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I think he said in the press conference that they weren't planning to reuse the core or boosters. (But then mentioned later they wanted some of the parts? IDK)
by akozak 9y ago
I think he said in the press conference that they weren't planning to reuse the core or boosters. (But then mentioned later they wanted some of the parts? IDK)
- mxvzr 9y agoIf I understood properly none of the boosters were block 5 so they weren't looking at re-flying them. They are however interested in recovering the grid fins on the side boosters, which were redesigned to accommodate for the nose cones now sitting on top of them.
- dmix 9y agoBlock 5?
- pi-rat 9y agoVersion 5 of the falcon design.
- Cogito 9y agoTo be perhaps slightly more accurate, it's like a major version 5. Almost (if not) all missions include changes of some kind; the manufacturing blocks each have significant, incompatible differences in parts. Upgrading the grid fins would be a minor version change, modifying the engine to increase its throttle depth a major one. I don't know, but it seems like there would need to be significant re-tooling for each new block, and many parts would be incompatible with previous blocks.
- erikpukinskis 9y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_9_Full_Thrust#Block_5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_9_Full_Thrust#Block_5
- dtparr 9y agoThe latest hardware revision that's expected to be the mainstay for F9 flights going forward. Has better performance and addresses some reusability issues discovered in earlier blocks.
- jotm 9y agoBut if they weren't on this flight, how sure is SpaceX that they are more reliable? But yeah, that's just a question from my mind. This launch was amazing, the future in the making right here.
- MayeulC 9y agoAs far as I know, the center core was a block five one, but they didn't intend to refly it anyway, from what Elon said in the press conference. Maybe they intended to study it? If that's the case, there will probably be another "expandable" block five flight.
- collinmanderson 9y agoAccording to reddit, even the center core (B1033) was Block 3. No block 5 cores have flown yet. https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/wiki/cores#wiki_.5Bfh.5D_b1033_.2716 https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/wiki/cores#wiki_.5Bfh.5D_b10...
- mohaine 9y agoThe plain is to lock down block 5's design so it can be man rated which in itself would make it more reliable. This will probably not happen until they fly them a few times though so that wouldn't mean the first block 5s would be more reliable.
- rocqua 9y agoI recall reading or hearing yesterday that space-x no longer plans to man-rate any falcon-9s instead reserving that for the BFR.
- abledon 9y agoSmart that they used old pre-block5 parts for this test flight. (Not that I expected any less from those folks!)
- volkl48 9y agoEven if they're not reusing any of it (this time), it's still very useful to examine and analyze how well it's held up. Perhaps some piece of metal is showing more fatigue than they'd like to see, or a wire had damage to the insulation from a vibration. I'm sure that's the sort of thing they'll be looking at.
- Laforet 9y agoCorrect, the engines were going to be retired anyway but they are keen to reuse the titanium grid fins on the boosters which cost a small fortune to make. The core actually had older ablative grid fins made of aluminium so no great loss there[0]. [0]https://i.redd.it/l6s2bds7pl801.png https://i.redd.it/l6s2bds7pl801.png
- gameswithgo 9y agoahh, I noticed that in the feed and was wondering why. I guess they expected it was the least likely to work? or needed the better grid fins less because of the cylindrical top
- josu 9y agoCan they still recover them?
- 0xTJ 9y agoHave you seen an approximate price for those fins anywhere. I saw the interviews, but I want to know how expensive is expensive.
- nigwil_ 9y agoPlatinum is USD$32K per KG, so if the platinum grid fins are 100KG, then they would cost > $300K each just for materials. With 4 per booster that might be a million dollar price tag for the grid fins.