Poll - First Launch of Falcon9

No

Saw Elon on an interview recently where he said that the 1st stage reentry was harsher than expected - around 16G and the heat loads therefore greater as well.

He didn't expect to be looking at recovery and refurbishment until crew were flying so that's out at least 3 years although he did state that the long term goal is still recovery of 1st, 2nd stages and Dragon but not the trunk section.

I understand that SpaceX pricing doesn't take into account any reuseability factor - it's full cost recovery so they haven't put themselves into a hole by not going for that until later.

Cheers.

Forgot to mention the first launch is out to May 8th at the earliest. Apparently something to do with sorting out the flight termination system. Bugger hoped it would be earlier.

Shame - on hols in Florida for next two weeks. Was hoping to see it launch!

Wow that is a bummer! I hope you have some other space related activities in mind though. Are you going to Kennedy Space center? Is the shuttle landing while you are still on holiday?

Certainly plan to go to the Space Centre - only so much theme park stuff you can do (well, I can do - I am sure the children will be more than happy!)

I'll check to see what time the shuttle is supposed to land. Thanks for the reminder. Hadn't thought of the landing side of things.

May 8 is getting close. Has anyone heard any updates on a target for the launch?

Missed the shuttle landing by one day - but still not over the jaw dropping moment when you see the Saturn 5 for the first time. Probably the most impressive single man made object I have ever laid eyes on.

Did see the Falcon 9 from a distance, but slight drizzle so photo I took a bit dodgy!

Anyone who hasn't been to KSC but gets the chance - go there! Don't take the children though - it's defo. a Dad's day out. Miserable little buggers never stopped whinging.

James

When I was in California, I saw the Shuttle land at Edwards Air Force base. It was pretty interesting, especially for a kid.

Yeah that Saturn V is a Doozy. They have another one in Huntsville, AL. Then there is the full scale mock-up outside. It is amazing to see that thing vertical. I personally thought the museum in Huntsville was better than the one at the cape. The Cape tour is better though.

You folks in the U.K. need to hurry up and build something for me to come look at when I eventually visit the land of my genetic encoding.

Hope the rest of the trip was restful without Disney coming out the eyeballs.

Still 8th or 9th May. Noted that the range is very busy for the rest of May so next possibility is probably sometime in June.

I dont understand what is taking the range so long to go over SpaceX's self destruct mechanism which I believe is causing the current delay. I thought it was the same as used for the Falcon 1.

Hopefully after this first launch the next falcon launches will be a lot more routine, they will need to be if they want to run a regular cargo service to ISS.

Gut feeling, I'd say chance of success is about 65%.

So, much as I usually prefer to be an optimist, I tactically voted "failure" here to bring the poll results down below 90%.

Fingers crossed for a roaring success though!

Here's a thought.

Does the fact that the F9 is a friction stir welded structure providing greater strength than the traditional welded boiler plate type construction methods used by other spacecraft manufacturers mean that there's no real understanding of how much explosive force is required to tear apart the F9 structures to ensure disintegration? Hence the delay?

Anyone

First launch date out to the 11/12th now. Apparently there are several other opportunities thoughout May where there is sufficient time to reconfigure the range communications, etc, which takes several hours so could still be May launch - here's hoping