@pbdes: IRDM's Desch: At of today, if our late-July SpaceX launch is delayed it wont be because of sats. Thales & Orbital will be ready w/ 10 sats.
Here's an update today on readiness for first SpaceX Iridium launch in July:https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/725677133893394432Quote@pbdes: IRDM's Desch: At of today, if our late-July SpaceX launch is delayed it wont be because of sats. Thales & Orbital will be ready w/ 10 sats.
@pbdes: IRDM CEO Desch: We are still 'eyeing' late July SpaceX launch of our 1st 10 sats. Date could slip a bit, but only by weeks at most.
So, by my calculations, that makes it $67M for each SpaceX launch. Each satellite is 860 kg in mass (see attached fact sheet) or 8.6 t on each flight. That has a cost efficiency of $7,800 per kg.
Quote from: Steven Pietrobon on 04/29/2016 07:07 amSo, by my calculations, that makes it $67M for each SpaceX launch. Each satellite is 860 kg in mass (see attached fact sheet) or 8.6 t on each flight. That has a cost efficiency of $7,800 per kg.You forgot the mass of the dispenser.
That's only a payload from a technical point of view, not from an economical one. If you want to launch large satellites, it's relevant, if you want to compare to smallsat launchers, you should not count it.
Quote from: rocx on 04/29/2016 09:32 amThat's only a payload from a technical point of view, not from an economical one. If you want to launch large satellites, it's relevant, if you want to compare to smallsat launchers, you should not count it.Not true and quite the opposite, because a dispenser for multiple smallsats will end up weighing a significant fraction of the mass of one spacecraft (or even more than one). An adapter for a large spacecraft can be less than 2% of the spacecraft mass and doesn't really affect the economics.
As pointed out by article, launching out Vandenberg means they are not effected by the usual launch slippages that occur at SLC40.
You forgot the mass of the dispenser.
Quote from: Semmel on 04/29/2016 09:27 amYou forgot the mass of the dispenser.If you know the mass of the dispenser, add it in and see what you get. For SpaceX, the dispenser would be part of the payload mass. For Iridium, they only care what the cost per satellite is. The greater the dispenser mass, the greater the cost per kg for the payload is going to be.
Peter B. de Selding @pbdes 3m3 minutes agoIridium says 1st SpaceX launch of 10 2nd generation sats planned for 12 Sept from VAFB, not July as previously targeted.
pbdes: IRDM CEO Desch: Delay of 1st launch to 12 Sept due to crowded VAFB manifest, not to satellite or SpaceX issues.https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/742769391788556288
Quote from: tleski on 06/14/2016 05:28 pmpbdes: IRDM CEO Desch: Delay of 1st launch to 12 Sept due to crowded VAFB manifest, not to satellite or SpaceX issues.https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/742769391788556288The thinking is that this will likely be the first re-used first stage. Remember Iridium gets a free flight in the event of a launch failure and light enough payload for RTLS.