Author Topic: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : CC SLC-40 : December 13, 2020 (17:30 UTC)  (Read 128160 times)

Offline gongora

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Discussion Thread for launch of SXM-7

NSF Threads for SXM-7 : Discussion
NSF Articles for SXM-7 :

Successful launch December 13, 2020 at 12:30pm EST (17:30 UTC) on Falcon 9 (booster 1051.7) from SLC-40 to GTO.  Launch window was 1 hour and 59 minutes starting at 11:22am EST.  Successful ASDS landing on JRTI (towed by Finn Falgout).  Mass close to 7000kg.  Falcon 9’s first stage previously supported six missions and one of its fairing halves previously flew on the ANASIS-II mission.  GO Ms. Tree attempting to catch one fairing half, with GO Searcher retrieving the other from the water.



SSL Selected to Provide Two Powerful Satellites to SiriusXM
Quote
PALO ALTO, Calif. – July 28, 2016 — Space Systems Loral (SSL), a leading provider of innovative satellites and spacecraft systems, today announced that it was selected to provide two high power satellites to SiriusXM, the world’s largest radio company measured by revenue. The next generation satellites, SXM-7 and SXM-8, will replace the XM-3 and XM-4 satellites in 2019 and 2020, respectively, and will help ensure continuous and reliable delivery of SiriusXM’s audio entertainment and data services to more than 30.6 million subscribers across North America.

“SiriusXM provides an unparalleled variety of audio entertainment for radio listeners in North America,” said John Celli, president of SSL. “We have a long history of working with SiriusXM to develop some of the world’s most advanced satellites, which broadcast to cars and radios for the home, office, and mobile devices. We are honored to be selected to build two additional satellites that will reinforce and augment the fleet’s capability.”

Both SXM-7 and SXM-8 will operate in the S-band spectrum. Each satellite will generate more than 20-kW of power and will have a large unfurlable antenna reflector, which enables broadcast to radios without the need for large dish-type antennas on the ground.

SSL has previously built a total of seven satellites for SiriusXM, including its first generation Sirius satellites, which were launched in 2000. Of the seven satellites built, one was a ground spare that was never needed due to the reliability of the original constellation. It was donated to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in 2012.

“We are pleased to once again collaborate with SSL on two advanced satellites that will bolster service to our subscribers for years to come,” said Bridget Neville, vice president of satellite and terrestrial engineering and operations at SiriusXM. “SSL is a premier designer and manufacturer of reliable communications satellites, with the technological capability to meet our demanding requirements. We look forward to working together on the new satellites.”

SXM-7 and SXM-8 are based on the powerful SSL 1300 platform, which has the flexibility to support a broad range of applications and technology advances. The satellites are designed to provide service for 15 years or longer.

FCC permits for SXM-7 (SAT-RPL-20180430-00033), SXM-8 (SAT-RPL-20180430-00034)
Quote
In order to ensure continuity of service to its customers, Sirius XM has entered into contracts to build and launch two next-generation satellites, SXM-7 and SXM-8. Sirius XM proposes to operate SXM-7 at 85.15° W.L. and SXM-8 at 115.25° W.L., but the two satellites are technically identical and each is capable of operating at either of these orbital locations. Sirius XM currently plans to launch SXM-7 in late 2019, with operations commencing in the first quarter of 2020, and plans to launch SXM-8 and commence operations in mid-2020. Prior to commencing operations, each satellite will undergo IOT at 120° W.L., which will allow Sirius XM to verify the performance characteristics of the spacecraft prior to deployment.

Bipropellant orbit raising engine and electric propulsion (xenon) for stationkeeping/EOM disposal.
Total Solar Pressure Area “A” = 117 m2
“M” = Dry Mass of Satellite = 2884 kg

SXM-7,SXM-8 on Gunter's Space Page



Other SpaceX resources on NASASpaceflight:
   SpaceX News Articles (Recent)
   SpaceX News Articles from 2006 (Including numerous exclusive Elon interviews)
   SpaceX Dragon Articles
   SpaceX Missions Section (with Launch Manifest and info on past and future missions)

   L2 SpaceX Section
« Last Edit: 12/13/2020 05:13 pm by gongora »

Offline Norm38

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : Late 2019
« Reply #1 on: 10/08/2018 04:56 pm »
20kW in 117m2!  ISS is 120kW in 2500m2. 
From 48W/m2 to 170W/m2.  Over a 3x increase.  Wow.

Online launchwatcher

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : Late 2019
« Reply #2 on: 10/08/2018 11:16 pm »
Quote
PALO ALTO, Calif. – July 28, 2016 — Space Systems Loral (SSL), a leading provider of innovative satellites and spacecraft systems, today announced

...
PALO ALTO, Calif. – July 28, 2016 — Space Systems Loral (SSL), a leading provider of innovative satellites and spacecraft systems, today announced
note that the press release got double-pasted into the OP.

Offline FlokiViking

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : Late 2019
« Reply #3 on: 10/08/2018 11:36 pm »
Quote
20kW in 117m2!  ISS is 120kW in 2500m2.
From 48W/m2 to 170W/m2.  Over a 3x increase.  Wow.
ISS solar arrays were designed almost 25 years ago now.  And at the time, the solar cells were not a place to take much risk, so standard Silicon cells were baselined.  The risks were more in the packaging, deployment, and tracking mechanisms of the huge arrays needed to get the required ISS power levels.

ISS cells had an efficiency of about 13.7%, where as current space qualified triple junction cells have an efficiency of about 30.7% at beginning of life.  So it looks like some of the increase may be array design (packaging/placement of cells onto the array substrate).  I don't know the specifics of what SSL is using now, but I'd guess it is something similar to current Spectrolab offerings.

I've attached some references for anyone interested in more info...

Offline smoliarm

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : Late 2019
« Reply #4 on: 10/09/2018 02:02 pm »
20kW in 117m2!  ISS is 120kW in 2500m2. 
From 48W/m2 to 170W/m2.  Over a 3x increase.  Wow.
If (a big if :) ) I remember correctly, 120 kW refer to the WHOLE electrical power-plant of ISS, and it reflects the limit of cooling system, not the solar cells.
Solar cells by themselves are rated for something like 32 kW per wing (again - IIRC). Which gives us: 8 wings at 32 kW each = 256 kW total.
Why make photovoltaic part two times larger than the cooling system can handle? They told me it's redundancy - NASA wanted ISS to be safe and fully functional even with four (five) solar wings down. Also, they wanted life support, station controls and communications on ISS to be fully functional with only ONE solar wing working (it's out of my field, this is just what I heard).

Well, anyway, if we want to calculate (compare) photovoltaic yields - we have to use 32 kW per wing, or 256 kW per total solar array area.
Also, FlokiViking noted - ISS solar panels were developed ca 25 years ago, and even at that time their choice was for most reliable variant, not most efficient.

Offline speedevil

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : Late 2019
« Reply #5 on: 10/09/2018 03:02 pm »
A recent financial report looks interesting.
Page 14 lists their total satellite system as of March 2017 as 1.6 billion.
Expected cash commitments on page 21 lists satellite and transmission costs at around 70 million a year for 2017-19, falling off to 20 or so afterwards.
This may imply total cost of launch and satellite as $120M or so per, unless I am (likely) misinterpreting things.

Offline IntoTheVoid

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : Late 2019
« Reply #6 on: 10/09/2018 04:34 pm »
Late 2019 on Falcon 9 to GTO

SSL Selected to Provide Two Powerful Satellites to SiriusXM
Quote
Each satellite will generate more than 20-kW of power and will have a large unfurlable antenna reflector, which enables broadcast to radios without the need for large dish-type antennas on the ground.

Total Solar Pressure Area “A” = 117 m2
“M” = Dry Mass of Satellite = 2884 kg

IANARS
Not to take anything away from the discussion that the satellite solar panels are probably more efficient than ISS and why, but...
The OP says 'Solar Pressure Area' not 'area of solar panels', and would thus include the antenna reflector and satellite body, and presumably account for the angles presented to the sun. Therefore it would seem that this is an inappropriate number to use for calculating the solar panel efficiency. I could not find the reference to the 'Solar Pressure Area' nor the solar panel area in the reference links.
[/IANARS]

Offline Plxxgg

Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : Late 2019
« Reply #7 on: 08/02/2019 02:22 pm »
Will it be trucked shipped or Air Transported?

Offline gongora

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : Late 2019
« Reply #8 on: 08/02/2019 02:38 pm »
Will it be trucked shipped or Air Transported?

U.S. built commercial sats are usually trucked.
« Last Edit: 08/02/2019 02:39 pm by gongora »

Offline gongora

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : Late 2019
« Reply #9 on: 11/05/2019 04:23 pm »
The manifest on r/spacex had a link to updated information on the launch dates for the SXM sats.  SXM-7 mid-2020, SXM-8 Q3 2020.

Offline gongora

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : mid-2020
« Reply #10 on: 04/28/2020 12:54 am »
Sirius XM quarterly earnings call is tomorrow morning at 8 eastern, maybe we'll get some news on a launch date.

Offline input~2

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : mid-2020
« Reply #11 on: 04/30/2020 04:16 pm »
Quote
Sirius/XM Satellite Radio’s Sirius-FM7 launches from the Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX launch vehicle. Nominal lift-off time schedule is: August 1st, 2020 at 04:27:00 UTC
source

Offline gongora

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : August 1, 2020
« Reply #12 on: 05/01/2020 01:30 am »
Ok, this has me really confused.  The dates don't work.  Is the launch actually on August 2?  It's like they did local dates with UTC times and forgot about daylight savings.
« Last Edit: 05/01/2020 01:31 am by gongora »

Offline Hummy

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : August 2020
« Reply #13 on: 05/01/2020 08:42 am »
Agreed. There is the injection TLE in the document describing a typical 237 x 19794 km GTO orbit. Separation in 24 hours 37 minutes makes no sense. And the map showing ground track at the injection matches a GTO deployment in about 30-40 minutes after launch. Most likely UTC time is correct but the launch date is wrong.

Offline ZachS09

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : early August, 2020
« Reply #14 on: 05/01/2020 01:45 pm »
Agreed. There is the injection TLE in the document describing a typical 237 x 19794 km GTO orbit. Separation in 24 hours 37 minutes makes no sense. And the map showing ground track at the injection matches a GTO deployment in about 30-40 minutes after launch. Most likely UTC time is correct but the launch date is wrong.

Inputting the target orbit parameters at https://gtocalc.github.io/, the delta-v to GEO is 2,200 m/s. This probably means SXM 7 weighs 7 tons.
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Offline scr00chy

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : early August, 2020
« Reply #15 on: 07/07/2020 05:02 pm »
This might have gotten delayed. SFN is now showing TBD launch date (changed from August 1).

Online zubenelgenubi

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : 2020
« Reply #16 on: 07/14/2020 09:36 pm »
This might have gotten delayed. SFN is now showing TBD launch date (changed from August 1).

Commercial geosatellite deliveries to the launch site are often, but not always, announced by one of the firms involved. We've had no news of such.

There's now no mention of this launch in Ben Cooper's list of upcoming launches.
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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : 2020
« Reply #17 on: 07/28/2020 04:03 am »
This might have gotten delayed. SFN is now showing TBD launch date (changed from August 1).

Commercial geosatellite deliveries to the launch site are often, but not always, announced by one of the firms involved. We've had no news of such.

There's now no mention of this launch in Ben Cooper's list of upcoming launches.

Checking back on the most recent previous launches for Sirius and XM.

Sirius FM-6 launch thread. Delivery of satellite from SSL to Baikonur noted (to Baikonur, back to SSL, and to Baikonur again).

Sirius XM-5 launch thread. Delivery of satellite from SSL to Baikonur noted.

Granted, past performance does not guarantee future behavior. The arrival of the SSL satellites at the launch site were announced. I perceive no reason why Maxar or SpaceX would act differently.

Gongora has noted in another thread that the corporate pandemic response may have delayed the delivery of this satellite, as is the case for many aerospace companies around the world.

My hypothesis is that the launch has been delayed, launch date TBA &/or TBD.
« Last Edit: 07/28/2020 04:06 am by zubenelgenubi »
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Offline gongora

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : 2020
« Reply #18 on: 07/30/2020 03:24 pm »
From SiriusXM quarterly earnings call: "The launch of SXM-7 is expected later this year and the SXM-8 launch should occur in early '21"

Offline Mangala

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Re: SpaceX Falcon 9 : SXM-7 : 2020
« Reply #19 on: 09/23/2020 12:03 am »
Is this site reliable:https://www.spacelaunchschedule.com/launch-schedule/launch-details.php?id=1416?
For some weeks now, they are indicating the same launch date of October 29th for this launch?

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