Re:SpaceX Plans Facility Expansion at Kennedy Space Center
by JshWright on Friday June 08, 2018 @07:51PM
(#17270664)
BFR is projected to have ~5X the lift capacity of the DIVH. That's just a crazy amount of mass. I really don't see the call for single payloads of that size to the orbits that Vandy serves. I certainly could be wrong, but I just don't see enough current or future demand to warrant constructing a pad capable of supporting BFR on the west coast.
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Re:SpaceX Plans Facility Expansion at Kennedy Space Center
by walrus01 on Friday June 08, 2018 @07:54PM
(#17270681)
If you give the NRO the ability to put 14,000 kilogram satellites in orbit they will certainly use it. Even if most of the extra mass is extra propellant for orbit-maintenance ion or hall effect thrusters. A lot of "big satellite" applications that use buses the size of current 6500 kilogram, largest possible telecom satellites, would be very happy to have a few thousand kj of extra propellant tanks available for the same launch cost.