Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s (SpaceX) new version of its Falcon 9 medium class launch vehicle, called Falcon 9 v1.1, will be ready for the company’s third trip to the International Space Station (ISS) this fall, SpaceX officials said recently.
SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk recently described the new Falcon 9’s advances as “fairly significant” upgrades on the vehicle side with improved performance and reliability. Musk said the new Falcon 9 design is capable of maximizing the payload of the company’s Dragon free-flying, reusable spacecraft, which just returned from its second trip to the ISS. Musk said Falcon 9 v1.1’s design could potentially raise Dragon’s useful payload by several tons, which company President Gwynne Shotwell said will help NASA bring even more of the critical types of cargo, including important science experiments, to and from the ISS.
Musk said he hopes to unveil what Falcon 9 v1.1 looks like later this year. Falcon 9 v1.1 is also where SpaceX will attempt to recover the first stage of the rocket, Musk said. Falcon 9 was designed to have the first and second stages recoverable and reusable. Musk said it might be a few flights before the company is successful at recovering a first stage.
“I’m not sure it will be this flight when we are successful, but that is our aspiration and that is one of the key design goals of the new version of Falcon 9,” Musk said.
Musk said SpaceX is assembling the fairing of Falcon 9 v1.1, which is a protective shell to protect payloads located at the top of the rocket. Musk said the company will soon perform the packing and separation tests and will likely release the results in the next couple of weeks, though he warned that since they are tests, things could go wrong.
SpaceX and NASA officials recently held a conference call with reporters discussing Dragon’s trip back from the ISS. Dragon experienced an anomaly with a propellant check valve once it reached orbit on its way to the ISS in the first week of March. Musk said it took the company four or five hours to fix the anomaly before Dragon arrived at the ISS one day later. Musk said he believes SpaceX understands the root cause of the anomaly and will addressed it in future vehicles.
Musk also said SpaceX is hoping to perform a pad abort test for Dragon “fairly soon,” potentially later this year, as part of the company’s participation in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP). CCP’s goal is developing capabilities to achieve safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from low-Earth orbit (LEO) for potential future government and commercial customers.