LIVE: SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 - CASSIOPE - Sept. 29 - LAUNCH UPDATES

[Chris Bergin]

Post flight presser released out of L2:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32719.msg1105469#msg1105469

[Helodriver]

As far as the countdown goes, there was one being broadcast over the VAFB countdown net live and accurately as I was listening to it while I watched the launch in person. The Livestream which someone had over their phone was delayed about 30 seconds. Why the PA folks were surprised by the launch I cannot know for sure but it probably has something to do with their being PA. 

[mdo]

Meanwhile, fresh TLEs for 18 of 20 objects were released:


satID   Object Epoch (launch)  Epoch 2 (latest) notes
                peri x apo    peri x apo [km]
39265   A        262  1340    325  1486         1
39266   B        307  1484    325  1483         1
39267   C        278  1471    325  1486         1
39268   D        404  1434    325  1476         1
39269   E        264  1462    325  1477         1
39270   F        235  1462    306  1384         1, 2
39271   F9 R/B   410  1421    319  1489         1, 6
39272   H        275  1420    264   954         3
39273   U        324  1410    197   301         3
39274   J        356  1391    423  1328         1, 4
39275   K        277  1404    406   649         3, 4
39276   L        323  1381    406  1268         1, 4
39277   M        444  1588    458  1465         3, 4
39278   N        408  1596    459  1447         3, 4
39279   V        367  1598    425  1299         3, 4
39280   P        370  1596    387  1569         1, 2, 4
39281   Q        372  1585    359   996         3, 4
39282   R        334  1568    331   849         3
39283   S        392  1590    519   683         4, 5
39284   T        390  1574    394  1093         3, 4


1) relatively stable orbit; initial TLE appears to be noisy
2) no TLE after Sep 30; could be some transient event or already decayed
3) rapid decay
4) member of high perigee group
5) circularized orbit?
6) object G was classified as rocket body

There appear to be two equally sized groups of objects based on their perigee, one around 325 km and below and one around 400 km. Object S (39283) almost circularized its orbit at ~600 km, unless there is a mistake in the conversion(?).


EDIT: some IDs and object names were probably reassigned between epochs

[Prober]

ok, how long before 90% of this is burned up?

[Danderman]

                       peri x apo    peri x apo [km]
39271   F9 R/B   410  1421    319  1489   

Hmmm .. this is certainly odd. The first set of orbital numbers were issued right after launch, with a high perigee, and a low apogee. The second set of numbers are from more recently, and the perigee has dropped by 100 km, but the apogee is much higher.

How does a decaying object raise its perigee that much? How does the perigee drop that much without a propulsive maneuver?

It doesn't make sense without an alternate explanation. Perhaps jettisoning fuel at apogee somehow dropped the perigee, and jettisoning oxidizer at perigee raised the apogee.

That's all I got on this one.

[Lars_J]

The most likely explanation? The numbers are not as accurate as we thought. (the public ones at least)

[mdo]

ok, how long before 90% of this is burned up?

Objects earmarked (3) will be gone within days or a few weeks. What we do not know, however, is the fraction of registered vs. unregistered objects and the respective mass.

[mdo]

How does a decaying object raise its perigee that much? How does the perigee drop that much without a propulsive maneuver?

As footnote (1) states, initial TLEs are often noisy, especially the eccentricity. It is safer to compare semi-major axes (avg. radius) of a series of subsequent TLEs. That would have bloated the table and hence the notes.

[Skyrocket]

I have received interesting news on the CUSat mission from the CUSat team:

The CUSat mission was originally to consist of two satellites - CUSat-Top and CUSat-Bottom, which would have performed target-inspector operations. Unfortunately, the CUSat-Top satellite was damaged during vibration testing so only the CUSat-Bottom satellite was launched.

[SpacexULA]

http://s1351.photobucket.com/user/spacecoaster1/library/?sort=9&page=1

Photobucket with a lot of very high resolution images from on base right before launch, during, and after.

[pargoo]

     It's early days, but are there any hopes of better (closer-up) launch pics from SpaceX?  Those so far have
been from far away or middle-distance, with the exception of a couple on their site which are a little spoiled imho by wide-angle distortion.

[AnjaZoe]

Any information on Cassiope itself? I assume the government shutdown shouldn't affect the Canadians, no?

Zoe

[woods170]

Any information on Cassiope itself? I assume the government shutdown shouldn't affect the Canadians, no?

Zoe

Canada being a different country (much like the Netherlands isn't Germany)...

[ugordan]

If everything would be peachy, why not publish the Big and Great Success?  If their grasshopper reaches a whopping height of 350 meters, they publish it; why keep quiet on the details of the recent launch. Makes we wonder: cui bono.

I'm confused now, are you complaining about MDA or SpaceX here?

[robertross]

"When e-POP science data becomes available it will be released for viewing and download via the Canadian Space Science Data Portal."

source: http://epop.phys.ucalgary.ca/data.html

Of course the data portal is password protected...so we will have to wait for published data

[baldusi]

Any information on Cassiope itself? I assume the government shutdown shouldn't affect the Canadians, no?

Zoe

Canada being a different country (much like the Netherlands isn't Germany)...

What? Now you're gonna tell me that Buenos Aires isn't the capital of Brazil?

[Sesquipedalian]

What? Now you're gonna tell me that Buenos Aires isn't the capital of Brazil?

Of course not.  That's Rio de Janeiro.

[Lurker Steve]

Any information on Cassiope itself? I assume the government shutdown shouldn't affect the Canadians, no?

Zoe

Canada being a different country (much like the Netherlands isn't Germany)...

What? Now you're gonna tell me that Buenos Aires isn't the capital of Brazil?

Only if I can get away with speaking Spanglish during my visit to Brazil.

I can't believe we have to translate our software to Portuguese.

[Robotbeat]

What? Now you're gonna tell me that Buenos Aires isn't the capital of Brazil?

Of course not.  That's Rio de Janeiro.

The joke. You killed the joke.

[Galactic Penguin SST]

Please SpaceX, we need that retro-burn video to keep this on topic! Please.........