Author Topic: SpaceX Falcon 9 : PAZ & Microsat 2a/2b : SLC-4E : Feb 22, 2018 : DISCUSSION  (Read 202731 times)

Online gongora

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It's worth noting that the Microsat 1a/1b application listed the same inclination as Iridium, and the Microsat 2a/2b application did not.  The 2a/2b application was filed a couple of months before the Paz contract was publicly announced, but they were probably already working on it at the time (and may well have had it already negotiated).  There are also other potential SSO opportunities coming up such as SSO-A.  The only SSO flights that would really fit the timing are PAZ, SSO-A (which has slipped a little), and SAOCOM-1A (which has also slipped a bit, and the old date didn't really line up that well).

Online gongora

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This is also being discussed in the SpaceX satellite thread starting at
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=41634.msg1721067#msg1721067
which may be a better place for it.

Online gongora

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[ La Opinión de Murcia] The first Spanish high-resolution satellite to be launched at the end of December
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[Google translation] The Paz satellite, which is the first Spanish high-resolution radar sensor, will launch into space in the last week of this year. This was confirmed yesterday by HisdeSAT, the company that owns and manages the satellite - 30% owned by the Ministry of Defense - in the technical demonstration presented at the XVII Congress of the Spanish Association of Remote Sensing (AET2017), held in Murcia from yesterday until tomorrow.

Online FutureSpaceTourist

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Owner #hisdesat Spain: @SpaceX sets Jan 30 VAFB launch of 1400-kg @AirbusDefence-built Paz high-res SAR Earth obs sat to 514-km polar orbit.

https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/917451649177739264

Offline rockets4life97

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Owner #hisdesat Spain: @SpaceX sets Jan 30 VAFB launch of 1400-kg @AirbusDefence-built Paz high-res SAR Earth obs sat to 514-km polar orbit.

https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/917451649177739264

Jan 30 was when Iridium 5 was expected to launch. Can the Iridium launches be closer than 2 months apart? Any word on the co-passenger?

Edit: Could PAZ fit on the adapter with with 5 Iridium sats and Grace FO 1 and 2? That would explain this change.
« Last Edit: 10/09/2017 07:16 pm by rockets4life97 »

Offline Galactic Penguin SST

Quote
Owner #hisdesat Spain: @SpaceX sets Jan 30 VAFB launch of 1400-kg @AirbusDefence-built Paz high-res SAR Earth obs sat to 514-km polar orbit.

https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/917451649177739264

Jan 30 was when Iridium 5 was expected to launch. Can the Iridium launches be closer than 2 months apart? Any word on the co-passenger?

Edit: Could PAZ fit on the adapter with with 5 Iridium sats and Grace FO 1 and 2? That would explain this change.

The target orbits are too far apart for that to happen.  ???
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Offline envy887

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Owner #hisdesat Spain: @SpaceX sets Jan 30 VAFB launch of 1400-kg @AirbusDefence-built Paz high-res SAR Earth obs sat to 514-km polar orbit.

https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/917451649177739264

Jan 30 was when Iridium 5 was expected to launch. Can the Iridium launches be closer than 2 months apart? Any word on the co-passenger?

Edit: Could PAZ fit on the adapter with with 5 Iridium sats and Grace FO 1 and 2? That would explain this change.

The target orbits are too far apart for that to happen.  ???

??? indeed. PAZ and GRACE-FO are both going to 500 km SSO. The Iridium payload is only ~4800 kg, the remaining performance is more than enough for the F9 US to do a ~12 degree inclination change and lower the orbit by 125 km, even while carrying both PAZ and GRACE-FO.

Offline Rik ISS-fan

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Edit: Could PAZ fit on the adapter with with 5 Iridium sats and Grace FO 1 and 2? That would explain this change.
I think that this stack doesn't work.
If I'm not mistaken, both the Iridium Next and Grace FO satellites are roughly the same shape and size. Aka: 3m high, 2m wide and ~1m deep. They are side mounted to a carrying structure. Grace was planned to use a structure like the one used for dual galileo sat (soyuz) launches.
PAZ is a larger satellite. It's a hexegonal satellite 5m long and 2.4m in (outer) diameter. (6x1.2m sides)
(This is to large for the Vega fairing) It wants a axial (in line/ standard) deployment.
I think it will be very difficult to mount the Grace-FO on a structure around PAZ. The F9 Fairing is to short to stack all sats on top of each other. (3 + 3 + 5 = 11m D2.4m | 3 + 5 =8m D5m)

Offline envy887

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Edit: Could PAZ fit on the adapter with with 5 Iridium sats and Grace FO 1 and 2? That would explain this change.
I think that this stack doesn't work.
If I'm not mistaken, both the Iridium Next and Grace FO satellites are roughly the same shape and size. Aka: 3m high, 2m wide and ~1m deep. They are side mounted to a carrying structure. Grace was planned to use a structure like the one used for dual galileo sat (soyuz) launches.
PAZ is a larger satellite. It's a hexegonal satellite 5m long and 2.4m in (outer) diameter. (6x1.2m sides)
(This is to large for the Vega fairing) It wants a axial (in line/ standard) deployment.
I think it will be very difficult to mount the Grace-FO on a structure around PAZ. The F9 Fairing is to short to stack all sats on top of each other. (3 + 3 + 5 = 11m D2.4m | 3 + 5 =8m D5m)

It might be possible. Here's a roughly to-scale sketch of the PAZ envelope mounted atop the stacked GRACE-FO and Iridium dispenser envelopes:

Offline Rik ISS-fan

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envy887; I think your sketch is a bit deceiving. The stack of 5x Iridium Next + 2x Grace-FO the same length as two 5x Iridium Next on top of each other. ~6m. In your sketch the lower block looks to be ~5m high (6.6m - ~1.5m).

I found out that the Grace-FO satellites will be mounted to a cilindrical structure instead of the Galileo dual structure.
source Nasa JPL
I think that if PAZ is placed on top of this structure, the sides of PAZ and the two Grace-FO will line up. (Same width)
« Last Edit: 10/14/2017 01:29 pm by Rik ISS-fan »

Offline DaveJes1979

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Looks like PAZ will likely be the first Vandenberg RTLS now that the next Iridium launch has switched to a drone ship landing.

Offline wannamoonbase

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https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-broadband-internet-service-2020/

So are the Starlink test birds the co-passengers?

That adds another important milestone for SpaceX in the next few months after FH, Block 5 and Dragon 2.
Wildly optimistic prediction, Superheavy recovery on IFT-4 or IFT-5

Online gongora

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We're assuming the SpaceX test sats are on this flight (assuming they're ready on time and have their paperwork in order by then.)

Offline vaporcobra

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-broadband-internet-service-2020/

So are the Starlink test birds the co-passengers?

That adds another important milestone for SpaceX in the next few months after FH, Block 5 and Dragon 2.

Yeah, as gongora said, the evidence we currently have points unambiguously to Microsat 2A/2B as copassengers on PAZ. Def not incontrovertible, but we would expect to see different filings if changes were being made.

Late January also fits with the info Patricia Cooper gave earlier today, of the first two test sats launching within "a few months".

Offline soltasto

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This looks like it is Mission 1400 on the FCC permits.

This permit was submitted November 28 and is the next one from Vandenberg after M1340 which is understood to be Iridium-4.

Online ZachS09

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This looks like it is Mission 1400 on the FCC permits.

This permit was submitted November 28 and is the next one from Vandenberg after M1340 which is understood to be Iridium-4.

According to this permit, I don't see anything related to the drone ship being used for the first stage landing, so it looks like an RTLS attempt will be made.
Liftoff for St. Jude's! Go Dragon, Go Falcon, Godspeed Inspiration4!

Online gongora

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This looks like it is Mission 1400 on the FCC permits.

This permit was submitted November 28 and is the next one from Vandenberg after M1340 which is understood to be Iridium-4.

According to this permit, I don't see anything related to the drone ship being used for the first stage landing, so it looks like an RTLS attempt will be made.

There will be at least two more permits for the mission.  The one linked only covers some pre-flight testing.  There will be one for launch vehicle communications, and another for first stage recovery whether it ends up being RTLS or drone ship.

Online gongora

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[Airbus] The PAZ satellite heads towards its launch base

Spain’s first radar satellite will be shipped next month to Vandenberg/USA ready for launch on 30 January 2018

Madrid, 22/11/2017 – The high resolution radar, Earth observation PAZ satellite, intended primarily to address civilian surveillance needs and to cover many different applications including defence and security, will say its final goodbye to Spain. It will be shipped in December 2017 to its launch site in Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, USA.

Airbus and Hisdesat, the Spanish operator of governmental satellites announce that the launch of the PAZ satellite will take place in the last week of January. Since completion in 2015, Airbus has maintained the satellite in its Barajas cleanrooms, in Madrid, ready to be launched at short notice. “We had to be ready at all times as we could have got a green light at any moment,” said José Guillamón, head of Airbus Space Systems in Spain. Close cooperation between Airbus as the prime contractor and Hisdesat as the owner and operator of the satellite has been a key factor in successfully reaching the final stages.

The PAZ satellite is equipped with an advanced radar instrument designed for high flexibility, and the capability to operate in numerous modes allowing for the choice of several different image configurations. It will be able to generate images with up to 25 cm resolution, day and night and regardless of the meteorological conditions. Designed for a mission of five and a half years, PAZ will orbit Earth 15 times per day, covering an area of over 300,000 square kilometres from an altitude of 514 kilometres and a velocity of seven kilometres per second. On its slightly inclined quasi-polar orbit, PAZ will cover the entire globe in 24 hours, serving both government and commercial needs.

PAZ also features a sophisticated Automatic Identification System (AIS), simultaneously combining for the first time ship AIS signals and SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) imagery, increasing the monitoring capacities of the maritime domain worldwide. It will also be equipped with a Radio Occultation and Heavy Precipitation experiment (ROHP) from the Institute of Space Science del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ICE-CSIC). For the first time ever, GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Radio Occultation measurements will be taken at two polarizations, to exploit the potential capabilities of polarimetric radio occultation for detecting and quantifying heavy precipitation events.

Airbus in Spain, as prime contractor of the programme, led a team of 18 European companies. The Spanish space industry was heavily involved in the development of the advanced active sensor with SAR technology. Since the start of the programme, the PAZ satellite has been generating significant benefits for the Spanish space companies involved, allowing them to develop new capabilities to further enhance their competitiveness in the global space market. “The PAZ programme is already a success story for Spain’s industrial development, said Miguel Ángel Panduro, Head of Hisdesat. “It has created hundreds of skilled jobs over the years, and stimulated research, development and innovation activities in Spain.”

Once in space, PAZ will share the same orbit as the TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X radar satellites. They will be operated as a very high-resolution SAR satellite constellation. The addition of this third satellite will reduce revisit time and increase acquisition capacity, leading to subsequent benefits for various applications. All three satellites feature identical ground swaths and acquisition modes. The new setup will be jointly exploited by Hisdesat and Airbus.

The SAR constellation will expand Airbus’ already broad constellation services also comprising the optical satellites SPOT 6/7, Pléiades 1A & 1B and the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC). PAZ, the first Spanish Earth observation satellite, will also be a contributor to Copernicus, the European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme.

Notes for editors: You can download an infographic at: http://www.airbus.com/space.html#medialist-image-infographic-all_ml_0-2

Online gongora

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[An earlier press release from October]

[Hisdesat] Hisdesat announces window launch of PAZ Satellite

Madrid (Spain), October 9, 2017. The General Staff of Defense, through its highest representative, the General of the Army, Fernando Alejandre Martínez (JEMAD) and accompanied by the Admiral, Francisco Javier González-Huix Fernández, Joint Chiefs of Staff (JEMACON) have visited the PAZ satellite, owned by the Spanish government satellite services company, Hisdesat. In this meeting, they learned the latest details about the satellite before moving to California for its next launch, appreciating the different key elements that make this Spanish satellite a milestone for the space industry of our country.

Hisdesat, owner of the satellite, made public last March the election of the US company Space X to put PAZ into orbit through its Falcon 9 launcher in the Vandenberg (California) area base. The launch window has already been confirmed as January 30, 2018.

The PAZ satellite incorporates as its main payload an active sensor with synthetic aperture radar technology that provides images of different sizes and resolutions, both day and night, and regardless of the weather conditions, which will allow you to provide solutions of observation of the Earth for multiple applications, both government and commercial, including those requiring very high-resolution images, below the meter. The satellite will be able to take more than 100 images per day, with which it will cover an area of more than 300,000 square kilometers per day, with high-resolution images. It will give fifteen revolutions a day to the Earth, at a height of 514 kilometers and with a speed of seven kilometers per second. Given its slightly inclined quasi-polar orbit, PAZ will cover the entire globe with an average 24-hour revisit time.

In addition, as secondary payloads, the PAZ satellite will carry on board an ICE-CSIC Radio Occultation and Extreme Precipitation experiment (ROHP) and an AIS receiver from the Canadian listed company exactEarth, of which Hisdesat is the largest shareholder, so that for the first time a merger of SAR and AIS data simultaneously can be made, which will allow to have the best possible monitoring of the maritime environment around the world. Its total estimated weight is 1400 kg., Measures 5 m. of height and has 2.4 m. diameter.

The satellite's main contractor was Airbus Defence & Space, involving a consortium of 18 Spanish companies and universities. On the other hand, the owner of the ground segment is INTA, which has had as subcontractors a Spanish industrial group headed by INDRA, GMV and DEIMOS and the German DLR.

The PAZ satellite will be located in the same orbit of the German satellites TSX and TDX to form a SAR constellation, which will be exploited by Hisdesat and Airbus DS GEO, offering a shorter time of revisit and greater number of images to our clients.

The PAZ satellite is part of the PNOTS National Earth Observation Satellite Program, with the Ingenio satellite (optical), led by the Ministry of Industry and the CDTI, being the second member of the aforementioned program.

Online gongora

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This should be for PAZ launch, NET Jan. 30:
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This STA is necessary to authorize launch vehicle communications for SpaceX Mission 1400, a commercial launch from SLC-4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base. The application includes sub-orbital first stage, and orbital second stage. Trajectory data shall be provided directly to NTIA, USAF, and NASA. All downrange Earth stations are receive-only. Launch licensing authority is FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation.

Haven't seen the one for recovery yet.

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