Carl:
Yes.
Bill
On Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 2:55 PM Carl Tedesco <ctedesco@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I must confess I have not followed SpaceX’s launch manifest closely, but
does their “picky” USG customer allow their payloads to launch on
previously launched F9/F9H’s yet?
Carl Tedesco
*From:* arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> *On
Behalf Of *Henry Vanderbilt
*Sent:* Monday, March 23, 2020 1:28 PM
*To:* arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [AR] Re: Falcon 9 lifetime of 5 flights?
SpaceX cost to do even small modifications to the F9R stage is presumably
much higher now that there are large government customers who have to
approve changes. This heavily incentivizes the company to focus most of
its development bandwidth on Starship/Super Heavy, where the lack of any
such picky customer still allows them to move fast and cheap.
On 3/23/2020 10:30 AM, Carl Tedesco wrote:
Logically, if the F9 has a “weak-link” limiting it to about 5 flights,
wouldn’t SpaceX throw engineering resources at fixing that weak-link and
finding the next weak-link? If this is true, I do not think it can be
considered a limit yet to F9’s reuseability. My 2-cents.
Carl Tedesco
*From:* arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> *On
Behalf Of *Robert Steinke
*Sent:* Monday, March 23, 2020 7:51 AM
*To:* arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [AR] Falcon 9 lifetime of 5 flights?
From hobbyspace.com about the latest Falcon 9 launch:
" A first stage engine shut down prematurely (just before staging) but
had no effect on the mission as the other 8 engines made up the difference.
The booster also failed to make a successful landing on a sea platform.
This was the fifth flight of this booster."
That was after a previous launch attempt aborted due to slightly high
power.
Wonderful demonstration of engine-out fault tolerance, but it does look
like the rocket is showing some wear and tear after 5 flights. What does
this do to their economics if stages need an overhaul/have an increased
chance of loss of vehicle after only 5 flights?