SpaceX will launch it's first geo satellite Tue 3rd Dec

[Albert VDS]

From http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/:

Launch window: 2237-2343 GMT (5:37-6:43 p.m. EST)

Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the SES 8 communications satellite. SES 8 will provide Ku-band and Ka-band direct-to-home broadcasting and network services over the Asia-Pacific region. The rocket will fly in the Falcon 9 v1.1 configuration with upgraded Merlin 1D engines, stretched fuel tanks, and a payload fairing. Delayed from July, August, October, Nov. 1, Nov. 12 and Nov. 22. See our Mission Status Center.

Elon Musk â€Â@elonmusk

Will be toughest mission to date. Requires coast + upper stage restart + going to 80,000 km altitude (~1/4 way to moon).

Launch can be viewed live from Cape causeways or via http://SpaceX.com webcast around 5:30 local time on Monday

5:30 pm EST

So that's 22:30 (10:30 PM) GMT.

Edit: Launch scrubbed for Thursday 28th Nov 5:38 PM EST - 22:38/10:38 PM GMT

Elon Musk â€Â@elonmusk 14h

Saw pressure fluctuations on Falcon boost stage liquid oxygen tank. Want to be super careful, so pushing launch to Thurs.

Edit2: New launch date December 2nd

Elon Musk â€Â@elonmusk 19h

Abort was caused by oxygen in ground side TEA-TEB. Upper stage on separate internal circuit, so doesn't face same risk.

The launch window opens at 5:41 p.m. EST (2241 GMT) and closes at 0007 GMT (7:07 p.m. EST).

Edit3: Launch date set at Dec 3rd

Elon Musk â€Â@elonmusk 4h

All known rocket anomalies resolved. Will spend another day rechecking to be sure. Launch attempt tmrw eve w Wed as backup.

From Spaceflightnow.com

After cleaning and replacing engine components, SpaceX is gearing up for another try to launch a Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday on a crucial mission to deliver the SES 8 commercial television broadcasting satellite to orbit. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral's Complex 40 launch pad is set for 5:41 p.m. EST (2241 GMT), the opening of an 86-minute launch window.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Albert VDS

[Rjhere]

Why in the name of science would they launch a geostationary satellite from cape canaveral? That seems like a extremily inefficient way of launching because they have to adjust the inclination! And geostationary orbit is at 35768km alltitude...

[Francesco]

Why in the name of science would they launch a geostationary satellite from cape canaveral? That seems like a extremily inefficient way of launching because they have to adjust the inclination! And geostationary orbit is at 35768km alltitude...

Hah, somebody had my same question. Elon answered this on twitter:

Easier to make the plane change to equatorial orbit. Done in order to reduce satellite side delta V from 1800 m/s to 1500 m/s.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/404063199227437057

This could lead to another question: what's the delta-v required to lower the AP from 80000 to 36000 km then?

[jwenting]

Why in the name of science would they launch a geostationary satellite from cape canaveral? That seems like a extremily inefficient way of launching because they have to adjust the inclination! And geostationary orbit is at 35768km alltitude...

because they have the launch infrastructure there.

They'd have to build an entirely new launch pad, control bunkers, VAB, etc. etc. etc. if they're to launch from an equatorial site, then ship everyone (thousands of people) over there for a while to run the mission, then ship them all back.

Not cost effective if you have a rocket that can do the job from the Cape (and probably not cost effective at all unless you already have a large number of contracts signed for such launches).

[Meithan]

From the SpaceFlight101 article:

Following a Coast Phase, the second stage has to perform the critical re-ignition in order to boost the SES-8 spacecraft into a Super-Synchronous Transfer Orbit of approximately 300 by 80,500 Kilometers, also accomplishing a reduction of inclination to about 21 degrees to benefit the SES-8 spacecraft for an energy-efficient insertion into Geostationary Orbit.

Remember it's cheaper to change inclination when you're moving slowly, i.e., at high altitude.

[sneakeypete]

One would presume that this isn't regularly done due to the inherent risks involved with a second (or third) stage engine restart?

[Tiberion]

It's been done hundreds of times, basically anything a satellite is put into a geostationary orbit.

So that includes all the GPS satellites (launched on Atlas and Delta rockets) and the Russian GLOSSNASS constellation which were launched by Proton. Then there are all the commercial commsats for DirecTV, Dish Network, Sirius/XM and all the other communication companies that have satellite fleets. Those have been launched on a wide array of vehicles; Japanese, ESA, and a handful of private companies in addition to the rockets listed before.

This is just the 1st time a Falcon9 has done it. This mission and the next one are both Geosat launches.

[Meithan]

Apparently, launch profiles that use a super-synchronous orbit in order to reduce inclination change delta-v and thus require several rocket restarts are utilized by the Proton M launch system (which launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome, at 46°N latitude), so they're not that uncommon. From Wikipedia:

For example, the Proton M uses a set of three intermediate orbits, requiring five upper stage rocket firings, to place a satellite into GEO from the high-inclination site of Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan. Because of Baikonur's high latitude and range safety considerations that block launches directly east, it requires less delta-v to transfer satellites to GEO by using a supersynchronous transfer orbit where the apogee (and the maneuver to reduce the transfer orbit inclination) are at a higher altitude than 35,786km, the geosynchronous altitude. Proton even offers to perform a supersynchronous apogee maneuver up to fifteen hours after launch.

[Rjhere]

Oh yea, they are launching it in a geosynchronious orbit with a high eccentricity and inclination. Just like the russians, because if the satellites had an equatorial plane, they wouldn't cover russian land! I remember someone talked about it... might have been my teacher, although Scott Manley is the more probable reason for.this knowledge!

[Kryten]

Oh yea, they are launching it in a geosynchronious orbit with a high eccentricity and inclination. Just like the russians, because if the satellites had an equatorial plane, they wouldn't cover russian land! I remember someone talked about it... might have been my teacher, although Scott Manley is the more probable reason for.this knowledge!

No, it's going into a proper geostationary orbit-it just won't be going directly because it'd take a very high level of delta-v. The sat is intended finish orbital insertion with it's own thrusters, like almost all GSO sats.

[jwenting]

the orbit you refer to is not geostationary, Rjehre. It's a Mjolnya orbit, which sits very high over the north pole, then dives down very low over the south pole to have maximum time over the horizon at far northern latitudes.

These were only ever launched from the far northern base at Plesetsk as far as I know, and only for Soviet coms and spy satellites.

[sneakeypete]

It's been done hundreds of times, basically anything a satellite is put into a geostationary orbit.

So that includes all the GPS satellites (launched on Atlas and Delta rockets) and the Russian GLOSSNASS constellation which were launched by Proton. Then there are all the commercial commsats for DirecTV, Dish Network, Sirius/XM and all the other communication companies that have satellite fleets. Those have been launched on a wide array of vehicles; Japanese, ESA, and a handful of private companies in addition to the rockets listed before.

This is just the 1st time a Falcon9 has done it. This mission and the next one are both Geosat launches.

You might want to check up on the orbits of those navigation satellites.

So apart from the Proton rocket launches, does any other launcher use this transfer method? As the Wikipedia article points out, you've got to have enough battery/solar power to power the upper stage during the wait on your orbits, so i'd imagine that some current rockets simply couldn't do this without some modification.

edit: for reference, I was refering to the supersynchronous transfer orbit in particular, not just a Geostationary Orbit.

Edited November 25, 2013 by sneakeypete

[Meithan]

I'm so nervous about today's launch. But Elon Musk probably has it worse.

From the SpaceFlightNow article:

All of the Falcon 9's preceding missions have carried payloads to orbits no higher than 1,000 miles. Boosting SES 8 more than 80 times higher requires two burns of the launcher's second stage engine, and SpaceX's record there is mixed.

On a Sept. 29 test launch of SpaceX's next-generation Falcon 9 - sporting upgraded engines, stretched propellant tanks, a triply redundant avionics system and a bulbous payload shroud - the launcher released its passengers into polar orbit as designed after one burn of the rocket's upper stage.

Purely as a test objective, SpaceX programmed the upper stage Merlin 1D engine to re-ignite a few minutes later, but the engine's computer controller aborted the restart.

"We always knew there was some risk with the restart, so we made sure that on the first mission a restart was not necessary for orbit insertion," Musk said. "On this mission, a restart is necessary for orbit insertion, so there is a greater bar of difficulty for this mission."

Musk said engineers found the problem was in the plumbing that feeds igniter fluid into the engine's thrust chamber. Between the Falcon 9's two upper stage burns, the fluid lines froze.

"What appeared to be the case on the last mission was that the igniter lines froze due to impingement from the liquid oxygen bleed," Musk said. "There's a liquid oxygen chill that occurs during coast, and the igniter fluid freezes at a relatively high temperature. Obviously, what we've done to correct that is to insulate those lines and ensure the liquid oxygen bleed does not impinge on the lines."

[Tiberion]

You might want to check up on the orbits of those navigation satellites.

Well yes I was generalizing, GPS aren't in geosynch orbit but semi-synch, but they're still in quite a high orbit (20km) and require a 2nd transfer burn from the upper stage.

DeltaII did most of the GPS satellite, and it has a 3rd stage Star-48B SRB instead of a 2nd restart, but the 2nd stage does restart in some configs. A Proton is a 4 stage rocket, with the modern one's using Briz-M instead of Block-D as the 4th stage, but both of them were restart-capabale for Martial, Lunar, Mid or High-Earth orbit insertion.

[Kryten]

So apart from the Proton rocket launches, does any other launcher use this transfer method? As the Wikipedia article points out, you've got to have enough battery/solar power to power the upper stage during the wait on your orbits, so i'd imagine that some current rockets simply couldn't do this without some modification.

Some Atlas V launches have been into supersynch, e.g. of the AEHF sats.

Edited November 25, 2013 by Kryten

[nhnifong]

I hope they produce some better video of the 1st stage restart this time. If they want that to be a selling point to their investors and customers they need to show it off.

[Tiberion]

There is no 1st stage restart this time, or for the next launch because the payload requires that the entire stage be used up boosting the upper stages, and they wanted maximum reliability for their initial commercial customers.

The launch in Vandenburg in Sept was officially an experimental test flight of the F9v1.1 and thus they sold the launch to the CASSIOPE people at a highly reduced cost because of the risk.

[Kryten]

Stream up. Launch in just under 40 minutes.

[PakledHostage]

Livestream has just gone err... live... at http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/007/status.html

Edit: Ninja'd by Kryten.

[Albert VDS]

Stream is a bit laggy. Only 20 mins left.

[Meithan]

Watching stream.

Go SpaceX!

[hugix]

Yeey! It's on.

16 minutes till spacebar!

[Designer225]

Why in the name of science would they launch a geostationary satellite from cape canaveral?

That's where most of the unmanned missions is launched.

That seems like a extremily inefficient way of launching because they have to adjust the inclination!

Russians are not better off; they have Baikonur Cosmodrome (In Russian it is translated to ÚþÑÂüþôрþü Ñðùúþýур, in Kazakhstan (which is more to the Arctic Circle than to the Tropic of Cancer). And yet they managed to launch more overall successful missions. And we did the same thing.

And geostationary orbit is at 35768km alltitude...

Experts have plans for the mission; they are not Kerbals though...

[Sir_Tramalot]

Why has the counter stopped>?

[Designer225]

Got to the stream just in time.