- SpX-2 launch currently still in January 2013, but expected to move a little to the right.
Only a little? They don't know what caused it yet, so they cannot know how much it will slip!
- Investigation into SpX-1 launch anomaly is making good progress. Lot's of NASA personell involved as well. Once root-cause is found, will go back to McGregor to make sure the SpX-2 Falcon-9 is not susceptible to the same issue.
Quote from: woods170 on 10/27/2012 06:03 am- Investigation into SpX-1 launch anomaly is making good progress. Lot's of NASA personell involved as well. Once root-cause is found, will go back to McGregor to make sure the SpX-2 Falcon-9 is not susceptible to the same issue.That's a significant revelation all of its own - the anomaly root cause hasn't been established yet. No root cause means no likely fix and, frankly, SpX-2 must be considered to have a launch date of 'TBD' until that changes.
Quote from: Mader Levap on 10/27/2012 11:27 pmOnly a little? They don't know what caused it yet, so they cannot know how much it will slip!A nit, they have not announced that they know what caused it yet. There is a difference. They may know and not released the fact, or they might not know yet. We don't have insight.
Failures with quickly known root causes shouldn't have launched in the first place.
Quote from: woods170 on 10/27/2012 06:03 am- Investigation into SpX-1 launch anomaly is making good progress. Lot's of NASA personell involved as well. Once root-cause is found, will go back to McGregor to make sure the SpX-2 Falcon-9 is not susceptible to the same issue.That's a significant revelation all of its own - the anomaly root cause hasn't been established yet.
I think if the first stage arrives by mid November the launch date slip will be minor. But any padding in the processing flow would be gone so if there are any difficulties it would cause additional slip. If the stage dosn't arrive mid November then for each week it is delayed past then expect at least a week slip to the launch date. I doubt if they can compress the processing to less than 8 weeks with their current work force levels. Starting in June SpaceX plans to do a launch every 2 months. They have yet to reach that level of process streamlining, so the 8 week value for Spx-2 is optimistic. A more realistic value would be 10 weeks out or first week of November. So if there is no expected delivery after the 1st expect a launch slip notification.
Quote from: Antares on 10/29/2012 02:29 amFailures with quickly known root causes shouldn't have launched in the first place.Failures often bring to light issues that were very well hidden during testing and modelling. Sometimes your statement is true, especially in hindsight, but every failure has its own unique story.
This will be the last Falcon 9 version 1 launch and the last using the Merlin1C exclusively.
Quote from: mr. mark on 10/29/2012 03:49 pmThis will be the last Falcon 9 version 1 launch and the last using the Merlin1C exclusively. Jason-3 launch for NASA.
Quote from: ugordan on 10/29/2012 03:50 pmQuote from: mr. mark on 10/29/2012 03:49 pmThis will be the last Falcon 9 version 1 launch and the last using the Merlin1C exclusively. Jason-3 launch for NASA.I still don't think that will happen - on the 1.0, that is.
Quote from: ugordan on 10/29/2012 03:50 pmQuote from: mr. mark on 10/29/2012 03:49 pmThis will be the last Falcon 9 version 1 launch and the last using the Merlin1C exclusively. Jason-3 launch for NASA.I still don't think that will happen - on the 1.0, that is. SLC-40 is going to have a significant down-time to convert to a 1.1 pad after this flight, and they are not going to switch back and forth.And the west coast pad is going to be 1.1 from the start.