Fall 2017 - a busy and exciting time for SpaceX

Sprinkled into the SpaceX launch manifest for this fall, and the first quarter of 2018, are two big milestones: the Falcon Heavy and Crew Dragon demos.

Also this month, SpaceX will once again have two back to back missing with the
SES 11/EchoStar 105 mission launching from Kennedy Space Center on the 7th, and the Iridium Next 21-30 mission launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the 9th.

Falcon 9 -SES 11/EchoStar 105
October 7, 2017 at 6:53 PM. EDT (2 hour window)
LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Falcon 9 - Iridium Next 21-30
October 9th, 2017 at 8:37 AM EDT (5:37 AM PDT)
SLC-4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

SpaceX has 58 missions listed on its launch manifest. Of these 58, the following - which include 3 Falcon Heavy flights and the Crew Dragon Demo - have been announced:
Falcon 9 - Koreasat 5A
October 30, 2017 at 3:34 PM. EDT (window extends to 5:58 PM)
Cape Canaveral, Florida

Falcon 9 - Hispasat 30W-6
4th Quarter 2017
Cape Canaveral, Florida

Falcon Heavy Demo Flight
November 2017
LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Falcon 9 - Iridium Next 31-40
Late November 2017
SLC-4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

Falcon 9 - SpaceX CRS 13
November 28 (launch time TBD)
Cape Canaveral, Florida

Falcon 9 - Bangabandhu 1
December 2017
Cape Canaveral, Florida

Falcon 9 - SES 16/GovSat 1
Late December 2017
Cape Canaveral, Florida

Falcon 9 - Iridium Next 41-50
January 2018
SLC-4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

Falcon 9 - SpaceX CRS 14
February 9 (launch time TBD)
Cape Canaveral, Florida

Falcon Heavy - Arabsat 6A
Early 2018
LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Falcon 9 - TESS
Sometime after March 20, 2018
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

Falcon 9 - Crew Dragon Demo 1
April, 2018
LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Falcon Heavy - STP-2
Sometime after April 30, 2018
LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Back from a short break to talk SpaceX

Landing failure video

Although it's old news by now, if you didn't catch the SpaceX YouTube video "How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster", head on over and check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvim4rsNHkQ.  Who doesn't want to see things blow up?

But seriously, it shows some confidence to create a blooper reel of your failures.  Of course, these weren't really mission failures, as the booster recovery was never the primary mission goal.  Still, it was capability that SpaceX wanted to be able to demonstrate, and crucial to it's long term rocket reusability goal.

For the record, SpaceX has completed 39 of its 41 missions and has now landed every one of its last 12 attempts - both at land and at sea.  So, with the failures in the video being pretty much a thing in the past, its a bit easier to show the failures.

SpaceX has never been a company that glosses over their failures – probably because rockets that explode are pretty visible failures. Now, Elon Musk’s company has taken this transparency to a whole new level: A blooper reel.

Falcon Heavy

The long awaited first launch of the Falcon Heavy is drawing nearer.  The three Falcon boosters have completed their testing at the SpaceX engine development center in McGregor, Texas.  They are likely on their way to the Florida by now (if they're not there already).

A hold-down firing with all 27 Merlin engines is planned at pad 39A in the days before the test launch.

The plan is for to attempt to recover all three rocket cores.  The two side boosters will be able to return to landing zone, while the third will travel father and will need to land at sea on the drone ship "Of course I still Love you".

Elon Musk was tamping down expectations for the mission in July stating that it may not even make it out of orbit.  The reason: “It was actually shockingly difficult to go from a single-core to a triple-core vehicle,” Musk said.  Fingers crossed that the launch exceeds expectations.  Either way, as SpaceX has proven in the past, they will learn a great deal and will make it seem routine more quickly that seems possible.

Then, around the Moon and off to Mars.

SpaceX Falcon 9 sticks the landing!

SpaceX just accomplished what they have been building up to for years.  They have successfully brought the Falcon 9 booster back to earth and landed it on their new landing site.

The is truly an exceptional feat, and ushers in the beginning of a new era in space flight.  An era where valuable time and resources are recovered and put back into service instead of being dumped into the ocean.

Congratulations!!

[Update - Video of the landing from the landing pad (from the webcast) and a short aerial view taken from a helicopter]

Next up for SpaceX - Pad Abort Test for Dragon, Tomorrow (May 6th) [Updated]

Update: May 6th. The Pad Test was successfully executed this morning.  The video from the Lifestream broadcast is below.

Before getting into the subject of this post, I'd like to acknowledge that this blog has become very SpaceX centered. That wasn't the intent - and still isn't - but it seems that SpaceX news fills the limited amount of time I have to devote to blogging. And they are doing such innovative and imaginative work that deserves to be shared. I do follow other commercial space companies, as well as NASA and other space agencies, but its likely that something extraordinary would have to occur with them in order to be shared here at this point.

On with the post.

With the Thales (TürkmenÄlem) mission complete, and the next launch scheduled for June, SpaceX will squeeze in the first test of the escape system for the human rated Dragon, now dubbed "Crew Dragon" in SpaceX's news release.

Pad Abort Test Infographic [click image to see a larger version]

This first test is the Pad Abort Test, which tests the spacecraft's emergency crew escape capability for an emergency that may occur while the rocket is still on the launch pad. An upcoming second test will test the escape capability from an in-flight rocket.

While these tests may not seem as exciting as full launch - especially one that attempts to drop the Falcon rocket onto a small floating landing pad - it is actually a very difficult process with some very impressive metrics. For example, Dragon's eight SuperDraco engines will produce 120,000 pounds of thrust to propel the spacecraft 328 ft (almost 100 meters) in 2 seconds, and 1/3 mile (more than half a kilometer) in just over 5 seconds.
To put that into perspective, that's just about the same as the national record for the 1/4 mile (drag race), which is currently 3.701 seconds. One hell of a ride for sure!

Another point of interest is that SpaceX is attempting to improve on the traditional, familiar escape "tower" that was stuck to the nose of spacecraft from almost the beginning of the U.S. space program. This tower contained a cluster of rockets that would effectively pull the spacecraft off of - and away from - the rocket. While this was effective when the rocket was on the pad, and for the first part of the ascent, it becomes ineffective within a couple of minutes. The built in SuperDraco thrusters on the other hand remain operational, and are maintained throughout the flight. These are also the thrusters that will enable Dragon to "land propulsively on Earth or another planet with the precision of a helicopter".

Read the full news release for details.

Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo's first flight a success

Congratulations to Virgin Galactic on a successful first powered flight of SpaceShipTwo!  This flight tested the key components of the craft, and propelled it to Mach 1.2 and an altitude of 56,000 ft. (17,000 meters).  I won't go into the details as they are covered very well in articles all over the internet, such as this one.

CREDIT: MarsScientific.com and Clay Center Observatory 

The Smithsonian has created a new exhibit at the Air and Space Museum named "Moving Beyond Earth".  This new exhibit is at the main museum location (on the National Mall).  Information, including many videos, is here at the exhibit's page.