Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

SpaceX Is Planning To Launch a Falcon 9 For the Third Time (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the rinse-and-repeat dept.

According to the senior director of government sales for SpaceX, Lars Hoffman, the company is planning to launch a Falcon 9 first-stage booster for the third time. At the Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium on Wednesday afternoon, Hoffman said: "We've launched Falcon 9 over 60 times. We've landed our first stage booster 30 times now. And relaunched 16 times. We're about to relaunch a booster for the third time. So we're turning this into routine access to space. High-reliability, higher-performance, lower-cost access to space; that opens it up to everybody." Ars Technica reports: The company has not officially confirmed its plans, but at present SpaceX intends to reuse a Falcon 9 rocket for the third time to launch a rideshare mission of dozens of small satellites for Spaceflight. This Spaceflight SSO-A mission currently has a launch date of November 19, according to a calendar maintained by Spaceflight Now. An earlier report in The Space Review previously indicated this mission may involve the third flight of a booster.

6 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Tesla is going bankrupt next week! Elon's a fraud! by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't really believe that. Since someone was going to say it anyway, I might as well get there first. Elon can smoke as many doobies on video as he wants, he's shown us a path to space that I had given up hope of seeing in my lifetime. So, I'm a fan.

    --
    Bruce Perens.
  2. Good news by Virtucon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm actually liking the fact that SpaceX is delivering a commoditized platform for LEO delivery, they're getting the basics down and delivering. Now if they could just get their landing vids to work at the right moment..

    --
    Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    1. Re:Good news by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Something about having an immensely powerful rocket ship shooting flames in the general direction of the antenna, while also causing sonic booms and sound loud enough to kill a person seems to disrupt the satellite link. Who knew :-)

      --
      Bruce Perens.
    2. Re:Good news by religionofpeas · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Couldn't they just record the video, delay the broadcast for a few moments, and then send it as soon as platform stabilizes ?

    3. Re:Good news by religionofpeas · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Right now, the feed cuts out, and then we usually don't see the landing until a few days later. If they could instead show it in the same live broadcast with a short delay, that would be much better.

  3. Re:Tesla is going bankrupt next week! Elon's a fra by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I would not recommend that thunderf00t video, it's sloppy and full of assumptions and false comparisons at best.

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...