The weather outlook is less than favorable for SpaceX as it targets Saturday afternoon for the launch of a previously flown Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center.

Forecasters with the Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron on Wednesday said conditions during the two-hour launch window that opens at 2:10 p.m. are 40 percent "go," citing concerns related to cumulus clouds, lightning and anvil clouds.

"An active, moist and unstable summer weather pattern will persist through the next several days allowing for daily shower and thunderstorm development," forecasters said in a statement.

Conditions at pad 39A improve to 60 percent "go" in the event of a delay to Sunday.

Encapsulated in a fairing atop the Falcon 9 will be BulgariaSat-1, an 8,000-pound commercial communications satellite that marks a milestone for the European country – it will become its first geostationary satellite, meaning it will match the speed of Earth's rotation and stay in a fixed position over the globe. It is designed to deliver television programming to the Balkans and southeastern Europe.

 

If the Falcon 9 – recovered from a January launch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California – successfully lifts off from KSC, it will become the company's second successful launch of a "flight proven" first stage.

The first stage is expected to land on the company's "Of Course I Still Love You" drone ship stationed a few hundred miles off the coast of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX's first success with full-circle reusability came in March with the launch and landing of a previously flown Falcon 9 on a mission for Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sees such reusability as crucial to lowering overall launch costs and increasing access to space.

KSC should see smoke and fire again on July 1 as a Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch from pad 39A at 7:35 p.m. with a communications satellite for Intelsat. A first stage landing will not be attempted due to fuel constraints.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook at @EmreKelly.

Launch Saturday

Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9

Mission: Delivery of BulgariaSat-1 to geostationary orbit

Launch Time: 2:10 p.m.

Launch Window: Two hours

Launch Pad: 39A at Kennedy Space Center

Weather: 40 percent "go"

Backup launch date: Sunday

Quelle: Florida Today

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Update: 17.06.2017

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Weather still iffy for 'flight proven' SpaceX Falcon 9 launch on Monday

Weather conditions remain questionable for Monday's planned launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center, according to the Air Force.

Forecasters with the 45th Weather Squadron on Friday said there is a 40 percent chance of favorable conditions at pad 39A during the two-hour launch window that opens at 2:10 p.m. A delay to Tuesday results in the same – still 40 percent "go."

"The active, unstable weather pattern established over Central Florida will likely continue for the next several days resulting in afternoon/evening showers and thunderstorms for the space port," forecasters said.

Primary concerns for both days are the presence of thick layers of clouds, cumulus clouds and anvil clouds.

SpaceX on Thursday evening successfully conducted a pre-launch check of the rocket's nine Merlin main engines known as a "static test fire" at pad 39A.

 

Encapsulated atop the Falcon 9 will be BulgariaSat-1, an 8,000-pound communications satellite designed primarily for television programming that marks a milestone for the European country – it will become its first geostationary satellite, meaning it will match the speed of Earth's rotation and stay in a fixed position over the globe. It will deliver programming to the Balkans and southeastern Europe.

If the Falcon 9 – recovered from a January launch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California – successfully lifts off from KSC, it will become the company's second successful launch of a "flight proven" first stage.

The booster is then expected to descend toward the company's "Of Course I Still Love You" drone ship for a soft landing a few hundred miles off the coast of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX first succeeded with full-circle reusability in March when it launched and landed a previously flown Falcon 9 rocket for Luxembourg-based SES on a historic mission known as SES-10. That first stage landed on the "Of Course I Still Love You" drone ship in the Atlantic and will likely be prominently displayed near Port Canaveral.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sees such reusability as crucial to lowering overall launch costs and increasing access to space.

KSC is scheduled to play host to yet another Falcon 9 launch on July 1. The rocket will be topped with an Intelsat commercial communications satellite, labeled Intelsat 35e, for a 7:35 p.m. launch from pad 39A, but a first stage landing – either on a ship or on land – will not be attempted due to fuel constraints.

Quelle: Florida Today

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Update: 19.06.2017

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SpaceX officially sets new launch time for Bulgaria satellite

Bulgarian telecommunications company will give it another go on Friday in its effort to launch the country’s first satellite.

SpaceX officials said late Sunday that a mission that has been delayed multiple times has set its sights on 2:10 p.m. Friday.

The backup time for that date will be the next day at the same time.

If it meets this launch time, it will set up what SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday called a “weekend doubleheader,” as it will happen a day after a planned launch from Vandenberg Air Force base in California.

Both payloads will take off on a Falcon 9 rocket.

At about 3:29 p.m. on Sunday, SpaceX posted on Twitter that its launch of a BulgariaSat-1 would be delayed.

The company blamed a valve on the rocket’s fairing for the latest delay.

The launch date for this mission has been delayed multiple times. On Thursday, it appeared on track for Monday’s liftoff after SpaceX conducted its routine static-fire tests.

But Sunday’s Tweet changed that.

BulgariaSat-1 represents the country’s first geostationary telecommunications satellite.

SpaceX has three planned launches from Florida in July.

Officials with Bulgaria Sat, the largest provider of pay-TV services in Bulgaria, blamed weather forecasts for the initial June 15 delay.

The Bulgaria Sat launch will mark the second time SpaceX relaunches a rocket booster, following the March 30 relaunch of a booster from Florida.

Quelle: Orlando Sentinel

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Update: 23.06.2017

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SpaceX set for Friday re-launch of Falcon 9 rocket from KSC

SpaceX’s push to reuse rockets continues Friday with a planned 2:10 p.m. launch of Bulgaria’s first communications satellite from Kennedy Space Center.

It’s the start of SpaceX’s most ambitious sequence of launches yet, potentially flying twice within 48 hours from two coasts, and three times in less than two weeks.

In the process, SpaceX will tie and then surpass its high mark of eight successful launches in a calendar year — if it can avoid the type of failures that derailed fast starts in each of the two previous years.

 

“A lot of that is turning things into routine, I would say, and learning just to deal with these operations better and better every time,” said Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX vice president of flight reliability, of the company’s high flight rate in 2017.

The forecast Friday is excellent, with a 90 percent chance of acceptable weather during the two-hour window at KSC’s pad 39A.

Eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff with the nearly 8,000-pound BulgariaSat-1 spacecraft, the Falcon 9’s first stage will attempt to land on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, an event not visible from the shore.

That would be a familiar experience for a booster that launched and landed for the first time in January, when it lifted Iridium satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

SpaceX in March proved it can reuse large, orbital-class rockets, launching the SES-10 satellite with a first stage that had flown a year earlier.

The “flight proven” stage launching Friday, which test-fired nine Merlin main engines last Thursday, is being turned around for its second flight in half as much time.

“We have full confidence in the reused first stage,” said Wendy Lewis, a spokeswoman for satellite manufacturer Space Systems Loral, which signed the launch contract with SpaceX. “We think this is going to be the way of the future, that launch vehicles aren’t going to be throwaways.”

Maxim Zayakov, CEO of BulgariaSat and Bulsatcom, echoed that confidence.

“We ended up finding out that this is not that much of a risk,” Zayakov told FLORIDA TODAY last month. “In fact, we think the other way around, because a 'flight proven' first stage has all its systems been already used in flight, and it is very thoroughly checked after that, too.”

The companies did not say how much refurbishment the booster underwent, or how much of a discount came with the used rocket. SpaceX advertises satellite launches on new rockets for $62 million.

“We think that this is a good choice and, yes, of course it saved us some money,” said Zayakov.

If the launch from KSC goes well, SpaceX plans to follow up two days later with its second launch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites from Vandenberg.

Though not so uncommon in the 1960s, two launches of the same type of U.S. rocket within two days of each may not have happened for more than 40 years. A pair of Titan III launches in February 1974 was the last instance that local launch historian John Hilliard could confirm.

“This indicates they have enough people at both complexes to be able to support both operations,” said Hilliard, of Satellite Beach. “It shows they have the flexibility and manpower to launch off both coasts within 48 hours.”

The back-to-back Falcon 9 launches could even unfold within 24 hours, if the BulgariaSat mission slipped to Saturday. 

“The situation that we launch from both coasts is somewhat new for us,” said Koenigsmann. “We’ve had a little bit of separation in the past, and we’ve set up the teams to be able to cope with that and basically have the ability to launch from both sites within a short time period.”

If those two missions go off as planned, SpaceX hopes to squeeze in another commercial satellite launch from KSC by the July 4 holiday, before the Eastern Range closes for a scheduled two-week maintenance period.

Launch Friday

Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9

Mission: BuglariaSat-1 communications satellite

Launch Time: 2:10 p.m.

Launch Window: to 4:10 p.m.

Launch Complex: 39A at Kennedy Space Center

Weather: 90 percent “go”

Join floridatoday.com for countdown chat and updates starting at 12:30 p.m. Friday, including streaming of SpaceX's webcast starting about 15 minutes before liftoff.

Quelle: Florida Today

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Quelle: SpaceX