Scroll down to read this post.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. I keep the website clean from pop-ups and annoying demands. Instead, I depend entirely on my readers to support me. Though this means I am sacrificing some income, it also means that I remain entirely independent from outside pressure. By depending solely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, no one can threaten me with censorship. You don't like what I write, you can simply go elsewhere.

 

You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation:

4. A Paypal subscription:


5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.


SpaceX launch schedule heats up

A close look at SpaceX’s launch schedule through the rest of 2014 calls for six Falcon 9 launches, including two before the end of August.

If the company is successfully in maintaining this schedule, they will end any doubts about their ability to transform the launch industry. Every other launch company will have to match their prices, or lose their customers.

One paragraph in the article does tell us that there are limits to the re-usability of the Falcon 9 first stage, even if they do succeed in bringing it back safely to a vertical landing on land.

With the upcoming ASIASAT missions involving heavy birds that require very high velocity transfers en-route to their geostationary destination, there won’t be enough residual propellant on the F9 v1.1 core for landing attempts.

This has not been a secret, but this quote drives the point home. Until they replace the Merlin engine with the more powerful Raptor engine and thus significantly increase the rocket’s efficiency, they will never be able to reuse any of it for geosynchronous commercial flights.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

5 comments

  • wodun

    100% chance of their schedule slipping but how close they come should tell us something.

  • geoffc

    They acknowledge that large GeoSync payloads need to use Falcon Heavy. This is a case of a payload they can handle, but not with the 30% reserve for reuse on the regular F9.

    The future is F-Heavy for big stuff, and for the large amount of smaller payloads, reuse with a F9. And they claim to plan to get all three cores back from a Falcon Heavy.

    To get the full 53mT out of an FH they will have to sacrifice reusablility it looks like, but that is where Raptor comes in for a more powerful booster.

  • Whether the schedule slips (I agree that it will), or whether reusability is as advertised, or whether Falcon Heavy comes on line as scheduled, the fact is that Space X is launching real hardware with real payloads in real time, and doing so while maintaining an aggressive development program. They are the most dynamic outfit going, and I can’t imagine but that they are swamped with applications from every corner of the planet.

    Virgin Galactic demonstrated an ability to loft (barely) man-rated vehicles to sub-orbital altitudes, but ten years on have not been able to capitalize. As much as I wanted (and would still like) to see them succeed, that eventuality seems ever more remote.

  • Robert Russell

    I would love Spacex to understand that the way to go is and always has been, to use wings on each component of the system, wheels and a jet engine or 2; so that the components [ first and second stages, etc.] can return back to the airports that they need to get back to without excessive use of fuel / weight. For those who wonder, calculate the weight of wings able to lift a 30 ton object and you will see that it is possible.

    Another idea that is really needed is to increase the initial acceleration of the system through the use of launch boosters – get up to 3.5 g at the beginning and throughout the entire flight – except for the Max Q area, of course. In this way you can get to orbit in about 6.5 min. and are much more efficient in the use of the lifting ability of the craft. The boosters do not have to be light weight as they only boost for a short point in time before letting go and returning to the airport near thew launch sight.

    Oh well, fuel for thought!

  • Dick Eagleson

    SpaceX is not going to sacrifice Falcon 9’s engine-out fault-tolerance and reusability by building a future version of it with a single Raptor engine. Besides being clustered on cores for SpaceX’s future BFR’s, single Raptors might well figure in a future high-thrust, high-energy upper stage for Falcon Heavy. As for GTO comsat missions and reusability, the trend line in comsats is toward less weight, not more as electric thrusters replace hypergolic thrusters. Even without any additional uprating of the Merlin 1-D, Falcon 9 will be able to put many future comsats into GTO and still retain reusability. The Falcon 9 also has a lift capacity growth path that includes a possible stretched upper stage with a pair of Merlin 1-D Vacuum engines instead of the current single one.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *