Just Read the Instructions

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SpaceX Iridium-8 Launch Fulfills NEXT Contract

Posted by Chris Tobias on January 8, 2019
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by Chris Tobias

The first SpaceX launch of the New Year is scheduled to take place (NET) Friday, January 11 at 10:31 AM EST (15:31 UTC).  SpaceX completed the static fire for the Iridium-8 mission at Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg AFB in California on January 6, and will launch 10 satellites of the Iridium NEXT constellation aboard a Falcon 9 from the same pad this weekend.

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(image courtesy AmericaSpace)

The relationship between SpaceX and Iridium traces back to 2010, when Iridium contracted Elon Musk’s private space company to launch its entire NEXT satellite constellation shortly after the very first successful flight of a Falcon 9.  It would be seven years before SpaceX would be able to start fulfilling that contract, but since the first of seven previous Iridium NEXT missions was completed in 2017, SpaceX has been able to launch and deploy each subsequent group of satellites every few months with little interruption.  This month’s launch will be the eighth and final launch of the Iridium NEXT constellation of satellites, and upon its completion, SpaceX will have launched a total of 75 satellites for Iridium in just two years.

The Falcon 9 for this mission will be a previously-flown booster that was launched and recovered in September of 2018 during the Telstar 18V mission.  This final group of ten Iridium NEXT satellites will be inserted into a Low Polar Orbit, and the first stage of the Falcon 9 will land once again, this time at sea aboard SpaceX’s Pacific drone barge Just Read the Instructions.

Those who wish to watch this milestone mission can tune into SpaceX’s live webcast at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel.  Coverage will begin approximately 20 minutes before liftoff.

Peace, love and rockets…

November 19 SpaceX Launch Will Be Monumental on Many Levels

Posted by Chris Tobias on November 17, 2018
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by Chris Tobias

When SpaceX sends the SSO-A SmallSat Express into the black from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Monday, Elon Musk’s private space company will achieve a number of milestones simultaneously.

The launch will be SpaceX’s 19th launch of 2018, and will break the company’s record for the most launches in a single year.  It will also mark the first time that the same Falcon 9 first stage booster will have launched three times.  (The booster will be recovered a third time as well, this time on the drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Pacific.)

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graphic courtesy spaceflight.com

The payload will also be record breaking.  Spaceflight’s SmallSat Express, which is comprised of 71 spacecraft (15 microsats and 56 cubesats) from 34 different organizations (both government and commercial) that will be “ridesharing” their way into a Sun-Synchronous Low Earth Orbit aboard the same Falcon 9, represents the largest single rideshare mission ever by a US-based launch vehicle.  All in all, 18 countries will be involved in this mission, including the United States, Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, Germany, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Poland, Canada, Brazil, India and South Africa.

SSO-A’s Falcon 9 is scheduled to lift off into the California sky Monday, November 19 at 1:32pm EST.  SpaceX’s live webcast of the mission will begin approximately 20 minutes before liftoff at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel.

Peace, love and rockets…

SpaceX’s SAOCOM-1A Launch This Weekend Will Feature First RTLS Landing on the West Coast

Posted by Chris Tobias on October 6, 2018
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by Chris Tobias

SpaceX plans to launch the SAOCOM-1A satellite this weekend from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, with liftoff currently scheduled for 10:21 PM EST (2:21 UTC) on Sunday, October 7 from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E).

This weekend’s launch will feature the same Falcon 9 Block 5 first stage that launched Iridium NEXT 7, and will be just the second time that a Block 5 Falcon 9 core has been reflown.  The payload, the SAOCOM-1A satellite, will be delivered to a Sun-Synchronous Orbit, where it will be part of a six-satellite constellation that CONAE (the Argentine space agency) will use to image the Earth in conjunction with the Italian COSMO-SkyMed satellite constellation.

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A Falcon 9 first stage comes in for a landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.  (Photo:  Spaceflight Now)

What makes this launch particularly interesting is that the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to the launch site at Vandenberg AFB to land, which will make it the first RTLS (Return to Launch Site) landing on the West Coast.  All of SpaceX’s previous RTLS landings have been conducted at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.  The Falcon 9 first stage that is being reflown for this mission previously landed at sea aboard SpaceX’s drone ship Just Read the Instructions during the Iridium NEXT 7 mission back in July.

A live webcast of the launch should be available at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel approximately 20 minutes before liftoff.

Peace, love and rockets…

Iridium-7 Next Up for SpaceX

Posted by Chris Tobias on July 23, 2018
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Iridium-7

(Image: America Space)

by Chris Tobias

Elon Musk and company are ready to send another Falcon 9 into the black this Wednesday, just days after SpaceX successfully completed the Telstar 19 mission.  This time the action will be on the West Coast.

On July 25, a Falcon 9 of the new Block 5 variant will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.  The mission is Iridium-7, the latest in a series of what is expected to be a total of eight missions to put 75 Iridium NEXT satellites in orbit.  Once completed, the mission will bring the number of deployed satellites to 65.  Liftoff is scheduled for 7:39 am EDT (11:39 UTC).

The Iridium-7 mission will insert a constellation of 10 new satellites into Low Earth Orbit as part of Iridium Communications ongoing effort to overhaul its communications fleet.  The first stage of this particular Block 5 Falcon 9, which is making its maiden flight, will land on SpaceX’s drone recovery ship Just Read the Instructions in the Pacific Ocean.  The mission will mark SpaceX’s 14th flight of this calendar year.

As usual, live coverage of the launch will be available via SpaceX’s webcast, which should go live approximately 20 minutes before liftoff at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel.

Peace, love and rockets…

SpaceX Aims to Launch Twice this Week

Posted by Chris Tobias on October 8, 2017
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by Chris Tobias

Despite delays (and partly because of them), SpaceX now plans to launch two Falcon 9 rockets this week, one from each coast.

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Courtesy Spaceflight101.com.

On October 9, a brand new Falcon 9 will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as part of a series of satellite launches for Iridium’s next generation mobile communications fleet.  This particular launch, which has been delayed numerous times over the past year, will deploy 10 Iridium NEXT satellites, and is now scheduled to lift off at 8:37am EDT (1237 GMT) on Monday morning.

Then, if all goes according to plan, we’ll see the second launch of a Falcon 9 in a little over 48 hours, as the EchoStar 105 communications satellite heads into the black as part of the SES-11 mission from LC-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  The payload for this mission, which will utilize a previously-flown Falcon 9, is a nearly 11,500-pound (5,200-kilogram) satellite built by Airbus Defense and Space that carries a shared communications payload for Luxembourg-based SES and American EchoStar.  This launch was originally scheduled for October 7, but will now happen mid-week.  Liftoff is currently scheduled for 6:53pm EDT (2253 GMT) on Wednesday, October 11.

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Courtesy Spaceflights.news

These two launches will be SpaceX’s 14th and 15th of the year, as Elon Musk and crew continue to launch at the fastest rate in the history of the company.  On October 4, Musk said on Twitter and Instagram that SpaceX was also “Aiming for two rocket landings in 48 hours this weekend.”  With the adjusted schedule, those will now be weekday landings, but that doesn’t make SpaceX’s plans any less ambitious.  The Iridium-3 booster will land at sea aboard SpaceX’s drone-barge Just Read the Instructions in the Pacific, and the Falcon 9 first-stage that launches the SES-11 mission will touch down aboard her Atlantic counterpart, Of Course I Still Love You.

You can follow all the action of these launches and landings live on SpaceX’s YouTube channel and at spacex.com.  Webcasts of SpaceX launches go live approximately 20-30 minutes before liftoff.

And remember, with SpaceX launching (and landing) rockets at an unprecedented pace, now would be a great time to contact Elon Musk and/or president Gwynne Shotwell to remind them that you’d like SpaceX’s first Crew Dragon, which is now scheduled to launch next August, to be named after Joss Whedon’s Serenity.  All it takes is a brief letter or postcard, or even just a leaf, to make your voice heard.

Peace, love and rockets…

 

SpaceX to Launch from the West Coast August 24

Posted by Chris Tobias on August 23, 2017
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FormoSat5

by Jeff Cunningham

SpaceX is scheduled to launch its 12th Falcon 9 rocket of the year this Thursday, August 24 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

There is a 44-minute launch window for Thursday’s launch, with liftoff scheduled for 2:50 p.m. EDT (1850 GMT).  It will be the fifth launch of a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, and the 40th overall.

The mission is to deploy Formosat-5, a Taiwanese satellite designed to test the country’s aerospace manufacturing capability and collect both color and black-and-white imagery of Earth.

Elon Musk and company will use a brand new Falcon 9 booster for this mission, which will require only a fraction of its lift capability to carry Formosat-5 into orbit.  SpaceX will recover the first stage of this particular Falcon 9 in the Pacific Ocean on the drone ship Just Read The Instructions, after which it will be refurbished and reused.

A live webcast of the launch will commence approximately thirty minutes before liftoff on SpaceX’s YouTube channel and on spacex.com.

10 Good Reasons Why the First Manned SpaceX Dragon Should Be Called “Serenity”

Posted by Chris Tobias on July 14, 2017
Posted in: Articles. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

takebackthesky-740x400by Chris Tobias

Since 2012, we at Take Back the Sky have been leading a grassroots effort to convince SpaceX to name the first of its manned space capsules after Serenity, the fictional spaceship from Joss Whedon’s science-fiction television series Firefly and feature film Serenity.  Despite the fact that we’ve devoted a lot of space as of late (yes, the pun is intended) to covering the many launches that SpaceX has completed so far this year, we still think it’s important that we not lose sight of our raison d’être.  To that end, here are ten good reasons why we believe the first manned SpaceX Dragon should be named Serenity…

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Why SpaceX and “Serenity” Are Perfect for One Another

Posted by Chris Tobias on July 8, 2015
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by Chris Tobias

For nearly four years now you’ve been listening to us tell you all the reasons why Serenity is the perfect name for the next manned US spacecraft.  If you’re a Browncoat, you probably didn’t take much convincing, but even those who aren’t big fans of the series Firefly or the film Serenity would most likely still agree that the name Serenity embodies the ideals of 21st-century space exploration, which is certainly built more upon a foundation of peace and cooperation than the space race of the Cold War era was.

But some of you may still be asking yourselves, “Why are they so fixated on SpaceX?” After all, it was NASA who chose the name Enterprise at the urging of tens of thousands of letter-writing Star Trek fans, and NASA is still the driving force (and paying customer) behind the Commercial Crew Project.  Besides, if what we read in the press is to be believed, NASA wants Boeing’s CST-100, not SpaceX’s Dragon 2, to be the first manned US spacecraft to break atmo since the Space Shuttle Atlantis launched into the black for the final time (on this very date four years ago).

Given the fact that SpaceX’s unmanned Dragon has already completed six successful resupply missions to the International Space Station and Boeing’s CST-100 has yet to leave the launch pad, I’m sure there is a lot of room for debate as to which ship will be ready to make the trip first.  But we’ll save that debate for another time.  Suffice it to say that we believe that when the chips finally hit the table, it’s going to be SpaceX’s Dragon v2 that’ll be ready to answer the call.

But that’s not the only reason why we’re focusing our efforts on SpaceX instead of NASA or Boeing.  It’s also because we believe that SpaceX, unlike the others, cares about the relationship between pop culture and the space industry.  In short, Elon Musk, Gwynne Shotwell and the vast majority of their employees at SpaceX are our kind of people.  And that’s not just some vibe we’re getting.  You only need look at their track record to see exactly what we’re talking about.

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Falcon 9, Dragon and CRS-6: It Was a Great Day for a Launch!

Posted by Chris Tobias on April 14, 2015
Posted in: Launches, Updates. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment
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Photo: NASA

by Chris Tobias

Today was the kind of day that gets us excited about space travel.

SpaceX successfully launched their Falcon 9 rocket and deployed the Dragon capsule, which is currently on its way to the International Space Station with supplies, provisions, experiments and even an espresso machine!

And to top it all off, they darn near pulled off a historic landing and recovery of the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket booster aboard their robot barge Just Read the Instructions.  The rocket hit the bullseye, but came in too hard for a that landing “like a downy feather” that SpaceX was hoping for.

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