18 thoughts on “SpaceX In 2017”

  1. Let’s hope it continues to be a good year for SpaceX. Nothing like winning to silence the critics (unless you are Trump 🙂 ).

  2. both SpaceX and Boeing are working to bring their astronaut-carrying capsules to the launch pad. Before either vehicle can fly crew, however, the companies must complete an uncrewed demonstration flight. For SpaceX, the target date for this demo mission has previously slipped to November, 2017.

    People were noting the hypocrisy of this when the SLS will likely skip this step but it isn’t going to cost SpaceX, Boeing, or even NASA a billion dollars to do the test.

    Also, SLS only has a handful of engines, shouldn’t something productive be done with all of the launches? Not saying the first launch as described does this but if the launch is going to happen, there should be a way to get something useful out of it.

    1. Hrmmm. One way IMHO to get something useful out of a test launch is to put something you need in space on it, preferably something with low value. For example, consumables for ISS. Perhaps that could include frozen food that can be stored in vacuum? Water? Gorilla suits? (they only have one of the latter on ISS at the moment!)

    2. Also, SLS only has a handful of engines, shouldn’t something productive be done with all of the launches? Not saying the first launch as described does this but if the launch is going to happen, there should be a way to get something useful out of it.

      It’s taking so long to launch they could have refurbished the Future Imagery Architecture satellites the NRO donated to NASA and launch one of two of those with that.

  3. Based on the last CRS-10 narrated video, I’d have to say 2017 is the year beards were in at SpaceX….

      1. Not true. Muratore is there and I’ve seen other people older than that there. The problem is, at least I’ve heard, they work insane hours and I suspect a lot of people with actual families aren’t going to be happy with that.

          1. Nature of the start-up. Youngsters can afford to take more risks with their careers as opposed to those who are established.

  4. I am really humbled by Elon’s accomplishments, and the most humbling is his ability to fly a vertically launched rocket, originally designed as an expendable, back to the launch site. This isn’t something I would ever have considered possible. The first successful reuse of a Falcon 9 first stage will be historic, and with every reuse we will learn more about the economics. But there is little question that the economics will improve – the only question is, will it be a marginal improvement, or a complete change in economics? This year will be exciting, indeed.

    1. I believe it will be a marginal improvement, followed by more marginal improvement, and then more. Eventually the marginal improvements will stack up to real qualitative improvement.

      I don’t think there’s a substitute for doing things for figuring out how to do them better.

    2. Reusability will certainly have some positive economic effects for SpaceX, if not their customers, right off the bat. But they have a backlog of customers that exceeds their launch capacity. Lowering prices wouldn’t increase their business at this point.

      I don’t want to understate the importance of reusability but IMO, the big change to watch for right now is launch capacity. They have 3 launch pads right now, with one damaged, and one(?) under construction at their Boca Chica facility. More launch pads means resilience from disruptions and the ability to serve more customers. They need the launch facilities to take advantage of reusability.

  5. I’m just curious; are the SLS defenders (as a few of them did) still saying that Falcon Heavy is just a paper rocket (doesn’t really exist), so shouldn’t be compared to SLS? (which, by implication, does exist)

    And if so, will they still say that when FH flies?

    1. Even if they specify that, the cost can be reduced if SpaceX can recover stages and reuse them for other customers.

        1. I had not heard that. I was under the impression that NASA was only going to use brand-new SpaceX first stages, which would then be reused for other customers. Same for Dragon. When did this change?

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