SpaceX Falcon 9 FT 1st reuse launch - SES-10 - LC-39A

[SMAlset]

Re: SpaceX F9 : SES-10 with reuse of CRS-8 Booster SN/1021 : 2017-03-30 : UPDATES
« Reply #332 on: Today at 11:56 PM »
BREAKING news: Payload fairing LANDED SUCCESSFULLY. Fairing has thruster systems and steerable parachute. Was just shown pic of intact fairing floating in ocean.
« Last Edit: Today at 11:57 PM by ChrisGebhardt »

(from above stream)

Thanks for this link. Cracked up laughing reading Elon's comment on how confident at going into count he was. The thread is an interesting read. Would love to see video/photo of the fairing coming down.

No audio though on the FB video?? Never mind, didn't see the slider volume control was off.

 

[Grendal]

Elon was giddy during the press conference. He is on a huge high from the culmination of this huge goal.

 

[TEG]

...As noted in the wiki, SES-10 is an extremely heavy satellite and was originally going to be launched on a Falcon Heavy. Since that was the original plan then SES probably paid a premium price for the launch. The improvements to the Falcon 9 allowed SpaceX to switch the satellite to their smaller and less expensive rocket. The Falcon 9 FT has improved the abilities of the rocket so much that it even allows for a possible landing of the booster...

...Wow... I don't follow Space-X that closely, but this sounds like they did some miracle engineering and enabled Ludicrous mode on Falcon 9. The reuse, and 2nd re-landing is great, but I think it was somewhat presumed that it could be done. Making Falcon 9 that much more powerful seems astounding to me.
Just looking at the rocket blast during the launch and early flight. I don't think I have ever seen a rocket that looks quite like that before. ...New era...

Anyone else watching "The Expanse?"... Reminded me of this: Epstein Drive

 

[aronth5]

Awesome accomplishment. And is anyone surprised that Elon has now raised the bar again!!
"Incredibly proud of the SpaceX team for achieving this milestone in space! Next goal is reflight within 24 hours."

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Remember Huge Thanks for SES too for wanting to be the first to use a re-usable delivery system!!

They've been very supportive, even through past failures. They really saw the big picture: cheap launches allow cheap satellites allow huge market.

Now waiting for news on the fairing.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Re: SpaceX F9 : SES-10 with reuse of CRS-8 Booster SN/1021 : 2017-03-30 : UPDATES
« Reply #332 on: Today at 11:56 PM »
BREAKING news: Payload fairing LANDED SUCCESSFULLY. Fairing has thruster systems and steerable parachute. Was just shown pic of intact fairing floating in ocean.
« Last Edit: Today at 11:57 PM by ChrisGebhardt »

(from above stream)

OK, that's what happened to the fairing! if they have it, they can begin to figure out whether it's really reusable.

 

[SMAlset]

I think one of Elon's next projects should be how to eliminate all the space junk floating out there. Serious problem and growing as more and more satellites get launched right?

 

[Grendal]

OK, that's what happened to the fairing! if they have it, they can begin to figure out whether it's really reusable.

Elon mentioned during the press conference that the fairing is $6 million! I can see why they worked so hard to recover it. I should post this in the reusability thread but Elon described it as having thrusters for maneuvering and steerable parachutes. The idea is to steer them to a specific location for recovery. Elon mentioned that they might have a bouncy castle for them to land on.

Here is a YouTube mirror of the press conference from "Everyday Astronaut."

 

[Krugerrand]

Elon mentioned that they might have a bouncy castle for them to land on.

That amuses me.

 

[e-FTW]

Ok, so the faring is 6 million dollars? I really need to read up on that. That is about 10% of the cost of the rocket! I had no idea.
And so far, it fell back in the ocean and was destroyed, right?
And, and, wait wait... What? Thrusters, and attitude control? I can't even...

*mind blown*

 

[e-FTW]

Elon mentioned during the press conference that the fairing is $6 million! I can see why they worked so hard to recover it. I should post this in the reusability thread but Elon described it as having thrusters for maneuvering and steerable parachutes. The idea is to steer them to a specific location for recovery. Elon mentioned that they might have a bouncy castle for them to land on.

Here is a YouTube mirror of the press conference from "Everyday Astronaut."

Elon said that 75% of the cost of the rocket (~62 million) could be reduced by an order of magnitude, or more by next year? That is also quite mind blowing.
(62*.75)/10=4.65
62-46.5+4.65=20.15
A 20.15 million launch price.

Or did I miss a huge detail? It does require fairing re-use, which seems to be well underway to be doable.

 

[ccutrer]

Elon said that 75% of the cost of the rocket (~62 million) could be reduced by an order of magnitude, or more by next year? That is also quite mind blowing.
(62*.75)/10=4.65
62-46.5+4.65=20.15
A 20.15 million launch price.

Or did I miss a huge detail? It does require fairing re-use, which seems to be well underway to be doable.

The fact that they need to pay back a billion dollars of investment into developing reusabiliy. And I'm sure even once that is done, they'll start plowing huge amounts of profits into ITS development.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Elon said that 75% of the cost of the rocket (~62 million) could be reduced by an order of magnitude, or more by next year? That is also quite mind blowing.
(62*.75)/10=4.65
62-46.5+4.65=20.15
A 20.15 million launch price.

Or did I miss a huge detail? It does require fairing re-use, which seems to be well underway to be doable.

Depends on how easy it is to make a giant bouncy castle...

From the press conference I think he was obviously very happy, but I think it's clear that they have some work to do on the re-usability to improve the economics so they can pay off the R&D. It's actually quite amusing at this point to think that a big motivation to get customers to re-use boosters is that they've become so good at landing boosters that they have storage challenges.

 

[e-FTW]

The fact that they need to pay back a billion dollars of investment into developing reusabiliy. And I'm sure even once that is done, they'll start plowing huge amounts of profits into ITS development.

Yup, heard that from Elon when I listened on. Short attention span, excitement and all!

 

[Grendal]

Elon said that 75% of the cost of the rocket (~62 million) could be reduced by an order of magnitude, or more by next year? That is also quite mind blowing.
(62*.75)/10=4.65
62-46.5+4.65=20.15
A 20.15 million launch price.

Or did I miss a huge detail? It does require fairing re-use, which seems to be well underway to be doable.

Keep in mind that $62 million is the F9 base selling price. The cost to manufacture a F9 is speculated at $45 million. It's also important to consider that there seems to be a sliding scale based on difficulty and weight. A big heavy satellite released at a GTO orbit is charged a higher price.

COST: $45 million x .75 = $33.75 million for booster
2nd stage + fairing = $11.25 million
e-FTW's 10% refurbishment cost for now = $3.375 million
So a second launch of a booster is about $15 million
20% discount for using a re-flown booster using the very unlikely base price = $49.6 million

So regular flight = $17 million profit
Reuse flight = $34 million profit

Double the profit for a re-use flight or better.

Awesome. Go SpaceX.

 

[Ulmo]

Keep in mind that $62 million is the F9 base selling price. The cost to manufacture a F9 is speculated at $45 million. It's also important to consider that there seems to be a sliding scale based on difficulty and weight. A big heavy satellite released at a GTO orbit is charged a higher price.

COST: $45 million x .75 = $33.75 million for booster
2nd stage + fairing = $11.25 million
e-FTW's 10% refurbishment cost for now = $3.375 million
So a second launch of a booster is about $15 million
20% discount for using a re-flown booster using the very unlikely base price = $49.6 million

So regular flight = $17 million profit
Reuse flight = $34 million profit

Double the profit for a re-use flight or better.

Awesome. Go SpaceX.

So, if they refly 29 of their relaunches, they've paid back their development cost of $1*10^9. ~6 relaunches for this year, so 23 relaunches to go for payback. Probably just over 2 years or so. That's pretty good!

I've added a bunch of new words to my dictionary today like "refly", "relaunched", and "relanded" and stuff like that.

 

[macpacheco]

SpaceX just wrote another page of Space eXploration history (pun intended).
Success at first attempt. Flawless success !
And got the fairing back to make it an even greater success.

SpaceX has achieved a sweet sweet launch cadence:
Iridium Next 1 - Jan 14
CRS-10 - Feb 19
EchoStar 23 - March 16
SES-10 - March 31

Launch schedule:
NROL-76 - NET April 16
INMARSAT 5 F4 - NET April 30

One actual launch a month was already impressive, but the goal is a launch every two weeks.

Now the exciting question is when we'll have the next reuse launch. Next launch is NROL-76 (national security launch) so its going to be a new one for sure. But we have Inmarsat 5 F4, perhaps the next reuse launch ?

Very exciting.

 

[Grendal]

SpaceX just wrote another page of Space eXploration history (pun intended).
Success at first attempt. Flawless success !
And got the fairing back to make it an even greater success.

SpaceX has achieved a sweet sweet launch cadence:
Iridium Next 1 - Jan 14
CRS-10 - Feb 19
EchoStar 23 - March 16
SES-10 - March 31

Launch schedule:
NROL-76 - NET April 16
INMARSAT 5 F4 - NET April 30

One actual launch a month was already impressive, but the goal is a launch every two weeks.

Now the exciting question is when we'll have the next reuse launch. Next launch is NROL-76 (national security launch) so its going to be a new one for sure. But we have Inmarsat 5 F4, perhaps the next reuse launch ?

Very exciting.

Thanks for posting. A sweet launch cadence indeed. For sure the next two launches will be new boosters and the CRS-11 will also be new except it will be the first time a dragon will be reused. Elon and Gwynne have said they expect to refly six used boosters this year. So we can expect 4 more reused boosters to fly solo missions since two of them will be reused on the Falcon Heavy launch as the side boosters. SES was pretty clear that they are willing to use another previously flown booster and there is SES-11 upcoming.

Here is a CBS national news segment on the launch and landing at 18:40 in the segment:

 

[dhanson865]

That amuses me.

It's a KSP reference. It should be amusing, just not original.

Heat Shield (10m) - Kerbal Space Program Wiki

Based on the design of a child's toy, this heat shield uses a set of inflatable rings covered with a thermal blanket to provide a generous 10 meter heat shield for reentry and deceleration, and the aerodynamic qualities of an untethered bouncy castle.

— O.M.B. Demolition Enterprises

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Thanks for posting. A sweet launch cadence indeed. For sure the next two launches will be new boosters and the CRS-11 will also be new except it will be the first time a dragon will be reused. Elon and Gwynne have said they expect to refly six used boosters this year. So we can expect 4 more reused boosters to fly solo missions since two of them will be reused on the Falcon Heavy launch as the side boosters. SES was pretty clear that they are willing to use another previously flown booster and there is SES-11 upcoming.

Here is a CBS national news segment on the launch and landing at 18:40 in the segment:

When Martin Halliwell of SES made it clear that he wanted to refly again, Elon Musk (seemingly very pleased) reaffirmed the 6 reflights for this year.

(Now waiting for news on the recovered fairing).