SpaceX Successfully Tests Nine-Engine Cluster 182
the_other_chewey writes "At their test facility in Texas, SpaceX, the privately funded space-flight company, have successfully tested their nine-engine cluster which is planned to provide the heavy lifting capability for their Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 Heavy rockets.
The firing lasted three minutes (a full 'mission duty cycle,' i.e. a simulated launch) under full power, delivering 3.8MN (or 855,000 lbs.) of thrust. SpaceX have made a video of the test available. The Waco Tribune has a short report about it, with comments by locals."
"Need Another Seven Astronauts" (Score:1, Interesting)
Well, at least somebody elese is working darüber...
Re:FP (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not a physicist, but I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that it has something to do with those heavy steel/concrete ties seen in the video. If you can provide more than 35 meganewtons of restraint, the rocket isn't going to go anywhere.
(Not to say that such logic is bleeding obvious. /sarcasm)
Now for a real bit of discussion: Does anyone know how tall that test stand is. The thing appears to be HUGE! To the left of the stand you can see what appears to be power lines. An off-the-cuff approximation would suggest that the stand is 6 times taller than the lines. If we take a wild guess at the height of the lines (say, 15 feet?), we can guesstimate that the stand could easily be 90 feet or more in height!
That's impressive for a company who's only launch to date was an oversize firecracker in comparison to the rockets flown by their competitors. I honestly hope that what they learned with the Falcon 1 speeds development of the Falcon 9. A price war in the rocket industry would be awesome for long-term space access.
Uninformative video (Score:4, Interesting)
The great big plume of fire and smoke is impressive, but I would have preferred a pre-ignition closeup of the engine cluster.
Re:How long before the tree huggers complain (Score:3, Interesting)
Burned kerosene. If that bothers our poor environmentalist friends, then they might want to start a protest against Kerosene Lamps [wikipedia.org], portable stoves, home heating (primarily Japan, UK, and Ireland), and jet engines.
Which reminds me. Greenpeace has released a commercial [gametrailers.com] decrying the toxicity of game consoles. It "stars" Mario, Master Chief, and Kratos. Trademarks for which they obviously don't have the rights. (Evidenced by the awful voice acting.) Worse yet, their claims are entirely specious, making bizarre and untrue claims about toxicity and lack of recycling. Hilarious in how bad it is, though.
Amateur home video of launch (Score:1, Interesting)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=i9n6rYoSGNQ
Frightening the cattle (Score:5, Interesting)
The old Rocketdyne [wikipedia.org] engine test center was located a few miles outside my home town many, many years ago. The old timers said that the noise was ungodly when they tested their engines. Among the many things they would complain about in this rural area, was that the cows would become so upset, they wouldn't give milk.
When I was a college student back in the early 80's my friends and I used to love to take my jeep out to explore the "ruins" of the old test center. Most impressive were the deflectors (don't know what else to call them) that shunted the rocket blast 90 degrees to vertical. They were enormous. I have no doubt that the locals weren't exaggerating too much when they described the noise and vibration from the engine tests.
Re:Frightening the cattle (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:FP (Score:3, Interesting)
If I may ask a tangential question, how do you like working for SpaceX out at the test facility? I've been considering applying for one of the test engineer positions out there. Really, the main thing keeping me from doing so is the fact that it's way out in Texas (not because of the usual Texas cliches, but just because I like the Pacific NW too much). Anyway, how are the hours? Any major gripes? What sort of work do you do and what kind of background did you come from?
Thanks and good luck with the testing!
Re:FP (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:FP (Score:4, Interesting)
The website says the top of the BFTS ("Big Falcon Test Stand") is 235 feet high. ... Also, while I love the company, I woudl say that they did just buy the site, including the test stand from another company that I can't remember the name of off the top of my head.
The test stand originally belonged to Beal Aerospace [wikipedia.org] a private spaceflight startup which went defunct back in the dot-com days.
One thing that's pretty cool is that SpaceX is also developing a rocket (the "BFR") that will be too big for the BFTS. Also, I think one can assume from the names that Elon Musk is probably a Doom fan.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/497/1 [thespacereview.com]
The development of Merlin 2 begs the question: what is SpaceX planning that requires such a powerful engine? In past talks Musk has hinted at the development of something called the "BFR" (where B stands for "big" and R for "rocket"), a heavy-lift vehicle far larger than the Falcon family of vehicles. At SpaceVision2005 Musk disclosed that the BFR, in its current iteration, would use "multiple" Merlin 2 engines. The BFR would be able to place 100 tons in low Earth orbit, putting it in competition with NASA's planned shuttle-derived heavy-lift launcher. The BFR is so big, Musk said, that it's too large for the BFTS at their Texas test site: even if they beefed up the stand, he said, the overpressure from the engine tests would break windows in a nearby town. Musk said they would have to test the vehicle either at the launch site or, perhaps, at NASAâ(TM)s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.