Wiki SpaceX Manifest and Launch Cadence

[Grendal]

Update on F9 cores since things are happening faster these days:

Falcon 9 Standard Boosters
B1058.15 Currently retired at 15 launches (Extension requested to go to 20)
B1060.15 Currently retired at 15 launches (Extension requested to go to 20)
B1061.14
B1062.14
B1063.11 Vandenberg booster
B1067.10
B1069.7
B1071.9 Vandenberg Booster
B1072.0 New - Being held for Cygnus launch
B1073.9 Likely to be converted to FH side booster and may be expended
B1075.3 Vandenberg booster
B1076.5 Likely to be converted to FH side booster and may be expended
B1077.5
B1078.3
B1080.1

Falcon Heavy Exclusive Cores and Boosters
B1064.2 Side - USSF-52 and Psyche
B1065.2 Side - USSF-52 and Psyche
B1074.0 Core - USSF 52
B1079.0 Core - Jupiter 3/Echostar 24
B1084.0 Core - Psyche

Little is known about B1081, B1082, and B1083. Possibly a secret NRO FH launch? Pure speculation at this time....

 

[TunaBug]

B1058.15 Currently retired at 15 launches (Extension requested to go to 20)
B1060.15 Currently retired at 15 launches (Extension requested to go to 20)

I would have thought they would use these for Starlink-only and kept launching them until they just gave out from fatigue or...well from whatever they gave out on. In other words, use them to learn as much as they can about the failure modes.

 

[Grendal]

I would have thought they would use these for Starlink-only and kept launching them until they just gave out from fatigue or...well from whatever they gave out on. In other words, use them to learn as much as they can about the failure modes.

SpaceX has to pass certain qualifications with regulators. I have to assume that NASA and the FAA are involved in some way. Maybe some form of refurbishment is happening. Certainly there is a thorough examination of the rockets to determine whether there is wear and tear on critical parts. I expect the regulators will allow further launches if they are justified. Starlinks are the likely payload.

 

[winfield100]

the landing leg on the last landing looked kinda "wonky" and a bit slow extending

 

[Grendal]

Latest update:

Falcon 9 Standard Boosters
B1058.16
B1060.16
B1061.14 (15 on July 19)
B1062.14 (15 on July 22)
B1063.12 Vandenberg booster
B1067.12
B1069.8
B1071.9 Vandenberg Booster
B1072.0 New - Being held for Cygnus launch
B1073.9 Converted to FH side booster - Jupiter 3/Echostar 24
B1075.4 Vandenberg booster
B1076.5 Converted to FH side booster - Jupiter 3/Echostar 24
B1077.5
B1078.3
B1080.2
B1081.0 New - Crew 7

Falcon Heavy Exclusive Cores and Boosters
B1064.2 Side - USSF-52 and Psyche
B1065.2 Side - USSF-52 and Psyche
B1074.0 Core - USSF 52
B1079.0 Core - Jupiter 3/Echostar 24
B1084.0 Core - Psyche

Little is known about B1082 and B1083. Possibly planned for a NRO/military launch.

 

[Grendal]

Latest update:

Falcon 9 Standard Boosters
B1058.16
B1060.16
B1061.14
B1062.15
B1063.12 Vandenberg booster
B1067.12
B1069.9
B1071.10 Vandenberg Booster
B1072.0 New - Being held for Cygnus launch
B1073.9
B1075.5 Vandenberg booster
B1076.6
B1077.6
B1078.4
B1080.2
B1081.0 New - Crew 7

Falcon Heavy Exclusive Cores and Boosters
B1064.3 Side - USSF-52 and Psyche
B1065.3 Side - USSF-52 and Psyche
B1079.0 Core - USSF 52
B1084.0 Core - Psyche

Little is known about B1082 and B1083. They are awaiting testing at McGregor and possibly planned for a NRO/military launch. Possibly the upcoming USSF-36 and the NROL-69....

 

[ecarfan]

In the history of orbital class rockets, I’m pretty sure that no entity has ever had anywhere close to that number of boosters (of the same type) ready to fly.

 

[Grendal]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1698044026262286398

Aiming for 10 Falcon flights in a month by end of this year, then 12 per month next year.

Great work by the SpaceX team successfully launching 61 Falcon rocket missions this year! If tomorrow’s mission goes well, we will exceed last year’s flight count. SpaceX has delivered ~80% of all Earth payload mass to orbit in 2023. China is ~10% & rest of world other ~10%.

SpaceX did gain another launch facility at Vandenberg to launch from. That makes two in Florida and two at Vandenberg. The extra launch site should allow SpaceX to pull off 12 a month.

Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 6 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Grendal]

Latest update:

Falcon 9 Standard Boosters
B1058.17
B1060.16
B1061.15
B1062.15
B1063.13 Vandenberg booster
B1067.13
B1069.9
B1071.11 Vandenberg Booster
B1072.0 New - Being held for Cygnus launch in Dec '23
B1073.10
B1075.5 Vandenberg booster
B1076.7
B1077.7
B1078.5
B1080.3
B1081.1
B1082.0
B1083.0

Falcon Heavy Exclusive Cores and Boosters
B1064.3 Side - USSF-52, Psyche, and Europa Clipper (Expended)
B1065.3 Side - USSF-52, Psyche, and Europa Clipper (Expended)
B1079.0 Core - Psyche
B1084.0 Core - USSF-52

 

[Electroman]

Are they manufacturing any more new boosters?

 

[Cosmacelf]

Are they manufacturing any more new boosters?

82 and 83 are new and awaiting testing, so presumably yes. Also note that they need to manufacture a new second stage for every launch, and then there are occasional new Dragons, so Hawthorne is kept quite busy.

 

[Grendal]

Latest update:

Falcon 9 Standard Boosters
B1058.17
B1060.17
B1061.15 Vandenberg booster
B1062.16
B1063.14 Vandenberg booster
B1067.14
B1069.10
B1071.11 Vandenberg Booster
B1072.0 New - Being held for Cygnus launch in Dec '23
B1073.10
B1075.6 Vandenberg booster
B1076.8
B1077.7
B1078.5
B1080.3
B1081.1
B1082.0
B1083.0

Falcon Heavy Exclusive Cores and Boosters
B1064.4 Side - USSF-52 and Europa Clipper (Expended)
B1065.4 Side - USSF-52 and Europa Clipper (Expended)
B1084.0 Core - USSF-52

Statistics
264 Falcon 9 launches
8 Falcon heavy launches
244 Consecutive successful launches (Since Amos-6 pad failure)
236 Successful landings
162 Consecutive successful landings since last failure (Starlink Group 1-19)
208 Booster reuses (F9 & FH)
Better than 90% launches with booster reuse for the last 3 years.

 

[Cosmacelf]

And the Hawthorne factory keeps on chugging. Looks like they’ll need several more Falcon Heavy center cores, unless they normally just refurbish a regular F9 core into a heavy center core.

 

[mongo]

And the Hawthorne factory keeps on chugging. Looks like they’ll need several more Falcon Heavy center cores, unless they normally just refurbish a regular F9 core into a heavy center core.

Centers are specialized with the extra reinforcement needed to transfer the side booster loads.

https://twitter.com/x/status/732329443776024576

https://twitter.com/x/status/1023069021057380353

 

[ecarfan]

Ars technica: Next year, SpaceX aims to average one launch every 2.5 days

The goal next year is 12 launches per month, for a total of 144 Falcon rocket flights. Like this year, most of those missions will be primarily devoted to launching Starlink broadband satellites. So far in 2023, more than 60 percent of SpaceX's launches have delivered the company's own Starlink satellites into orbit.

"With our 2 million users, (we) need that constellation refreshed," the SpaceX official told Ars on background. "We're also going to look at direct to cell communications with Starlink, and that's a key feature that gets added next year with those 144 flights."

This caught my eye:

Supply chain management isn't as eye-popping as landing rockets on a floating platform in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, but it's still important. SpaceX is ordering more components from suppliers in bulk and is asking its subcontractors to perform more quality inspections in the factory rather than SpaceX doing them after the parts are delivered.

The 2015 F9 second stage failure was due to a faulty part from vendor that was not properly QAed. I’m sure that SpaceX has learned its lesson from that mistake.

 

[JB47394]

The 2015 F9 second stage failure was due to a faulty part from vendor that was not properly QAed. I’m sure that SpaceX has learned its lesson from that mistake.

But aren't they telling their suppliers to do the QA? It sounds like they're going straight back to the setup that produced the 2015 failure.

 

[ecarfan]

But aren't they telling their suppliers to do the QA?

It certainly sounds like that is the case.

 

[scaesare]

SpaceX is aiming for a launch every 2.5 days... about 144 for next year...

 

[mongo]

10 more launches awarded

https://twitter.com/x/status/1719397356490137636

 

[JB47394]

10 more launches awarded

No Blue Origin contracts, but they may not have bid. I think the requirements were far beyond Blue Origin's ability (e.g. you have to be able to launch from both coasts). Here's a page that summarizes tons of launch contracts, and if you search for "(NSSL) Phase 2", you'll see what they have on these launches. I was interested in the launch vehicles, and ULA is going exclusively with Vulcan Centaur, while SpaceX is using mostly Falcon 9 Block 5, with four Falcon Heavies expending their center core. I saw at least one Falcon 9 with a return to launch site, so the mass being lofted varies significantly.

Something that surprised me is that Falcon 9 is $67 million, Falcon Heavy is $97 million (fully expended is $150 million), and Vulcan Centaur is between $100 and $200 million, depending on how many solid rocket boosters they use. So Vulcan Centaur is undoubtedly more expensive per kilogram of payload, but not insanely so. Here's a video on how ULA wants to make Vulcan Centaur partially reusable. Tory Bruno has stated that recovering the engines is a huge cost savings win.

As an aside, in October 2018, the NSSL program awarded $967 million to ULA for Vulcan Centaur development. Blue Origin and Northrup Grumman also received hefty sums. This was apparently at the time when the government was just starting to move away from buying rockets and instead contracting out launches. I hope that's the last time the government will have to pay for rocket development.

Oh, and the government is taking bids on December 15 for NSSL Phase 3, which consists of 90 launches.