Ariane 6 doit accélérer: vraie rupture ou pression face à SpaceX? Le tempo monte et l’Europe joue gros
air-cosmos.com/article/mont...
#Space #Science #Innovation #AerospaceEngineering #Astrophysics #Ariane6 #LaunchRate #NewSpace
Ariane 6 doit accélérer: vraie rupture ou pression face à SpaceX? Le tempo monte et l’Europe joue gros
air-cosmos.com/article/montee-en-cadenc...
#Space #Science #Innovation #AerospaceEngineering #Astrophysics #Ariane6 #LaunchRate […]
6/ TLDR: Expect mean booster turnaround to approach 30 d & new boosters joining the fleet in 2024. Expect either an increase in the proportion launched from Vandenberg (as foreshadowed) or reassignment of a booster to the Cape to balance the load. #SpaceX #Falcon9 #launchrate
5/ Many of the fleet are veterans. Musk stated they are working to qualify them for 40 flights so that should not be an issue. However, booster expenditures (e.g. for Galileo) or unintended losses will have a big impact. New boosters will be needed. #SpaceX #Falcon9 #launchrate
4/ SpaceX assigns boosters to either east or west coast launches & rarely swaps them. Current assignments & days since last launch show that east coast boosters are worked harder - turnaround time might be limiting the east coast launch rate. #SpaceX #Falcon9 #launchrate
3/ Median turnaround time in 2023 was 49 d but it can clearly be done in <30 d so turnaround requirements can likely be met. There is however, a wrinkle: in 2023, 69% of launches were from the Cape, east coast, 31% from Vandenberg, west coast. #SpaceX #Falcon9 #launchrate
2/ With 15 active F9 boosters, excluding FH cores, each F9 booster must fly ~6.7 times in 8 months, for a mean turnaround time of 36 d. In practice it must be somewhat <36 d to provide leeway for scheduling. #SpaceX #Falcon9 #launchrate
#SpaceX #Falcon9 #launchrate The company wants to complete another ~100 launches in 2024 but is the booster fleet currently up to that task? A short 1/
