[AR] Re: SpaceX re-flight of launch core 1021 info?
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2017 14:02:59 -0400 (EDT)
On Tue, 4 Apr 2017, William Valliant wrote:
I saw that SpaceX re-flew a first stage and I was wondering if they fared
any better that the STS did? I remember that the SSME's turned out to
require complete overhauls and that the TPS took a bunch of work as well.
The shuttle SRBs are probably a fairer comparison. Despite the PR hype,
the SRBs weren't so much re-used, as salvaged -- that is, they were
stripped down to parts and some of the parts were used to build later
SRBs. (Much like SpaceX's original re-use concept, in fact...!) The
casings mostly got re-used, but there was a lot of other hardware -- each
SRB had its own hydraulic system, its own APU to drive the hydraulics, its
own electronics packages, etc. etc. -- and after every flight it all got
torn down, inspected, worked on, and then considered for re-use. The
whole thing was very labor-intensive and it's not clear that it ever
really saved NASA any money.
SpaceX *probably* is doing better than that. But anybody who knows the
details of how much refurbishing that stage needed, isn't talking yet.
They may say a bit more about it after they've done this a few times and
have sorted out what first-stage mods are needed to improve it (almost
certainly there will be some) and which things really are going to need
attention every time.
Henry
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