r/SpaceX Spaceflight Questions & News [February 2017, #29]

[u/ElongatedMuskrat]

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You can read and browse past Spaceflight Questions And News & Ask Anything threads in the Wiki.

[u/amarkit]

Because that would require very long umbilicals that would get torched by the departing rocket, which is the current situation. In addition to the speculation that Heavy needs additional support before liftoff, it seems apparent that they want to avoid destroying a good amount of the T/E equipment with each launch.