Falcon 9 Second Stage Long Coast Demo

Chris Bergin, NASASpaceFlight.com:

For this mission, the Second Stage was sent on a multi-hour coast, tracked by assets in the UK, Africa and along other points on its trajectory, providing data on the health of the stage back to controllers.

While the exact duration of the extended coast has not been revealed, it is known the Merlin 1D Vac did successfully reignite at the conclusion of the demo.

This is encouraging to hear. Long coast periods are key to some more complex flight profiles—specifically direct injection into geostationary orbit—and SpaceX has yet to show that ability. It’s one area that ULA still owns with Centaur and the Delta Cryogenic Second Stage.

There has been speculation that the Falcon Heavy demo mission could feature a direct-to-GEO demo, as well, but that doesn’t really square with the infamous upper stage reusability tweet from Musk a few weeks ago.