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

[tygoo7]

Great job SpaceX!

[duncan1297]

Darn I missed it.

[goldenpeach]

Can't wait for the updates.

I think that my next hours will consist of updating spacex website!

[Scotius]

Whew. What a relief. It was very... nominal Kinda anticlimactic after all that mess at earlier launch attempt - but all's well that ends well. Yay SpaceX!

[lajoswinkler]

Great launch.

Too bad there hasn't been any data on the screen, but all in all, it was fun.

[Albert VDS]

What a relieve when the F9 cleared the tower.

Man, that were some exciting moments.

[Meithan]

Successful rocket launches make me so happy

[VirtualCLD]

I was so tense all the way until 2nd stage ignition. So many scrubbed launch attempts makes it so much more scary.

the real test will come when they attempt to reignite the second stage engine. It should be shut down by now; anyone know when it is supposed to reignite?

Looks like the spaceflightnow.com feed answered my question:

2252 GMT (5:52 p.m. EST)

After a loss of the live video transmission from the Falcon 9 second stage, SpaceX confirms the rocket has arrived in its preliminary parking orbit.

The Falcon 9 second stage is now in a coast phase scheduled to last about 18 minutes. The Merlin 1D engine will fire again at about T+plus 27 minutes for approximately 71 seconds.

Spacecraft separation is scheduled for T+plus 31 minutes, 15 seconds, but SpaceX plans to end the webcast in a few minutes. News of the outcome of the critical second burn and deployment of SES 8 will come later.

[Faark]

Congratz SpaceX for an apparently successful launch.

Though the video stream did felt kinda cheap... sparse comments, an out of sync countdown (that thus was removed a few seconds before liftoff), frequent camera hops that (at least in flight) did not offer as nice pictures as Chang'e 3 and still no proper no-contact animation. But its definitively getting better.

Hope re-lighting the 2nd stage will work fine!

[Kilmeister]

Ugh, Missed it. Stupid work, always getting in the way!

[Albert VDS]

As any major SpaceX launch, it will be up on their livestream page: http://new.livestream.com/spacex

Or maybe it will be up on Youtube sooner than that.

[Albert VDS]

SpaceX â€Â@SpaceX 45s

#Falcon9 second stage restart burn successful. Orbit looks nominal.

Woo!

SpaceX â€Â@SpaceX 13s

Spacecraft separation confirmed! SES-8 is now in its targeted GEO transfer orbit.

Great work, SpaceX.

Edited December 3, 2013 by Albert VDS

[Camacha]

So it is basically a textbook up > stage > up > meco > coast close to apoapsis > circularize, right? I know they use a supersynchronous orbit to reduce necessary delta-v, but I am not too sure about the details and it seems like the procedure is basically the same.

[Kryten]

Not in terms of up to now. The second burn simply raised the apogee, and now the satellite will have to do burns with it's own propulsion system to change the incilination, raise the perigee, and then lower the apogee.

[Camacha]

The second burn simply raised the apogee

You mean the second stage, right?

and now the satellite will have to do burns with it's own propulsion system to change the incilination, raise the perigee, and then lower the apogee.

Of course, I forgot to add that last bit. Kind of essential for the supersynchronous move.

[zarakon]

You mean the second stage, right?

The second stage burned twice. First to reach parking orbit, then after coasting to the equator it was restarted to boost to GTO

Restart was good, apogee raised to 80k km (50k miles). Yes!!!

Isn't 50k miles twice as high as it should be?

I guess that does make the inclination change cheaper for the satellite, even if it does have to then spend a bit extra to lower the apogee

[Camacha]

Does anyone have a good source for the trajectory used in this launch? What I could find was not exemplary when it comes to clarity.

I guess that does make the inclination change cheaper for the satellite, even if it does have to then spend a bit extra to lower the apogee

That is that supersynchronous thing

[Albert VDS]

Elon Musk â€Â@elonmusk 7m

View of Earth from upper stage rear view camera at 8,000 miles pic.twitter.com/V4tdMUA48X

[numerobis]

This link is a neat log of the recent Falcon 9 launch to GEO.

What I liked best was the discussion of the phases of flight: ignition, launch, pitch-over, stage separation, second stage, coast to the equator, second stage reignites to raise apoapsis and reduce inclination, then the payload will raise periapsis and zero out the inclination.

It's a nice overview of how we all should be launching (when we aren't launching from the equator).

[SebLavK]

Glad to see they finally were able to launch

[Francesco]

To me, it's interesting that the second burn last only a bit more than a minute.

Falcon 9's second stage has a powerful engine (800kN), so I guess that's the reason.

Does anyone know how much delta-v is required for such a maneuver?

And for a conventional (non-supersynchronous) GTO burn instead?

[Camacha]

This link is a neat log of the recent Falcon 9 launch to GEO.

It is a nice overview, but a perhaps more graphical representation of what is supposed to happen would be more helpful. That is what you would translate into the commands needed.

[Camacha]

Does anyone know how much delta-v is required for such a maneuver?

And for a conventional (non-supersynchronous) GTO burn instead?

Elon Musk Twittered:

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.

[Francesco]

@ Camacha: no, I meant what's the delta-v for the apogee raising burn, not for the circularization one.

[ferram4]

It's somewhere around 3.0 km/s. I think it's about 2.9 km/s to raise apogee to 35,768 km from LEO, and about 3.1 km/s to raise apogee out to Lunar orbit, so it's somewhere in between those.