Looks like one of the cores shipped outhttps://instagram.com/p/BJvxSJEhAUA/
Any evidence that was Iridium heading east? (What remains on Crenshaw?)
What will the be the likely launch time for this rocket after the AMOS event? Six months from now? Nine?
IMHO this misson is a likely candidate for the return to flight for Falcon-9 (or the Formosat-5 / Sherpa mission)
I think, that is recomended make the static test without payload. After standard succesful test is possible to launch in september. Mistake was in fueling of second stage tank before test.
Quote from: Jirka Dlouhy on 09/08/2016 10:37 amI think, that is recomended make the static test without payload. After standard succesful test is possible to launch in september. Mistake was in fueling of second stage tank before test.No, the second stage has to be fueled.a. That is part of the test and not just the first stage engine firingb. That would be unflightlike environment
There are some interesting (but completely hypothetical) economics here: How much does Iridium stand to lose for each month of delay? Given that there's a currently-running production pipeline, what's the incremental cost of getting an extra 10 satellites out of that pipeline?Somewhere between those two numbers and SpaceX's return-to-flight timeline, there's a cold business calculation where it's cheaper for the customer to accept a 1-in-9 (or 2-in-29, depending on how you want to score it) chance of paying for 10 more satellites if they can launch them today on "good enough" rockets.Between SPX, VAFB, and the FAA that won't happen. But the economics of constellations do make for an interesting case where the customer is potentially the least concerned about reliability.
Prior to this SpaceX incident Iridium had stated a willingness to launch it's fleet as fast as it could to keep bond holders and bankers happy but their insurers were demanding 3 months between launches.
We’re excited for the upcoming first launch of Iridium Next .... , the satellites will complete three months of tests to check the health and function of spacecraft systems, ground and inter-satellite communications links, and tack-on instruments to track global air and maritime traffic....After December, Iridium Next launches from Vandenberg should come every two months.