Author Topic: SpaceX F9 : Iridium NEXT 6 with GRACE-FO : May 22, 2018 - UPDATES  (Read 84609 times)

Offline Steven Pietrobon

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Fourth sat is away.
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

Online ugordan

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You can actually see city lights and some lightning down below on the payload camera.

Offline ZachS09

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Fifth satellite is away, and that concludes this afternoon's mission.

53 successes out of the 55 conducted since June 2010 give Falcon 9 a 96.36% success rate.
Liftoff for St. Jude's! Go Dragon, Go Falcon, Godspeed Inspiration4!

Offline Steven Pietrobon

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Last sat is away!
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

Offline Chris Bergin

Nice view of the fourth departing.

Reminder to all. No congrats on this thread. Use the Party and Discussion threads.
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Offline Steven Pietrobon

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Came very close to capturing fairing.
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

Offline ZachS09

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As the webcast comes to a close, I'll also sign off as well.

SpaceX's next mission will involve a Falcon 9 Block 4 launching SES-12, the customer's largest satellite, from Cape Canaveral on May 31st. From Vandenberg Air Force Base, good afternoon.
« Last Edit: 05/22/2018 09:03 pm by ZachS09 »
Liftoff for St. Jude's! Go Dragon, Go Falcon, Godspeed Inspiration4!

Offline FutureSpaceTourist

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John also said both fairings (halves) deployed their parachutes
« Last Edit: 05/22/2018 09:02 pm by FutureSpaceTourist »

Offline Steven Pietrobon

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End of coverage.
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

Offline Chris Bergin

Fairing recovery just missed.

Article - by William Graham

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/05/falcon-9-iridium-next-6-grace-fo-launch/

Great work from Chris, Steven and Zach - and all - with the coverage, as always!
« Last Edit: 05/22/2018 09:07 pm by Chris Bergin »
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Offline A12

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Fairing very close... but not quite.
« Last Edit: 05/22/2018 09:04 pm by A12 »

Online catdlr

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GRACE-FO Launch

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Streamed live 2 hours ago

Upcoming Broadcast: Launching NASA's GRACE-FO
May 22 at 12:15 p.m. PDT (3:15 p.m. EDT)
Launch expected no earlier than 12:47 p.m. PDT (3:47 p.m. EDT)

A joint mission with the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), GRACE-FO will provide critical measurements that will be used together with other data to monitor the movement of water masses across the planet and mass changes within Earth itself. Monitoring changes in ice sheets and glaciers, underground water storage, and sea level provides a unique view of Earth's climate and has far-reaching benefits. The mission is planned to fly at least five years.

The satellites will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than 12:47 p.m. PDT (3:47 p.m. EDT) May 22 from Space Launch Complex-4E at Vandenberg. GRACE-FO will share its ride to orbit with five Iridium NEXT communications satellites as part of a commercial rideshare agreement.

JPL manages the GRACE-FO mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. GFZ contracted GRACE-FO launch services from Iridium, and SpaceX is providing the Falcon 9 launch service.



Tony De La Rosa, ...I'm no Feline Dealer!! I move mountains.  but I'm better known for "I think it's highly sexual." Japanese to English Translation.

Offline SciNews

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Recap
Falcon 9 launches GRACE-FO and Iridium-6 (NASA & SpaceX feed)

GRACE-FO satellites deployment (NASA & SpaceX feed)

Iridium-6 satellites deployment

Offline FutureSpaceTourist

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Quote
We have good telemetry from all 5 Iridium NEXT satellites - and got it on the first pass! Thank you @SpaceX! Thank you @Thales_Alenia_S! Complete success!

https://twitter.com/IridiumBoss/status/999038822053699585

Offline Raul

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GRACE-FO 1&2 orbit according to Space-Track TLE.

2018-047A 2018-05-22 21:20:29.86 UTC - 483.50/504.93km/88.99°
2018-047B 2018-05-22 21:20:29.85 UTC - 483.13/504.32km/88.99°
« Last Edit: 05/22/2018 09:51 pm by Raul »

Offline FutureSpaceTourist

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SpaceX launch photos

Offline FutureSpaceTourist

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More NASA photos

Offline Raul

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Converted Space-Track TLE for five Iridium NEXT satellites:

2018-047C 2018-05-22 22:51:42 UTC - 493.61/707.92km/86.71°
2018-047D 2018-05-22 22:52:26 UTC - 493.56/712.56km/86.71°
2018-047E 2018-05-22 22:51:06 UTC - 496.30/707.74km/86.71°
2018-047F 2018-05-22 22:51:37 UTC - 481.79/719.12km/86.71°
2018-047G 2018-05-22 22:51:58 UTC - 486.34/719.89km/86.71°

Offline Lewis007

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Two launch pics posted by VAFB

Offline Lewis007

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GRACE-FO patch, NASA mission brochure, and launch press kit

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