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Falcon 9 second stage will be upgraded to be like a mini-BFR Ship

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HVM

Savolainen
Oct 30, 2012
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Finland
Elon Musk‏Verified account @elonmusk 49m

Mod to SpaceX tech tree build: Falcon 9 second stage will be upgraded to be like a mini-BFR Ship

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Dabbing for vertical landing upper stages.
 
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"When?"

4 replies 1 retweet 117 likes

Elon Musk‏Verified account @elonmusk 52m52 minutes ago

"Aiming for orbital flight by June"

75 replies 75 retweets 1,168 likes

Everyday Astronaut‏ @Erdayastronaut 41m41 minutes ago

"How will it propulsively land? The MVac would be too high TWR and have flow separation at sea level... or will this just be to practice the reentry regime?"

20 replies 9 retweets 240 likes

Elon Musk‏Verified account @elonmusk


Replying to @Erdayastronaut @annerajb
"Won’t land propulsively for those reasons. Ultra light heat shield & high Mach control surfaces are what we can’t test well without orbital entry. I think we have a handle on propulsive landings."

No dabs for landing...
 
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You beat me to posting that news. :)

This is very interesting. So this new F9 2nd stage “mini BFR ship” will be used to test BFR re-entry techniques; it will have a prototype head shield and “high Mach control surfaces”. Wow. Super cool, can’t wait to see it!

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I didn’t see a reply to that question. Did I miss it?
 
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Everyday Astronaut‏ @Erdayastronaut 1h1 hour ago

"I think you have a handle on propulsively landing too will this little baby BFS be praticing the flip maneuver too from belly first to tail down?"

29 replies 5 retweets 277 likes

Elon Musk‏Verified account @elonmusk 12m12 minutes ago

"No, we’re building a BFR dev ship to do supersonic through landing tests in Boca Chica, Texas"

So it's not an actual reusable upper stage, only a test bed for BFS's thermal protection system reentry profiles and actuators/speed brakes. May not be even be recovered, only telemetry?
 
Elon Musk‏Verified account @elonmusk

"Btw, SpaceX is no longer planning to upgrade Falcon 9 second stage for reusability. Accelerating BFR instead. New design is very exciting! Delightfully counter-intuitive."

Somebody needs to cipher out this for me.

They had been working on a system to bring the second stage back for reuse, but they have scuttled those plans.

Option: BFR will be ready soon enough that the development effort for F9 would not pay off.

Less likely: They may be replacing the second stage with mini BFR instead of upgrading. (Semantics vs engine choice?)
 
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Elon Musk‏Verified account @elonmusk

"Btw, SpaceX is no longer planning to upgrade Falcon 9 second stage for reusability. Accelerating BFR instead. New design is very exciting! Delightfully counter-intuitive."

Somebody needs to cipher out this for me.
I find that unclear as well. As far as I know, SpaceX never announced that a reusable F9 2nd stage was definitely going to be developed. Did I miss something? Or is Elon referring to the 2nd stage modifications to test BFS re-entry technology?
I think this is about normal commercial F9 launches not the mini-BFS test craft.
Can you point me to where SpaceX announced that the F9 2nd stage was going to changed so that it would be “reusable”?
 
I find that unclear as well. As far as I know, SpaceX never announced that a reusable F9 2nd stage was definitely going to be developed. Did I miss something? Or is Elon referring to the 2nd stage modifications to test BFS re-entry technology?
Can you point me to where SpaceX announced that the F9 2nd stage was going to changed so that it would be “reusable”?

FWIW YMMV
Elon Musk: SpaceX May Aim for Completely Reusable Falcon 9 Rocket
"We didn't originally intend for Falcon 9 to have a reusable upper stage, but it might be fun to try like a Hail Mary," Musk said. "What's the worst that could happen — it blows up? It blows up anyway."


Twitter
This is gonna sound crazy, but …
SpaceX will try to bring rocket upper stage back from orbital velocity using a giant party balloon
And then land on a bouncy house
 
I wrote:
As far as I know, SpaceX never announced that a reusable F9 2nd stage was definitely going to be developed.
Elon wrote: “We didn't originally intend for Falcon 9 to have a reusable upper stage, but it might be fun to try like a Hail Mary," Musk said. "What's the worst that could happen — it blows up? It blows up anyway."
———————————————————————————————-

I stand by my statement.
 
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I wrote:
Elon wrote: “We didn't originally intend for Falcon 9 to have a reusable upper stage, but it might be fun to try like a Hail Mary," Musk said. "What's the worst that could happen — it blows up? It blows up anyway."
———————————————————————————————-

I stand by my statement.
Like I said your milage may vary (what level or certainty you wanted), but his tweets I also posted combined with the recent, 'we're not doing it anymore' makes me think they were developing a returnable/ reusable second stage.
 
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