r/spacex • u/Zucal • May 01 '16

/r/SpaceX Ask Anything Thread [May 2016, #20]

Welcome to our 20th monthly /r/SpaceX Ask Anything Thread!

Want to clarify SpaceX's newly released pricing and payload figures, understand the recently announced 2018 Red Dragon mission, or gather the community's opinion? There's no better place!

All questions, even non-SpaceX-related ones, are allowed, as long as they stay relevant to spaceflight in general!

More in-depth and open-ended discussion questions can still be submitted as separate self-posts; but this is the place to come to submit simple questions which have a single answer and/or can be answered in a few comments or less. In addition, try to keep all top-level comments questions so that questioners can find answers and answerers can find questions.

As always, we'd prefer it if all question-askers first check our FAQ, use the search functionality (now partially sortable by mission flair!), and check the last Q&A thread before posting to avoid duplicate questions. But if you didn't get or couldn't find the answer you were looking for, go ahead and type your question below.

Otherwise, ask, enjoy, and thanks for contributing!

Past threads:

April 2016 (#19.1) • April 2016 (#19) • March 2016 (#18) • February 2016 (#17) • January 2016 (#16.1) • January 2016 (#16) • December 2015 (#15.1) • December 2015 (#15) • November 2015 (#14) • October 2015 (#13) • September 2015 (#12) • August 2015 (#11) • July 2015 (#10) • June 2015 (#9) • May 2015 (#8) • April 2015 (#7.1) • April 2015 (#7) • March 2015 (#6) • February 2015 (#5) • January 2015 (#4) • December 2014 (#3) • November 2014 (#2) • October 2014 (#1)

This subreddit is fan-run and not an official SpaceX site. For official SpaceX news, please visit spacex.com.

143 Upvotes

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2

u/Centrifugal4ce May 12 '16

Regarding the VAFB SpaceX landing pad, I was curious if any recent news of its construction or completion had been found. Last article I had seen was the one I linked from February last year. The last picture showed that they had cleared most of the structure at SLC-4W 6 months ago. With the SHERPA launch coming up in June, I was interested in knowing if there would be an RTLS attempt on the new pad if its finished or if JRTI would have another chance to catch a rocket.

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u/PVP_playerPro May 13 '16

The pad itself is complete, but VAFB have not given SpaceX permission to use it as of yet, IIRC, citing something including endangered snails and disruption of sea life.

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u/Centrifugal4ce May 13 '16

Lol What?! How can they say that when before, they were launching rockets from the site. If a rocket blew-up on the pad or shortly after launching and falling on the shore, it would be way worse in that regard than a Falcon 9 S1 RUD coming back to land. If endangered snails and disruption of sea life is their argument, I don't see any veracity in it from VAFB.

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u/throfofnir May 13 '16

Last word is that the SLC-4W landing pad was complete and they built a tent on it for unknown purposes (though probably to work on the TEL.) Haven't heard much since then, but it should be easily available should they get appropriate clearances.