CEO Elon Musk has reiterated that SpaceX is still pursuing a major milestone of missile pursuit, which he originally set for the company several years ago and revealed that his Falcon missiles could eventually go far beyond them.
Musk has been talking publicly about reusable rockets for more than a decade, but the first hard tracks linked to real hardware came with the debut of Falcon 9’s Block 5 upgrade in May 2018. In a conference call with reports, Musk revealed that the Block 5 upgrade was built-in. design changes that would eventually allow SpaceX to use the Falcon-class Falcon boosters at least ten times each. An upper limit of 100+ flights per booster would also be possible with regular maintenance and partial replacements every ten or so launches.
Since the May 11, 2018 launch debut, Falcon 9 and Heavy Block 5 rockets have completed 37 launches – all successful – with only one anomaly in flight, a March 2020 engine problem that prevented booster recovery but mission success do not turn off. In addition to three error-free Falcon Heavy launches, SpaceX’s 34 Falcon 9 Block 5 launches were collectively completed by 11 boosters – an average of> 3 launches per rocket. In short, SpaceX has amassed a vast wealth of data that allows it to evaluate the Block 5 design, and CEO Elon Musk has some choice observations more than two years after its Block 5 press conference.
In the simplest possible terms, Musk’s comments on August 19 strongly suggest that the Block 5 upgrade has met more than the goals set for it in 2018.
The fact only that the average Booster of Falcon 9 Block 5 (even one issued mission included) has been launched more than three times is a great credit to the design. At the same time, SpaceX flew the same booster for the sixth time just days ago and reached the fifth launch of three separate Falcon 9 boosters between March and August of 2020.
Now, with all that experience in hand and a Falcon 9 Block 5 impulse already 60% of the way to the milestone of the ten-giant reuse, Musk says that “100+ flights are possible” and that “there are none is an obvious limit. ”Although” some parts will need to be replaced or upgraded “to achieve tens or hundreds of booster usage, Musk says SpaceX” is almost never needed.[s] to replace a whole [Merlin 1D] engine.
Given that a Falcon 9 booster’s nine M1D engines are probably the hardest part of any rocket to use fast and safe giants, it’s extremely easy to believe that individual boosters can launch dozens – if not hundreds – of times with just one small amount of regular maintenance and repairs. In that sense, SpaceX has effectively achieved Musk’s long life dream of building a rocket that (more or less, at least) approximates the reusability of aircraft.
Of course, even 100-flight Falcon boosters would still be at least one or two orders of magnitude far removed from most modern aircraft, but that would still be a huge improvement over any other launched car in history (especially including the Space Shuttle).
Musk says SpaceX is still actively pushing to fly a Falcon 9 booster ten times and Starlink missions – which could reduce the company’s risk on its own launches – will leave many opportunities. If SpaceX can fly Falcon 9 Booster B1049 every 60 days on average, then the company could reach that milestone of ten flights as early as Q2 2021.
The SpaceX CEO also responded to a classic head-in-the-sand claim from traditional aerospace companies such as the United Launch Alliance (ULA), rejecting the theoretical assumption that re-using impulse “makes no sense” until reuse of ten reached. Instead, Musk says SpaceX only needs to fly each booster three times to make sure reuse is cheaper than just building new rockets.
In short, despite the ad hoc rationalization competitors continue to use to excuse years of denial and laurel rest, SpaceX is regularly reusing rockets, saving important resources by doing so, and has barely scratched the surface of what ultimately is possible.
Check out Teslarati’s newsletters for quick updates, straightforward perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket launch and recovery processes.
