This badly made graphic shows the gereral direction of their engine road map:
Posted on 06/13/2015 8:55:34 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The first thing to notice is how rapidly Elon Musk's SpaceX is altering the market for government-sponsored rocket launches.
Witness how frequently the words "to compete with SpaceX" appear in industry statements and press coverage. To compete with SpaceX, say multiple reports, the United Launch Alliance, the Pentagon's traditional supplier, is developing a new Vulcan rocket powered by a reusable engine designed by Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin.
Because of SpaceX, says Aviation Week magazine, Japan's government has instructed Mitsubishi to cut in half the cost of the Japanese workhorse rocket, and China is planning a new family of kerosene-fueled Long March rockets. "Stimulated by SpaceX's work on reusable rockets," reports SpaceNews.com, Airbus is developing a reusable first stage for Europe's venerable Ariane rocket.
All this comes amid one of those Washington battles ferocious in inverse relation to the certainties involved. Should Congress, however bad the precedent, climb down from sanctions enacted last December curtailing the Pentagon's reliance on a Russian-made engine to put U.S. military satellites in orbit?
Yes, say the Pentagon, the national intelligence leadership and the White House, because avoiding disruption to crucial military launches is more important than any symbolic weakening of sanctions against Russia.
No, says Sen. John McCain, who criticizes "$300 million of precious U.S. defense resources subsidizing Vladimir Putin and the Russian military industrial base," never mind that Pentagon dollars are not different from private dollars, which flow in abundance to Russia under a loopy sanction that does nothing to curb Russia's booming engine sales to U.S. private commercial customers and even NASA.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Same here. The speculation is, three of the nine-engine Falcon 9 boosters will be launched as the Falcon 9 Heavy sometime in 2015; the Merlin 4 engine was going to be a scaled-up kerosene burner, but the plug got pulled on that last year or so, and it’s going to be scaled-up, but a methane burner (same thing is going on at Blue Origin). This grew out of Musk’s goal of recycling the boosters which will eventually carry colonists to Mars — methane is available to refuel them, kerosene isn’t.
One Merlin 4 will replace the nine engines of the Falcon 9; a nine-engine booster using the Merlin 4 will be the next gen; a three-booster superheavy will be used for the Mars colonization. The timeframe is about a generation, twenty years. Meanwhile, barring political obstacles (corruption), SpaceX is likely to take over much of the world’s launch business.
I wholeheartedly agree. He’s one good consequence of the overthrow of the Boer regime in South Africa. Uh, the only one I can think of.
I like how SpaceX works quickly but doesn’t push just to meet a schedule. They’ve been in business a ridiculously short time, and have cut cost to orbit, becoming the cheapest way up and still making money.
http://www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy
> With the ability to lift into orbit over 53 metric tons (117,000 lb)—a mass equivalent to a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel—Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost.
Falcon Heavy rocket hangar rises at launch pad 39A
http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/02/25/falcon-heavy-rocket-hangar-rises-at-pad-39a/
> the hangar sits on the gravel crawlerway used to transport Saturn 5 moon rockets and space shuttles from the nearby Vehicle Assembly building
Falcon Heavy into production as Pad 39A HIF rises out of the ground [former Shuttle pad]
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/02/falcon-heavy-production-39a-hif-rises/
SpaceX Begins Falcon Heavy Certification
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/air-space/space/2015/04/15/spacex-air-force-falcon-9-certification-ula-delta-heavy/25825053/
> The certification process for SpaceX has been a difficult one, particularly after accusations from SpaceX founder Elon Musk that the Air Force was purposefully slow-rolling the process in order to protect legacy provider ULA.
Jupiter-247 Heavy
http://www.directlauncher.org/documents/Baseball_Cards/J247H-41.5003.08001_EDS_090608.jpg
Later bookmark
I’m so silly. ;)
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