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SpaceX to Launch Canadian RCM Mission from the West Coast this Week

Posted by Chris Tobias on June 10, 2019
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by Chris Tobias

In the wake of a successful launch of the first wave of its own Starlink communications satellites, SpaceX looks to return to contracted missions when it launches the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) for the Canadian Space Agency this week.

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Image courtesy SpaceXNow

The launch window for the mission opens this Wednesday, June 12 at 10:17am EST (14:17 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 4 (SLC-4) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The mission’s $1 billion payload will be a fleet of three satellites designed to provide C-band data to the Canadian government and offer maritime surveillance, disaster management and ecosystem monitoring, according to the Canadian Space Agency.

The Falcon 9 booster being used for this launch was previously flown for the Crew Dragon Demo-1 mission back in March.  The CSA had initially wanted a brand new booster for the mission, but eventually settled on a previously-flown rocket in order to avoid any additional delays associated with the production of a new booster.

Following the launch, SpaceX will attempt another landing of the first stage of the Falcon 9 at Landing Zone 4 (formerly Space Launch Complex-4W) at VAFB.  If successful, it will be the second land-based recovery of a Falcon 9 booster on the West Coast.  (The first one occurred last October.)  Officials at Vandenberg Air Force Base issued a warning that the Falcon 9’s return could cause one or more sonic booms that may be audible throughout Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.

For those who would like to view the launch, the SpaceX webcast of the mission should go live approximately 20 minutes before liftoff at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel.

Peace, love and rockets…

CRS-16: It Looks Like Back-to-Back Launches for SpaceX

Posted by Chris Tobias on December 3, 2018
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by Chris Tobias

If we didn’t know better, we’d think SpaceX is celebrating Hanukkah in grand style.  After all, it seems like they’re lighting a very big candle every day now!

With today’s launch of the SSO-A SmallSat Express, which was originally scheduled to launch from Vandenberg AFB in California on November 19, SpaceX is now on the verge of back-to-back launches on two consecutive days from two opposite coasts.  That’s because the 16th resupply mission to the International Space Station as part of the Commercial Resupply Services contract that SpaceX has with NASA is scheduled to lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, December 4 at 1:38 PM EST (18:38 UTC).

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The CRS-16 Mission Patch (courtesy Wikipedia)

At this time the weather appears to be favorable for the mission, which will have an instantaneous launch window.  The Falcon 9 booster that will be used for this mission is a brand new Block 5 rocket.  Its first stage will land at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral.

The Falcon 9 will carry a Dragon spacecraft loaded with 5,673 lbs. (2,573 kg) of supplies, scientific research equipment, experimental hardware and scientific investigations (a.k.a. experiments) that will aid the crews of Expeditions 57 and 58 in their work aboard the ISS.  The timing of the launch is especially interesting since the Expedition 58 crew also launched earlier today aboard a Soyuz rocket.  If all goes well, they will be aboard the ISS in time to assist the crew of Expedition 57 with the capture and unloading of the Dragon when it arrives at the station on December 6.  Operating the Canadarm2 to grapple the Dragon and guide it to the station will be Expedition 57 Commander Alexander Gerst of Germany, who will surely feel like he’s receiving the biggest St. Nikolaus’ Day gift ever!

The Dragon is expected to remain berthed at the ISS for approximately five weeks.  After the crew unpacks its current cargo and loads it full of completed experiments and other materials that are to be sent back to Earth, it will undock (if everything remains on schedule) on January 13, 2019, at which time it will return to Earth and splash down for recovery in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja, California.

Those who want to watch the CRS-16 launch live can log onto SpaceX’s webcast, which should begin approximately 20 minutes before liftoff at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel.

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…

SpaceX Turns Two with Launch from Vandenberg on Tuesday

Posted by Chris Tobias on May 21, 2018
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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…

Next Dragon Resupply Mission to the ISS Slated for April 2

Posted by Chris Tobias on March 31, 2018
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by Chris Tobias

Hot off the success of its most recent Iridium launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, SpaceX now turns its attention to the East Coast and the next in a series of resupply missions to the International Space Station.  A Falcon 9 is scheduled to carry an unmanned Dragon capsule into the black from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Monday, April 2 at just past 4:30 pm EDT (20:30 UTC) for ISS resupply mission CRS-14.

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CRS-14 Mission Patch (image: Wikipedia)

The Falcon 9 first stage for this mission is a recovered booster that was previously re-flown during the CRS-12 resupply mission to the ISS.  At this time it is still unknown whether or not SpaceX will attempt to recover the first stage again during this mission.

As was the case with previous CRS resupply missions, Dragon will deliver cargo and material to support science investigations aboard the International Space Station.

According to NASA, some of the investigations Dragon will deliver on this mission will look at severe thunderstorms on Earth, study the effects of microgravity on the production of high-performance products from metal powders, and even grow food in space!

Dragon will also deliver cargo for research in the National Laboratory operated by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS).  These materials will aid in the testing of the effects of the harsh environment of space on materials, coatings and components, as well as identifying potential pathogens aboard the ISS and investigating an antibiotic-releasing wound patch that is in development.

Dragon will remain berthed at the ISS for about a month before returning to Earth with results of earlier experiments and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

Those who watched the Iridium-5 launch may recall that SpaceX was not permitted to continue its live broadcast from space using cameras on the 2nd stage of the Falcon 9.  This was because the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US Department of Commerce deemed the cameras to be a “remote sensing space system” and required SpaceX to apply for a provisional license in order to use them, which they would not have been able to obtain in time to stay on schedule for a March 30 launch that had already experienced delays for numerous other reasons.  SpaceX has already stated that there is no such restriction for this mission.  And that makes sense… since this resupply mission is being carried out on behalf of the very same federal government that put the restrictions on SpaceX’s most recent mission for a private client in the first place!

As is usually the case, those who wish to watch Monday’s CRS-14 launch can tune into SpaceX’s live webcast approximately 20 minutes before liftoff at spacex.com or on the company’s YouTube channel.

Peace, love and rockets…

SpaceX Iridium-5 Launch Planned for March 30

Posted by Chris Tobias on March 28, 2018
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by Chris Tobias

SpaceX’s next launch, the latest in a series of missions to deploy satellites of the Iridium Next mobile communications fleet, will liftoff on Friday, March 30 from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

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Iridium-5 mission patch (courtesy nasaspaceflight.com)

A Falcon 9 rocket that was previously launched, recovered and then re-flown during the Iridium-3 mission will carry 10 satellites into the black and deploy them into Polar Low Earth Orbit.  Liftoff is scheduled for 10:13am EDT (14:13 UTC).

This mission was to have launched on Thursday, March 29, but Iridium reported an issue with one of the ten satellites during preparation for the mission, which necessitated a postponement until Friday.

It is still unknown whether SpaceX will attempt to land and recover the first stage of the Falcon 9 for this mission.  At this point it looks unlikely, but if there’s one thing we’ve come to expect from SpaceX, it’s a willingness to defy expectations.

For those who would like to watch the launch live, SpaceX’s webcast of the launch will go live approximately 20 minutes before liftoff at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel. 

Peace, love and rockets…

December 22 SpaceX Launch Won’t Feature a Landing, but Will Still Make History

Posted by Chris Tobias on December 20, 2017
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Iridium_Mission-4by Chris Tobias

This Friday evening, December 22, at just after 8:32pm EST, SpaceX is scheduled to launch the Iridium-4 mission from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base.  The mission will carry a fourth set of 10 Iridium Next satellites into the black aboard a previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket, but at the moment there seems to be more attention being paid to what the mission won’t be doing.

SpaceX confirmed earlier this week that it will not make any attempt to recover the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket during this mission.  The previous Iridium missions all incorporated the landing of the first stage of the Falcon 9 aboard one of SpaceX’s drone-piloted barges, so it is curious that there is no landing attempt planned following this launch.

SpaceX hasn’t offered much in the way of an explanation, but the speculation is that this particular model of the Falcon 9, which is one of the “Block 3” variants, is now considered to be outdated and the company is no longer interested in keeping it in service.  SpaceX currently uses a combination of “Block 3” and “Block 4” rockets to carry out its missions, but the company is expected to roll out an updated “Block 5” variant early next year that will be more suitable for reuse.  With the “Block 5” rockets joining the fleet, it stands to reason that the “Block 3” models need to make way on the line for their more sophisticated cousins.

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Iridium-4 mission patch

Despite the lack of a landing (something that has now become a rarity for a SpaceX launch), the Iridium-4 mission will still be an historic flight.  SpaceX will be using the same first stage Falcon 9 rocket for this mission that it used to launch the second set of Iridium satellites back in June of this year.  That means this weekend’s launch will mark the first time in history that a company will launch two different sets of satellites in two completely separate missions using the same rocket!

SpaceX’s webcast of Friday’s launch will begin approximately 20 minutes before liftoff at spacex.com and on the company’s YouTube channel.  There is an instantaneous launch window, and the backup launch date is December 23.

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
Posted in: Launches. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

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.