SpaceX, Boeing & Firefly File FCC Applications for Fall Flights
SpaceX has applied for a temporary Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license to fly its Starship prototype to an altitude of 20 km (12.4 miles) from its Boca Chica test site in Texas.
The approval would be valid for hops from Oct. 11, 2020 to April 11, 2021. Starship prototypes have flown to an altitude of 150 meters from Boca Chica.
Boeing has filed for a FCC license for its second Starliner orbital flight test. The application covers a six-month period from Nov. 1, 2020 to May 1, 2021.
The uncrewed Starliner test is a repeat of a flight that went awry last December. The spacecraft failed to dock with the space station due to software and communications problems.
Firefly Aerospace has filed for approval for the maiden flight of its Firefly Alpha booster from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The approval would be valid from Nov. 21, 2020 until May 21, 2021.
Apha is designed to loft 1 metric ton into low Earth orbit and 630 kg into a 500 km sun synchronous orbit at a dedicated mission cost of $15 million.
6 responses to “SpaceX, Boeing & Firefly File FCC Applications for Fall Flights”
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1) RaptorVac is on the test stand
2) Starship SN8 will be a full airframe; fins, payload nose, etc.
https://twitter.com/elonmus…
RaptorVac https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
370 sec Isp from a hydrocarbon engine. Wow. Just wow. For the 30 odd years I’ll be left alive it sure is going to be interesting to watch liquid engine technology develop past the old standards.
Is that what they’re calling that belly flop maneuver, a fall flight?
They’ve called it skydiver, the drag fins acting like a skydiver’s limbs for control and to maximize drag.
This video simulates the 20km flight. After engine cutoff the ship rotates horizontal to maximize drag (reducing the landing fuel requirement). Landing propellants are stored in two small header tanks, not the mains.
https://youtu.be/DdTYMry7fq0
Good one.