Author Topic: Discussion with Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO, SpaceX  (Read 42141 times)

Offline Sean Lynch

Banking...
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Offline Helodriver

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looking to leave ground based range behind entirely, autonomous vehicle flights.

Offline TrueBlueWitt

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Wrapped up.

Offline woods170

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Finished.

Offline Helodriver

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So much for twitter questions.   :-\

Offline woods170

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Summarizing: most of what she said has been heard before.

Some tidbits:
- US re-capturing parts of commercial launch market because of SpaceX. US once had large market share but lost it due to wrong decision making in 1980's and 1990's.
- Russian reliance (Russian engine for national security booster) was result of wrong decision making. Needs to be corrected.
- Part of cleaned up CRS-3 core stage water landing (NSF effort!!) shown in intro clip. BIG WOOT FOR NSF even if NSF wasn't explicitly mentioned.
- Two rockets per month production rate right now
- After EIS wraps up SpaceX expect to move into Brownsville on short notice
- Hardware for first Falcon Heavy in production
- Certification for EELV class missions is new and cooperative effort between SpaceX and USAF
- USAF has trouble keeping up with SpaceX on certification. Hiring extra staff to do so.
- SpaceX pushing hard to wrap up certification this calender year
- Mars for inspiration and risk management for humanity
- SpaceX can do launchpads much cheaper than competition can do them
- Avoiding vertical integration was deliberate early decision to avoid high costs, related to MST (amongst others)
- SpaceX interested in investing in development of next generation liquid propulsion systems, possibly for wider use than just SpaceX.
- Both USAF and SpaceX are looking to leave ground base range assets behind: goal is fully autonomous launch vehicles with regards to range safety.
« Last Edit: 06/04/2014 03:55 pm by woods170 »

Offline stichtom

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Not the clearest picture but you can still read the launch manifest.

Where are the 2 AsiaSat flights?  :o

Online butters

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Elon is at his best when talking about human colonization of Mars. Shotwell is at her best when talking about dominating the commercial satellite market. It's not so easy to imagine "lots" of automated launch sites operating at high launch rates, but Google's planned constellation might be the template for the future of the comsat industry, and SpaceX's vision of high flight rates with rapid pad flow seems to be most applicable to these types of large constellations.

Space industry veterans describe satellites as diverse, idiosyncratic hangar queens. But can these solitary divas complete with large numbers of mass produced satellites specifically designed to accommodate high launch rates? The geosynchronous market won't go away, of course, but it certainly feels like the comsat industry has to move toward large LEO constellations in order to provide the interactive communication services which consumers demand. SpaceX really wants to tip the economics in favor of constellations and dominate that market segment, and in this context, their plans make the most sense.

Offline GalacticIntruder

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A few nuggets I think were new.

Ms Shotwell said they are transitioning from Sats waiting for F9, to F9 waiting for Sats, and looking how to manage this.

Seems to have zero interest in vertical hanger, payload processing, so the AF and Jim will take it or leave it.

SpaceX will continue to innovate, mass production will be in parallel.

Customers can choose which version they want to fly of any future tweaked Falcons.

SpaceX can build many launch sites for 300 million, not just one.

Apparently does not segregate launch customers monies and accounts. All one big pot. Spreads the costs through all its business. No one customer gets the full costs. (IDK if that is normal, but if its not, probably drives critics nuts)

FH now being built. 2015 flight.

SpaceX at the Cape is no longer beholden to AF range safety radar.

Brownsville approval almost done, hinted at more sites anyway. 

Still pushing 1 launch per month this year and 2 per month in 2015.

Appears Raptor is not open to competitors, but Raptor subsystems and components could be Gov funded and then be open to the engine community.
« Last Edit: 06/04/2014 09:55 pm by GalacticIntruder »
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Offline InfraNut2

SpaceX at the Cape is no longer beholden to AF range safety radar.

It was not safety radar -- SpaceX is allowed to run their own telemetry for now.

More work underway from USAF to lessen rockets dependence on the range, with the ultimate goal of making the rockets mostly autonomous in the end, presumably without sacrificing safety. Gwynne said SpaceX expected to be at the forefront of this development. I assume this work will go on over many years.
« Last Edit: 06/04/2014 05:00 pm by InfraNut2 »

Offline Jim

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Seems to have zero interest in vertical hanger, payload processing, so the AF and Jim will take it or leave it.

SpaceX at the Cape is no longer beholden to AF range safety radar.


Neither are correct take aways.

If Spacex wants AF business they will have to do vertical payload processing.  Shotwell just was referring to the base business

Spacex is still beholden to AF range safety radar, just not the Range telemetry receivers.

Online Galactic Penguin SST

Not the clearest picture but you can still read the launch manifest.

Where are the 2 AsiaSat flights?  :o

I think that's the "Space Systems/Loral" flight(s) - as SS/L is the one who build the 2 satellites for AsiaSat.
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Offline Sean Lynch

I really need to get a proxy ready. YouTube blocks live streaming for Germany. Any non YouTube video source?

Thanks.
I've downloaded the YT video, if it would help (not available in Germany) I can upload it for you.
"Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others."
-JFK May 25, 1961

Offline guckyfan

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I really need to get a proxy ready. YouTube blocks live streaming for Germany. Any non YouTube video source?

Thanks.
I've downloaded the YT video, if it would help (not available in Germany) I can upload it for you.

I would appreciate it and I am not the only one.

Offline Sean Lynch

I don't want to kill Chris's bandwidth caps. The 360p version is 210 Mb, the 720p is 810Mb.
loading to billionuploads- fast and free but watch what you click...(uncheck the download "download accelerator" box).
Here is the 360p version.
The 720p version will be available in 30 minutes or so and I'll post another link. With permission I'll attach the videos, otherwise don't want to hurt NSF bandwidth.


"Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others."
-JFK May 25, 1961

Offline Sean Lynch

"Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others."
-JFK May 25, 1961

Offline Lobo

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- Avoiding vertical integration was deliberate early decision to avoid high costs, related to MST (amongst others)

Be interesting to see how they handle USAF's requirement for vertical integration then.

Offline Sean Lynch

- Avoiding vertical integration was deliberate early decision to avoid high costs, related to MST (amongst others)

Be interesting to see how they handle USAF's requirement for vertical integration then.
Perhaps vertical integration is not a technical requirement for every DOD payload, just the traditional integration method....the RFQ would state vertical integration as a requirement (one would think), and quoted (or not) accordingly.
"Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others."
-JFK May 25, 1961

Offline RDMM2081

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I really liked seeing this picture in her new promo video, it really reinforces to me her emphasis on increasing production from 1 rocket per month to 2 (@ 24:12 in the video)

edit:  added the time tag for the statement she made after I watched it again and found it.
« Last Edit: 06/04/2014 06:37 pm by RDMM2081 »

Online Chris Bergin

Super work by all concerned - absolutely superb coverage! Looks like you guys got to watch the more interesting event today.

Marshall's going to write this up into an article! :)
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