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SpaceX to Launch Five Times in April, Test BFR by 2019

posted by janrinok on Wednesday March 14 2018, @03:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the busy-little-rockets dept.

takyon writes:

SpaceX will attempt to launch five Falcon 9 rockets in April. This includes an International Space Station (ISS) resupply mission and a mission to launch Bangabandhu-1, Bangladesh's first satellite. The Bangabandhu-1 launch is planned to be the first to use SpaceX's Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket, which may be the final major iteration of Falcon 9 before replacement by BFR.

At a South by Southwest (SXSW) panel, Elon Musk said that SpaceX could test the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) "spaceship" as soon as the first half of 2019. The spaceship is the second stage of the complete BFR rocket, would be capable of reaching orbit without the first stage booster, and alone has over 50% more thrust than an entire Falcon 9.

The initial tests would likely be similar to the Grasshopper vertical takeoff and landing tests.

Also at USA Today, MarketWatch, and SpaceNews.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Wednesday March 14 2018, @09:56PM (2 children)

    by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday March 14 2018, @09:56PM (#652623)

    You talk as though 15 months would be starting from scratch. They started working on the BFR years ago - at the very least the Raptor engines and composite oxygen tanks have already been built and tested, and I assume there's lots of other stuff they've built already as well, that didn't make for such impressive PR photos. It's quite possible that at this point they're pretty much down to assembling the parts and building the structural frame and shell. In which case 15 months to have finished assembly and static testing wouldn't seem all that ambitious.

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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday March 14 2018, @10:08PM (1 child)

    by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday March 14 2018, @10:08PM (#652632)

    I know that it didn't just start. But there's just so much you can sim before you build, when a lot of your company is still working on FH and Block5.
    But I also know that it takes well over a year from the time you have the first full-scale elements being assembled, to the time you actually try to fly. There's a lot of stuff which has to come together, fit together, work together, and a monster list of testing scenarios.

    If Elon posts a picture of a prototype tomorrow, I'll believe it might maybe fly next year.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday March 14 2018, @11:05PM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 14 2018, @11:05PM (#652661) Journal

      There's a lot of stuff which has to come together, fit together, work together, and a monster list of testing scenarios.

      Oh, come on. Can't be more complicated than putting together an IKEA piece, can it? (grin)
      After all it was you that designed that lot of stuff, so you know the shit.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford