8/19/2023 0 Comments Falcon 9 landing gameWith some maintenance after 10 flights, he said SpaceX believes the Block 5 is capable of at least 100 flights before being retired. If the upgrades are demonstrated to truly allow for rapid reusability of the first stage, Musk said the vehicle should be able to fly 10 times with no scheduled maintenance. Photo Credit: Michael Howard / SpaceFlight Insider The Block 5 Falcon 9’s nine Merlin 1D engine thrust the vehicle and its payload off the launch pad. ![]() Fully recoverable fairings (each one cost $6 million to build).Upgradable avionics, upgraded flight computer and engine controllers, a more advanced inertial measurement system, higher fault tolerance, and elimination of the avionics tower.A revised base heat shield now constructed with high-temperature titanium.A revised landing leg design that features internal latch mechanisms that can be opened and closed repeatedly with ease.Much higher uplift strength and thermal protection of the aluminum “ octaweb”-the load-bearing structure at the base of the nine Merlin engines.Use of new hydrophobic thermal protection technology for the black interstage, the raceways, and the landing legs.Merlin engine thrust increased by approximately 8 percent to 190,000 pounds at sea level.Musk listed the major revisions to the existing Block 4 design, all of which together is expected to allow the “rapid reusability” first envisioned back in 2011. “So this rocket probably won’t re-fly for probably a couple of months.” “Ironically, we need to take it apart to confirm that it does not need to be taken apart,” Musk said. Once back at Port Canaveral, SpaceX began the long process of tearing the vehicle apart to ensure that the vehicle survived nearly unscathed as designed. Some eight minutes later, the first stage of that vehicle landed on a drone ship several hundred miles downrange, completing the 25th recovery of a first stage. ![]() On May 11, 2018, the first Falcon 9 Block 5 version successfully launched the Bangabandhu-1 communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A. “The only thing that needs to change is you reload propellant and fly again.” “The key to Block 5 is that it’s designed to do 10 or more flights with no refurbishment between each flight-or at least not scheduled refurbishment between each flight,” Musk said during the May 10, 2018, conference call. But the Block 5 is expected to enable the company’s goal of a rapidly reusable vehicle. Over the course of the last 2.5 years, the company landed first stage boosters some 24 times. Photo Credit: Michael Deep / SpaceFlight Insider
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