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| Science & Technology |
| SpaceX likely to expend its last rocket for a while on Friday |
| 2018-06-29 |
| [ARSTECHNICA] When SpaceX launches its 15th resupply mission to the International Space Station, possibly as early as Friday morning at 5:42am ET (09:42 UTC), the company plans to fly the Block 4 version of its Falcon 9 rocket for the final time. The company's next two launches in July were already known to be flying on the latest and presumably final revision to the Falcon 9 rocket—the Block 5 variant. But during a news conference Thursday, the company's manager for the Dragon spacecraft program, Jessica Jensen, confirmed that there will be no more Block 4 flights after the impending space station launch. The Block 5 version of the rocket, which has been optimized for reusability, has flown one time when it made a successful flight in May. Since then, SpaceX has been working through its inventory of previously flown rockets. The booster scheduled to fly Friday first launched just a little more than two months ago, on April 18, sending NASA's planet-hunting TESS spacecraft into a lunar resonant orbit. This 10-week turnaround was remarkably fast for a Block 4 booster, but SpaceX says its Block 5 should be able to fly much more rapidly. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Well, most of the "visionary" enterprises went initially bankrupt and the second, third, or even fourth owner made a success of it. |
| Posted by: magpie 2018-06-29 16:09 |
| #3 Quite the schedule. Maybe Tesla should be split into two entities before the whole ship sinks. |
| Posted by: Roger29 Palms 2018-06-29 14:07 |
| #2 US Scheduled Launches: Date - Satellite(s) - Rocket - Launch Site - Time (UTC) 2018 NET July 20 - Iridium Next Flight 7 (x10) - Falcon 9 - Vandenberg SLC-4E - 12:12 NET July 19 21 - Telstar 19 Vantage - Falcon 9 - Canaveral SLC-40 - 05:50-09:50 August 4 - Parker Solar Probe (Solar Probe Plus) [LWS-6 Living With a Star mission-6] - Delta IV-H/Star-48BV [D-380] - Canaveral SLC-37B - 07:57-09:57 Early Mid- August - Merah Putih (Telkom 4) - Falcon 9 - Canaveral SLC-40 NET Early Mid-August - Telstar 18 Vantage (APStar 5C) - Falcon 9 - Canaveral SLC-40 (or Late July) Late August - Es’hail 2 (AMSAT P4A) - Falcon 9 - Canaveral SLC-40 August - Unicorn-2a, Alfa Orbital UG Delfi-PQ1, TU Delft - Vector-R (Wolverine) - Kodiak (or H2 Late) NET Mid-Summer August - test launch (ballast/dummy payload) - LauncherOne - Runway 12/30 Spaceport America (Mojave), Boeing 747 "Cosmic Girl" September 12 - ICESat-II, ELaNa-XVIII: ELFIN, IT-SPINS, CHEFsat - Delta II 7420-10C - Vandenberg SLC-2W - 12:46-15:20 (or October) NET August 30 September 16 (TBD) - Dragon v2 (unmanned test) (SpX-DM1)- Falcon 9 (B1051) - Kennedy LC-39A ~10:00 (or Late) September 26 - NROL-71: KH-11 17 (Crystal 17, Block 5 #1) (TBD) - Delta IV-H - Vandenberg SLC-6 September 30 - ORS-6 (COWVR, WSGF), Spaceflight SSO-A/SHERPA SSO : ORS 7A, ORS 7B, COPPER 2, MinXSS 2, Audacy Zero, Eu:CROPIS, BlackSky Global 2, STPSat-5, SkySat 14, SkySat 15, NEXTSat 1, HawkEye Pathfinder 1, HawkEye Pathfinder 2, HawkEye Pathfinder 3, Fox 1C, KNACKSAT, Elysium-Star 2, JY1-Sat, Myriota, KazSTSAT, Kazakhstans scientific CubeSat, ROSE-1, ICEYE X2, SpaceCap, CSIM-FD, Hiber 2, Orbital Reflector, PW-Sat 2, Hamilton 1, MOVE 2, Flock-v (x36) - Falcon 9 - Vandenberg SLC-4E September - SAOCOM-1A, ITASAT-1 - Falcon 9 - Vandenberg SLC-4E NET September - Iridium Next Flight 8 (x10) - Falcon 9 - Vandenberg SLC-4E (or Early October) NET Q3 - Planet Labs tech-demo sat, INCA, ALBus, CACTUS 1, ExoCube 2, MicroMAS 2b, MiTEE 1, Q-PACE, Fox 1E, MakerSat 0, CAPE 3, SurfSat, PICS 1, PICS 2 + 12 sats - LauncherOne - Runway 12/30 Spaceport America (Mojave), Boeing 747 "Cosmic Girl" H2 - ICON (Ionospheric Connection Explorer) [Helio EX-1] - Pegasus XL - Kwajalein, L-1011 "Stargazer" NET H2 - Astrium active SARah-1 satellite, TBD - Falcon 9 - Vandenberg SLC-4E (or 2019) Q4 - PSN-6 (Pasifik Satelit Nusantara 6), U.S. government satellite - Falcon 9 - Canaveral SLC-40 Q4 - SAS constellation sat (x12) - LauncherOne - Runway 12/30 Spaceport America (Mojave), Boeing 747 "Cosmic Girl" (or 2019) October 5 - AEHF-4 - Atlas V 531 (AV-073) - Canaveral SLC-41 NET October 30 - STP-02: DSX (SSTE 4, Cygnus, SET 1), FORMOSAT 7A/7B/7C/7D/7E/7F (COSMIC-2A equatorial), GPIM, OTB 1, FalconSat 6, FalconSat 7, NPSat 1, Oculus-ASR, Prox 1 + LightSail B, ARMADILLO, TBEx A, TBEx B, Prometheus 2.5, Prometheus 2.6, Prometheus 2.7, Prometheus 2.8, Prometheus 2.9, Prometheus 2.10, PSat 2, BRICSat 1, BRICSat 2, TEPCE 1, TEPCE 2, CP 9 (LEO), StangSat, DOTSI, CNGB, Ballast - Falcon Heavy-02 - Kennedy LC-39A NET October - GPS III-1 - Falcon 9 - Canaveral SLC-40 NET November 7 - Radarsat C-1, Radarsat С-2, Radarsat С-3 - Falcon 9 - Vandenberg SLC-4E NET November 18 - Dragon SpX-16 (CRS-16), IDA3 GEDI, RRM3 - Falcon 9 - Kennedy LC-39A November 21 - Cygnus OA-10 (CRS-10) - Antares-230 - MARS LP-0A NET Late November - CST-100 Starliner (unmanned test) (Boe-OFT) - Atlas V N22 (AV-080) - Canaveral SLC-41 ~10:00 December 13 - WGS-10 - Delta IV-M+(5,4) - Canaveral SLC-37 December 31 - CST-100 Starliner (manned test) (Boe-CFT) - Atlas V N22 (AV-082) - Canaveral SLC-41 NET December - Arabsat 6A - Falcon Heavy - Kennedy LC-39A (or January 2019) Late - NROL-111 - Minotaur I - MARS LP-0B |
| Posted by: 3dc 2018-06-29 11:30 |
| #1 Last block 4. Not last rocket. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2018-06-29 11:27 |