Facon 9 is on the road

[Zatnikitelman]

No bets, but HAIL PROBE!
(just so you know, we do have a few rockets assembled horizontally, the Delta 4 right off hand for instance, just not very many.)

 

[Andy44]

No bets for me. I got burned too many times on Falcon 1. But I'm optimistic.

 

[tl8]

It looks great.

Seems to be small by rocket standards, but that could be me.

 

[tblaxland]

(just so you know, we do have a few rockets assembled horizontally, the Delta 4 right off hand for instance, just not very many.)

Hmmm, I guess it depends on how you define "assemble". With a Delta IV, The Common Booster Core(s) and interstage are assembled horizontally. I believe the payload and second stage are separately horizontally integrated. The SRBs (if any) and payload/second stage are integrated vertically at the pad.

Seems to be small by rocket standards, but that could be me.

All similar payload capacity:

Falcon 9 - 54m x 3.6m
Delta IV - 77m x 5m
Altas V - 58m x 3.8m

 

[Arrowstar]

A picture of what appears to be a (mostly?) fully integrated Falcon 9:

I believe this was posted today.

 

[SiberianTiger]

"Once the launch mount and erector are complete, we'll transfer Falcon 9 on to the erector and raise it to vertical early in 2009. Happy New Year!"

Looks :speakcool:

 

[Andy44]

Wow, very pretty. I hope it flies as nice as it looks.

 

[Notebook]

Nothing new from SiberianTiger above, but the BBC has woken up again.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/08/sci_nat_enl_1230888865/html/1.stm

and its a nice pic!

N.

 

[Eagle]

They're going to stand up the Falcon 9 in a few days. The erector is almost complete.

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
Over the last few days, we kept just ahead of our schedule, rotating the launch deck vertical and mating the strongback. We also installed the main lift cylinders, and raised and lowered the launch mount. Today we took the erector to vertical using the hydraulics system (see below). Getting the erector operational is the final step before taking Falcon 9 vertical.


Monday, January 5th, 2009
The New Year got off to a great start for SpaceX with integration of Falcon 9 being completed a day ahead of schedule. Focus then shifted to the launch mount and erector and over the weekend, our team has made incredible progress.
Over the last few days, we flipped the launch mount base and installed it to the launch mount. We also installed the forward cradle and assembled the strongback in preparation for mating to the launch table base. Machining on the forward rail car assemblies was completed, with work on the aft rail car assembly quickly nearing completion, and a significant portion of the hydraulic systems were also installed.
Our next major milestone is rotation of the Launch Deck to vertical in order to initiate mating to the strongback, scheduled for Thursday, January 8th.

Lots of pretty pictures at: http://spacex.com/updates.php

 

[tblaxland]

Lots of pretty pictures at: http://spacex.com/updates.php

Looks nice. Do you know if they are planning to build a hangar to use for integrating the vehicles in the future? Integrating them outdoors seems a little ambitious at 28° lat. Annual rainfall at KSC is something like 50" IIRC.

 

[tl8]

Looks nice. Do you know if they are planning to build a hangar to use for integrating the vehicles in the future? Integrating them outdoors seems a little ambitious at 28° lat. Annual rainfall at KSC is something like 50" IIRC.

The concrete pad the F9 is sitting on will the the hanger, you can see the rebar on the 'office' area in some of the photos. I guess the rocket beat the builders.

 

[tl8]

Falcon 9 is vertical.

http://www.spacex.com/updates.php

 

[Interceptor]

Hey guys I am here in Florida. On vacation and went to the Kennedy space center, and saw the launch pad for this rocket.

 

[Andy44]