Quote from: deltaV on 05/25/2013 05:02 pmIt sounds like Elon may be directing too much resources to achieving his dreams of e.g. reusability and not enough to achieving his customers' dream of payloads in orbit in a timely fashion. Where exactly does it say these delays are due to pushing reusability as opposed to actually making the "basic" launch vehicle work at all?
It sounds like Elon may be directing too much resources to achieving his dreams of e.g. reusability and not enough to achieving his customers' dream of payloads in orbit in a timely fashion.
Don't be surprised if SES-8 gets off the ground first. Like the above stated, it is a new rocket going off on a new pad. Think the delays Antares and the F9 faced.
Haven't SES said "we're not going first"?
Quote from: Orbiter on 05/26/2013 02:35 amDon't be surprised if SES-8 gets off the ground first. Like the above stated, it is a new rocket going off on a new pad. Think the delays Antares and the F9 faced.Huh? The SES-8 mission got delayed to August.
Quote from: spectre9 on 05/26/2013 05:51 amHaven't SES said "we're not going first"? Correct.
We’ve switched gears a bit here. SpaceX is planning to run a test at our rocket development facility in McGregor that will be much louder than the typical tests we run daily, and this test could run from 30-seconds in duration to up to several minutes. This test could occur as early as Friday, May 31st. Given that the test could run for several minutes, it’s important that the community know this is coming. If not Friday, in the near future. Thank you for sticking with it for these past few weeks. I’ll circle back when I have further information....If the test does run for several minutes, it probably won't be more than three. There's nothing that I can share about the delay -- it's important to note that SpaceX does testing all the time, often daily. Shifting schedules are not outside the norm.
http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/joe_science/new-word-on-spacex-testing/article_cf049a90-c8a4-11e2-834d-001a4bcf887a.htmlQuote from: Christina Ra We’ve switched gears a bit here. SpaceX is planning to run a test at our rocket development facility in McGregor that will be much louder than the typical tests we run daily, and this test could run from 30-seconds in duration to up to several minutes. This test could occur as early as Friday, May 31st. Given that the test could run for several minutes, it’s important that the community know this is coming. If not Friday, in the near future. Thank you for sticking with it for these past few weeks. I’ll circle back when I have further information....If the test does run for several minutes, it probably won't be more than three. There's nothing that I can share about the delay -- it's important to note that SpaceX does testing all the time, often daily. Shifting schedules are not outside the norm.
Quote from: QuantumG on 05/30/2013 12:19 amhttp://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/joe_science/new-word-on-spacex-testing/article_cf049a90-c8a4-11e2-834d-001a4bcf887a.htmlQuote from: Christina Ra We’ve switched gears a bit here. SpaceX is planning to run a test at our rocket development facility in McGregor that will be much louder than the typical tests we run daily, and this test could run from 30-seconds in duration to up to several minutes. This test could occur as early as Friday, May 31st. Given that the test could run for several minutes, it’s important that the community know this is coming. If not Friday, in the near future. Thank you for sticking with it for these past few weeks. I’ll circle back when I have further information....If the test does run for several minutes, it probably won't be more than three. There's nothing that I can share about the delay -- it's important to note that SpaceX does testing all the time, often daily. Shifting schedules are not outside the norm."Up to three minutes or more" = "impossible to get more vague"http://xkcd.com/870/
...precisely because such delays were a strong possibility, I doubt we'd even have heard about this so far in advance had it not been deemed prudent, just after the West explosion, to reassure residents that the rumble they might be hearing wasn't a sequel.
The Test of Unusual Loudness
Another payload has joint this launch. DANDE (Drag and Atmospheric Neutral Density Explorer)https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/d/dande
Quote from: Skyrocket on 05/30/2013 05:06 pmAnother payload has joint this launch. DANDE (Drag and Atmospheric Neutral Density Explorer)https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/d/dandeLaunch: A launch as a secondary payload of the DANDE spacecraft is scheduled for July 2013 on a SpaceX Falcon V.1.1 vehicle from VAFB, CA. The primary payload on this flight is CASSIOPE of Canada. 7)The secondary payloads on this flight are:• CUSat-1 and CUSat-2, microsatellites (each of ~41 kg) of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.• DANDE (Drag and Atmospheric Neutral Density Explorer), a microsatellite (<50 kg) of the University of Colorado at Boulder.• POPACS (Polar Orbiting Passive Atmospheric Calibration Sphere), a 3U CubeSat of several US universities and entities including: MSU (Morehead State University), Gil Moore (POPACS Project Director), the University of Arkansas, PSC (Planetary Systems Corporation), Silver Spring, MD, MSU (Montana State University), Drexel University (Philadelphia), et al.Orbit: Elliptical polar orbit, 324 km x 1500 km, inclination =80º, period = 103 minutes (14 orbits/day).
What is the mass of the primary satellite? Will this launch be a new mass record for Falcon 9?
(It was actually once a Falcon 1e payload)
