LIVE: SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 - Thaicom-6 - January 6 - LAUNCH UPDATES

[uko]

Congrats to SpaceX for a flawless launch!

Elon, you are my hero! :-)

[Lars_J]

Unfortunately due to the cloud cover, the viewing wasn't so great from long distances - but I did find an image on twitter:
https://twitter.com/priesett/status/420318678580621312

[spectre9]

Well done SpaceX.

Incredible launch and another one in the bank.

The excitement builds every time.

You can feel things change and there's no going back.

The public outreach has been exceptional every time. Here's hoping launches become routine but the coverage stays at the same level.

All the engineers and rocket scientists that make the rocket work so well without a failure for the magic 3rd launch are modern day heroes. The space frontier is a step closer to opening.

[input~2]

Good job SpaceX!

2 Objects have now been catalogued by USSTRATCOM.
Object A: 2014-002A/39500 at 0051UTC was in 376 x 90039 km x 22.46° (tentatively Thaicom-6)
Object B: 2014-002B/39501 at 2336UTC was in 457 x 91590 km x 22.39°

[input~2]

                                        THAICOM 6 Launch Success
           to Lead Broadcast Industry with Supreme Quality of the Digital TV
                  THCOM Upgraded onto SET50 Index from January 1, 2014

Nonthaburi, January 7, 2014:- THAICOM Public Company Limited successfully launched THAICOM 6 satellite into orbit on Monday, 6 January 2013 (Local Time) by Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.
Suphajee Suthumpun, Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Executive Officer stated “This is the good news for the New Year 2014, Thaicom has successfully launched THAICOM 6 satellite into orbit. THAICOM 6 will serve the customer need and also strengthen THAICOM’s hotbird platform on 78.5 Degrees East. At present, the Company has already acquired total of over 60% booking on THAICOM 6’s capacity.”
THAICOM 6 is Star 2.3 model built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, U.S.A. It contained 33 transponders including 24 C-band transponders and 9 Ku-band transponders. THAICOM 6 will serve broadcast industry with higher quality of the digital TV and more high definition channels. [...]

http://www.thaicom.net/files/attch/8/771/771_001_2014en.pdf

[gospacex]

Maybe now I can get a break.

Wait, what's that?.......Dragon what?

You are DOOMED! This will never end

[Garrett]

Maybe now I can get a break.
Wait, what's that?.......Dragon what?

Congrats to you and your colleagues on a job well done!

Would love to know what the "what" after Dragon could stand for. Any chance it could it be "pad abort" before "CRS-3"?

[Ben the Space Brit]

Maybe now I can get a break.

...

Wait, what's that?.......Dragon what?

Well, I guess that's what you get for going into the space biz! Especially a high launch-rate company! I'm sure Jim sometimes feels that he's not even drawn breath after one EELV launch when another one lands on his desk!

[Jarnis]

Maybe now I can get a break.





Wait, what's that?.......Dragon what?

A break? Hey, I voted for 12+ launches in the 2014 SpaceX launches thread. No can do. 

Plus, yeah, shiny new Dragon needs taming.

But anyway, congrats on a great job. Here's to many more "boring" "routine" launches. With no breaks. Sorry.

[input~2]

Orbital press release
http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/MissionUpdates/Thaicom6/index.shtml

The  Thaicom 6 commercial communications satellite, designed, built and tested by  Orbital for Thaicom PLC, was launched from Cape Canaveral,  Florida on January 6, 2014. The satellite will undergo several weeks of in-orbit testing and verification that all subsystems are operating as planned. Once testing is complete and the spacecraft is positioned at its final orbital location of 78.5 degrees East Longitude, day-to-day control of THAICOM 6 will be handed over to THAICOM's satellite operations staff.
At launch, THAICOM 6 weighed approximately 3,330 Kg. It carries a hybrid Ku- and C-band payload that will operate on approximately 3.5 kilowatts of payload power. The Ku-band payload is comprised of eight active transponders (9x36-MHz Transponder Equivalent) providing services to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. The C-band payload features 12 active C-band transponders providing services via a regional beam to Southeast Asia and six active C-band transponders (12x36-MHz TPE) providing services to Africa.
 About  Orbital GEOStar Satellites
The THAICOM 6 communications satellite is based on Orbital's highly successful GEOStar spacecraft platform, which is able to accommodate all types of commercial communications payloads and is compatible with all major commercial launchers. The GEOStar design is optimized for satellite missions requiring up to 7.5 kilowatts of payload power. In many instances, the affordable GEOStar satellites can be built and delivered in 24 months or less.

[solartear]

Great job SpaceX!  Thanks for leading in inspiration for the next generation of space walkers. So good to see "faster" getting added to safer and cheaper.

[corrodedNut]

http://www.spacex.com/news/2014/01/08/thaicom-6-mission-overview

[dante2308]

The first stage performed as expected, reaching 1.5 million pounds of thrust once in the vacuum of space.

Interesting.

[aero]

The first stage performed as expected, reaching 1.5 million pounds of thrust once in the vacuum of space.

Interesting.

1.5 million lbs thrust in vacuum = 681,818 kg thrust giving it an Isp of 315.3 seconds, or a higher mdot. 315.3 seconds is up from 311 seconds. Of course mdot has always been just a WAG based on posted thrusts and ISP so now we have one data point and only two unknowns instead of no data points and three unknowns. 

[Mongo62]

The first stage performed as expected, reaching 1.5 million pounds of thrust once in the vacuum of space.

Interesting.

1.5 million lbs thrust in vacuum = 681,818 kg thrust giving it an Isp of 315.3 seconds, or a higher mdot. 315.3 seconds is up from 311 seconds. Of course mdot has always been just a WAG based on posted thrusts and ISP so now we have one data point and only two unknowns instead of no data points and three unknowns. 

I would be careful with the number of significant digits. We are given two significant digits, which really is only enough to constrain Isp to the 310-320 seconds range.

[aero]

The first stage performed as expected, reaching 1.5 million pounds of thrust once in the vacuum of space.

Interesting.

1.5 million lbs thrust in vacuum = 681,818 kg thrust giving it an Isp of 315.3 seconds, or a higher mdot. 315.3 seconds is up from 311 seconds. Of course mdot has always been just a WAG based on posted thrusts and ISP so now we have one data point and only two unknowns instead of no data points and three unknowns. 

I would be careful with the number of significant digits. We are given two significant digits, which really is only enough to constrain Isp to the 310-320 seconds range.

Well that's true. At 2 digits it's no news at all since numbers I've been using give 1,479,308 lbs of thrust for the F 9 stage 1 in vacuum. That rounds to 1.5 million lbs, too. And my simulation does give good answers for LEO missions using Isp = 311 seconds, so I suppose I should leave it at that.

[rockinghorse]

1.5 million lbs thrust in vacuum = 681,818 kg thrust giving it an Isp of 315.3 seconds, or a higher mdot.

This is 740 kN per Merlin 1D engine. Nominal sea level thrust for Merlin 1D is 730 kN, so they pushed engines with almost 100 % power.

[PlanetStorm]

The first stage performed as expected, reaching 1.5 million pounds of thrust once in the vacuum of space.

Interesting.

1.5 million lbs thrust in vacuum = 681,818 kg thrust giving it an Isp of 315.3 seconds, or a higher mdot. 315.3 seconds is up from 311 seconds. Of course mdot has always been just a WAG based on posted thrusts and ISP so now we have one data point and only two unknowns instead of no data points and three unknowns. 

I would be careful with the number of significant digits. We are given two significant digits, which really is only enough to constrain Isp to the 310-320 seconds range.

Well that's true. At 2 digits it's no news at all since numbers I've been using give 1,479,308 lbs of thrust for the F 9 stage 1 in vacuum. That rounds to 1.5 million lbs, too. And my simulation does give good answers for LEO missions using Isp = 311 seconds, so I suppose I should leave it at that.

Technically, I think that stating the thrust reached 1.5 million lbs thrust should be taken to mean that the actual thrust was greater than or equal to 1.50000000000... million lbs. Of course, there is nothing to say that it was just loose speech, in which case this conclusion is erroneous.

[Owlon]

The first stage performed as expected, reaching 1.5 million pounds of thrust once in the vacuum of space.

Interesting.

1.5 million lbs thrust in vacuum = 681,818 kg thrust giving it an Isp of 315.3 seconds, or a higher mdot. 315.3 seconds is up from 311 seconds. Of course mdot has always been just a WAG based on posted thrusts and ISP so now we have one data point and only two unknowns instead of no data points and three unknowns. 

I would be careful with the number of significant digits. We are given two significant digits, which really is only enough to constrain Isp to the 310-320 seconds range.

Well that's true. At 2 digits it's no news at all since numbers I've been using give 1,479,308 lbs of thrust for the F 9 stage 1 in vacuum. That rounds to 1.5 million lbs, too. And my simulation does give good answers for LEO missions using Isp = 311 seconds, so I suppose I should leave it at that.

Technically, I think that stating the thrust reached 1.5 million lbs thrust should be taken to mean that the actual thrust was greater than or equal to 1.50000000000... million lbs. Of course, there is nothing to say that it was just loose speech, in which case this conclusion is erroneous.

It could mean the thrust equals 1.46 ~= 1.5 millions lbs of thrust. Or it could mean 1.54 million lbs of thrust. Or, yes, maybe it does mean >= 1.50000 million lbs. That's the trouble with significant digits--in a situation like this you can assume what they probably meant, but you can't really know for sure from the statement alone.

EDIT: But, this should be in the discussion thread.

[Ben the Space Brit]

http://www.spacex.com/news/2014/01/08/thaicom-6-mission-overview

Lovely picture! I presume that's from most of the way out to the altitude of geostationary orbit?