SpaceX F9 : Starlink v1.0 L8 Rideshare : June 13, 2020

[edkyle99]

Usually I like Jeff Foust's reporting, but this tweet really needs some Honorary Captain Obvious Award, (ribbon or pin):
https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1271788411087720450

This is not obvious news for most people, only obvious for space nerds.  Foust is spot-on, doing his job, for reporting this fact.  It is newsworthy to note that one of NASA's crew launch providers is spending huge sums of cash and not taking in so much so far this year.

 - Ed Kyle

[FutureSpaceTourist]

That’s quite a long time recovering the fairings

https://twitter.com/spacexfleet/status/1271878325888303104

Tracking shows that Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief have departed from the fairing recovery zone for Port Canaveral, Florida.

[gongora]

SpaceX has had at least two customer flights that would have launched already delayed by the pandemic, but the number of Starlink launches on the manifest certainly is striking.

[Nate_Trost]

SpaceX has already received much of the contract payments for 1H '20 launches that have been delayed due to the pandemic. There has certainly been a bit of cash flow hit, but it's not like it's 100% of the value of the delayed launches.

In light of the already soft commercial launch market, it remain to be seen whether the pandemic is going to put a bite in filling out the future commercial manifest. If SpaceX doesn't win one of the two NSSL slots, that would be even more of a concern.

[envy887]

Usually I like Jeff Foust's reporting, but this tweet really needs some Honorary Captain Obvious Award, (ribbon or pin):
https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1271788411087720450

This is not obvious news for most people, only obvious for space nerds.  Foust is spot-on, doing his job, for reporting this fact.  It is newsworthy to note that one of NASA's crew launch providers is spending huge sums of cash and not taking in so much so far this year.

 - Ed Kyle

SpaceX is "taking in" money from CRS, Commercial Crew, other NASA and DoD contracts, commercial launch prepayments, rideshares, as well as massive sums from investors.

They will have 4 paying primary customer launches plus 2 paying rideshares in the first 6 months of 2020.

[wannamoonbase]

Usually I like Jeff Foust's reporting, but this tweet really needs some Honorary Captain Obvious Award, (ribbon or pin):
https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1271788411087720450

This is not obvious news for most people, only obvious for space nerds.  Foust is spot-on, doing his job, for reporting this fact.  It is newsworthy to note that one of NASA's crew launch providers is spending huge sums of cash and not taking in so much so far this year.

 - Ed Kyle

SpaceX is "taking in" money from CRS, Commercial Crew, other NASA and DoD contracts, commercial launch prepayments, rideshares, as well as massive sums from investors.

They will have 4 paying primary customer launches plus 2 paying rideshares in the first 6 months of 2020.

yeah not worried about it.  NASA and DOD missions have nice price tags.

Starlink is a multiyear investment, we're only about to enter the beta test.  The next couple years will be really exciting to see how it contributes to SpaceX's revenue.  And I love watching all these launches. 

Sadly the fairing recovery seems to be harder and less predictable than booster recovery.

[Herb Schaltegger]

Furthermore, "SpaceX" and "Starlink" are not, in the corporate sense, monolithic entities. Each will undoubtedly have various closely-held subsidiary and affiliated business entities in addition to the details of how they relate to each other directly. Depending very greatly on the details of how these entities own and control various amounts of equity in one another, and how their individual and collective rounds of fund-raising have been allocated, it is 100% certain that - on the books, at least - "Starlink" has paid "SpaceX" some measurable amount of money for launch and integration services for each launch so far and will continue to do for those to come, the costs of which will be indicated on Starlink's individual balance sheets as debits and liabilities.  So yes, to the extent the whole thing is abstracted far enough, one hand is quite literally paying the other.

So long as "Starlink" starts generating cash flow within the period estimated by their corporate accounting staff and business officers, none of this is any kind of big deal. In the end, if Starlink doesn't generate revenues as expected and ceases to be a going concern, it will go down as just another failed LEO constellation system. "SpaceX" itself will be just fine, insulated by accounting rules and various degrees of business subsidiaries and affiliated entities.

(Yes, I'm using quotes - I do so to denote whatever set of corporate entities exist which use each entity's name for their business operations).

[Hummy]

Demo of the Exolaunch separation mechanism that was used to deploy SkySats (at 24th second):



When they squeeze the pliers that's cocked state. The clamps in the bottom ring hold the mushroom extensions of the top ring and a lock holds the mechanism in the cocked state. In flight the lock is released and the clamps move away from the extensions while the levers push the top ring and payload away (not demonstrated). User manual.

[Zed_Noir]

Comments from Mike Safyan (PlanetLabs VP of Launch) on the number of SkySats that can go up with Starlink Rideshare on the PlanetLab blog.

Although the Falcon 9 rocket was equipped with the capacity for all six SkySats in a single launch (and then some), the SkySats were intentionally split across two launches so that they could be deployed into offset planes, optimizing for maximum coverage and revisit time over key regions. Stay tuned for more launch and commissioning updates as things progress.

https://www.planet.com/pulse/skysats-16-18-falcon-9-success/

In hindsight. If Planetlabs have known the SpaceX rideshare cost. They could have build a few more SkySats with the launch cost savings.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/spacexfleet/status/1272151333127229442

Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief will arrive at Port Canaveral today between 2 - 4pm ET.

[Ronsmytheiii]

I can make them out on the clickorlando webcam:

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2020/01/30/live-camera-port-canaveral/

[Ghoti]

I can make them out on the clickorlando webcam:

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2020/01/30/live-camera-port-canaveral/

I brought up the Jetty cam just as one of the catchers passed by. Looked like top net was up and something was on the deck. Missed which of the Ms' it was.

[Ronsmytheiii]

I can make them out on the clickorlando webcam:

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2020/01/30/live-camera-port-canaveral/

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/booster_buddies/status/1272233821220540418

Both fairings seem to be in good shape. Let's see how they look once the tarps are lifted.
#SpaceX

[soltasto]

Don't know if this was already done by someone else, but here is the spacex.com/launches page for this mission saved in a pdf format.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/spacexfleet/status/1272557284317704195

Of Course I Still Love You droneship arrival now set for 7 - 8am ET TOMORROW, June 16th.

A combination of busy traffic at Port Canaveral and waiting for crew ship GO Quest - who made a pit stop in Charleston - to catch up.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/gregscott_photo/status/1272600893893029890

A different take on the F9's 9 Merlin 1-D engines from last weeks launch. What do you think? As always prints are available...  #SpaceX #Starlink #NASA #Space

[GWR64]

https://www.planet.com/pulse/skysats-16-18-falcon-9-success/

SkySats 16-18 Successfully Launch Aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9

Mike Safyan | June 13, 2020

On June 13, 2020, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully lofted three of Planet’s high-resolution imaging SkySats along with a batch of its Starlink communications satellites. SkySats 16, 17 and 18 were successfully deployed into a drop-off orbit of 205 x 380 km, 53 degree inclination. Planet’s launch operations team has successfully acquired all three satellites and started performing operational checkouts. Over the next several weeks they will use their onboard propulsion to boost themselves up to their operational orbit of 400 km circular altitude.

These three new SkySats join the 15 others already in orbit and expand our capacity to provide world class, high resolution images to a variety of governmental, commercial, academic and non-profit organizations.

With shelter-in-place orders still in effect, the Planet team watched the launch livestream from the comfort and safety of their homes, making pancake feasts to continue Planet’s launch pancakes tradition.

SkySats 19, 20 and 21 will follow closely on the heels of today’s successful launch and join another Starlink launch scheduled this summer. Although the Falcon 9 rocket was equipped with the capacity for all six SkySats in a single launch (and then some), the SkySats were intentionally split across two launches so that they could be deployed into offset planes, optimizing for maximum coverage and revisit time over key regions. Stay tuned for more launch and commissioning updates as things progress.

[ChrisC]

Don't know if this was already done by someone else, but here is the spacex.com/launches page for this mission saved in a pdf format.

Eeeyup, another member here started doing it two launches ago, since SpaceX stopped:

They are not providing press kits anymore (Hillary Coe, Design Director at SpaceX, told me on Twitter that the launches site is going to replace the press kits, but she deleted that tweet ), so I decided to create my own press kit based on the information they provided on the website to have it saved for the future when they modify the website for another launch. EDIT: Modified the document to include a link to the source website.

SpaceX has finally updated their launches website for the upcoming launch, so I have created my own "press kit" again, based on the posted information.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/eg0911/status/1272828195461640193

As the sun rises Finn Falgout is still circling offshore. Still no update from the pilots on when they will be in Port Canaveral. #spacexfleet

https://twitter.com/spacexfleet/status/1272838274617393152

GO Quest is now transfering crew onto OCISLY.

OCISLY droneship arrival is set for 7:30am ET this morning.