LC 39A - RFP for Commercial use

[Wetmelon]

Wah whooo - I admit, I thought that NASA and the government would do the wrong thing and let 39A rot - I was wrong  , Go to it SpaceX - let her rumble.

I wonder if the delay actually worked in SpaceX's favour.  With the launching of SES-8 on v1.1, SpaceX passed an important milestone.  NASA could have been reaffirmed in their decision.

[arachnitect]

And this fits in nicely with the internal musings that SpaceX is far ahead of anyone else with regards to commercial crew. All the pieces are lining up nicely.

? ULA already has a pad.

[mr. mark]

Now that the cat's out of the bag and SpaceX is now going to use 39A what are we looking at as far as pad design? What are they using and what is going away?

[cro-magnon gramps]

My interest is in how soon they can have the pad ready for launch, and what LV will first go skyward from it!!

[Orbiter]

My interest is in how soon they can have the pad ready for launch, and what LV will first go skyward from it!!

Not to speculate without any facts, but they managed to finish SLC-4 at a decent pace, so we may see LC-39A launches by early-2015 in time for the first FH launch from Florida. Perhaps even a little sooner than that, as it is my understanding that SpaceX intends to launch CRS and manned Dragons from LC-39A as well.

[yg1968]

It probably depends on the timing of the CCtCap milestones. CCtCap will be awarded in August 2014.

[ChrisWilson68]

Good news!

Now that SpaceX has the right to negotiate a lease for Pad 39A, I hope that Shiloh goes to Blue Origin.

Shiloh is a big, empty area, not a pad.  I hope Shiloh goes to Space Florida and they open it up for BO and SpaceX and anyone else who wants to to build pads there.  There's enough room for everyone there, I would think.

[yg1968]

Good news!

Now that SpaceX has the right to negotiate a lease for Pad 39A, I hope that Shiloh goes to Blue Origin.

Shiloh is a big, empty area, not a pad.  I hope Shiloh goes to Space Florida and they open it up for BO and SpaceX and anyone else who wants to to build pads there.  There's enough room for everyone there, I would think.

Yes I know but I doubt that SpaceX will be interested in Shiloh now. How many companies launch from Shiloh may also depend on the environmental study. I doubt that it will be an unlimited number. Plus Florida isn't the only option but it would be nice to see commercial launches from Florida. It's almost a given that SpaceX will choose Brownsville over Shiloh.

[cro-magnon gramps]

How many LC does SpaceX need, or is it like the proverbial Camel getting into the tent 

[Wetmelon]

musk has made noise about having four locations. Vandenberg Air Force Base, Cape Canaveral, a Texas launch site, Virginia launch site. If they have at least four locations I don't see why they can't have more than one complex of these one

[rcoppola]

And this fits in nicely with the internal musings that SpaceX is far ahead of anyone else with regards to commercial crew. All the pieces are lining up nicely.

? ULA already has a pad.

That wasn't my point. It has been said through internal NASA channels that SpaceX was way ahead of other competitors on their overall development of an integrated crew capability. Now with 39A, they have another incredible resource to drive home that advantage. And remember, it is not ULA that is in the running for crew contracts, it is Boeing. 2 Separate businesses even though Boeing is a part of ULA. Also remember that Boeing themselves have stated that they have had/will have discussions with SpaceX as to the viability of F9 being the launcher for CST-100.

Lastly, just because I've been called out on my declarative statements over the last few months that SpaceX will be getting Pad 39A, I just want to say...Hell Yes!! Let the games begin!

[cro-magnon gramps]

musk has made noise about having four locations. Vandenberg Air Force Base, Cape Canaveral, a Texas launch site, Virginia launch site. If they have at least four locations I don't see why they can't have more than one complex of these one

It boggles the mind, the number of launches that even 5 LC would send skywards... and the money that would require... don't want to take this thread OT... will stop there... please take this else where for discussion, anyone who is interested...
 as for LC-39A, I took a look around on Google, and the pictures say an aweful lot of work has to be done before this will launch a Falcon... and presumably that will be the Falcon 9v1.1 to help with the backlog on the manifest... augmenting LC-40 and Vandenburg's LC-4... the Falcon Heavy and descendants will take over when ready, perhaps in 2016 with serious commercial flights... 2015 seems a little too soon for anything but testing... or am I channeling NASA too much ;-)
 how much of that work in refurbishing the LC will be NASA's responsibility and how much will be SpaceX's will no doubt be part of the negotiations, or at least that is my guess... ie, NASA takes down what NASA built, and SpaceX brings in it's own infrastructure...

Awesome day in Space history... kinda like the passing of a baton... Good luck SpaceX and NASA, I wish you both well...

Gramps

[ChrisWilson68]

Good news!

Now that SpaceX has the right to negotiate a lease for Pad 39A, I hope that Shiloh goes to Blue Origin.

Shiloh is a big, empty area, not a pad.  I hope Shiloh goes to Space Florida and they open it up for BO and SpaceX and anyone else who wants to to build pads there.  There's enough room for everyone there, I would think.

Yes I know but I doubt that SpaceX will be interested in Shiloh now. How many companies launch from Shiloh may also depend on the environmental study. I doubt that it will be an unlimited number. Plus Florida isn't the only option but it would be nice to see commercial launches from Florida. It's almost a given that SpaceX will choose Brownsville over Shiloh.

Yeah, I agree, SpaceX would definitely choose Brownsville over Shiloh if it's one or the other.  I don't know how many pads SpaceX wants, though.  Maybe with Vandenburg, Brownsville, 39A, and 40 they'll be happy for a while.  Or maybe they'll want another purely commercial pad, which it sounds like Shiloh will be -- all the others except Brownsville come with more government strings attached, which is good for government launches but maybe not so great for commercial launches.  And having a commercial pad close to 39A and 40 will make it easier to transfer reused stages back and forth between commercial and government launches.  Having both Brownsville and Shiloh also allows SpaceX to continue playing Florida and Texas off against each other for special treatment by local government.

[QuantumG]

vertical processing of payloads and crew?

[Okie_Steve]

ICBM row is a superfund site

Could someone explain "superfund site"?

Thanks.

I suppose it has something to do with the ground being contaminated with hazardous chemicals and possibly radioactive materials. The EPA has some cleanup funds available, but basically there is an extremely expensive process to remove and decontaminate the soil.

Unless you want your workforce exposed to carcinogens, probably not a good place to work.

I was curious about this and went to see what the EPA had to say - as far as I can tell ICBM Row is not literally a superfund site
http://www.epa.gov/region4/superfund/programs/sitecleanup/fedfacs/ffbdodsites.html#fl
Anybody have any more specific knowledge of the hazards? I'm guessing some combination of heavy metals, nasty organics and throwing in asbestos, possibly radio-isotope and really far out maybe biohazards.

[Lobo]

Just in:


NASA Selects SpaceX to Begin Negotiations for Use of Historic Launch Pad

NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif., to begin negotiations on a lease to use and operate historic Launch Complex (LC) 39A at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

--

I'll write an article.

Has there been any offical work on L2 or the public side as to what SpaceX is actually going to do with it?
Expand their F9R/FH operatings, including crew launches?  Or use it for their next gen methalox HLV?

[QuantumG]

Has there been any offical work on L2 or the public side as to what SpaceX is actually going to do with it?
Expand their F9R/FH operatings, including crew launches?  Or use it for their next gen methalox HLV?

Elon's snippy comments about Blue Origin suggested that he saw it as primarily for commercial crew. Jim's regular comments suggest they might use the same site for launches that require vertical payload integration. Various SpaceXers have hinted that this is the pad they wanted for MCT (or whatever the methalox HLV is going to be called).

But nothing official yet.

[Riley1066]

Every launch contractor should have equal access to LC-39A or none of them should ... it should be as contractor agnostic a launch site as possible.  One company shouldn't get this pad ... ever.

And they should only be allowed to use LC-39A to launch missions for NASA anyway.  No private launches from LC-39A should be allowed.  This is the People's Spaceflight Complex not private industry's.

[ChrisWilson68]

Every launch contractor should have equal access to LC-39A or none of them should ... it should be as contractor agnostic a launch site as possible.  One company shouldn't get this pad ... ever.

Why not?

Most pads have launch infrastructure built there to support a particular launch vehicle.  If you made the requirement that the pad only had to have ground equipment that was common to all launchers and all launcher-specific equipment had to be moved in and out so all could use it, you might just be ensuring that 39A is useless for everyone, and everyone will have to build new pads elsewhere.

Sometimes, it's better not to cut the baby in two just to make sure everyone is treated exactly the same way.

And they should only be allowed to use LC-39A to launch missions for NASA anyway.  No private launches from LC-39A should be allowed.  This is the People's Spaceflight Complex not private industry's.

Again, why not?  If 39A can support both NASA missions and commercial missions, why not?

[arachnitect]

And this fits in nicely with the internal musings that SpaceX is far ahead of anyone else with regards to commercial crew. All the pieces are lining up nicely.

? ULA already has a pad.

That wasn't my point. It has been said through internal NASA channels that SpaceX was way ahead of other competitors on their overall development of an integrated crew capability. Now with 39A, they have another incredible resource to drive home that advantage. And remember, it is not ULA that is in the running for crew contracts, it is Boeing. 2 Separate businesses even though Boeing is a part of ULA. Also remember that Boeing themselves have stated that they have had/will have discussions with SpaceX as to the viability of F9 being the launcher for CST-100.

Lastly, just because I've been called out on my declarative statements over the last few months that SpaceX will be getting Pad 39A, I just want to say...Hell Yes!! Let the games begin!

I'm sure SpaceX is happy to have it, but I disagree that it's really advantageous for Commercial Crew. ULA looked into using LC 39 and didn't pursue it. ULA is responsible for pad modifications at LC 41. They get their money back somehow, I'm sure.