SpaceX Falcon 9 : Telstar 18 Vantage/Apstar-5C : Sept 10, 2018 - DISCUSSION

[gongora]

Not sure if I'm reading this right.  So launch has adjusted a few minutes, which now puts it just after midnight EDT on Sunday, 9 September?  Or are we still at roughly 23:23 EDT on 8 September and this another one of the 45th's EDT/UTC mismatches?

The LHA time period is longer than the launch window.  The previous launch window we heard is still within this time period.

[Alexphysics]

And as a note to Chris G, the "rescheduled" thing on the map is normal, I've seen that on almost every hazard map. It's like the "expendable launches" thing that's on the other type of hazard map that appears even on SpaceX's launches with an obvious recovery like the one from the Falcon Heavy Demo launch.

[zubenelgenubi]

I figure no news is no news...
Is the static fire still on for tonight?

[gongora]

I figure no news is no news...
Is the static fire still on for tonight?

Tomorrow

[penguin44]

Why was this pushed back anyway?

[ZachS09]

Why was this pushed back anyway?

Possibly because static fire preps were behind schedule.

[pb2000]

Looks like Hawk was headed out to sea yesterday, can anyone confirm that OCISLY was in tow?

[gongora]

Looks like Hawk was headed out to sea yesterday, can anyone confirm that OCISLY was in tow?

There was a tweet yesterday that I'm too lazy to go back and look for that showed the ASDS leaving.

[ZachS09]

With Telstar 18V/APStar 5C weighing 7.06 tons, I'm guessing that when it's deployed into its subsynchronous transfer orbit, the apogee should be a bit higher than Telstar 19V's initial orbit.

Probably 18,000 kilometers even.

[jpo234]

Tweet from Stephen Clark:

Telesat official says the Falcon 9 launch with the Telstar 18 VANTAGE telecom satellite is slipping — was to be Saturday night. No new target launch date has been confirmed.

This happens if you want to recover your precious Block 5 booster:

https://twitter.com/MyNews13Weather/status/1037630950786646016

Good morning, #CentralFL. No threat to FL, but here is the 5 a.m. update on Florence in the open Atlantic:

[Comga]

Looks like Hawk was headed out to sea yesterday, can anyone confirm that OCISLY was in tow?

There was a tweet yesterday that I'm too lazy to go back and look for that showed the ASDS leaving.

The webcam-who-shall-not-be-named shows the berthing location vacant, but I have been unable to find any tweet or post of OSCLY heading out to sea.

[Comga]

Tweet from Stephen Clark:

Telesat official says the Falcon 9 launch with the Telstar 18 VANTAGE telecom satellite is slipping.  Was to be Saturday night. No new target launch date has been confirmed.

This happens if you want to recover your precious Block 5 booster:

https://twitter.com/MyNews13Weather/status/1037630950786646016

Good morning, #CentralFL. No threat to FL, but here is the 5 a.m. update on Florence in the open Atlantic

But, but, but...
If you look at the landing zone NE of Bermuda in this post it's far to the west of where the hurricane will be on Saturday.
Plenty of time to get back before it.
And OSCILY seems to be already out at sea.
There may be another explanation

[ChrisGebhardt]

Tweet from Stephen Clark:

Telesat official says the Falcon 9 launch with the Telstar 18 VANTAGE telecom satellite is slipping — was to be Saturday night. No new target launch date has been confirmed.

This happens if you want to recover your precious Block 5 booster:

https://twitter.com/MyNews13Weather/status/1037630950786646016

Good morning, #CentralFL. No threat to FL, but here is the 5 a.m. update on Florence in the open Atlantic:

I'm not at all sure this is an update. A Hurricane over 1,000 miles away is not the reason a launch will have been delayed from Saturday.

[scr00chy]

Looks like Hawk was headed out to sea yesterday, can anyone confirm that OCISLY was in tow?

There was a tweet yesterday that I'm too lazy to go back and look for that showed the ASDS leaving.

The webcam-who-shall-not-be-named shows the berthing location vacant, but I have been unable to find any tweet or post of OSCLY heading out to sea.

This is the tweet showing OCISLY leaving

[ChrisGebhardt]

Tweet from Stephen Clark:

Telesat official says the Falcon 9 launch with the Telstar 18 VANTAGE telecom satellite is slipping.  Was to be Saturday night. No new target launch date has been confirmed.

This happens if you want to recover your precious Block 5 booster:

https://twitter.com/MyNews13Weather/status/1037630950786646016

Good morning, #CentralFL. No threat to FL, but here is the 5 a.m. update on Florence in the open Atlantic

But, but, but...
If you look at the landing zone NE of Bermuda in this post it's far to the west of where the hurricane will be on Saturday.
Plenty of time to get back before it.
And OSCILY seems to be already out at sea.
There may be another explanation

There's 1,000% a different explanation.  A hurricane 1,000 miles away will not stop a launch and sea recovery on Saturday.  Heck, a year ago they launched, RTLS landed, and recovered two days before Hurricane Irma devastated Florida.

[pb2000]

I don't think it's the hurricane, as they have 3 more days to watch the spaghetti plots untangle, but that aside, it takes ~9 days from launch to get a GTO booster secure in the barn, plenty of time for the hurricane to catch up and give new meaning to "re-flight of an orbital class booster".

[TripleSeven]

Tweet from Stephen Clark:

Telesat official says the Falcon 9 launch with the Telstar 18 VANTAGE telecom satellite is slipping — was to be Saturday night. No new target launch date has been confirmed.

This happens if you want to recover your precious Block 5 booster:

https://twitter.com/MyNews13Weather/status/1037630950786646016

Good morning, #CentralFL. No threat to FL, but here is the 5 a.m. update on Florence in the open Atlantic:

Sea states would be important  upper level winds are next

[cd-slam]

The new launch date was announced as Sunday night. I think we can rule out hurricane as the explanation, since it will be closer to the landing site on Sunday than Saturday.

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

[Ben the Space Brit]

Tweet from Jeff Foust:

Shotwell confirmed after the panel that the Falcon 9/Telstar 18 Vantage launch slipped a day to Sunday night (EDT), didn’t specify a reason.

The new launch date was announced as Sunday night. I think we can rule out hurricane as the explanation, since it will be closer to the landing site on Sunday than Saturday.

Maybe not the weather out in the Atlantic but the weather in Florida? The meteorological forecast was only 60% go for Saturday the last I heard. If the figure had dropped further and improved for the launch site on Sunday, I could see SpaceX deciding to go for Sunday. Yes, it might increase the chance of the loss of the booster but I suspect that this would be an acceptable loss compared to the possible contract penalties from delaying the launch too long.

[envy887]

Tweet from Stephen Clark:

Telesat official says the Falcon 9 launch with the Telstar 18 VANTAGE telecom satellite is slipping — was to be Saturday night. No new target launch date has been confirmed.

This happens if you want to recover your precious Block 5 booster:

https://twitter.com/MyNews13Weather/status/1037630950786646016

Good morning, #CentralFL. No threat to FL, but here is the 5 a.m. update on Florence in the open Atlantic:

Sea states would be important  upper level winds are next

Both are important.