SpaceX F9 - Eutelsat 10B - CCSFS SLC-40 - 22/23 November 2022 (02:57 UTC)

[vaporcobra]

Also worth noting that Eutelsat was clearly uncomfortable about VHTS and Eutelsat 10B launch delays ~9 months ago. For an all-electric geosat, a supersynch launch could potentially cut weeks off of orbit-raising, weeks that could instead be spent generating revenue.

Konnect VHTS and Eutelsat 10B satellite delays have “a mechanical effect on our expectations for subsequent years,” Eutelsat said in its Feb. 17 financial report.

https://spacenews.com/eutelsat-pushes-back-return-to-growth-forecast-amid-satellite-delays/

And IIRC, pretty sure Musk or another SpaceX executive has stated that old Block 5 boosters are more high-touch, so fewer qualms about expending them. Several possible explanations, though ultimately I'm pretty sure it just boils down to a service SpaceX is happy to provide as long as the customer is willing to pay extra, and as long as the booster fleet is large enough to survive a culling.

[Rondaz]

Launch Hazard Areas for #Eutelsat 10B mission from CCSFS SLC-40, valid for NET 22 Nov 02:57 UTC, altern.23 to 28 Nov based on issued NOTMAR/NOTAM. Expendable B1049.11 splashdown 896km downrange. Estimated fairing recovery position approx. 992km downrange.

https://twitter.com/Raul74Cz/status/1594707284512616450

[spacenuance]

Spaceflight Now has the mass of Eutelsat 10B at 5.5 tons.

Eutelsat 10B’s total launch mass is about 5.5 metric tons, or roughly 12,000 pounds, a Thales spokesperson told Spaceflight Now on Monday.

The target apogee for the Eutelsat 10B mission at spacecraft deployment will be above 37,000 miles, or about 60,000 kilometers, according to Pascal Homsy, Eutelsat’s chief technical officer.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/11/21/eutelsat-satellite-to-get-last-ride-from-spacexs-oldest-active-falcon-9-booster/

[alugobi]

Scrubbed.

Livestream now says 24 hours.

[Exci]

Scrub 11/21.  Boo, we're visiting Cocoa and I was getting ready to wake up the 4 and 6 year old for their first flight.  Heading to Kennedy tomorrow, but not expecting to get lucky with the weather.  Our last full day is Wednesday, fingers crossed!

[Rondaz]

Eutelsat says SpaceX has scrubbed a Falcon 9 launch attempt tonight at Cape Canaveral with the Eutelsat 10B satellite.

Weather permitting, SpaceX will try again Tuesday night, six hours after another Falcon 9 is set to launch from Kennedy Space Center.

https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/1594868822661472256

[scr00chy]

Does anyone know when the static fire took place?

[Rondaz]

Weather not the cause of tonight's scrub. Meanwhile, a west coast Falcon 9 is also having an extended delay due to technical issues. No word on wether or not they are related, and if they could affect the Space Station resupply launch scheduled for Tuesday.

https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1594870326412075010

[Rondaz]

Nice Pic.

A 12,000-pound European communications satellite designed to beam internet signals to airplanes & ships is set to rocket into a high-altitude orbit from Cape Canaveral tonight, marking the 11th and final flight for SpaceX’s oldest active Falcon 9 booster.

https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/1594843518073470978

[Steven Pietrobon]

"Standing down from tonight’s launch of the Eutelsat 10B mission to allow for additional pre-flight checkouts; now targeting tomorrow, November 22 at 9:57 p.m. ET for liftoff. Weather is currently 20% favorable"

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1594869942918127616

[ZachS09]

"Standing down from tonight’s launch of the Eutelsat 10B mission to allow for additional pre-flight checkouts; now targeting tomorrow, November 22 at 9:57 p.m. ET for liftoff. Weather is currently 20% favorable"

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1594869942918127616

Not surprised by their scrub reason anymore. It’s pretty much the fact that the team just requested another 24 hours of inspection time for good measure.

[Ken the Bin]

A new L-1 weather forecast for the postponement.  10% 'Go' for November 22/23.  60% 'Go' for November 23/24.  Upper-Level Wind Shear risk is Low-Moderate and Recovery Weather risk is Moderate for November 22/23.  Recovery Weather risk is Low-Moderate for November 23/24.  All other Additional Risk Criteria are Low.

[Comga]

Spaceflight Now has the mass of Eutelsat 10B at 5.5 tons.

Eutelsat 10B’s total launch mass is about 5.5 metric tons, or roughly 12,000 pounds, a Thales spokesperson told Spaceflight Now on Monday.

The target apogee for the Eutelsat 10B mission at spacecraft deployment will be above 37,000 miles, or about 60,000 kilometers, according to Pascal Homsy, Eutelsat’s chief technical officer.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/11/21/eutelsat-satellite-to-get-last-ride-from-spacexs-oldest-active-falcon-9-booster/

That spaceflightnow article also says

…the deployment of the satellite into a super synchronous transfer orbit will shorten the time needed for it to reach its final operational geostationary orbit by about 10 days.

Really?
Eutelsat paid an undisclosed extra fee to maximize the GTO apogee, which seems to have resulted in expending the booster, to gain 10 days?
Can someone provide a more understandable interpretation of what was written?

Can one of our fantastic launch analysts calculate the maximum apogee at that payload mass with and without recovering the first stage, and then calculate the velocity deficit to GEO for both?

How does the difference compare to ten days of orbit adjustments?

(My guess would be the increase in on orbit lifetime die to the propellant savings.)

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Nice shot of both F9s

https://twitter.com/launchphoto/status/1594878091243184128

[Remes]

Really?
Eutelsat paid an undisclosed extra fee to maximize the GTO apogee, which seems to have resulted in expending the booster, to gain 10 days?
Can someone provide a more understandable interpretation of what was written?

Guessing both 15 years lifetime and 100M$ cost and assuming they make 100 times more profit then deprecation it still doesn't make sense.

But they might have either
- contractual obligations
- or a bottleneck, which affects all customers.
That might make the calculation profitable.

The satellite is also supplying data communication for air and sea. That are well paying industries.

[LouScheffer]

Spaceflight Now has the mass of Eutelsat 10B at 5.5 tons.

Eutelsat 10B’s total launch mass is about 5.5 metric tons, or roughly 12,000 pounds, a Thales spokesperson told Spaceflight Now on Monday.

The target apogee for the Eutelsat 10B mission at spacecraft deployment will be above 37,000 miles, or about 60,000 kilometers, according to Pascal Homsy, Eutelsat’s chief technical officer.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/11/21/eutelsat-satellite-to-get-last-ride-from-spacexs-oldest-active-falcon-9-booster/

That spaceflightnow article also says

…the deployment of the satellite into a super synchronous transfer orbit will shorten the time needed for it to reach its final operational geostationary orbit by about 10 days.

Really?
Eutelsat paid an undisclosed extra fee to maximize the GTO apogee, which seems to have resulted in expending the booster, to gain 10 days? Can someone provide a more understandable interpretation of what was written?

Can one of our fantastic launch analysts calculate the maximum apogee at that payload mass with and without recovering the first stage, and then calculate the velocity deficit to GEO for both?

How does the difference compare to ten days of orbit adjustments?

(My guess would be the increase in on orbit lifetime die to the propellant savings.)

Here's a rough guess.  We know 5.5 tonnes is very close to what a recoverable F9 can put into a GTO with GEO apogee.  So about GEO-1800.

We know from the last expendable launch that an expendable F9 can add about 400 m/s to the total delta-V.  So how can that extra performance be used?  If it was all used to raise the apogee it would reach 87,000 km or so, reducing the delta V to GEO to about 1550 m/s.   But the apogee is not that high, so presumably they use the rest for inclination reduction, giving about a 22 degree x 60,000 km transfer orbit.   That's about GEO-1570 (slightly less efficient) but there are reasons a satellite operator might want to avoid a super-high apogee.

This is consistent with the 10-day estimate.  It's about 10% less delta V, so if an electric satellite normally takes 100 days to raise and circularize, a 10% savings would be 10 days.

Also, GEO stationkeeping costs about 50 m/s per year.   So it's 4-5 years added life.

[edkyle99]

Also GEO-1550/1570 is closer to what Arianespace was going to provide from Kourou, which was I assume the expectation when this satellite was designed.

 - Ed Kyle

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/spacex/status/1595128121711202305

Falcon 9s vertical on pads 39A and 40 in Florida ahead of today’s targeted launches of CRS-26 at 3:54 p.m. ET and Eutelsat 10B at 9:57 p.m. ET. All vehicles are healthy; teams are keeping an eye on weather which is 10% favorable for both missions → spacex.com/launches

Photo by Ben Cooper

[ZachS09]

With CRS-26 scrubbed due to weather, I think Eutelsat 10B might be called off soon.

Repercussions, if you will.

[FutureSpaceTourist]