Mr. Steven

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SpaceX Turns Two with Launch from Vandenberg on Tuesday

Posted by Chris Tobias on May 21, 2018
Posted in: Launches. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

by Chris Tobias

SpaceX will make it a double when it launches its next Falcon 9 into the black from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg AFB in California on Tuesday, May 22.  The “Block 4” Falcon 9, which flew previously for that top-secret ZUMA mission back in November, will carry two satellite payloads into Low Earth Polar Orbit– Iridium-6 and GRACE-FO.

The instantaneous launch window will open at 3:47 EST (19:47 UTC).  The GRACE-FO satellites will deploy early in the mission (less than twelve minutes after liftoff).  The five Iridium NEXT satellites will deploy roughly an hour into the mission.

As the name suggests, Iridium-6 will be the sixth mission SpaceX has flown for Iridium as it replaces and upgrades the world’s largest commercial satellite network.  At the conclusion of this mission, SpaceX will have just two missions remaining for Iridium, after which it will have delivered a total of 75 new satellites into orbit– 66 operational satellites and nine on-orbit spares.  The ongoing Iridium NEXT mission is one of the largest “tech upgrades” in space history.

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Meanwhile, the NASA/German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission is intended to continue GRACE’s 15-year legacy of tracking the movement of Earth’s mass.  These twin satellites will allow the distribution of Earth’s mass to be mapped monthly and tracked over larger periods of time.  This will, in turn, provide valuable data about climate change, including changes in ice sheets and glaciers, water levels in large lakes and rivers as well as sea level, and various water and energy cycles.

Since the Falcon 9 being used for this mission is a “Block 4” model, it is unlikely that there will be a landing of the rocket’s first stage.  SpaceX will attempt to capture the fairings, however, and Mr. Steven, the company’s “spider-boat” that was designed especially for that purpose, is already at sea.

Those who would like to follow the mission’s progress can catch SpaceX’s live webcast, which will begin approximately 20 minutes before liftoff at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel.

Peace, love and rockets…

SpaceX Hispasat 30W-6 Mission Will Be 50th Falcon 9 Rocket Launch

Posted by Chris Tobias on March 5, 2018
Posted in: Launches. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

by Chris Tobias

SpaceX makes history at breakneck speed.  In just a few hours, Elon Musk and company will launch their 50th Falcon 9 rocket!

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Hispasat 30W-6 mission patch (via spacexnow.com)

Although it’s become the norm for SpaceX to refly its Falcon 9 boosters, it is actually a brand new Falcon 9 that will carry the Hispasat 30W-6 satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO).  The milestone launch is scheduled for the early morning of Tuesday, March 6 from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.  The two-hour launch window opens at 12:33 am EST, or 5:33 UTC.  (If necessary, a two-hour back-up launch window is available at the same times on Wednesday, March 7.)  The Hispasat 30W-6 satellite, which is designed to provide television, broadband, corporate networks and other telecommunications, will be deployed approximately 33 minutes after launch.

It appears that one of the trickier aspects of SpaceX’s launch-recover-relaunch operations might be the effect that launch delays can have on the ability to recover boosters.  This particular launch was scheduled for late February, but was delayed because additional testing was needed on the fairing’s pressurization system.  Back in February, the plan was to recover this brand new Falcon 9 booster aboard SpaceX’s drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, and the company had even debuted its brand new “spider boat” Mr. Steven, which has been specially designed to catch fairings.  But the SpaceX recovery fleet was called back to port over the weekend, and the official press kit for this mission confirmed that SpaceX will not attempt to land the Falcon 9’s first stage after launch due to rough seas in the recovery area off Florida’s Atlantic Coast.  It’s probably a good bet that SpaceX would have preferred to recover this shiny new booster to fly it another day, but Badger’s assessment of crime and politics in the pilot episode of Firefly applies to the business of launching rockets as well:  “The situation is always… fluid.”

Speaking of fluid, if you’re on the East Coast, you might want to put on a pot of coffee if you plan on staying up to see the 50th Falcon 9 break atmo, but for those who want to watch the launch live online, SpaceX’s webcast of the mission will go live approximately fifteen minutes prior to liftoff at spacex.com.

Peace, love and rockets…