Author Topic: SpaceX Falcon 9 - Eutelsat 117W B & ABS 2A - SLC-40 - June - DISCUSSION  (Read 262177 times)

Offline cro-magnon gramps

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The exact date for a mid June launch would depend on both the Thiacom and CRS9 dates. If CRS 9 is holding to a 27 June date that would put the Eutelsat/ABS ~11 June. If CRS 9 has moved out into July then I would peg the date as ~18 June.

June looks to be a very busy month with 10 launches worldwide. And 3 of those SpaceX (maybe).

If we figure that perhaps SpaceX can launch Thaicom-8 on the 26th / 27th of May, and the CRS 9 goes off on June 27th, then a launch from KSC in the middle is not impossible... but wait, there is also the possibility of a launch out of Vandenberg for Falcon 9 • Formosat 5 & Sherpa; will this throw a spanner into the works?? ???

Only if Thaicom-8 slips to June then we might have a problem. How big an if is that??  :-\

edit clarified that Thaicom-8 is on 26th / 27th
« Last Edit: 05/14/2016 01:28 am by cro-magnon gramps »
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Online gongora

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Nothing is launching from Vandenberg in June.  The Spacex pad is being worked on right now and the whole launch range is down until probably August.

Offline cro-magnon gramps

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Nothing is launching from Vandenberg in June.  The Spacex pad is being worked on right now and the whole launch range is down until probably August.

Thx, was not aware, just going on the launch list at SpaceFlightNow page... that makes June easier for SpaceX...
Gramps "Earthling by Birth, Martian by the grace of The Elon." ~ "Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but it has not solved one yet." Maya Angelou ~ Tony Benn: "Hope is the fuel of progress and fear is the prison in which you put yourself."

Online oldAtlas_Eguy

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Nothing is launching from Vandenberg in June.  The Spacex pad is being worked on right now and the whole launch range is down until probably August.

Thx, was not aware, just going on the launch list at SpaceFlightNow page... that makes June easier for SpaceX...
The range assets being moved is the control center. All hardware will have been removed from their current location/building by 1 June. The remain tasks are installation/upgrades and validation and verification of comm/control links. That last item is the one that has a highly variable time length as long as a couple of months. But don't count out a SpaceX launch in end of June or early July just yet. Also Iridium and SpaceX would not have publicly said they will launch in July if they knew that it was impossible due to no range support.

Offline bstrong

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Also Iridium and SpaceX would not have publicly said they will launch in July if they knew that it was impossible due to no range support.

Especially since the CEO of Iridium said it on an earnings call, which would be criminal if he knew it was impossible.

Online gongora

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Also Iridium and SpaceX would not have publicly said they will launch in July if they knew that it was impossible due to no range support.

Especially since the CEO of Iridium said it on an earnings call, which would be criminal if he knew it was impossible.

SpaceNews article from late April:
Quote
McLean, Virginia-based Iridium said the launch date could slip by a few weeks, depending on SpaceX’s management of its busy manifest.
It's a rocket launch, so no one is going to promise an exact date.
« Last Edit: 05/14/2016 06:53 pm by gongora »

Offline bstrong

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Also Iridium and SpaceX would not have publicly said they will launch in July if they knew that it was impossible due to no range support.

Especially since the CEO of Iridium said it on an earnings call, which would be criminal if he knew it was impossible.

SpaceNews article from late April:
Quote
McLean, Virginia-based Iridium said the launch date could slip by a few weeks, depending on SpaceX’s management of its busy manifest.
It's a rocket launch, so no one is going to promise an exact date.
Of course. He didn't promise it would happen then. But he would not have said it was planned to happen then if he knew it was impossible due to the range closure.

Offline rockets4life97

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Spaceflight Now is reporting that the current targeted launch date is June 16.

Offline DatUser14

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A wrapped horizontal core spotted at CCAFS, do we know if 026 has officially arrived, or could this be 021 or 024 leaving?
Titan IVB was a cool rocket

Offline deruch

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A wrapped horizontal core spotted at CCAFS, do we know if 026 has officially arrived, or could this be 021 or 024 leaving?
Someone in one of the other threads was claiming to have just seen a core in Leesburg, FL. 

falcon sighting in leesburg florida really awsome delayed me but was worth it got pics will post later
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Offline Brovane

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A wrapped horizontal core spotted at CCAFS, do we know if 026 has officially arrived, or could this be 021 or 024 leaving?
Someone in one of the other threads was claiming to have just seen a core in Leesburg, FL. 

falcon sighting in leesburg florida really awsome delayed me but was worth it got pics will post later

Might this be it?

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Offline matthewkantar

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This may have been discussed elsewhere, can anyone guess why would they use black material to wrap the stages for the road? Would think that would be hard on the composite parts of the rocket.

Matthew

Offline speedevil

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This may have been discussed elsewhere, can anyone guess why would they use black material to wrap the stages for the road? Would think that would be hard on the composite parts of the rocket.

In the open air, black material won't get to 100C.
This is well under the temperature of concern of the composites used - they have to take considerable reentry heating, and in some cases flame!

Offline Lee Jay

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This may have been discussed elsewhere, can anyone guess why would they use black material to wrap the stages for the road? Would think that would be hard on the composite parts of the rocket.

Matthew

Generally, black plastics are much more immune to UV degradation than white plastics are.

Offline saliva_sweet

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I've been pondering whether SpaceX might be thinking about making this flight expendable. I found the last minute unexplained switch with thaicom right after the surprise recovery of jcsat core quite interesting (maybe they decided to change the configuration/trajectory). Do they, at this time, want any more cores from high energy reentries with questionable reuse potential? They're already piling up and starting to look ridiculous.

These sats are all electric and every last meter per second dV translates to money in a fairly straightforward way and they could negotiate more money out of the customer for a better GTO. I believe the previous ABS/Eutelsat flight already used minimum residual shutdown for max performance. Flying this one expendably would make a lot of sense, only thing is Elon might forbid this for strategic reasons.

edit: typos
« Last Edit: 06/02/2016 08:40 am by saliva_sweet »

Offline nisse

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I've been pondering whether SpaceX might be thinking about making this flight expendable. I found the last minute unexplained switch with thaicom right after the surprise recovery of jcsat core quite interesting (maybe they decided to change the configuration/trajectory). Do they, at this time, want any more cores from high energy reentries with questionable reuse potential? They're already piling up and starting to look ridiculous.
Why not? Even if the stages are damaged beyond repair the engines might still be possible to reuse?

Offline Lar

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I agree that the discussion belongs on a reuse thread.
All of these seem candidates...
   
Refurbishment of Used Stages/Vehicles
Reusability effect on costs 
Status of first F9 S1 re-use   
Fairing reuse     
Possible F9 S1 changes to reduce GTO booster recovery damage 

Edit: I decided (with some input, thanks!) that  Refurbishment of Used Stages/Vehicles was the best choice.
Posts were moved to  http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=39167
« Last Edit: 06/02/2016 09:32 pm by Lar »
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Offline Norm38

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Do they, at this time, want any more cores from high energy reentries with questionable reuse potential?

They haven't reached operational status yet.  They just banged up a leg pretty good on landing, still prototyping.  Thus, if they have the fuel to land, they'll land and get more data.

Offline Robotbeat

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Do they, at this time, want any more cores from high energy reentries with questionable reuse potential?

They haven't reached operational status yet.  They just banged up a leg pretty good on landing, still prototyping.  Thus, if they have the fuel to land, they'll land and get more data.
Sounds like they used up a replaceable consumable on the leg, the crush core, not "banged up a leg pretty good." And yeah this made for an awkward ride back to shore, but still.

Anyway, I agree with your point. Every flight that they don't attempt recovery on is one more flight extra they need to perfect recovery.
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Online wannamoonbase

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Officially moved up to June 14.

Obviously the end times are near when launch Windows move left on a schedule. 
Wildly optimistic prediction, Superheavy recovery on IFT-4 or IFT-5

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