SpaceX F9 : OneWeb F15 (40x) : KSC LC-39A : 8 December 2022 (22:27 UTC)

[FutureSpaceTourist]

A couple more launch photos posted by SpaceX

[su27k]

twitter.com/stephenclark1/status/1600922979050872832

Team of rivals? OneWeb's chief technology officer @M_Ladovaz had effusive praise for SpaceX when I spoke to him today.

SpaceX designed a brand new satellite dispenser for OneWeb in just a few months. It has a simpler separation sequence & holds 40 sats.

spaceflightnow.com/2022/12/08/fal…

https://twitter.com/stephenclark1/status/1600923418332958727

In a pre-launch interview, @M_Ladovaz of OneWeb said:

"Honestly, it’s incredible what SpaceX can achieve in such a short amount of time ... It’s in another dimension compared to other launch vehicle providers.”
https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/12/08/falcon-9-oneweb-15-coverage/

More detail from SFN article:

In one example of SpaceX’s rapid pace of development, the launch provider designed and built a new dispenser to accommodate OneWeb’s satellites inside the Falcon 9’s payload fairing. For its past missions, OneWeb used a carbon composite mounting tower built in Sweden by Beyond Gravity, formerly known as RUAG Space, with a capacity to hold up to 36 satellites.

SpaceX developed a multi-tier metallic dispenser capable of accommodating up to 40 satellites. OneWeb’s satellites separated from their rocket in groups of four over the house of nearly four hours on the previous launches, while SpaceX released OneWeb’s spacecraft over a shorter timespan.

“It’s actually a completely different design … It’s incredible,” Ladovaz said. “If you think about it, designing from scratch a dispenser in two months, when SpaceX came back to us and proposed that idea, to be honest with you, we were a little bit concerned. But they explained that to us, and we accepted it and moved along with the idea.”

So metallic dispenser instead of carbon composite dispenser, this looks like another case of SpaceX trade bigger mass budget (enabled by large payload capacity of their LV) for faster (thus cheaper) space hardware development.

[OneSpeed]

Here is a comparison of the webcast telemetry from the OneWeb F15 and Transporter 5 missions.

The orbital inclinations achieved were not identical, 86.4° for OneWeb F15, and 97.5° (SSO) for Transporter 5. Nevertheless, they both required substantial doglegs out of Florida, and both boosters returned to Landing Zones.

Differences in the telemetry include:

1. F15 had the smallest throttle bucket I can find for a Falcon 9 mission. Perhaps the payload stack is less sensitive to MaxQ dynamic pressure than usual?

2. F15 used nearly 1g more acceleration than T5 for the boostback burn, which is usually about 3g. As a result, the F15 booster spent some 50s less time in flight, and only reached an altitude of 127km (vs 146km) although it did travel further downrange to 93km (vs 83km). Mind you, F15 launched from LC-39A, which is 14.8km north of the landing zone, vs T5 from SLC-40 which is 9.1km north.

3. The F15 second stage spent less impulse on its dogleg manoeuvre, as you would expect.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/spaceoffshore/status/1601509792581046273

Doug will arrive at Port Canaveral later this morning. Hopefully carrying two fairing halves from OneWeb #15

[Rondaz]

Stacked pics from my DSLR of #OneWebLaunch15

https://twitter.com/baserunner0723/status/1601411969084706816

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/jconcilus/status/1601562757345574918

Surf’s up, fog bank has settled in, and the @SpaceX launch support vessel Doug is back from down south with some fairings from Thursday’s #OneWeb launch.

Welcome back! 👍🏻🚀⛴️

[scr00chy]

https://twitter.com/jconcilus/status/1601562757345574918

Surf’s up, fog bank has settled in, and the @SpaceX launch support vessel Doug is back from down south with some fairings from Thursday’s #OneWeb launch.

Welcome back! 👍🏻🚀⛴️

Looks like only one fairing half has been recovered.

EDIT: Nevermind, you can see both fairing halves from another angle on NSF webcam. I didn't realize they can fit both fairings side by side.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/spaceoffshore/status/1601648065286647809

Doug arrived at Port Canaveral with both fairing halves from OneWeb #15

nsf.live/spacecoast

[russianhalo117]

https://twitter.com/jconcilus/status/1601562757345574918

Surf’s up, fog bank has settled in, and the @SpaceX launch support vessel Doug is back from down south with some fairings from Thursday’s #OneWeb launch.

Welcome back! 👍🏻🚀⛴️

Looks like only one fairing half has been recovered.

EDIT: Nevermind, you can see both fairing halves from another angle on NSF webcam. I didn't realize they can fit both fairings side by side.

Yes they can carry two pairs horizontally across the deck and more with PLF cradles that can support vertical stacking for transport for two halves.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/tskelso/status/1602370981099540480

CelesTrak has GP data for all 40 #OneWeb satellites launched on Dec 8 at 2227 UTC. Matches between GP and SupGP data look quite good and we expect confirmation of these IDs shortly: https://celestrak.org/NORAD/elements/supplemental/oneweb.match.txt

[Rondaz]

US CSpOC Space-Track is also listing TLEs for the recent @SpaceX @OneWeb Batch No. 15 launch, starting with COSPAR ID 2022-166A).

https://twitter.com/Astroguyz/status/1602368469214924828

[Rondaz]

A nice picture showing B1069 horizontal on LZ-1 after launching OneWeb Flight #15, and B1073 vertical on LZ-2 after launching Hakuto-R Mission 1.

https://twitter.com/GewoonLukas_/status/1602622222941691904