Quick factsNamed for the Star Wars Millennium Falcon; 9 refers to the nine Merlin engines that power the first stage; one Merlin vacuum engine powers the second stage.
Amazing press release, very nice. Some new stuff, as well as stuff previously seen on L2.Falcon 9 Overview, page 29:QuoteQuick factsNamed for the Star Wars Millennium Falcon; 9 refers to the nine Merlin engines that power the first stage; one Merlin vacuum engine powers the second stage. Eek, I didn't know that Falcon Heavy will be renamed into Death Star or Star Destroyer?
FYI Dragon is named after Puff the Magic Dragon.
Quote from: SpacexULA on 05/11/2012 08:33 pmFYI Dragon is named after Puff the Magic Dragon.Heh! Amazingly apt! "Lives by the sea". Spacey cartoon angle.
Quote from: Chris Bergin on 05/11/2012 08:40 pmQuote from: SpacexULA on 05/11/2012 08:33 pmFYI Dragon is named after Puff the Magic Dragon.Heh! Amazingly apt! "Lives by the sea". Spacey cartoon angle.I wonder if Elon was aware of the song's evil hidden message.
SpaceX appears to have reduce the time between first stage MECO and stage separation from the old 7 second interval:0:03:00 1st stage engine shutdown/Main Engine Cut Off (MECO)0:03:05 1st and 2nd stages separate
could be the longer delay on flights 1 and 2 was an attempt to prevent toasting the parachutes in the interstage? they're no longer there, of course.
The first graphic on page 13 is labeled in miles, whereas the subsequent graphics are labeled in metric units. I hope they correct this in the next revision. They should just stick with metric; if a given writer wants to convert to imperial units for his readers, so be it, but SpaceX doesn't need to be preemptively dumbing it down at this level. Anyone reading this press kit should be assumed smart enough to be able to handle metric.
SpaceX appears to have reduce the time between first stage MECO and stage separation from the old 7 second interval:
Quote from: Comga on 05/11/2012 10:38 pmSpaceX appears to have reduce the time between first stage MECO and stage separation from the old 7 second interval:They haven't. It was 5 seconds on C1 as well. It was 7 seconds between staging and MVac ignition. Look up the highlights video.