This article summarizes comments made this week by Gwynne Shotwell about the upgrades that SpaceX is making to the Falcon 9 so that it can return the first stage for a landing and still get all the payloads to their destination, including those going to geostationary orbits: SpaceX Aims To Debut New Version of Falcon 9 This Summer - SpaceNews.com.
The improved rocket will also be coordinated with the Falcon Heavy program:
“Falcon Heavy is two different cores — the inner core and the two side sticks,” Shotwell said. “The new Falcon 9 will basically be a Falcon Heavy side booster. So we’re building [only two different] cores to make sure we don’t have a bunch of configurations around the factory so we can streamline operations and hit a launch cadence of one or two a month from every launch site we have.”
Gwynne also commented on the launch abort test (could happen in a couple of weeks), the first Falcon Heavy launch (pad ready by the fall), not becoming complacent about launch reliability, safety of a returning booster to the Cape, and the helium problems that delayed the Thales Alenia satellite launch.
Wrzucam całość z płatnego serwisu; abort pad do 2 tygodni!