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Raumfahrt - Start von SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 launch and landing (Telstar-19)

20.06.2018

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As the end of June fast approaches, SpaceX’s July launch manifest has begun to coalesce around at least one pair of launches on July 18 and 20, a schedule that might see the company’s next two new Block 5 Falcon 9 boosters fly from West and East coasts with just 30 hours between them.

While not exactly the 24-hour reuse CEO Elon Musk set the company to by end of 2019, two back-to-back launches of new Block 5 boosters would seem to signify an increasing level of operational confidence in the rocket’s new, upgraded configuration, as well as a return to form in factory production of the complex Falcon 9 boosters, only four of which have shipped in the last seven months.

As it stands today, SpaceX’s West Coast customer Iridium confirmed on June 15th that the company’s 7th contracted Falcon 9 launch is scheduled for early morning on July 20, and Iridium CEO Matt Desch noted that such an early launch just before sunrise holds the potential to create another scare like that from Iridium-4 in December 2017 that had Los Angeles suspecting an alien invasion.

It has yet to be explicitly confirmed, but the booster set to launch that mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base all but has to be B1048, SpaceX’s third full Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket. Barring delays, B1047 – the second Block 5 booster, spotted near Cape Canaveral, FL last week –  will launch the Telstar 19V geostationary communications satellite a bit more than a day before – July 18th – from SpaceX’s LC-40 pad in Florida. Aside from being the foundational second and third launches of Falcon 9 Block 5, the missions will also feature two drone ship landings in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans aboard Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) and Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY).

Putting their titanium grid fins, upgraded heat shields, uprated Merlin engines, and myriad improvements and optimizations to good use, both B1047 and B1048 will – with a little luck – complete their first recoveries of anywhere from ten to a hundred before being secured on the autonomous vessels and carried back to their respective ports within roughly 24 hours of each other. Once there, B1048 (Iridium-7) will likely be shipped a few miles north to SpaceX’s Hawthorne factory, while B1047 will be driven on a purpose-built rocket carrier to one of SpaceX’s several Floridan facilities outfitted for rocket refurbishment.

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Time will be of the essence more than ever before for those refurbishments, as the combined fleet of B1047 and B1048 will have to suffice for any additional launches scheduled for late July or early August, the only alternatives being the rapid shipment and testing of B1049 or simply delaying those launches until boosters can be (safely) made available. Block 5’s purpose-built reusability and reliability-focused upgrades will thus be subjected to a near-immediate trial by fire if SpaceX’s engineers and technicians are happy with the first Block 5 rocket’s teardown analysis and the company is up for the challenge.

Up next, fittingly, is the final orbital launch of a (flight-proven) Block 4 version of Falcon 9, itself likely to smash SpaceX’s previous record for time between two flights of the same booster. The mission, CRS-15, will see another flight-proven orbital Cargo Dragon capsule sent to the International Space Station aboard a flight-proven rocket booster, a veritable tip of the hat at SpaceX’s future ambitions with BFR. CRS-15 is scheduled to launch at 5:41am EDT, June 28.

Quelle: TESLARATI

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Update: 19.07.2018

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Second Falcon 9 Block 5 static fires ahead of Telstar 19V launch

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ust over two weeks after their previous launch, SpaceX is again preparing their Falcon 9 rocket for launch, this time for the Telstar 19 Vantage mission to Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). The second Block 5 Falcon 9 – which includes the unflown core 1047 – conducted a Static Fire test SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral at around 5 pm Eastern on Wednesday.

The launch is currently scheduled to occur on July 22 in a four-hour window stretching from 1:50 AM to 5:50 AM Eastern. Should the current schedules hold, the launch will be the beginning of a 12-day period containing 3 Falcon 9 launches, which includes the launches of Telstar 19V, Iridium NEXT flight 7, and Telkom 4.

This 12-day period will also see an unprecedented 7-day turnaround for SLC-40, from the Telstar 19V launch on July 22 to the Telkom 4 static fire on July 29.

This 7-day turnaround is SLC-40’s estimated minimum turnaround time after its renovation following the Amos-6 on-pad conflagration in September 2016.

The static fire test is one of the most important milestones leading up to a SpaceX launch.

The static fire is a rehearsal of the launch to ensure that the rocket, launch pad systems, range, and flight controllers are ready and will perform well for the launch.

Before the test, pad engineers roll the vehicle – minus the payload and its fairing – onto the pad and raise it vertical. The tanks are then filled with fuel and a short burn of the 9 first stage Merlin 1D engines occurs.

After the test, SpaceX engineers and flight controllers begin reviewing the data from the test, and after a “quick look” review, announce on Twitter whether or not the test was a success.

The fuel tanks are then drained, and the vehicle rolls back into the hangar for payload integration.

The vehicle being prepared for the static fire is the second Block 5 Falcon 9 and includes the first stage core 1047.

Block 5 is the final version of the Falcon 9, intended to be rapidly and inexpensively reused. The first stage is designed to be reused once every 48 hours, with only inspections between every flight. After a booster performs ten flights, it then undergoes a more in-depth refurbishment before returning to service – and may perform up to 100 flights before retirement.

Block 5 debuted on May 11, 2018 for the Bangabandhu-1 mission. The launch was a complete success, with the Bangabandhu-1 satellite being deployed into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), and the first stage landing successfully on the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS) Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY).

Core 1047 will also land on OCISLY during this mission as SpaceX resumes regular first stage landings. For the past seven missions reusing a Block 3 or Block 4 first stage, SpaceX opted to expend the first stages, as they could only be flown two times.

Core 1047 was first seen on the first stage test stand at SpaceX’s test facility in McGregor, Texas on April 18, 2018, while being prepared for a long-duration static fire test.

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After testing in McGregor was complete, 1047 was transported via road to Cape Canaveral to begin preparations for the Telstar 19 Vantage mission. These preparations included attaching the landing legs and grid fins, mating the first stage with the second, and integrating the vehicle onto the strongback.

The final preparations will include mating Telstar 19 Vantage and the payload fairing onto the vehicle after the static fire is complete.

Telstar 19 Vantage is be a geostationary communications satellite owned and operated by Telesat. It was built by Space Systems/Loral after being awarded the contract in November 2015. The satellite will have coverage across South America, North America and the northern Atlantic Ocean, with one Ka-band antenna and one Ku-band antenna.

Telstar 19V will be co-located with Telesat’s older Telstar 14R satellite.

Telstar 19 Vantage weighs approximately 5.4 metric tons, which means the first stage will be able to land on Of Course I Still Love You.

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After this mission, there will be around 14 Falcon 9 launches and 1 Falcon Heavy launch left this year, depending on mission delays.

The next launch will be the seventh Iridium NEXT flight for Iridium Communications. It will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base SLC-4E No Earlier Than (NET) July 25  using first stage core 1048, the third Block 5 core.

Quelle: NS

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Update: 20.07.2018

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Good Falcon 9 Test Fire Paves Way For Telstar 19 VANTAGE Launch From Florida Sunday

Telstar 19 VANTAGE shown in antenna testing at SSL in Palo Alto, Calif, before it was shipped to Cape Canaveral AFS. Photo: SSL / Telesat

With a successful test fire today of a SpaceX Falcon 9 ‘Block 5’ rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, it’s all system GO for launch of the next in a new generation of Telesat VANTAGE communication satellites called Telstar 19 VANTAGE. Liftoff from Launch Complex-40 is currently targeting July 22 at 1:50 a.m. EDT (05:50 UTC), with the launch window extending to 5:50 a.m. EDT. A backup launch date is scheduled for July 23 if needed.

Initial launch weather predictions from the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing suggest a 60% chance of favorable, but cloudy, conditions expected through the launch window, with “thick clouds” and “cumulous clouds” the main concerns on both nights.

 

Built by Space Systems Loral (SSL) in Palo Alto, CA, the new state-of-the-art, high throughput satellite (HTS) will be co-located with Telesat’s Telstar 14R satellite at 63 degrees West to serve Latin America, Northern Canada and mobile broadband requirements in the Caribbean and North Atlantic.

Artistic rendition of the Telstar 19 VANTAGE satellite. Image Credit: SSL.

Designed for an in-orbit life of more than 15 years, Telstar 19 VANTAGE has two high throughput payloads, one in Ku-band and the other in Ka-band, to support a range of services, including advanced broadband connectivity for consumer, enterprise and mobility users. Based on the highly reliable SSL 1300 platform, which supports a broad range of applications and makes use of the latest technology advances, the satellite combines broad regional beams and powerful HTS spot beams enabling customers to “maximize throughput and spectral efficiency while optimizing network performance“.

Hughes Network Systems LLC (Hughes) has made a significant commitment to utilize the satellite’s high throughput Ka-band capacity in South America to expand its broadband satellite services,” says Telesat. “The satellite has additional high throughput Ka-band capacity over Northern Canada, the Caribbean and the North Atlantic Ocean. It will also provide high throughput and conventional Ku-band capacity over Brazil, the Andean region and the North Atlantic Ocean.”

Bell Canada has signed a 15-year contract for substantially all of the HTS spot beam capacity over northern Canada on Telstar 19 VANTAGE, which will allow Bell Canada subsidiary Northwestel to dramatically enhance broadband connectivity for communities in Nunavut, Canada’s northernmost territory.

The mission will mark the second flight of SpaceX’s new ‘Block 5’ rocket, the final major evolution of their Falcon 9. Although visibly similar to its predecessors, standing 230 feet (70 meters) tall, the ‘Block 5’ is characterized by an approximately 7-8-percent thrust increase across all of its Merlin 1D+ engines, strengthened landing legs, improved reusability performance and enhanced flight control systems. Its design represents the culmination of years of development, incorporating many changes to allow SpaceX to refurbish and reuse their rockets much faster, and fly more missions with a single booster, all while keeping costs down.

Launch of Bangabandhu 1 atop the first SpaceX ‘Block 5’ Falcon 9 rocket from KSC pad 39A on May 11, 2018. Photo Credit: Mike Killian / AmericaSpace

The key to Block 5 is that it’s designed to do 10 or more flights with no refurbishment between each flight — or at least not scheduled refurbishment between each flight. The only thing that needs to change is you reload propellant and fly again,” said Elon Musk in a media teleconference last May.

Our goal, just to give you a sense of how reusable we think the design can be, we intend to demonstrate two orbital launches of the same Block 5 vehicle within 24 hours, no later than next year. Toward the end of next year we’ll see the first Block 5 seeing [its] 10th flight. And like I said, next year is when we intend to demonstrate re-flight of the same primary rocket booster within — basically, same day re-flight of the same rocket. I think that’s really a key milestone,” he added.

But perhaps more importantly, the ‘Block 5’ is what NASA will certify to launch crews on. SpaceX needs to fly it in a “crew configuration” seven times before NASA will clear it to put their astronauts onboard. However, the rocket launching Sunday with Telstar 19 VANTAGE will not count towards that certification, and neither did the maiden flight of a ‘Block 5′ back on May 11, which launched the Bangabandhu-1 satellite for Bangladesh from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, because SpaceX has yet to implement a critical new design for the rocket’s second stage cryogenic helium pressurant tanks.

One of three composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) inside the second stage liquid oxygen (LOX) tank failed back in 2016, which led to an on-pad explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket back in 2016. COPVs are used to store cold helium which is used to maintain tank pressure.

NASA and SpaceX stated back in May that the first launch with the redesigned helium tanks won’t fly until Crew Dragon Demo-1, which was scheduled for August, but won’t fly now until at least the fall. Only then will NASA begin counting launches of ‘Block 5’ towards the 7-flights needed for crew certification.

As for the rocket launching Telstar 19 VANTAGE, it will aim to land on the company’s offshore autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) shortly after launch.

Quelle: AS

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Update: 22.07.2018 / 7.30 MESZ

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Weather 60% GO for SpaceX Telstar 19 Launch Attempt Tonight from Florida

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SpaceX is counting down to a launch attempt late tonight with their second Falcon 9 ‘Block 5’ rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, to deploy the next in a new generation of Telesat VANTAGE communication satellites to orbit called Telstar 19 VANTAGE. Liftoff from Launch Complex-40 is targeting July 22 at 1:50 a.m. EDT (05:50 UTC), with the launch window extending to 5:50 a.m. EDT. A backup launch date is scheduled for July 23 if needed.

Launch weather predictions from the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing have remained consistent all week, predicting a 60% chance of favorable, but cloudy, conditions expected through the launch window, with “thick clouds” and “cumulous clouds” the main concerns on both nights.

 

Built by Space Systems Loral (SSL) in Palo Alto, CA, the new state-of-the-art, high throughput satellite (HTS) will be co-located with Telesat’s Telstar 14R satellite at 63 degrees West to serve Latin America, Northern Canada and mobile broadband requirements in the Caribbean and North Atlantic.

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Telstar 19 VANTAGE shown in antenna testing at SSL in Palo Alto, Calif, before it was shipped to Cape Canaveral AFS. Photo: SSL / Telesat

Designed for an in-orbit life of more than 15 years, Telstar 19 VANTAGE has two high throughput payloads, one in Ku-band and the other in Ka-band, to support a range of services, including advanced broadband connectivity for consumer, enterprise and mobility users. Based on the highly reliable SSL 1300 platform, which supports a broad range of applications and makes use of the latest technology advances, the satellite combines broad regional beams and powerful HTS spot beams enabling customers to “maximize throughput and spectral efficiency while optimizing network performance“.

Hughes Network Systems LLC (Hughes) has made a significant commitment to utilize the satellite’s high throughput Ka-band capacity in South America to expand its broadband satellite services,” says Telesat. “The satellite has additional high throughput Ka-band capacity over Northern Canada, the Caribbean and the North Atlantic Ocean. It will also provide high throughput and conventional Ku-band capacity over Brazil, the Andean region and the North Atlantic Ocean.”

Bell Canada has signed a 15-year contract for substantially all of the HTS spot beam capacity over northern Canada on Telstar 19 VANTAGE, which will allow Bell Canada subsidiary Northwestel to dramatically enhance broadband connectivity for communities in Nunavut, Canada’s northernmost territory.

The mission will mark the second flight of SpaceX’s new ‘Block 5’ rocket, the final major evolution of their Falcon 9. Although visibly similar to its predecessors, standing 230 feet (70 meters) tall, the ‘Block 5’ is characterized by an approximately 7-8-percent thrust increase across all of its Merlin 1D+ engines, strengthened landing legs, improved reusability performance and enhanced flight control systems. Its design represents the culmination of years of development, incorporating many changes to allow SpaceX to refurbish and reuse their rockets much faster, and fly more missions with a single booster, all while keeping costs down.

But perhaps more importantly, the ‘Block 5’ is what NASA will certify to launch crews on. SpaceX needs to fly it in a “crew configuration” seven times before NASA will clear it to put their astronauts onboard. However, the rocket launching Sunday with Telstar 19 VANTAGE will not count towards that certification, and neither did the maiden flight of a ‘Block 5′ back on May 11, which launched the Bangabandhu-1 satellite for Bangladesh from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, because SpaceX has yet to implement a critical new design for the rocket’s second stage cryogenic helium pressurant tanks.

One of three composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) inside the second stage liquid oxygen (LOX) tank failed back in 2016, which led to an on-pad explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket back in 2016. COPVs are used to store cold helium which is used to maintain tank pressure.

NASA and SpaceX stated back in May that the first launch with the redesigned helium tanks won’t fly until Crew Dragon Demo-1, which was scheduled for August, but won’t fly now until at least the fall. Only then will NASA begin counting launches of ‘Block 5’ towards the 7-flights needed for crew certification.

As for the rocket launching Telstar 19 VANTAGE, it will aim to land on the company’s offshore autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) shortly after launch.

Quelle: AS

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LIVE-Frams von SpaceX Falcon-9 Launch

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Quelle: SpaceX

 

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