SpaceX Falcon 9 : Spaceflight SSO-A : December 3, 2018 - DISCUSSION

[freda]

Go Fox 1 Cliff https://www.amsat.org/fox-1cliff-ready-for-launch/

[deruch]

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/11/spacex-return-action-lsp-status-upgrade/

While SpaceX’s launch profile is not a significant risk to SLC-6, the landing trajectory poses a greater risk to the downrange facilities.

As a result, a land landing during the SSO-A launch would only be permitted if it were to occur after the Delta IV Heavy launch.

I understand that the 2nd part of that quote is what it is, but the math doesn't seem to work for the 1st part. Delta IV Heavy has launched 10 times, with 1 initial failure, and averages less than 1 flight per year.
In more than 30 attempts, including 11 this year, Falcon 9 booster landing has never been off by more than a Drone ship length, even when the landing itself failed.
The Delta IV and its payload are at vastly greater risk due to it's own launch than anything related to the F9. The data doesn't support the assertion that a F9 RTLS is a meaningful risk to the Delta IVH.

From the AF's point of view, since the F9 can safely land downrange instead of RTLS, any added risk from RTLS is unwarranted.  It offers no real benefit (minor cost savings to SpaceX aren't important to them) and comes with actual added risk (no matter how minuscule you want to argue it is) to their payload.  Ergo, the cost benefit analysis of allowing RTLS clearly says, "DON'T."

[vaporcobra]

Fundamentally, this is about as close as we're gonna get to an explicit admission from Spaceflight that they're going to incur a loss because of the drop to 50+ payloads from what was originally advertised as 70-100+ over the last year or two. Rephrased in a few words, Curt Blake is basically saying "not worth the effort or risk".

https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/1062090419683708928

[gongora]

Fundamentally, this is about as close as we're gonna get to an explicit admission from Spaceflight that they're going to incur a loss because of the drop to 50+ payloads from what was originally advertised as 70-100+ over the last year or two. Rephrased in a few words, Curt Blake is basically saying "not worth the effort or risk".

They may still have some money from the payloads that dropped.  This one has probably been stressful from the launch delays and sheer number of customers.  This flight won't set a record for number of satellites launched but it should set the record for number of customers on a rideshare.  The flight with the record number of satellites was over 80% Planet Doves.

[gongora]

A WORD FROM SSO-A MISSION DIRECTOR JEFF ROBERTS
November 12, 2018

Are you ready for the most exciting and innovative rocket launches of the year?  Because that is what the space community will experience with the launch of Spaceflight’s Smallsat Express!

The Smallsat Express, also called Sun Synchronous Orbit mission A (SSO-A) is the first dedicated rideshare mission on a large rocket like the Falcon 9. Many rocket launches these days have a few smaller satellites as secondary passengers on board, hitching a ride to space. What makes Smallsat Express so special is that the whole mission is dedicated to these small satellites. Every smallsat is a First Class customer, not a “secondary”!

SSO-A SmallSat Express is an extremely exciting mission with 64 spacecraft from 34 organizations and 17 countries. These spacecraft range in size from a refrigerator to ones as small as a cell phone, and their missions are even more diverse. We have cutting-edge technology demonstrators for communications and earth observation, advanced propulsion systems, formation flying spacecraft, university experiments, high school projects, art, and even tomatoes! Each spacecraft is the culmination of people’s aspirations to use the advantages of space to improve life here on Earth, or sometimes just to do cool stuff to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, businessmen and explorers.

With this many customers, each with their own unique mission requirements, it takes a dedicated team of professional engineers at Spaceflight to make a mission of this complexity run smoothly. We have a group of engineers who are dedicated to specific customers to help them through the unique aspects of launch preparation, a group of engineers who designed and analyzed the launch configuration for success, and a third group of engineers who perform the assembly, integration, and test of the final architecture before it goes onto the rocket. By working together, Spaceflight provides access for everyone to space.

Sincerely,
Jeff Roberts

[gongora]

I can see the 17 countries from the list of payloads, but I'm not seeing how to get 64 payloads from 34 organizations.  I see more like 48 organizations with up to 7 of those not being on the final manifest (and that's already grouping several USAF/US government listings).  I'm not sure who Spaceflight is actually counting as customer organizations here.

edit: Planet is sponsoring the LASP and Georgia Tech launches, so that removes two from my count

[gongora]

Coming Soon: ENOCH Space Launch
November 13, 2018
Joel Ferree
Art + Technology

LACMA Art + Technology Lab grant recipient Tavares Strachan will launch his project ENOCH into space this fall. Created in collaboration with LACMA, Strachan’s ENOCH is centered around the development and launch of a 3U satellite that brings to light the forgotten story of Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first African American astronaut selected for any national space program. In this new body of work, Strachan combines hidden histories, traditions of ancient Egypt, Shinto rituals and beliefs, and the history of exploration. The anticipated launch date is Monday, November 19, 2018.

Lawrence died in 1967 while training a junior pilot in landing techniques at Edwards Air Force Base, and his aspirations to go to space were never realized. He was an accomplished Air Force pilot, the first doctorate-holding aerospace researcher to be selected as an astronaut, and the developer of the “flare” technique, now a critical maneuver of space shuttle landing. Despite his belated recognition in 2017, in which NASA leaders honored his many contributions on the 50th anniversary of his death, Lawrence remains virtually invisible amid the commemorative culture of space exploration.

To honor the astronaut’s legacy, Strachan created a 24-karat gold canopic jar with a bust of Lawrence. The canopic jar nods to a practice employed by the ancient Egyptians to protect and preserve organs of the deceased for use in the afterlife. The canopic jar was blessed at a Shinto shrine in Fukuoka, Japan, and was recognized as a container for Lawrence’s soul. Named in the ritual blessing as “Robert Lawrence – Enoch” the object incorporates three religious traditions, all of which center on the agency of objects and the potential of a person’s spirit to endure. The name Enoch refers to a biblical figure (present in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sacred texts) who never experienced mortal death, instead ascending directly into the afterlife. Strachan’s work integrates ancient belief systems with our current faith in technological progress—while rendering that progress inseparable from the efforts of the unrecognized lives that built our contemporary world.

The satellite containing the canopic jar is contracted to launch via Spaceflight’s SSO-A: SmallSat Express mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The sculpture will circle the earth for approximately seven years in a sun-synchronous orbit.

SpaceX is a founding sponsor of the LACMA Art +Technology Lab. In May 2014, Strachan met with SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell, an advisor to LACMA’s Art + Technology Lab, to explore how technology could push his art practice in new directions. Under the premise of the artist’s Bahamian Aerospace and Sea Exploration Center (BASEC), Strachan worked with small-scale rockets made from Bahamian natural resources from his home country (glass from beach sand and fuel from sugarcane), launching them and collecting their fallen remnants to exhibit as sculpture. Propelled by these conversations, Tavares embarked on an exploratory project that unfolded into two parts, the Chalkboard Drawings (2015) and ENOCH.

For the Chalkboard Drawings, SpaceX engineers discussed scientific concepts of interstellar space with to a group of children, ages 7–10, from LACMA’s NexGen program, using a dry-erase board to illustrate. Strachan has often engaged children in the production of his artworks and has previously worked with students in the Bahamas and the United States. The illustrations generated by the discussion were then interpreted and annotated by Strachan and incorporated into artworks embossed in large slabs of chalk. These works and others will be featured in a future solo exhibition of Strachan's work at LACMA.

Learn more about this project at lacma.org/enoch.

[photo Tavares Strachan, ENOCH (display unit), 2015–17]

[Skyrocket]

The one that was canceled is 0026-EX-ST-2018.  As Gunter noted it was four of the 1U cubesats on Electron.  It looks like the new application is for 3 of those sats.

The new app mentions Spacebee 9, 10 and 11 so I guess they are new sats, with 5 to 8 still waiting for a ride

I was told from Swarm Technologies, that the Spacebees on the the SSO-A launch are in fact Spacebee 5, 6 and 7, with the fourth perhaps launching on a later date.

[Lars-J]

This will be the first booster to fly three times.  And also the first booster to launch from all of SpaceX's three pads. 

[tyrred]

This will be the first booster to fly three times.  And also the first booster to launch from all of SpaceX's three pads. 

Exciting times! Watch out for victory marks on the booster?

[Zed_Noir]

The B1046 core will be the first core to be launched from all 3 active SpaceX  launchpads.

[Alexphysics]

Spaceflight SSO-A Launch Hazard Area based on issued NOTMAR/NOTAMs.
Shape of green Area A suggests that it also includes ASDS position in its western part as an alternative to RTLS landing.
Stage2 Reentry Debris Area south of Hawaii is identical as at SAOCOM-1A mission and is active on the second orbit between 20:04 to 21:04 UTC.

Quite interesting this was an option they had in case of not being able to do RTLS and it seems they may choose to do that.

[deruch]

The recovery license for JRTI has still not been approved by the FCC. Still some time obviously, but something to watch.

SpaceX has a 5 year launch license which includes landings or disposal.

License...(PDF)

(a) "Flight" shall mean the flight of a Falcon 9 launch
vehicle, commencing with ignition of the first stage from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) and transporting
communications, remote sensing, or navigation class
payloads to low Earth orbit. Flight includes flyback of the first stage booster for landing at Landing Zone 4 at VAFB, landing on a droneship, or splashdown in the ocean as described in the application. A flight is concluded upon
SpaceX's last exercise of control over the Falcon 9 vehicle, including the safing of the Falcon 9 vehicle
stages or components that reach Earth orbit, following separation of the payload.

Doc, that is the FAA launch license which is already approved for commercial F9 launches from VAFB for a period of 5 years.  Michael was talking about the FCC radio spectrum use grant for communications.  Two different things.  Unlike the FAA's licenses, the FCC's Special Temporary Authority (STA) grants are each limited to covering only 1 specific mission. 

[gongora]

Spaceflight´s SSO-A Smallsat Express mission marks a historic U.S industry first and the beginning of a new Lite era for KSAT

Having supported smallsat launches before, this is a significant multi-mission launch for KSATLite as we are supporting 12 separate commercial customers, many of who are launching for the first time.

The satellites will be supported by using a combination of nine KSATLite antennas located at three unique Polar Ground Stations; Svalbard at 78´North, Tromsø at 69´North and Troll at 72´South in Antarctica.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Cluttering the Space Commons? Monday Launch Irks Orbital Debris Experts
By Leonard David
November 17th, 2018

A red flag continues to be raised by orbital debris specialists regarding the upcoming launch of SSO-A, currently scheduled for a SpaceX Falcon 9 liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on November 19.

Targeted for sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), the mission is dubbed SSO-A: SmallSat Express

http://www.leonarddavid.com/cluttering-the-space-commons-monday-launch-irks-orbital-debris-experts/

[pb2000]

FCC permit granted! SpaceX are clear to attempt the first landing with the ASDS just offshore from the launch pad. Reminder: No RTLS due to the NROL mission being prepped downrange.

It doesn't look like the fleet has much shorter of a distance to travel by parking offshore of VAFB, vs the usual spot. Any possibility that a booster stand has been added at the same dock that the Delta Mariner uses?

[Draggendrop]

Cluttering the Space Commons? Monday Launch Irks Orbital Debris Experts
By Leonard David
November 17th, 2018

A red flag continues to be raised by orbital debris specialists regarding the upcoming launch of SSO-A, currently scheduled for a SpaceX Falcon 9 liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on November 19.

Targeted for sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), the mission is dubbed SSO-A: SmallSat Express

http://www.leonarddavid.com/cluttering-the-space-commons-monday-launch-irks-orbital-debris-experts/

I had a hard time keeping a straight face reading that "entry". Apparently when one group doesn't get the same info as another group...the cube sats and small projects are bad?

Side note....bit of simulation data below...

Modelling the expected orbital lifespan of Orbital Reflector
https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2018/11/modelling-expected-orbital-lifespan-of.html


https://twitter.com/TimFernholz/status/1063840277331357706

Well apparently they haven’t given that same info to the ppl tasked with tracking these objects. Or they didn’t give enough specifics.

https://twitter.com/brianweeden/status/1063870836728315905

ooops...kind of messed up the quotes here....I apologize...

I imagine that SpaceX and Spaceflight, as well as the payload owners, have been subject to applicable regulations from the agencies of concern...or this flight would not be happening.

If an agency is having difficulty, they may need to have policy changed, funding increased or "farm" this out to someone who can perform the task. Technology is relentless...agencies need to keep up...as well as advisory groups and concerned individuals/groups.

If one does not like large numbers of small payloads....wait till the large constellations go up..

I just wish "media personalities" would acquire and state the facts (probably wishful thinking).... the drama/agenda takes away from the mission...

[Notleslie]

I've been looking forward to this launch all weekend. The Press Kit has some videos of the deployment simulations and they look quite civilized, and the full sequence will take 5-6hrs.
It shouldnt be the responsibility of the USAF to identify objects, they track them and provide data so owners can.

[Draggendrop]

reference my above post....

There appears to be a few with an "agenda" against small satellite ride shares. This example was quickly corrected by a member of the actual tracking team.

https://twitter.com/TSKelso/status/1063559173529464832

https://twitter.com/Skitt0608/status/1063563420610379776

https://twitter.com/Skitt0608/status/1063627909322104833

 It appears that Spaceflight has been demonstrating due diligence. They have been working with the tracking team for months.

[gongora]

One objection some people seem to have about the deployment is that the Spaceflight spacecraft can be randomly tumbling during the deployment sequence.