This talk of 'new' and 'reused' boosters may be a bit too black and white.SpaceX themselves have indicated that different components of the vehicle are expected to have different life cycles.Who's to say that an otherwise brand new stage might not be fitted with refurbished engines, legs, etc?Stages might become essentially a high-tech version of Trigger's Broom.
I imagine that it would be most easily done if the core is mounted horizontally on those circular rings, rotating like a bird on a spit while a pressure washer slowly moves from one end to the other, kind of like a lathe.How much force is needed to remove the soot, anyways? You certainly don't want to use too much water pressure and accidentally damage the skin.
I've seen cork being applied to the interstage on a Hawthorne tour. Also the logo and American flag being painted on using rollers and a stencil, not as I expected, an adhesive sticker.
Composites are generally heat intolerant as far as I know, so TPS on the interstage.
And matthewkantar made a good point about why there would be cork on the (composite) interstage but not the (aluminum) tanks:QuoteComposites are generally heat intolerant as far as I know, so TPS on the interstage.
Looks like a landed stage is on the move.Stephen Smith indicates it is NOT the cleaned up stage from the "Fantastic Four" picture. I think orientation in the HIF indicates that it is the stage on the far left of the fantastic four picture, so possibly CRS-8. Headed to McGregor?https://twitter.com/SpaceKSCBlog/status/742062804761448449
Definitely looks like the cleaned up stage is furthest left in that pic. So is that one CRS 8 and we can speculate that the cleanup is for the purposes of reflight?
the first recovered booster, from the OG-2 mission, is in the final stages of preparing to depart the 39A HIF for its trip to SpaceX’s HQ in Hawthorne, California.
I see two cores off to the passenger side of that truck, so the one leaving would be the left-center (core 24).