Wiki SpaceX Manifest and Launch Cadence

[adiggs]

At this moment SpaceX has only five boosters available for standard launches:

B1049
B1051
B1058
B1059
B1060 - spoken for until recovered

All except for one (B1058 May 30th) will be launched this month June 2020 - weather permitting. The shortest turnaround time for a Block 5 booster has been 2 months. Sadly, the loss of two boosters in landings earlier this year may cause some delays in upcoming Starlink launches.

I find that if I think about this too long, I find it comical. Not SpaceX; the rest of the launch industry and launch entities.

SpaceX is launching so many rockets, so fast, they might find their cadence slowed down now, because of 2 rockets lost on recovery attempts a few months earlier.


So many things in that last sentence are just 'wrong':

SpaceX has this problem. Due to:

- A launch cadence that is faster than anyone / everyone
- And due to their rocket recovery process (nobody else in danger of joining SpaceX with this capability - SpaceX has repeated so many times that it's a Process)
- And due to that rocket recovery process being sufficiently robust and reliable enough, SpaceX can plan for future production of rockets, and scheduling of launches based on that rocket recovery process that nobody else is in danger of doing for the first time.
- and OMG - the plan is off now due to losses in the rocket recovery process that happened months ago, such that it might affect #1; launch cadence now.


Yeah - we all want that problem

 

[e-FTW]

At this moment SpaceX has only five boosters available for standard launches:

B1049
B1051
B1058
B1059
B1060 - spoken for until recovered

All except for one (B1058 May 30th) will be launched this month June 2020 - weather permitting. The shortest turnaround time for a Block 5 booster has been 2 months. Sadly, the loss of two boosters in landings earlier this year may cause some delays in upcoming Starlink launches.

July looking pretty good for the first four launch month! And the quickest booster turnaround.

 

[e-FTW]

July looking pretty good for the first four launch month! And the quickest booster turnaround.

Details on the potential 4 July launches: Wednesday Starlink Launch to Kick Off Record-Setting Month for SpaceX « AmericaSpace
Some good details that may benefit the individual launch threads in there. Maybe a .6 (sixth launch) booster! Maybe a record turnaround for a booster (the Crrew Demo-2 one). And for 4 launches to happen in July, an unlikely record turnaround for SLC-40?

 

[Grendal]

SpaceX is preparing for the next Falcon Heavy launch:
SpaceX Manifest Takes Shape as Falcon Heavy Hardware Arrives at McGregor - NASASpaceFlight.com

 

[Grendal]

A crazy manifest for the beginning of November 2020. Four launches in a two week period:

Nov 5 - GPS III
Nov 10 - Sentinel 6
Nov 14 - Crew 1
Nov 18 - NROL-108

 

[Grendal]

As of right now SpaceX has only four "workhorse" F9 boosters available:
B1049
B1051
B1058
B1060

A number of boosters are pre-planned and spoken for:
B1061 - Crew 2
B1062 - GPS
B1063 - NASA Dart mission - just delayed to November 24th today

Then there are four FH side boosters and one core being finalized.

 

[Cosmacelf]

As of right now SpaceX has only four "workhorse" F9 boosters available:
B1049
B1051
B1058
B1060

A number of boosters are pre-planned and spoken for:
B1061 - Crew 2
B1062 - GPS
B1063 - NASA Dart mission - just delayed to November 24th today

Then there are four FH side boosters and one core being finalized.

Wow, seems kinda light. No wonder they want to make sure that B1049 isn't going to have a problem (it has been delayed quite a bit).

 

[Grendal]

This article is more about launch cadence than the booster:
SpaceX says “heat damage” caused landing failure on recent Falcon 9 mission – Spaceflight Now

 

[Grendal]

The launch floodgates are about to open. Any delays will be due to a limited number of Starlink 2.0 satellites.

 

[Grendal]

Current boosters available for launch are the following:

As of right now SpaceX has six "workhorse" F9 boosters available:
B1049.9
B1051.10
B1058.8
B1060.8
B1061.3
B1063.2 CRS 23?

A number of boosters are pre-planned and spoken for:
B1062.3 Inspiration 4
B1067.2 Crew 3

Falcon Heavy:
B1052.2 (retired side booster?)
B1053.2 (retired side booster?)
B1064 - side booster - USSF-44
B1065 - side booster - USSF-44
B1066 - core - will be expended
B1068 - core

 

[winfield100]

SpaceX Launch Manifest

The launch schedule for SpaceX.

nextspaceflight.com

manifests for upcoming SpaceX launches

 

[Grendal]

Great article on the achievements of reusability:

SpaceX continues to break reuse records and reach new milestones in 2021 - NASASpaceFlight.com

Having launched 31 orbital Falcon 9 missions and four suborbital Starship tests, 2021 was the…

www.nasaspaceflight.com

 

[Grendal]

Too much of a good thing?

Arianespace and SpaceX work to adjust launch manifests - SpaceNews

Arianespace says it is working to remanifest payloads that were to launch on Soyuz rockets while SpaceX accommodates new customers on its vehicles.

spacenews.com

 

[ecarfan]

Just like Tesla, SpaceX has a hard time meeting customer demand…

 

[Cosmacelf]

Too much of a good thing?

Arianespace and SpaceX work to adjust launch manifests - SpaceNews

Arianespace says it is working to remanifest payloads that were to launch on Soyuz rockets while SpaceX accommodates new customers on its vehicles.

spacenews.com

Its interesting that he mentioned bumping Starlink launches. Starship can’t come soon enough!

 

[bxr140]

Too much of a good thing?

Big money is hard to pass up, especially when you really really need big money... In reality I don't think there's going to be much impact to the service starlink can offer, so it makes for a good story while providing a much needed influx of revenue.

 

[Grendal]

Big money is hard to pass up, especially when you really really need big money... In reality I don't think there's going to be much impact to the service starlink can offer, so it makes for a good story while providing a much needed influx of revenue.

I put this in the "launch cadence and manifest" thread because SpaceX is getting thin on boosters to launch with 12 active. They have two sets of FH side boosters made and three FH center cores awaiting the payloads from the military and NASA for those. I expect they can three or four more F9 boosters this year. It seems like another 10 more would be real helpful right now.

I don't know how official it is but SpaceX has said they want to do 52 (one a week) launches this year. I'm sure they'd like to do more like 60 with all the additional contracts though.

 

[bxr140]

It seems like another 10 more would be real helpful right now.

Its a good thought experiment. Certainly Starship isn't going to be the the 2022 solution...but I'm not sure more Falcons is either. I think there's a practical asymptote to how quickly they can huck up F9's from their two pads, and I think they're going to be pushing up against that rate more often that not as 2022 unfolds. I haven't been paying super close attention, but It doesn't seem like booster availability/turnaround is really going to be the limiting factor...?

 

[Grendal]

Here's a website that collates launch data. SpaceX is significantly in the lead for upmass.

Bryce Briefing

Bryce Briefing is a quarterly report from BryceTech. The Briefing focuses on launch and satellite updates, including smallsats, and the global launch industry.

brycetech.com

 

[adiggs]

Here's a website that collates launch data. SpaceX is significantly in the lead for upmass.

Bryce Briefing

Bryce Briefing is a quarterly report from BryceTech. The Briefing focuses on launch and satellite updates, including smallsats, and the global launch industry.

brycetech.com

Some of those charts - SpaceX pretty badly distorts one of the axes. Upmass is the one that stuck out, with SpaceX doing so much that there's room underneath the bar (and next to everybody else) to fit in another chart.