4 ms·

This was only possible since the two launches were on different pads. Otherwise they're on a good path of having one launch every two weeks this year.

by ygra 9y ago

Klathmon 9y ago
And they have quite aggressive goals of 24 hour turnaround on the same pad with the same first stage eventually.
- oneplane 9y ago
  But it's having goals like that, that gets you there. Remember when the others made fun of re-usable 1st stages? :D
  - bigiain 9y ago
    From Twitter this morning: https://twitter.com/AirlineFlyer/status/878333086819246081 https://twitter.com/AirlineFlyer/status/878333086819246081 :-)
- krallja 9y ago
  It seems like most missions don't have the fuel budget to return to LZ, so they're going to have to buy a lot more drone ships!
  - Klathmon 9y ago
    There has been talk of the droneships refueling the landed stages and then them taking off and flying back to the LZ. It's sounds crazy to me, but so did a rocket launching, splitting in half, then landing 1/2 on a barge in the ocean to be reused while the other half goes to a GTO orbit.
  - ygra 9y ago
    Once Falcon Heavy is flying you could upgrade those flights to FH with a flight profile where you can land all cores on land. The only difference would be more fuel used (which is cheap) and threefold increased risk of stuff going wrong in the first two minutes. May depend on how important it is to get those cores back immediately. Upgrading otherwise expendable flights to FH is already planned as well. The upgrades of Block 5 later this year will improve reusability and performance, though, so more missions can be RTLS.
    - krallja 9y ago
      If the payload is small enough (compared to FH), will it be possible to SSTO? Then you could park in LEO, and return to LZ when it's clear! Edit: no. Falcon Heavy has more than one stage.
apendleton 9y ago
Next year they should be going from two launch facilities to four, though, so if each one takes two weeks to turn around, they could still conceivably maintain an every 3-4-day cadence.

This was only possible since the two launches were on different pads. Otherwise they're on a good path of having one launch every two weeks this year.

by ygra 9y ago

This was only possible since the two launches were on different pads. Otherwise they're on a good path of having one launch every two weeks this year.

Klathmon 9y ago

And they have quite aggressive goals of 24 hour turnaround on the same pad with the same first stage eventually.

oneplane 9y ago
But it's having goals like that, that gets you there. Remember when the others made fun of re-usable 1st stages? :D
- bigiain 9y ago
  From Twitter this morning: https://twitter.com/AirlineFlyer/status/878333086819246081 https://twitter.com/AirlineFlyer/status/878333086819246081 :-)
krallja 9y ago
It seems like most missions don't have the fuel budget to return to LZ, so they're going to have to buy a lot more drone ships!
- Klathmon 9y ago
  There has been talk of the droneships refueling the landed stages and then them taking off and flying back to the LZ. It's sounds crazy to me, but so did a rocket launching, splitting in half, then landing 1/2 on a barge in the ocean to be reused while the other half goes to a GTO orbit.
- ygra 9y ago
  Once Falcon Heavy is flying you could upgrade those flights to FH with a flight profile where you can land all cores on land. The only difference would be more fuel used (which is cheap) and threefold increased risk of stuff going wrong in the first two minutes. May depend on how important it is to get those cores back immediately. Upgrading otherwise expendable flights to FH is already planned as well. The upgrades of Block 5 later this year will improve reusability and performance, though, so more missions can be RTLS.
  - krallja 9y ago
    If the payload is small enough (compared to FH), will it be possible to SSTO? Then you could park in LEO, and return to LZ when it's clear! Edit: no. Falcon Heavy has more than one stage.

apendleton 9y ago

Next year they should be going from two launch facilities to four, though, so if each one takes two weeks to turn around, they could still conceivably maintain an every 3-4-day cadence.