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21.12.2013
Technicians work on the Thaicom-6 telecommunications satellite at Orbital Science Corporation’s Dulles, Virginia facility. SpaceX is expected to launch the spacecraft atop their new Falcon-9 v1.1 rocket from Florida NET Jan. 3, 2014. Photo Credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation
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Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is targeting Jan. 3, 2014 for their next rocket launch – at least according to Patrick Air Force Base and the 45th Space Wing who is tasked with providing launch support and security to the Eastern Range for every launch from Florida’s Space Coast.
The mission calls for the private company to launch the Thaicom-6 telecommunications satellite, which is commissioned by Asian satellite operator Thaicom Public Limited Company (PLC), and will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) atop SpaceX’s new upgraded 224-foot tall Falcon-9 v1.1 rocket.
Launch of the 7,330 pound hybrid C-band and Ku-band satellite is currently scheduled for NET Jan. 3, 2014 at 5:57 p.m. EST, with the launch window extending until 7:23 p.m. EST.
The satellite, which was manufactured and tested by Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Virginia, was designed based on Orbital’s very successful GEOStar-2 satellite platform, which can accommodate all types of commercial communications payloads and is compatible with all major commercial launchers.
Once launched the satellite will be placed in a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) and will be operated at 78.5 degrees East Longitude. Thaicom-6 is equipped with 18 C-band and eight Ku-band transponders to provide service coverage to the growing satellite television market in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Southern Africa (including Madagascar).
“This deal highlights the confidence that satellite operators have in SpaceX capabilities, and is the latest example of the effect SpaceX is having on the international commercial launch market,” said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk when the deal between SpaceX and Thaicom was announced in 2011. ”Asia is a critical market and SpaceX is honored to support its growing launch needs with a reliable US-based solution.”
SpaceX launched their first GEO communications satellite, the SES-8 geostationary communications satellite, for SES World Skies into orbit less than three weeks ago, and in doing so proved they can do more than just deliver to low-Earth orbit.
“The Falcon 9 will serve our unique needs at Thaicom. This dedicated launch vehicle is both cost-effective and best-matched to our requirements,” said Arak Chonlatanon, CEO of Thaicom Plc. “We look forward to working closely with the SpaceX team to ensure that the Thaicom 6 satellite will be successfully launched.”
Quelle: AS
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Update: 29.12.2013
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SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 conducts Static Fire test ahead of Thaicom-6 launch
SpaceX completed an important milestone on Saturday, successfully conducting the Static Fire test on their Falcon 9 v1.1 at Cape Canaveral. Otherwise known as a Hot Fire test, the SpaceX team tasked the vehicle and launch pad systems through a full countdown scenario, ultimately resulting in a short firing of the rocket’s nine Merlin 1D engines.
SpaceX Static Fire:
SpaceX are deep into their pre-launch processing flow for what is likely to be the first orbital mission of 2014.With a NET (No Earlier Than) launch date target of January 3, this will be the third flight of the upgraded Falcon 9 – and her second from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex -40 (SLC-40)
Per the primary goals of a Hot Fire test, the effort relates to ensuring that the pad’s fueling systems – and the launch vehicle – function properly in a fully operational environment, with numerous requirements to be successfully proven via such a test, such as the engine ignition and shut down commands, which have to operate as designed, and that the Merlin 1D engines perform properly during start-up.
Tasks also include a successful full propellant loading sequence, launch countdown operations, engine ignition operations and testing of the pad’s high volume water deluge system.
With the test providing a dress rehearsal for the actual launch, controllers would have began the test with polling to allow for the loading of Falcon 9′s RP-1 propellant with liquid oxygen oxidizer two hours and thirty five minutes before T-0.
This would have likely been followed with fuel and thrust vector control bleeding on the second stage, performed at T-1 hour.
At T-13 minutes, a final flight readiness poll would have been conducted, which would then be followed by the final hold point at T-11 minutes.
Per the countdown procedures, the tasks would have entered the terminal count ten minutes before ignition, followed by the launch vehicle being transferred to internal power at four minutes and forty six seconds before T-0.
The flight termination system, used to destroy the rocket in the event of a problem during an actual launch, would have been armed three minutes and eleven seconds before launch, and seven seconds later oxidizer topping ended.
Pressurization of the propellant tanks would have been one of the final major milestones ahead of ignition for a short burst to validate the condition of the Merlin 1D engine set.
The SpaceX team are now in the process of checking all the data parameters collated during the test, although SpaceX note their initial findings point to a good test.
With the Flight Readiness Review (FRR) already in the bag ahead of the Static Test, the next major milestone will be the Launch Readiness Review (LRR) next week.
The January 3 launch date has already received a green light from the Eastern Range, ultimately allowing for a launch window that stretches from 5:50 PM to 7:17 PM local time (Eastern).
The mission is tasked with lofting an Orbital-built satellite, namely the Thaicom-6 spacecraft. It will also be SpaceX’s second Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) mission with the Falcon 9 v1.1, following on from the SES-8 mission that successfully enjoyed the key requirement of a restart of the Merlin VacD-driven Upper Stage.
The 3,325 kg (7,330 lb) satellite will be located at 78.5 degrees East Longitude, and carry a hybrid Ku- and C-band payload that will generate approximately 3.7 kilowatts of payload power.
The Ku-band payload will be comprised of eight active transponders providing services to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. The C-band payload will feature 12 active C-band transponders providing services via a regional beam to Southeast Asia, and six active C-band transponders providing services via a south Africa beam to southern Africa and Madagascar.
Based on Orbital’s GeoStar-2 platform, the satellite is expected to have a service life of 15 years.
Quelle: NS
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Update: 30.12.2013
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Launches, test flights make for busy 2014 along Space Coast
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station just after sunset in Brevard County -- Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013. (VIDEO STILL/SpaceX)
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CAPE CANAVERAL --
Next year is going to be a busy one in space.
More than a dozen launches are planned from Cape Canaveral, including flight tests, as NASA and commercial companies work to return people to space from American soil.
On Friday, Jan. 3, SpaceX plans to launch a television satellite.
The launch window for their Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to open at 5:50 p.m. from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
It will be another big year for SpaceX.
The commercial company is not only ramping up more commercial satellite launches, they’ll also continue unmanned resupply missions to the International Space Station.
This summer, SpaceX will conduct a critical test by launching a Dragon capsule with a dummy inside.
It’s all to prepare their spacecraft for future manned missions.
Space Florida leaders are counting on 2014 to help boost work for Brevard County.
“Things are building,” said Dale Ketcham from Space Florida. “It didn’t go away like many people think. It’s still here, and it’s growing, so we’re encouraged, certainly about 2014.”
Perhaps the biggest launch of the year though will happen in September.
NASA’s Orion spacecraft will launch on board a Delta IV rocket for its first ever test flight.
Orion is NASA’s choice to send humans to an asteroid and Mars.
United Launch Alliance also has several government and military missions planned for the new year.
The first is a NASA communications and data relay satellite planned for launch Jan. 23.
Quelle: News13
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Update: 1.01.2014
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Weather looks good for SpaceX launch
SpaceX to attempt mission on Friday from Cape Canaveral
The early forecast is excellent for the Cape’s first launch of 2014, SpaceX’s planned Friday evening attempt to loft a communications satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
There’s a 90 percent chance of favorable weather during a launch window that extends from 5:05 p.m. to 7:17 p.m., according to the Air Force’s 45th Space Wing.
The only concern: strong winds that could peak near 30 mph.
The launch would be SpaceX's second in a month from the Cape of a commercial communications satellite, following the successful Dec. 3 launch of SES-8.
It would be SpaceX’s second from Florida, and third overall, of its upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, a taller, more powerful version of the original Falcon 9.
This time, the customer is Thailand-based Thaicom, which hopes to place its third satellite in a geostationary orbit to provide broadcast services to parts of Southeast Asia and Africa.
If the launch does not go Friday, the forecast continues to look good Saturday, with a 10 percent chance of clouds posing a problem during essentially the same window.
Quelle: Florida Today
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Update: 2.01.2014
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All Systems GO For SpaceX To Conduct First U.S. Space Launch Of 2014 On Jan. 3
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With 2013 now but a memory America’s space program is wasting no time kicking off the new year, with the first U.S. space launch scheduled to blast out of Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Friday, Jan. 3, courtesy of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). The company is scheduled to launch a commercial telecommunications satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) for Asian satellite operator Thaicom Public Limited Company (PLC).
The 7,330 pound hybrid C-band and Ku-band satellite, identified as Thaicom-6, will launch from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) atop SpaceX’s new upgraded 224-foot tall Falcon-9 v1.1 rocket. The mission will be the third launch of the new rocket, and will loft Thaicom-6 skyward no earlier than 5:50 p.m. EST, with the launch window extending until 7:17 p.m. EST.
The satellite, which was manufactured and tested by Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Virginia, was designed based on Orbital’s very successful GEOStar-2 satellite platform, which can accommodate all types of commercial communications payloads and is compatible with all major commercial launchers.
Last Saturday SpaceX successfully conducted a Static Fire test on their rocket at Cape Canaveral, hoisting it vertical atop its launch pad and putting the vehicle and launch pad systems through a full countdown scenario which ended with firing of the rocket’s nine Merlin 1D engines. The launch dress rehearsal, according to SpaceX, went as expected, and the team at Cape Canaveral is continuing with work to support a launch attempt in 48 hours.
Once launched the satellite will be placed in a GTO and will be operated at 78.5 degrees East Longitude. Thaicom-6 is equipped with 18 C-band and 8 Ku-band transponders to provide service coverage to the growing satellite television market in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Southern Africa (including Madagascar).
“This deal highlights the confidence that satellite operators have in SpaceX capabilities, and is the latest example of the effect SpaceX is having on the international commercial launch market,” said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk when the deal between SpaceX and Thaicom was announced in 2011. ”Asia is a critical market and SpaceX is honored to support its growing launch needs with a reliable US-based solution.”
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is offering launch viewing to the public from the Apollo/Saturn V viewing area, which is roughly 6 miles away from SLC-40 and offers the closest public viewing for this particular launch. There is an additional charge to be transported to that viewing area, in addition to the regular admission cost to the Visitor Complex. Off site the alternative free viewing locations would be along the Indian River on HWY-1 in Titusville or along the 528 next to Port Canaveral, although both locations are significantly further than the viewing being offered by the KSC Visitor Complex.
SpaceX launched their first GEO communications satellite, the SES-8 geostationary communications satellite, for SES World Skies into orbit less than a month ago, and in doing so proved they can do more than just deliver to low-Earth orbit.
“The Falcon 9 will serve our unique needs at Thaicom. This dedicated launch vehicle is both cost-effective and best-matched to our requirements,” said Arak Chonlatanon, CEO of Thaicom Plc. “We look forward to working closely with the SpaceX team to ensure that the Thaicom 6 satellite will be successfully launched.”
Friday’s forecast from the 45th Space Wing calls for a 90% chance of favorable conditions expected at T-0, with the only real concern being a chance of strong winds gusting over 30mph, which would violate launch commit criteria. In the event of a 24-hour scrub the forecast for a Saturday, Jan. 4, launch attempt remains the same.
Quelle: AS
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Update: 3.01.2014
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SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch slips to next week
SpaceX’s planned Friday launch of a commercial broadcasting satellite from Cape Canaveral has slipped to no earlier than Monday, according to the Air Force’s 45th Space Wing.No reason was given immediately for the delay.
The Air Force said additional launch opportunities would be available from Jan. 8 to Jan. 12, if necessary.
SpaceX is preparing to launch its upgraded Falcon 9 rocket for the third time, carrying a television broadcasting satellite for Thailand-based Thaicom Plc.
Quelle: Florida Today
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SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 Thaicom-6 launch slips to January 6
Following the successful completion of the Static Fire test on their Falcon 9 v1.1 at Cape Canaveral on Saturday, SpaceX was preparing for a January 3 launch of the Thaicom-6 satellite. However, due to an issue with the Falcon 9′s fairing, the launch has been slightly delayed to No Earlier Than (NET) target of January 6.
Quelle: NS
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Update: 7.01.2014
SPACEX SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES THAICOM 6 SATELLITE TO GEOSTATIONARY TRANSFER ORBIT
THAICOM 6 mission marks second successful GTO flight for the upgraded Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Today, SpaceX successfully launched the THAICOM 6 satellite for leading Asian satellite operator THAICOM. Falcon 9 delivered THAICOM 6 to its targeted 295 x 90,000 km geosynchronous transfer orbit at 22.5 degrees inclination. The Falcon 9 launch vehicle performed as expected, meeting 100% of mission objectives.
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SPACEX SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES THAICOM 6 SATELLITE TO GEOSTATIONARY TRANSFER ORBIT