SpaceX FH : Falcon Heavy Demo : Feb 6, 2018 : Discussion Thread 2

[goretexguy]

Hopefully this launch will help end the whole "many engines = bad mentality" that's been around since the days of the N1.

That is my hope also, but when it comes to engineering:
"In God we trust, but all others.. bring data."

It comes down to how reliable those Merlin engines really are... and if the Raptor will be better.

[cletus]

I just re-watched the launch broadcast and it looks to me as if its been edited, corrected from what it originally was.  I think that the two side booster backup camera views that were originally a single one duplicated have now been corrected to show clearly two different video streams.  I think that there was some non-useful video originally shown at fairing separation which has now been replaced with the proper video of the fairing separation and Star Man.

Yep, the description text for the new video says "This is an updated version of the live webcast to include both side booster cameras and additional Starman views."

[kevinof]

I think we already know how reliable the Merlin engine is. Raptor is another matter.

Hopefully this launch will help end the whole "many engines = bad mentality" that's been around since the days of the N1.

That is my hope also, but when it comes to engineering:
"In God we trust, but all others.. bring data."

It comes down to how reliable those Merlin engines really are... and if the Raptor will be better.

[Lar]

Congrats to SpaceX for this amazing feat but what will a Falcon 9 launch with a single landing core willl look like now?

Routine.

Because we just witnessed the most important launch so far this century.

[rakaydos]

Congrats to SpaceX for this amazing feat but what will a Falcon 9 launch with a single landing core willl look like now?

Routine.

Because we just witnessed the most important launch so far this century.

I just hope it gets surpassed in the next 4-5 years with BFR's orbital launch. (and landing)

[Dante80]

Assuming a rough payload mass and end orbit calculation, what would the equivalent payload mass for a standard GTO launch profile (with S2 also BtD)? This would show us what this interim FH could do.

[Pete]

Hopefully this launch will help end the whole "many engines = bad mentality" that's been around since the days of the N1.

That is my hope also, but when it comes to engineering:
"In God we trust, but all others.. bring data."

It comes down to how reliable those Merlin engines really are... and if the Raptor will be better.

More than 900 Merlin ignitions on the pad, more than 500 Merlin engine flights..
Several hundred Merlin re-ignitions while in flight.

One engine failure, very early in the development phase, of an early & largely experimental model.
And the failure was contained and resulted in primary mission success, but just not enough margins to do the secondary.


/sarcasm_on:   Yeah, it sounds like you really have a BAD reliability problem on your hands there  /s_off

[Johnnyhinbos]

This is pretty cool...

https://twitter.com/te_pickering/status/961080240389832706

Edit/Lar: Please give some context when posting links. Thanks

[Steven Pietrobon]

For a 180 km circular orbit I calculate a 7.8 km/s speed. For a C3 of 12 kmē/sē I get a total delta-V from LEO of sqrt(2*7.8ē+12)-7.8 = 3.76 km/s, which is at the low end of getting to Mars. For a maximum of 6 month transit you need at most 4.08 km/s for all opportunities.

[whitelancer64]

The Tesla is permanently connected to the second stage, yes? No separation of it?

Bump

[zhangmdev]

The Tesla is permanently connected to the second stage, yes? No separation of it?

Nothing suggests it would separate, which serves no purpose. No chance to see the car slowly floats away, and after all it is not a spacecraft.

[Cinder]

How far out are we now? Are we past ISS altitude yet?

Based on these screenshots, it's WELL PAST ISS altitude

EDIT: Elon Musk tweeted about 5 hours ago that the Tesla was deep in the Van Allen belts

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/960988527159795712

I captured this screen shot hours ago, as I thought that the object to the right of the top right screen shield was the ISS. I'm not across relative distances and orbits for these things, but the object appeared static against the surface of earth (as the earth rotated due to the BBQ roll) and it looked too big to be a ground based object.

 :edit: time is Aussie, so was just on 2.5 hours ago.

I saw that too and was thinking it could be volcanic.  But the only eruption I know of is in the Philippines and I don't know if it's still that active.

[gingerscot]

Has anybody done any quick calcs on if any current launcher could have pulled this orbit with payload off? Know it was in fully reusable mode but not even sure of payload mass...couple 100kg more than a roadster?

[MATTBLAK]

If fully expendable then the payload it could have tossed into interplanetary space should comfortably have exceeded 10 metric tons.

[Oersted]

...but on the gripping hand....

I saw what you did there...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mote_in_God%27s_Eye

(If people haven't read it yet, do it, one of the best sci-fi novels ever!)

[toruonu]

If fully expendable then the payload it could have tossed into interplanetary space should comfortably have exceeded 10 metric tons.

I think the question was other way around, could anyone else have launched this payload to this orbit. FH did it in fully reusable mode, could a Delta IV Heavy have done it?

[Lampyridae]

...but on the gripping hand....

I saw what you did there...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mote_in_God%27s_Eye

(If people haven't read it yet, do it, one of the best sci-fi novels ever!)

Elon Musk is a human Crazy Eddie.

The Mote in God's Eye is definitely essential reading for the hard SF fans. They predicted what's basically an internet-enable tablet, although Clarke beat them to that (the screens Bowman and Poole are watching while they eat space goop are actually iPads).

[Oersted]

Here's my footage of the launch through booster landing, uncut, with my telescope.

As a fellow telescope owner (Helios newtonian F8 20cm on alt-azimuth mount) who also loves using it for movie-making (youtube.com/watch?v=azfYzua5z2o)...

Fantastic job NGCHunter!!!!

You planned it well, executed it perfectly (that tracking!) and caught historical footage! I hope you will send SpaceX your raw video file by Dropbox or something.

Superb job, just outstanding video capture. The audio adds human warmth and gives a sense of the thrill you guys (and girls) felt.

Kudos.

[zhangmdev]

I think the question was other way around, could anyone else have launched this payload to this orbit. FH did it in fully reusable mode, could a Delta IV Heavy have done it?

The exact mass of the simulated payload and the final orbit is still unknown, to the public at least. So it is hard to say.

Anyway, it is a demo flight, I think they must be conservative about a few things, like reducing thrust, loftier ascent? It is about proving that thing actually works, not pushing the limit of performance. Still, the performance is already quite impressive. That 3rd burn after five hours long coasting. A CZ-5 cannot do that without additional YZ stage.

[IRobot]

Hopefully this launch will help end the whole "many engines = bad mentality" that's been around since the days of the N1.

After having dozens of launches with 9 engines on F9, I think it was very clear that number of engines was never the issue. The main issue was stress loads between the 3 cores.