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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday November 06 2019, @11:47AM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-forget-to-wipe-your-nose dept.

SpaceX to Reuse Payload Fairing for First Time on Nov. 11 Launch:

A SpaceX launch set for Nov. 11 will mark the first Falcon 9 mission to use a payload fairing from a previous flight, the company announced Tuesday, shortly after SpaceX engineers at Cape Canaveral test-fired the mission's first stage booster, also refurbished and reused.

The Falcon 9 launch scheduled for next Monday — and previously planned for October — will loft 60 satellites for SpaceX's Starlink broadband network, joining 60 other test craft deployed on a Falcon 9 flight in May.

The launch window opens at 9:51 a.m. EST (1451 GMT) Monday and extends for approximately 11 minutes. It will be SpaceX's first launch since Aug. 6, and the first ground-based launch from Cape Canaveral since Aug. 22.

[...] Last month, a senior SpaceX official said the Starlink flight would be the company's first mission to fly a Falcon 9 first stage booster for a fourth launch.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday November 06 2019, @10:27PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday November 06 2019, @10:27PM (#917023) Journal

    But Falcon 9 makes money and launches payloads today.

    But that's also part of the problem. SpaceX needs upper stages for customer payloads, maybe 50 or more over the next few years. Some of these customers will not switch to a Starship in the short term, opting to use the proven Falcon 9 or Heavy rocket.

    So every Falcon 9 launch for Starlink burns a rocket stage that could be used for a paying customer. Better to just spam an in-development Starship until it blows up.

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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday November 06 2019, @10:32PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 06 2019, @10:32PM (#917024) Journal

    The Starship, and the Super Heavy launcher both have a lot more surface area for advertisements.

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