Main Engine Cut OffInmarsat Switching From Falcon 9 to Heavy?
While this article by Peter B. de Selding of SpaceNews is focused on the issues Inmarsat is facing after delays on the SpaceX side of things, the most interesting bit is here:
“We have been talking to SpaceX about different options,” Inmarsat spokesman Christopher McLaughlin said. “It’s never easy to fix a launch date far in advance but as of now it appears that we can get a Falcon Heavy launch in the first quarter of 2017, or a Falcon 9 launch in the second quarter.”
While this is posed as an option to help get Inmarsat’s payload off the ground sooner, this is an interesting decision for SpaceX to make in the future, as Falcon Heavy is flying regularly and they are reusing cores.
Will it be more economical to launch these heavy GTO payloads1 on a Falcon Heavy for less-taxing recoveries, or to use a Falcon 9 with hotter reentry and landings on the ASDS?
If Inmarsat does choose to go with Falcon Heavy, I’d be interested to see what flight profile is used in terms of recovery. Full, 3-core RTLS? Or side cores RTLS and center core downrange on the ASDS?
The fact that the switch to Falcon Heavy was proposed to a customer that is already concerned about their launch date says that SpaceX has a lot of confidence in the upcoming demo flight.
Inmarsat’s Europasat/HellasSat-3 is based on the Thales Alenia Spacebus 4000C4 platform, which is just under 6,000kg. That’s slightly more than the listed payload capacity of Falcon 9 to GTO with ASDS recovery. ↩︎