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Though some reddit user took a picture of a new FH side booster a couple days ago. The end cap was a giveaway.
Sparky
Member
Certainly could be a STP-2 booster! Evidently 2 side boosters from the Arabsat-6 FH will go to STP-2.
This has got to be a weird situation for USAF, doing the paperwork for a cert flight with re-flown rockets.
For the sake of the STP-2 schedule, I hope the return to launch site goes well. Not sure how long it will take SpaceX to come up with another 18 Merlins in FH form.
It would take a month to make 18 Merlins based on the reported 5 a week capacity.
SpaceX Prepared Testimony by Jeffrey Thornburg
As of 2016, they could make 30 cores a year targeting 40.
Falcon 9 - Wikipedia
Apparently STP-2 has been pushed back to the point that Arabsat 6A will launch before it according to most sources.
e-FTW
New electron smell
Sparky
Member
I have been under the impression that Arabsat 6 was generally thought to precede STP-2. They (Arabsat 6) were supposed to launch by end of January in order to keep their orbital slot. So, they were scheduled ahead of STP-2 for awhile. Kinda curious how they managed to slip past the January deadline and still keep the slot.
The reddit thread continues with discussing how the relatively light payload allow the ASD recovery to be so close to land.
Can’t believe I started this thread over a year ago and we are still months away from the mission launching!
Can’t believe I started this thread over a year ago and we are still months away from the mission launching!
e-FTW
New electron smell
Ooh, might we see the ASDS landing from a land-based camera? You know one of those amazing NASA tracking cams?
I now the one time we had that, it was an ASDS forced by the Air Force at Vandenberg because they (Air Force) had a high-value payload onsite they did not want to risk, so they nixed the LZ landing. So SpaceX stuck the drone ship just outside the interdiction zone.
This is different and likely farther out, but still.
