OMG it's the SpaceX Party Thread!

[Lar]

on the update thread it appears that Andre the ISS Astronaut is having trouble booting Windows XP

Welcome to my world, Andre! 

LOL

[corrodedNut]

Man, yesterday was a long day. I think I might have a little Dragon "jet lag".

[Rocket Science]

Man, yesterday was a long day. I think I might have a little Dragon "jet lag".

Mine’s more like “Rocket Lag”…
 
Gee, I went to bed so I missed all the cake throwing…

[kevin-rf]

I slept right through it.  I have no recollection of hearing it at all.  My body said, "no way".

At this point in the mission, if you hear a Dragon flyby, something is very wrong

Also overcast here

[kevin-rf]

Also, there is no raptor, RLV, etc.  V 1.1 exists because 1.0 failed to meet performance goals.

Glass half empty, half full...

Or they decided to stretch the Falcon 9 to optimize the performance boost the Merlin 1D provides.

That or Elon really wants to launch the worlds largest soda straw into orbit.

[wolfpack]

1.  Less engines ARE more reliable.

True for airlines. Dispatch rates are higher for 2-engine aircraft vs. 4-engine.

Nonetheless, this is a big week for SpaceX. I can see why The Stick needed to make some waves two weeks ago.

[jabe]

  V 1.1 exists because 1.0 failed to meet performance goals.

i could understand that.  Curious, could it also be to allow for more fuel when they get their Recoverable vehicle working?
jb

[JNobles]

Curious, could it also be to allow for more fuel when they get their Recoverable vehicle working?

That's what I think.  They are going to have to offset the added mass of the landing system(s) if they are going to retain anything like their current projected payload mass.

[wolfpack]

Curious, could it also be to allow for more fuel when they get their Recoverable vehicle working?

That's what I think.  They are going to have to offset the added mass of the landing system(s) if they are going to retain anything like their current projected payload mass.

1st stage mass penatly is not 1:1 with payload. There's a "gear ratio". What it is exactly for F9, or F9 v1.1, I don't know.

But this is for general Falcon/Dragon discussion thread, not the "party".

[dcporter]

1st stage mass penatly is not 1:1 with payload. There's a "gear ratio". What it is exactly for F9, or F9 v1.1, I don't know.

But this is for general Falcon/Dragon discussion thread, not the "party".

I would like to raise a glass to my vague memory of the time Elon said the mass penalty on F9 first stage was 5/1.

[Lar]

I would like to raise a glass to my vague memory of the time Elon said the mass penalty on F9 first stage was 5/1.

I'll drink to that (rather sneaky) introduction of tech discussion into this thread...

[Rex Chan]

Elon just tweeted this:

"Dragon fly by of Space Station planned for 12:47 am California time. All systems green. #dragonlaunch"

(Saw it on the update thread). Does this imply that full/pulsed abort and free drift were met?

[Diagoras]

Elon just tweeted this:

"Dragon fly by of Space Station planned for 12:47 am California time. All systems green. #dragonlaunch"

(Saw it on the update thread). Does this imply that full/pulsed abort and free drift were met?

IIRC, SpaceFlightNow confirmed that those three objectives had been completed successfully in an update.

[dcporter]

IIRC, SpaceFlightNow confirmed that those three objectives had been completed successfully in an update.

No disrespect to SFN but a bunch of us are hoping for officialer confirmation.

[Diagoras]

IIRC, SpaceFlightNow confirmed that those three objectives had been completed successfully in an update.

No disrespect to SFN but a bunch of us are hoping for officialer confirmation.

From the live thread:

NTV just confirmed: all scheduled objectives complete. Including abort demos and free-drift.

All Dragon systems nominal. Scheduled for capture at 8:06 AM ET Friday 25th.

[ArbitraryConstant]

Curious, could it also be to allow for more fuel when they get their Recoverable vehicle working?

That's what I think.  They are going to have to offset the added mass of the landing system(s) if they are going to retain anything like their current projected payload mass.

I don't think this requires any explanation beyond: they have a bigger engine that can shove a bigger rocket off the ground, and a bigger rocket provides an economically important increase in payload, including GTO launches a F9 could not have otherwise done.

[dcporter]

IIRC, SpaceFlightNow confirmed that those three objectives had been completed successfully in an update.

No disrespect to SFN but a bunch of us are hoping for officialer confirmation.

From the live thread:

NTV just confirmed: all scheduled objectives complete. Including abort demos and free-drift.

All Dragon systems nominal. Scheduled for capture at 8:06 AM ET Friday 25th.

Good enough for me, thanks Diagoras!

[Robotbeat]

Curious, could it also be to allow for more fuel when they get their Recoverable vehicle working?

That's what I think.  They are going to have to offset the added mass of the landing system(s) if they are going to retain anything like their current projected payload mass.

I don't think this requires any explanation beyond: they have a bigger engine that can shove a bigger rocket off the ground, and a bigger rocket provides an economically important increase in payload, including GTO launches a F9 could not have otherwise done.

And if they ever get Raptor working (and yes, they do seem to still have people working on it), it should be competitive with the full range of Atlas V (not counting the Atlas V Heavy, which would be competing against Falcon Heavy anyway) to just about any trajectory.

[Mongo62]

And if they ever get Raptor working (and yes, they do seem to still have people working on it), it should be competitive with the full range of Atlas V (not counting the Atlas V Heavy, which would be competing against Falcon Heavy anyway) to just about any trajectory.

I am not sure that Raptor is actually necessary in the event that SpaceX does develop that staged-combustion methox engine we have been speculating about.  True, the isp would not be as high as with a hydrolox engine, but the increased density and storability of methane over hydrogen means that the same-mass fully loaded upper stage plus payload provides almost as much delta v as a traditional hydrolox design -- or at least that is what I vaguely recall from the staged-combustion thread.

Adding the benefits of reduced development costs (one new engine instead of two) and common tankage/pumpage/propellant for both lower and upper stages, and I believe that we are a lot more likely to see a vacuum version of the SC engine than we will ever see Raptor.

[Lar]

So C2 is now complete and we are in C3 Officially? That's a bit early, right?

If so, I'll drink to that! ( a diet coke because I'm at work )