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#20
by
posigrade
on 12 Feb, 2018 02:25
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Any word on time of day for this launch? Trying to figure out if this would be a morning launch, like Paz, so I can tie it into a business trip to SFO.
Past Schedules:
Flight 1 9:54am
Flight 2 1:25pm
Flight 3 5:37am
Flight 4 5:27pm
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#21
by
ZachS09
on 12 Feb, 2018 02:27
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Iridium-NEXT F5 will lift off at 15:19 UTC (8:19 AM Pacific Time).
At that time, it'll be an hour and nine minutes after sunrise.
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#22
by
gongora
on 23 Feb, 2018 02:27
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Iridium 4th Quarter Conference Call confirmed March 29 is the date they're looking at, still needs to be finalized. Also had comments on rest of deployments:
"Following next month’s launch, our cadence with SpaceX should move more rapidly as launch frequency is planned to increase to approximately one launch every five to six weeks or so. In fact, our sixth launch is currently scheduled for a quick turnaround at the end of April, that will be a rideshare with the JPL German Grace satellites in which we’ll utilize half of the payload to launch five Iridium NEXT satellites alongside the two Grace satellites which will be mounted on the dispenser above ours."
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#23
by
gongora
on 26 Feb, 2018 01:49
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Tweets:
Tagnan:
@IridiumBoss approximately what time will Iridium 5 launch at? Close to sunset/sunrise or no?
Matt Desch:
7:20am pst. That’s about 25 minutes after sunrise. Hard to terrorize Southern California that way, but we’ll do our best...
Dark Energy:
It is PST or PDT? I think you change the clocks on the 11th there in America, right?
Matt Desch:
How ‘bout we do it this way?: 14:19:49 UTC
That is 7:20am PDT
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#24
by
gongora
on 26 Feb, 2018 01:55
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More Tweets:
Gunter Krebs:
@IridiumBoss Can you tell me already the satellite numbers of the upcoming fifth mission?
Matt Desch:
Sure. Planned at this time: SV140, SV142, SV143, SV144, SV145, SV146, SV148, SV149, SV150, SV157.
---
Alessandro Lovesio:
Is Plane 4 basically done or some work/swaps/deorbits is still needed there?
Matt Desch:
10 of 11 slots are filled with NEXT satellites so almost complete. SV128 is drifting to plane 4 from plane 3 to replace the remaining Block 1 sat (SV35).
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#25
by
gongora
on 26 Feb, 2018 13:59
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In the recent
Iridium 4th Quarter Earnings Teleconference Transcript Matt Desch said the launch vehicle was already at Vandenberg (it may have just arrived at the time based on other reports):
" Right now, it looks like our NEXT launch will be the morning of Thursday, March 29, essentially 5 weeks from now, though we're still confirming that date. The 10 satellites for that launch are shipping to Vandenberg now and the first and second Falcon 9 stages are already onsite and being processed at the base. This launch again will use a flight-proven first stage. It will be the 10th flight of a refurbished rocked by SpaceX. We have history with this particular first stage. It successfully launched our third batch of satellites in October.
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#26
by
AncientU
on 26 Feb, 2018 15:07
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Tenth reused booster is pretty amazing if you think about it. This flight will mark exactly one year of using flight-proven boosters (first flight was 3/30/2017) -- they will have launched 21 times, using 23 boosters... and almost half of them were reused.
The economic viability argument... dead and buried.
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#27
by
Mader Levap
on 28 Feb, 2018 11:21
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The economic viability argument... dead and buried.
Not really, so far they proved "only" that it is not more costly than using new boosters.
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#28
by
toruonu
on 28 Feb, 2018 11:26
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The economic viability argument... dead and buried.
Not really, so far they proved "only" that it is not more costly than using new boosters.
Well I've understood there have been reuse discounts which would point to being cheaper, but I guess as long as we don't have hard numbers it's hard to say
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#29
by
Historic Rad 39A
on 02 Mar, 2018 19:38
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I'll likely be in Arizona when this launches, what are the chances I'll be able to see the launch from there or not? If not how close should I be in able to see it launch? Thanks in advance!
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#30
by
Bubbinski
on 03 Mar, 2018 01:23
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As it’s after sunrise I doubt you’d see it, at least from a place like Phoenix or Tucson. If it were a night launch maybe but you’d have to know precisely where to look and it would be nothing like what the people saw in LA recently.
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#31
by
Robotbeat
on 03 Mar, 2018 04:20
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The economic viability argument... dead and buried.
Not really, so far they proved "only" that it is not more costly than using new boosters.
Never underestimate the ability of naysayers to move goalposts.
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#32
by
Lar
on 03 Mar, 2018 15:57
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I suspect we all have our own internal lists of who are the naysayers, who are the concern trolls, who are the cheerleaders for various factions, and who are the balanced analysts, etc... Please keep those lists internal, though, thanks.
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#33
by
gongora
on 05 Mar, 2018 19:46
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Tweet from Matt Desch:
Iridium network update: our first 2 drifters from Launch 1 (105 & 108) were activated today, bringing the total to 34 Iridium NEXT sats now in operation (over 50% of 66 in constellation!). 3 more drifters also planned to be in service before next launch on March 29. Onward!
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#34
by
Mader Levap
on 05 Mar, 2018 22:48
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The economic viability argument... dead and buried.
Not really, so far they proved "only" that it is not more costly than using new boosters.
Never underestimate the ability of naysayers to move goalposts.
Few years ago I heard so much about how much prices will drop once SpaceX starts regularly recover and reuse stages. Are you denying that they so far didn't dropped prices significantly (or in fact at all at moment of typing these words - still 62 mln $)?
Nowadays SpaceX fans explain that they don't have to do it right now since they are already cheapest, they have to recoup investment, finance BFR/BFS and similar excuses. Textbook goalpost moving.
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#35
by
envy887
on 05 Mar, 2018 23:13
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The economic viability argument... dead and buried.
Not really, so far they proved "only" that it is not more costly than using new boosters.
Never underestimate the ability of naysayers to move goalposts.
Few years ago I heard so much about how much prices will drop once SpaceX starts regularly recover and reuse stages. Are you denying that they so far didn't dropped prices significantly (or in fact at all at moment of typing these words - still 62 mln $)?
Nowadays SpaceX fans explain that they don't have to do it right now since they are already cheapest, they have to recoup investment, finance BFR/BFS and similar excuses. Textbook goalpost moving.
There's probably a better thread for you to conflate price and cost.
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#36
by
Lar
on 06 Mar, 2018 01:48
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There's probably a better thread for you to conflate price and cost.
I can think of several. Use them. Further posts will be deleted.
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#37
by
AncientU
on 12 Mar, 2018 12:34
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Retweeted by Iridium:
Les dix satellites de la cinquième grappe d’#IridiumNEXT sont arrivés à Vandenberg. Lancement prévu à la fin du mois sur un #Falcon9 de @SpaceX. @IridiumComm @Thales_Alenia_S
https://twitter.com/StefanBarensky/status/973177015791706113
Microsoft Translation:
The ten satellites of the fifth cluster @IridiumNEXT have arrived at Vandenberg. Scheduled launch at the end of the month on a @Falcon9 de #SpaceX. #IridiumComm @Thales_Alenia_S
that's not an Iridium NEXT satellite
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#38
by
envy887
on 12 Mar, 2018 12:38
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that's not an Iridium NEXT satellite
The black cylinder looks like an Iridium dispenser though...
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#39
by
gongora
on 12 Mar, 2018 13:23
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that's not an Iridium NEXT satellite
The black cylinder looks like an Iridium dispenser though...
It's a set of Iridium satellites already on the dispenser, and a very terrible picture.
