the SIV & propellant that made it to parking orbit, plus the payloads of Apollo 9,10,11,& 12, I add up a mass of around 531 tons. 531 tons to where, though? I guess I’m wondering about total delta v rather than just mass. Man the Saturn V was a big rocket.
If you count the mass of the SIV & propellant that made it to parking orbit, plus the payloads of Apollo 9,10,11,& 12, I add up a mass of around 531 tons.
The only thing abnormal here is that these records stood for so long, attesting to the terrible stagnation that overtook the aerospace industry.All we do is compare everything to the Apollo program... Where else is this normal? What other industry still holds the accomplishments of the 60s in awe and whispers quietly that one day, maybe...The kind of progress SpaceX is making should have could have would have happened 20 years earlier at the very least.Generation lost.Glad we're finding it now, but it's still singular. I hope it'll become the norm again at some point.
There's an increasingly good chance that in 2022, Falcon 9 will become the first rocket in history to launch the payload equivalent of its full liftoff mass into orbit in a single year! For F9, that's about 550 tons.
A different first from Eric that I hadn’t considered:https://twitter.com/13ericralph31/status/1549232977229467650QuoteThere's an increasingly good chance that in 2022, Falcon 9 will become the first rocket in history to launch the payload equivalent of its full liftoff mass into orbit in a single year! For F9, that's about 550 tons.
I can't see Falcon 9 surpassing some records of the R-7 family, especially the total number of launches of specific members of that family, such as total number of launches.I also can't see SpaceX refurbishing a pad fast enough to launch twice within 50 hours - which the Soviet Union managed to do (in one case in 1969).