Chris Bergin has an extensive story over at NASA Spaceflight.
It would be nice to see them get in four more flights this year, but it seems unlikely. In any event, if they start flying again in November, that would be a pretty fast recovery, in historical terms with other launch failures, particularly with a relatively new vehicle.
[Update a few minutes later]
And here’s a story about Lee Rosen’s announcement in Pasadena that Falcon Heavy will debut this spring.
[Updatea while later]
Bad second link. Fixed now, sorry.
Both links point to the same page.
I think this is the Lee Rosen article you were referring to.
http://spacenews.com/first-falcon-heavy-launch-scheduled-for-spring/
From that article:
That first launch will be a demonstration mission without a paying customer.
I’ve said before that I would love to see them send an unmanned Dragon on a circumlunar flight. It would be great PR, and would show the public that we’re not as far from being able to go back to the moon as they think.
Or a Dragon 2 fully capable of crewed flight including LES. If something goes wrong with the FH they test the LES, if everything works fine they send a vehicle fully capable of carrying crew to the moon and back.
I don’t know that Dragon 2 will be ready by that time, but that’s a good idea too.
I forgot to mention that whichever version they use, it would also be a good test of Dragon’s heat shield, which is supposed to be capable of withstanding those re-entry speeds.
Yes, even a test of only the Dragon heat shield would be worthwhile. I think it has even been promoted as being capable of withstanding not only lunar return velocity but return from Mars velocity as well.
That, or perhaps something slightly less ambitious, is a very good idea.
A very interesting and encouraging article about the RTF. And, of course, the buried throwaway reference to Dragon11 possibly using a refurbished first stage, which will be interesting to follow if it truly pans out.
Unrelated, there seems to be a missing /i (or /emphasis) tag somewhere in the main post.
/obnoxious
No, you are a bit confused. The passage reads:
An interesting observation relating to the CRS-11 Dragon is currently being checked into, following claims this spacecraft may include the pressure hull from a previously flown Dragon – with one stripped down hull currently sporting a sign to denote it is destined for reuse
Which alludes to the fact that the dragon capsule of CRS11 may be a refurbished capsule that has previously flown.
Dr. Heidi Fearn touched on this issue during a recent Space Show appearance. Our provider of free ice cream was one of the interviewers.
Do you mean Kathy Lueders?
Ya, probably. I just picked the first name from the block of text. You should know, since you were asking questions.
Actually, guess I picked the second name. I hope the new site has a better layout for show descriptions. I can’t bear to look at it more than a second or two.
Chris Bergin, not Bergen. Second syllable has an *i*.
Thanks, fixed.