Update:QuoteSpaceIL making final fundraising push for lunar lander missionby Jeff Foust — December 14, 2017WASHINGTON — SpaceIL, the Israeli team in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, says it needs to raise $7.5 million in less than a week in order to complete its lander and retain its launch contract.http://spacenews.com/spaceil-making-final-fundraising-push-for-lunar-lander-mission/Still not revealing which SpaceX launch they are aiming for and admit it's very tight - even with funding - to get all the required testing done in time to meet Xprize deadline of end of March 2018.
SpaceIL making final fundraising push for lunar lander missionby Jeff Foust — December 14, 2017WASHINGTON — SpaceIL, the Israeli team in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, says it needs to raise $7.5 million in less than a week in order to complete its lander and retain its launch contract.
...Saying it's a supersync GTO comsat launch is a lot more information than we had before, although not enough to really figure out which flight. ...
A rarity... Telkom's CEO said on Thursday that Telkom 4 is to be launched in May 2018, vs. the original August 2018 NET as of several months ago. Google Translate is clearly struggling, but the reason provided for the movement was "faster manufacturing process." Unclear if that refers to SpaceX or Telkom, but it could be possible that Telkom 4 has moved to a flight-proven booster to get an earlier launch date, Iridium-4 is (sort of) a precedent for that.https://www.instagram.com/p/BctC2AbnmXX/
Just some end of the year observations. If the Iridium flight launches on Friday and the first stage is recovered that will be 18 flights this year. 5 out of the 18 (28%) will have been with reused first stages. The first stage flew 2 times in the same year for 4 out of the 5 reused flights. They successfully recovered 15 out of 18 (83%) first stages.
Quote from: SpaceGoo on 12/18/2017 05:51 pmJust some end of the year observations. If the Iridium flight launches on Friday and the first stage is recovered that will be 18 flights this year. 5 out of the 18 (28%) will have been with reused first stages. The first stage flew 2 times in the same year for 4 out of the 5 reused flights. They successfully recovered 15 out of 18 (83%) first stages.Welcome, SpaceGoo!I would add, barring a problem on the upcoming Iridium flight, they successfully recovered all the first stages they intended to recover.
Korea Aerospace Research Institute has selected SpaceX (USA) as a launching service for the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), which will be launched in 2020...The launch will be the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida, USA.Antexis of India participated in the open bidding for the trial lunar launch service.The company chose Space X as the preferred bidder through the evaluation and negotiated the final contract on the 15th....The Korean lunar orbit line is 550kg.
Date: April 14, 2018Mission: GRACE FO (GRACE Follow-On)
https://www.nasa.gov/launchschedule/#.U0NkJ6L-6c4QuoteDate: April 14, 2018Mission: GRACE FO (GRACE Follow-On)
Quote from: Salo on 12/19/2017 04:24 amhttps://www.nasa.gov/launchschedule/#.U0NkJ6L-6c4QuoteDate: April 14, 2018Mission: GRACE FO (GRACE Follow-On)That would put Iridium Next 5 in mid-February if evenly spaced between 4 and 6.
FAA thinks launch is close:QuoteSecond day of the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference starts with keynotes by FAA’s George Nield and NASA’s Steve Jurczyk. #NSRC2017https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/943132943383453697QuoteNield: 2017 has been pretty exciting for commercial spaceflight, but 2018 will be even more exciting, starting with Falcon Heavy first launch in the next month. #NSRC2017https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/943135747477065728
Second day of the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference starts with keynotes by FAA’s George Nield and NASA’s Steve Jurczyk. #NSRC2017
Nield: 2017 has been pretty exciting for commercial spaceflight, but 2018 will be even more exciting, starting with Falcon Heavy first launch in the next month. #NSRC2017
From the FH Update Thread:Quote from: FutureSpaceTourist on 12/19/2017 02:14 pmFAA thinks launch is close:QuoteSecond day of the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference starts with keynotes by FAA’s George Nield and NASA’s Steve Jurczyk. #NSRC2017https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/943132943383453697QuoteNield: 2017 has been pretty exciting for commercial spaceflight, but 2018 will be even more exciting, starting with Falcon Heavy first launch in the next month. #NSRC2017https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/943135747477065728Can we interpret from the second tweet that FH is to launch before Zuma? Does that mean an FH launch before January 4, or that Zuma has slipped?
The gaps might not be 60 days around Iridium-6, there are fewer sats to deal with. I wouldn't expect Iridium-5 before a few weeks into February, they've never had to turn around that pad in less than a month before. Now I'm wondering about SSO-A, would be surprised if that doesn't slip to May. Also really no chance of Iridium finishing deployment by end of June.
Quote from: gongora on 12/19/2017 06:03 pmThe gaps might not be 60 days around Iridium-6, there are fewer sats to deal with. I wouldn't expect Iridium-5 before a few weeks into February, they've never had to turn around that pad in less than a month before. Now I'm wondering about SSO-A, would be surprised if that doesn't slip to May. Also really no chance of Iridium finishing deployment by end of June.I thought the pacing items was commissioning the in orbit satellites, meaning not before the previous launches satellites are commissioned.
So a little bit of news... I am now part owner of the first company ever to build a commercial space telescope satellite, and this thing can be used by anyone! You can use it for deep space astrophotography, land surveys of the Earth, or even Hyperspectral images of your farmland. We have two slots secured on Space X Falcon 9 rockets in 2019 and 2020 for our first launches! Huge thanks to SpaceFab.US for making me a part of the adventure!
