Falcon 9 Sprint
Today, the payload fairing half for our first Falcon 9 arrived at the SpaceX headquarters via a flatbed truck. Tomorrow we’ll remove it from the shipping structure so we can continue fit checking and preparing to ship to Cape Canaveral.
Our newly delivered 5.2m fairing half — from tip to end, the fairing measures approximately 13.9 meters or 45.5 feet.
The monster green of the original primer has been replaced by a clean glossy white. In the next couple days, we’ll prep and test fit the F9 skirt with the fuel tank and the interstage to the liquid oxygen (LOX) end of the 1st stage shown below.
On Saturday night, at about 10:30pm CST, we successfully conducted a full mission duration test firing of the Falcon 9 rocket first stage, lasting 178 seconds (nearly three minutes)! At full power, the rocket generated 855,000 pounds of thrust at sea level. In vacuum, the thrust increases to approximately one million pounds or four times the maximum thrust of a 747 aircraft. The nine Merlin engines consumed over half a million pounds of liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene during the test.
Today we fitted the F9 skirt to the fuel tank end of the 1st stage. Also had movement on the erector, with the upper aluminum truss just coming back from being painted. Activity on the floor is constant and will remain so throughout the week and weekend as we prepare the F9 structures for shipping to Texas for testing before they head to the Cape.
This morning we fitted the interstage to the F9 first stage tanks, ensuring there was good fit before the 1st stage tanks depart for the Cape. The interstage is made of a carbon fiber aluminum honeycomb structure and mates the first stage to the second stage. The interstage will finish assembly and be attached to the second stage before shipping to the Cape.
The F9 skirt shown below is one of many structures being prepped for shipping over the weekend. We also had the second half of the F9 payload fairing arrive on Wednesday. We’ll spend most of the weekend prepping the F9 structures and finalizing shipping plans for getting them to Texas and the Cape.