Falcon 9 Is Now Fully Integrated At Cape Canaveral

Posted by timothy on Thursday January 1, 2009 @06:08PM from the neither-cape-ann-nor-cape-cod dept.

RobGoldsmith writes "SpaceX's Falcon 9 is now fully integrated: an update from Elon Musk states 'Falcon 9 is now fully integrated at the Cape! Today we mated the 5.2 m payload fairing to the Falcon 9 first stage. This was the final step in the integration process — one day ahead of schedule.' New images are now available showing the first fully integrated Falcon 9 Rocket. Once the launch mount and erector are complete, SpaceX will transfer Falcon 9 on to the erector and raise it to vertical early in 2009."

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Actually not that much weight saving by pgfuller · 2009-01-01 19:43 · Score: 4, Informative

You are out by several orders of magnitude - 600lbs / 272kg was the weight saving from not painting the ET. Later structural design changes reduced the ET weight by a more significant 17,000lbs.