SpaceX Falcon 9 1.1 Production Line

On the new observation platform with my partner Randy Glein, who used to work at Hughes and Martin Marietta.

 

Below us, booster and second stages get ready for shipment. The white structure on the left is the paint booth, directly fed from the friction-stir-welder contraption. With version 1.1, the booster switches the 3x3 motor block to an Octaweb that's flush with the body with a ring of the new Merlin 1D engines (manufacturing, testing).

 

After three weeks docked to the ISS, the SpaceX Dragon capsule will separate later this evening at 4am PST and bring 1.3 tons of scientific payloads back to Earth (the only spacecraft capable of doing that). More links below.

Done