SpaceX's Falcon Heavy will attempt an early engine ignition test

SpaceX is about to take another shot at Falcon Heavy's first integrated static fire test
Block 5 rocket, a milestone that will open the doors of its commercial launch a few days later.

Falcon Heavy's second static fire test window will open at 10 o'clock in the morning EDT on Friday, April 5th and lasts until 19h Then, after that, the SpaceX engineers will probably spend at least 24 to 48 hours analyzing the data produced and checking the health of the rocket. Shortly thereafter, the rocket will be brought to the horizontal and returned to the main hangar of Pad 39A, where the payload fairing – containing the Arabsat 6A communications satellite – will be installed at the top of Falcon Heavy's second stage. before the rocket returns to the pad for launch.

And we have confirmation that #FalconHeavyStatic shots were postponed until Friday, April 5th. The test window is 10:00 – 19:00 EDT (1400-2300 UTC). The launch date is also slipping. It will not be Sunday. SpaceX will confirm a new launch date once Static Fire is complete. # Arabsat6A pic.twitter.com/waAtUQFSQt

– Chris G – NSF (@ChrisG_NSF) April 4, 2019

If all goes well during these relatively routine procedures, SpaceX should announce a date for the second Falcon Heavy launch, probably no earlier than 4-5 days after the end of the static fire. In other words, a perfect performance tomorrow could allow a launch date as early as 9 and 10 April. The launch less than four days after the end of the static firing tests is rare, even for Falcon 9, which has the luxury of being much less complex (and the data produced) compared to Falcon Heavy, which does not have much to do with it. stole only once and is will attempt its second launch in a significantly different configuration.

Three months after the debut of Falcon Heavy in February 2018, SpaceX introduced Falcon 9 in its enhanced Block 5 configuration, bringing many modifications to avionics, software, structures, thermal protection and even increased thrust of its Merlin engines. The Falcon Heavy Flight 1 included the Block 2 and Block 3 variants of the Full Thrust V1.2 configuration of the Falcon 9, which debuted in December 2015. The two side boosters – Block 2s – had a proven track record and had already been launched in 2016, while The heavily modified core of the rocket was actually a new version of Falcon 9 based on Block 3 hardware.

One of the main goals of Block 5 / Version 6 is the ease of reuse. In principle we could make a new flight to Block 4 probably more than ten times, but with a lot of work between each flight. The key to Block 5 is that it is designed to fly ten or more flights without refurbishment between flights. Or at least no renovation planned between each flights. The only thing to change is to reload the thruster and fly again.

And we have upgrades to all the avionics too. So we have an upgraded flight computer, engine controllers, a more advanced inertial measurement system. [Block 5 avionics are] lighter, more advanced and also more fault-tolerant. It can therefore support a number of failures much larger than the old avionics system. [They’re] better in all respects.

Block 5 has improved the payload in orbit. Redundancy improved. Improved reliability. It's really better in every way than Block 4. I'm really proud of the SpaceX team for the design.

– Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, May 2018

A different rocket

Given the magnitude of the changes made to Block 5, Falcon Heavy Flight 2 is radically different from its only predecessor, as pointed out over 13 months of SpaceX's business to move from Flight 1 to Flight 2. Has SpaceX been able to recover Falcon? The first core of Heavy (B1033) after its launch, it is highly likely that the company would have attempted to replace the three rocket landing propellers a little earlier than in April 2019, but the only thing that could have happened was that it was not until April 2019. Failure of the propeller landing has had an impact on the production plan.

After intentionally using nearly a dozen recoverable boosters from blocks 3 and 4 of the Falcon 9 in 2017 and 2018, SpaceX's fleet of flying kernels had been reduced to a tiny handful. Interrupting the Falcon 9 Block 5 production ramp would likely have been a bottleneck for the 2018 launch rate, and may have contributed to SpaceX's non-compliance with its forecast of 30 and later. 24 launches last year with an impressive 21 at the heart of the center was simply not a priority, as SpaceX needed all the production to build enough Block 5 boosters to avoid significant launch delays .

As a result, SpaceX delayed the production of the first Falcon Heavy Block 5 core core of approximately 6 months and 8 thrusters, sending the rocket – presumed to be the B1055 – to McGregor (Texas) for static firing acceptance testing at Q4 2018. The center The core arrived in Florida in mid-February 2019, following the two lateral cores and a payload fairing.

In the end, SpaceX will probably lead the first commercial launch of Falcon Heavy as cautiously as in the single launch of SSO-A (the firstreflight Falcon 9), Crew Dragon DM-1 (strict surveillance of NASA), and GPS III SV01 (strict surveillance of the USAF), as well as the launch of Falcon Heavy. It took between one and three weeks for the four missions to move from a successful static shot to a successful launch. Falcon Heavy's Flight 2 will probably be similar, but a much faster turnaround is undeniably possible. For the Falcon 9 Block 5, the current SpaceX record is three days, twice in ten Block 5 launches.

Stay tuned for an official confirmation by SpaceX of Falcon Heavy's second integrated static fire, as well as the new release date.

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