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iewgnem

Senior Member
Registered Member
I may be wrong here, but I remember Jupiter 3 being a lot larger than 6 tons - more than 9 tons to be exact, the largest commsat ever built, by far. And FH lobbed that to GTO.
You realize the fact that they've never tried dual payload missions, the standard for Ariane 5, means Falcon Heavy is really just a Long March 7 class rocket, lol

I should also remind you FH need to expend the center core for missions of only 5 tons to GTO
 

gelgoog

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
FH has a weak upper stage and the fairing is too small for large payloads. That is why.
It basically has the same upper stage as a regular Falcon 9. It is just nonsense.

How can you even dual manifest when your upper stage rocket engine cannot do multiple restarts?
Unless the satellites themselves have their own propulsion to place themselves in the target orbit this is impossible.
 
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Dante80

Junior Member
Registered Member
@iewgnem, I was simply responding to your post alleging that FH "has not managed to launch a single payload larger than 6 tons" (sic)

How can you even dual manifest when your upper stage rocket engine cannot do multiple restarts?
Unless the satellites themselves have their own propulsion to place themselves in the target orbit this is impossible.

The F9/FH upper stage uses a Merlin MVac engine that can do multiple restarts. Which is partly why some of its missions have been straight GEO injections.

Both Falcon 9 and FH have had dual/multiple manifest payloads. For FH, look at the ViaSat-3 Americas/Aurora 4A (Arcturus)/GS-1 mission.

Again, guys, I'm not trying to prove any point. It's just that you post things that are wrong. Do better.
 
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gelgoog

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
So did they add multiple cartridges of hypergolics to Merlin Vacuum or something? It did not use to have them.
But it is still underpowered for the FH. And the fairing is too small.
 

Dante80

Junior Member
Registered Member
So did they add multiple cartridges of hypergolics to Merlin Vacuum or something? It did not use to have them.
My understanding is that the first time a MVac was re-ignited for a second time in orbit was back in 2013 during SES-8, the first SpaceX GTO mission.

But the engine was capable of at least two re-ignitions from the start (so, at least three TEA-TEB canisters) . We positively know that due to what happened in the CRS-1 mission with the secondary payload (Orbcomm-OG2). ;)
 
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