Wait is this different from Canada's RCM contract for Radar Sats? Okay, awake now... time to find some black coffee or something. Looks like someone has a polar launcher that is competitive to nail all these polar contracts (SARah,RCM,Iridium).
This is kind of a big deal, Europe usually goes with Ariane 5 or Soyuz. Of course SpaceX needs to keep the contracts it has by getting Falcon 9 flying those commercial payloads.
Quote from: Ronsmytheiii on 08/08/2013 11:12 pmThis is kind of a big deal, Europe usually goes with Ariane 5 or Soyuz. Of course SpaceX needs to keep the contracts it has by getting Falcon 9 flying those commercial payloads. The first SAR-Lupe constellation was launched on Kosmos-3M's. The sats are way too small for an Ariane 5.Vega would be an option but I don't know the size of the new sats, if they only launch two of them at a time on an F9 they might be bigger than the old ones but they are still probably only like a ton or so to SSO, nothing you'd want to use an Ariane 5 or even a single Soyuz for.
I wonder who else bid on it if anyone? But regardless, just another feather for SpaceX to add to their cap.
Lots of performance margin on these flights. Good opportunity to get some testing in.
I read it 2 F9 launches to replace 3 F1 launches. Still, they won't make a profit, unless they reuse first stages.On the other hand you have to ask how much money would SpaceX spend to keep F1 active?
SpaceX ... will be launching all three of Germany’s next-generation radar reconnaissance satellites under an agreement that makes use of long-dormant options held by Astrium of Europe for the now-shelved Falcon 1 rocket, industry officials said.
Quote from: beancounter on 08/09/2013 02:54 amI wonder who else bid on it if anyone? But regardless, just another feather for SpaceX to add to their cap.Yeah another bloody feather that will push their balance books closer to the red.http://www.spacenews.com/article/military-space/35905falcon-9-selected-to-launch-german-military-radar-satellitesFalcon 1 contracts eh? So these were again sold for 20-something million then? Anybody knows?
Quote from: IRobot on 09/18/2013 08:34 amI read it 2 F9 launches to replace 3 F1 launches. Still, they won't make a profit, unless they reuse first stages.On the other hand you have to ask how much money would SpaceX spend to keep F1 active?"3 F1 launches" does not sound right, these SARah sats are ~ 2000 kg eachhttp://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/sarah-a.htmhttp://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/sarah-p.htmIt's way too heavy for F1.Te article says:Quote from: SpaceNewsSpaceX ... will be launching all three of Germany’s next-generation radar reconnaissance satellites under an agreement that makes use of long-dormant options held by Astrium of Europe for the now-shelved Falcon 1 rocket, industry officials said.We do not know what are these options and how many F1 flights were in Astrium contract. It would take 10+ launches of F1e to get 5.8 tons into polar orbit.May be they used these options to get some discount ?
Quote from: CuddlyRocket on 09/18/2013 09:24 amLots of performance margin on these flights. Good opportunity to get some testing in.These missions are scheduled for 2018-19. They do need testing opportunities -- now.
