Talk:Falcon Heavy

Booster landing column - and other missing details from the launch history table

Shouldn't the list of FH launches include a column for whether the core and boosters successfully landed? It feels like this would be helpful for ease of reading, so people can see the outcome at a glance, and it would match the booster landing column in the List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. Thedarkfourth (talk) 14:57, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

I was hoping to see the booster recoveries here. It seems a shame that the full list of Falcon launches has more detail on the FH launches than in this article. Any reason not to extract the FH entries from the full falcon list(s), eg showing all 3 core/booster ids., orbit, payload mass etc? - Rod57 (talk) 11:53, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Falcon Heavy has a payload limit well below the theoretical 60+ tons

According to the June 2022 GAO report on major NASA project.

″According to officials, the project office finalized the updated mass allocations for the HALO and the PPE in February 2022, though as of that date, the co-manifested vehicle mass was above the established mission design limits. If the combined mass of the co-manifested vehicle is too high, it could affect its ability to reach the correct lunar orbit. Further, project officials explained that mass affects the overall mission design because the Falcon Heavy has a mass limit. The project office is taking steps to try to reduce mass. For example, the project also created a mass recovery plan and is assessing mass reduction opportunities. The HALO and PPE projects are working with their respective contractors to manage mass. The project is evaluating whether it will need to off-load some components for initial launch, which would then need to be delivered to Gateway on a future logistics vehicle and installed on-orbit.″

The most current Falcon user guide from SpaceX gives an upper limit of just under 19,000kg (figure 3-4).

The launch mass of PPE+HALO appears to be the upper end of what FH can lift to LEO, not due to performance shortcomings but due to structural limits of the Falcon second stage. Ramlaen (talk) 19:48, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

References

• The user guide says, p11 & 13, contact SX for loads outside the curves given. The CG-mass curves seem to be for the 2 standard payload adapters. What is source for mass limit being due to 2nd stage structure ?

• Just to add another data point to this, the ISS deorbit vehicle will be >30t This combined with the PPE+HALO study showing no hard limits in their graph of performance but a smooth curve confirms that the "mass limit" discussed in the HALO+PPE refers to a limit of performance to the highly elliptical orbit, not a structural limit. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.145.220.241 (talk) 19:49, 17 July 2024 (UTC)

Can we note payload to trans lunar injection

Since FH is/was to launch Dragon XL to Gateway, what is the best source we have for FH expendable (and reusable boosters) payload to Trans Lunar Injection (TLI) ? If nothing else, can we use NASA's payload calculation website (see archive-1) ? - Rod57 (talk) 08:27, 1 April 2024 (UTC)

Added 73.210.30.217 (talk) 06:03, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

Is the 2nd stage a standard Falcon 9 2nd stage

The FH centre/core is a strengthened F9 booster. Is the FH 2nd stage a standard or strengthened F9 2nd stage ? - Rod57 (talk) 12:20, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Hybrid RP-1/Hydrogen

I'm not a rocket scientist, but I have a question regardless. Would a combination of 2 boosters (6 x merlin) running on Hydrogen/LOX make it possible to reach orbit? One would still be RP-1 for that Ooomph. Alternatively would 2 boosters running RP-1/LOX and 1 booster running Hydrogen/LOX be able to achieve this? The main question is whether it's feasible to throw _some_ Hydrogen in there, with the knowledge that hydrogen does not generate enough thrust to take off alone (see: SLS, Space Shuttle, Ariane 5, all these use solid rocket boosters to get off the pad). Thanks! (oh btw this is all for the 1st stage obviously). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.187.70.56 (talk) 17:00, 20 December 2024 (UTC)

There is in principle nothing stopping a rocket from using purely hydrogen and oxygen on their first stage (see for example New Shepard or Delta IV Heavy). However the existing Merlin engines and Falcon 9/Heavy fuel systems are almost certainly incompatible with liquid hydrogen and, as far as I can tell, there is currently no indication that SpaceX is pursuing the replacement of their current Falcon Heavy boosters with new ones powered by liquid hydrogen. 138.246.3.72 (talk) 09:22, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Cost per launch infobox

Should this be changed to launch price range? The launch prices given in the launch history are significantly higher, significantly more recent and differ significantly from mission to mission. In my opinion the info box should be removed or changed to align with the actual known launch contract prices from the list of Falcon Heavy launches. Additionally using a range instead of a single value makes more sense given the large spread in launch prices. Finally more recent numbers from actual launch contracts should be used in place of claims made in 2017 (before the inaugural launch) where available. 138.246.3.72 (talk) 09:08, 9 January 2025 (UTC)