Musk: 100 Launches Per Falcon 9 Block 5 Booster is Possible
The first Falcon 9 Block 5 booster heads for the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. (Credit: SpaceX)
Elon Musk had a teleconference today concerning the Falcon 9 Block 5 launch vehicle prior to the planned first flight of the upgraded booster. The launch, which would have orbited the Bangabandhu 1 communications satellite for Bangladesh, was scrubbed for an undisclosed technical reason. SpaceX plans to try again on Friday at 4:14 p.m. EDT.
Below are notes from Musk’s teleconference about the upgraded booster and SpaceX’s future plans.
Falcon 9 Block 5 Operational Plans
- Falcon 9 Block 5 is last major revision of booster – some additional minor changes likely
- Should really be called Falcon 9 Block 6
- Aiming for aircraft-style operations with no unnecessary actions between flights
- New booster will be capable of 100 flights with service every 10 flights
- Will not refly the first stage on the Bangabandhu 1 launch for many months
- Need to disassemble the stage to confirm design assumptions
- Expect third or fourth Block 5 reflight in 2018, 10th reflight next year
- 30-50 Block 5’s will be available in rotation for launches
- Falcon 9 Block 5s could see 300 or more flights before retired for Big Falcon Rocket (BFR)
- Wants to launch same booster within 24 hours in 2019
- Charging $60 million for new Falcon 9 boosters, $50 million for flight-proven rockets
- Limits to how low SpaceX can go on Falcon 9 costs – need revenues to cover cost of developing BFR and Starlink satellite Internet constellation
- Falcon 9 cost breakdown: booster, 60%; second stage, 20%; fairing, 10 percent; launch, 10 percent.
- Propellant ranges from $300,000 to $400,000 depending upon how one calculates it
- Company has been monitoring reentry data for second stage
- Believes second stage can be recovered and reused
- There are cost and mission considerations – don’t want to introduce risks into the launch ascent phase
Falcon 9 Block 5 Improvements
- Merlin 1D engines 8 percent more powerful
- Could possibly squeeze more power out of them
- New thermal protection material designed by SpaceX that does not require paint
- Titanium grid fins now standard – can withstand 2,000 F without maintenance between flights
- Strengthened octoweb that holds nine first-stage engines
- Improved payload fairing 2.0 will fly on the Bangabandhu 1 launch but there will be no attempt at recovery because boat is in California
- Stage 2 on this launch has a Block 5 engine but will operate like Block 4 engine during this flight
Human-rating Requirements for Dragon 2
- Rocket is same configuration that will be used to fly NASA crews to ISS
- Booster designed to meet all NASA human-rating requirements
- Falcon 9 Block 5 has to be over designed by 40 percent to meet human-rating requirements
- Booster has a lot of redundancy
- Many thousands of requirements for human rating
- Designed to be the most reliable rocket ever built
- “load and go” concerns – where crew is placed aboard and then rocket is fueld – are overblown
- can load propellant first and then put crew aboard, but don’t believe it will be necessary
