ЦитироватьSpaceflight preps for first launch of unique orbiting satellite deployers
August 23, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/08/) | Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)
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Artist's illustration of the SSO-A mission's free flyers separating fr om the upper stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. Credit: Spaceflight
Engineers working for Spaceflight, a Seattle-based launch services company, are in the final steps of preparing for the first launch of new robotic free flyers carrying more than 70 small government and commercial satellites into polar orbit later this year aboard a dedicated flight of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The company's specialists earlier this month were finalizing avionics testing on two modules that will shepherd the microsatellites and nanosatellites into orbit, according to Jeff Roberts, Spaceflight's mission director for the SSO-A "SmallSat Express" mission.Спойлер
Spaceflight specializes in arranging launches of multiple small satellites on a single rocket, a rideshare concept that spreads the cost of a launch across many customers. The arrangement is particularly helpful for start-up companies and low-budget research institutions, which often can't afford to pay for a dedicated ride into Earth orbit.
But Spaceflight had never purchased the full capacity of a rocket as large as the Falcon 9 before contracting with SpaceX for the SSO-A SmallSat Express mission in 2015.
At the time of the 2015 announcement, Spaceflight officials said the selection of the Falcon 9 would allow some of the mission's satellites, which are owned by U.S. government agencies, to fly on a U.S. launcher fr om a U.S. launch pad.
Three missions funded by the U.S. military are among the largest spacecraft slated to fly on the SSO-A mission later this year. They are STPSat 5, a microsatellite fr om the Air Force's Space Test Program which hosts five experiments, the eXCITe spacecraft funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — DARPA — and the FalconSat 6 satellite built by students at the Air Force Academy.
The roster of satellites with reservations on the SSO-A mission has changed numerous times over the last three years as some payloads ran into development delays or found other launch opportunities.
Curt Blake, president of Spaceflight, said in a recent interview that the manifest of satellites on the SSO-A is "pretty much finalized" at 71 spacecraft.
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Artist's illustration of the SSO-A mission's free flyers separating from the upper stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. Credit: Spaceflight
Most of the satellites on the SSO-A mission, which include 15 microsatellites and 56 CubeSats, will be installed on two free flyers at Spaceflight's facility in Auburn, Washington, near Seattle, officials said.
A few of the larger passengers on the SSO-A mission will be shipped directly to the Falcon 9 launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, wh ere technicians will mate them to the free flyers, or directly on the rocket's second stage.
Spaceflight officials said the launch is scheduled some time between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31. Several engineers with payloads flying on the SSO-A mission said they expected the launch in November, after a pair of Falcon 9 launches earlier in SpaceX's queue at Vandenberg with Argentina's SAOCOM 1A Earth observation satellite and the final set of 10 Iridium Next voice and data relay satellites.
The deployment structure developed by Spaceflight consists of two hubs — an upper and a lower free flyer — carrying satellites and CubeSat dispensers. Both free flyers will separate from the Falcon 9 rocket once it enters a polar, sun-synchronous orbit around 357 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth.
Blake said the free flyers are based on Spaceflight's Sherpa space tug, which the company intended to launch for the first time on a Falcon 9 flight shared with Taiwan's Formosat 5 Earth observation satellite. But delays in Formosat 5's launch, caused in part by a Falcon 9 rocket explosion on a launch pad in 2016, prompted Spaceflight to cancel the mission and find alternative launch opportunities for the smallsats reserved on the Sherpa flight.
The Formosat 5 mission finally launched last August.
"Generically, we call it the Sherpa," Blake said of the SSO-A mission in an interview with Spaceflight Now earlier this month. "But it is actually more than one hub. There's an upper free flyer and and a lower free flyer. There's a lot of spacecraft on each of those. It's kind of a combination stack."
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This infographic released by Spaceflight illustrates the types of payloads booked on the SSO-A mission. Credit: Spaceflight
The pace of work at Spaceflight's integration facility in Washington is picking up as satellites begin arriving.
"It's very busy," Blake said. "It's a pretty well orchestrated logistical exercise. Our focus in integration has a very involved schedule. It has different spacecraft arriving at different points. If their teams are involved, then they arrive as well. Once integration occurs, then they vacate and the next folks come in."
Blake said the entire payload riding into orbit on the Falcon 9 rocket will weigh around 4 metric tons — nearly 9,000 pounds — at the time of launch.
"We'll be integrating just about all of the CubeSats and a couple of microsats up at Auburn," Roberts told Spaceflight Now. "So we're getting ready for that event, making sure that we have all of our customers have all of their documentation complete and ready.
"We've done mission readiness reviews with our customers. The last thing we need to do is give them their shipping dates," he said. "We'll do that once we have confirmation of our launch date. We'll have customers show up around 60 days before launch up at Auburn. We'll do integration for about two or thee weeks up there, and then we'll package everything and ship it down to Vandenberg for the final 30 days of the launch campaign."
The free flyers will carry 67 of the satellites slated to fly on the SSO-A mission. Another four microsatellites will be mounted directly on the Falcon 9 rocket, which will command their separation sequences.
Once in orbit less than 15 minutes after liftoff, the Sherpa modules will release from the rocket and begin releasing the smallsats, Roberts said.
"We've developed a deployment sequence that's based off a high-fidelity analysis that we did specifically to make sure our customers don't collide into each other upon deployment, so we're taking our time," he said. "It's about a six-hour deployment sequence. We make sure that we phase that to maximize the distance in separation between all of our customers."
That should help the U.S. military, which tracks objects in orbit, more quickly identify the satellites released on the SSO-A mission, an issue that has caused headaches in the past.
The free flyers will operate as independent spacecraft themselves, with their own computers, electronics and batteries.
"We refer to them as free flyers because that's exactly what they are. There is no propulsion system on-board. They just simply hold all the avionics and the dispensers to command deployment," Roberts said.
The upper free flyer is based on a commonly-used secondary payload adapter — known as an ESPA ring — built by Moog. The lower free flyer is Spaceflight's own design, according to Roberts.
The free flyer modules will unfurl drag sails after the satellite deployments to help bring the dispensers back into Earth's atmosphere.
Of the 71 satellites booked on the SSO-A mission, more than 30 are from international customers, according to Spaceflight. Organizations from 18 countries have payloads on the SSO-A mission: the United States, Australia, Italy, Netherlands, Finland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Germany, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Poland, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, and India.
Planet is one of major commercial customers on the mission, with two of its SkySat microsatellites and several Dove CubeSats set to join its large fleet of Earth-imaging craft in orbit. Planet is also sponsoring the launch of two CubeSats from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Colorado in Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
"Among the spacecraft onboard, 23 are from universities, 19 are imaging satellites, 23 are technology demonstrations, two are art exhibits, and one is from a high school. Seventy-five percent are commercial spacecraft," Spaceflight said in a statement.
Blake told Spaceflight Now the SSO-A mission turned out to be a complex undertaking.
"To fill, or to make profitable buying a rocket the size of Falcon 9, you have to aggregate a lot of small spacecraft," he said. "Just understanding what kind of timescale that's going to take and how many satellites you're going to have to aggregate to hit that one point in time — that's one lesson — just understanding wh ere that is, and how difficult it is.
"The second one is during the timeframe as you're getting ready, different customers have different potential issues," he added. "Some float through as easy as can be. Others may have difficulties along the way. We've had to move different customers around on the stack. That means that you really need to have an ability to configure and reconfigure the stack, (and) the electronics that go into the deployments."
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File photo of a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Spaceflight, a division of Spaceflight Industries, has arranged the launch of more than 140 smallsats to date on numerous missions using a variety of launchers, including the Falcon 9, India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, Northrop Grumman's Antares booster, the Russian Soyuz rocket, and the now-retired Dnepr rocket.
The record number of satellites launched on a single rocket is 104, set by an Indian PSLV mission last year. Some of those payloads were customers of Spaceflight, but not all.
Blake said Spaceflight has no immediate plans to buy another dedicated Falcon 9 launch. The economical and logistical sweet spot for rideshares may be using a smaller rocket, he said.
"We're making sure to see how this one goes, and getting all the lessons learned out of it, before turning our attention to doing another one this large," Blake said. "Having said that, we're actively looking at different ones on medium-sized launch vehicles.
The company has agreements for future smallsat rideshare launches on Arianespace's Vega rocket, Rocket Lab's Electron, and Virgin Orbit's air-dropped LauncherOne vehicle — all significantly smaller, and less expensive, than a Falcon 9, which currently sells for around $50 million to $60 million per flight.
"We know about aggregating a number of payloads onto small launch vehicles," Blake said. "You can think of those as dedicated missions as well, wh ere we've got five or 10 different spacecraft on a smaller launch vehicle, 30 or 40 on a medium-sized launch vehicle. The thing we'll take time to sort out is how it goes on a large launch vehicle like this."[свернуть]
ЦитироватьTwo SkySat Satellites, Three Doves, And A Record-Breaking Launch On Spaceflight's SSO-AMike Safyan (https://www.planet.com/pulse/author/misha/) | October 22, 2018Two SkySat Satellites, Three Doves, and a Record-Breaking Launch on Spaceflight's SSO-A
Planet is gearing up to send seven satellites into orbit this November as part of SSO-A: SmallSat Express, a fully dedicated rideshare mission on the SpaceX Falcon 9, procured by Spaceflight Industries (http://spaceflight.com/). Of the 70 spacecraft onboard, Planet will send up two SkySat satellites, three latest-generation Dove satellites (Flock 3s), and two university cubesat projects sponsored by Planet.
The two SkySat satellites – numbers 14 and 15 – are the primary spacecraft of the SSO-A mission. They will join the 13 operational SkySats in orbit, expanding the world's largest fleet of high-resolution imaging satellites (https://www.planet.com/pulse/planet-celebrates-anniversary-of-terra-bella-deal-with-new-offerings/). The improved global coverage, particularly in the morning orbit, will help Planet increase access to high-resolution imagery for customers as well as task afternoon imaging more effectively. This is the first time SkySat satellites will fly on a Falcon 9.
The three Dove satellites on this launch will support Planet's global monitoring mission and highlight our agile aerospace approach of rapid iteration of satellite technology. Planned upgrades to the Doves, such as improved camera and telescope systems, will be tested in flight and refined back on the ground in our new satellite manufacturing facility (https://www.planet.com/pulse/state-of-california-and-planet-announce-groundbreaking-initiative-to-support-action-on-climate-change/).
Planet is also sponsoring the launch of two university cubesat projects: the MinXSS-2 from the University of Colorado, Boulder Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and the RANGE from Georgia Tech. These projects were the finalists of the University CubeSat Partnership, a competition hosted by Terra Bella (before its acquisition (https://www.planet.com/terrabella/) by Planet in 2017).
We're excited to participate in this record-breaking launch with Spaceflight Industries! Stay tuned for updates from the launch site at Vandenberg by following @planetlabs (https://twitter.com/planetlabs?lang=en).
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/29925.jpg)Michael Baylor @nextspaceflight (https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight) 26 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1055204140362752004)
Koenigsmann said at the IAC that the SSO-A mission would likely feature a third flight of the same first stage.Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/67585.jpg)Eric BergerПодлинная учетная запись @SciGuySpace (https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace) 37 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1055201238067961871)
Lars Hoffman, of SpaceX, just said at the VonBraun symposium that, "We're about to relaunch a booster for the third time." No additional details. Hopefully @jeff_foust (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust) can grab him for details after the panel.
ЦитироватьMaxar's SSL Delivers Two Earth Observation Satellites to Vandenberg Launch Base
October 25, 2018SSL advances its growing leadership in the manufacturing of small form-factor satellitesPALO ALTO, CA, Oct. 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - SSL (http://www.sslmda.com/?utm_source=press-release&utm_medium=wire&utm_campaign=skysat), a Maxar Technologies company (NYSE: MAXR) (TSX: MAXR), and a leading provider of innovative satellites and spacecraft systems, has shipped two Earth observation satellites to Vandenberg Air Force Base where they will be launched on Spaceflight's first Sun Synchronous dedicated rideshare mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle. SSL manufactured SkySat 14 and 15 for commercial Earth observation company Planet, advancing SSL's leadership in the manufacture of innovative, small form-factor satellites.
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The imaging satellites feature 72 cm resolution and will be added to Planet's SkySat constellation, which currently includes 11 SSL-built small satellites. The SkySat constellation complements Planet's Dove constellation, with the most satellites on orbit from a commercial imagery provider.Спойлер
"SSL continues to embrace innovation and elevate our partnerships to meet the rising demand for small form-factor satellites," said Dario Zamarian, Group President, SSL. "It has been rewarding to apply our extensive expertise in the manufacturing of high-quality small satellites, solidifying our leadership position and supporting the Planet team in achieving its objectives."
Six of Planet's SSL-built satellites were launched in 2017 and five were launched in 2016. SSL continues to manufacture additional SkySats for Planet in its state-of-the-art SmallSat manufacturing facility, integrating improvements and increasing the cadence of delivery.
"Working alongside SSL on our Earth imaging fleet has been very successful," said Chester Gillmore, Vice President of Manufacturing at Planet. "Adding two more SkySats to our fleet will enhance our daily monitoring to help our customers gain valuable insights, understand what's happening on the ground and take needed and timely action."
SSL combines a commercial mindset with a track record of reliability in building smaller form-factor satellites for both Earth Observation and communications. Blending speed and agility with space proven qualification and production processes provides satellite operators with high performance and best value solutions.[свернуть]
ЦитироватьThis year, Spaceflight will be executing the company's first-ever dedicated rideshare mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. This historic mission, named SSO-A: SmallSat Express, will be the largest mission from a U.S.-based launch vehicle.
Spaceflight manifested this entire mission with more than 60 payloads from 17 different countries from across more than 30 organizations.
This will be an important and unique launch for Spaceflight. Increasing access to space has always been Spaceflight's mission as an organization, and rideshare represents a viable solution to the many hurdles present in accessing space, including availability, cost, and other factors.
Dedicated rideshare missions address those challenges in an expedited fashion, flying large amounts of spacecraft to orbit at one time; the mission is also solely dedicated to smallsats.
The Future of Launch
While SSO-A: SmallSat Express has not yet launched, there are already several important lessons learned from this mission
First is that a large number of satellites on one launch is an incredibly complex undertaking. Complexity touches every part of rideshare missions, including integrating payloads, placing multiple satellites on orbit, and managing regulatory needs. Now, with more than 60 payloads on a single mission, the complexities are amplified.
It's too early to completely rule out large vehicles for future dedicated rideshare missions; however, it is more likely that small- and medium-sized launch vehicles will become the vehicles of choice for future dedicated rideshare missions.
ЦитироватьPirat5 пишет:KazSTSAT весит 105 кг, а не 50
предварительный состав, в соответствии с Гюнтером (https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_chr/lau2018.htm) и reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/9raysi/ssoa_launch_campaign_thread/)
Цитироватьhttps://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1062517001535533056?s=19Ловить обтекатель пока не хотят
(https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1062517001535533056?s=19)Static fire on Thursday (Nov 15th). Since it is a more hidden pad we'll have to wait for SpaceX's tweet for confirmation of the static fire.
ЦитироватьNo fairing recovery for SSO-A (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1062542792700784640), next try will be with Iridium-8.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186040.jpg)Chris B - NSF @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) 17:14 (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1063238836619218944) - 15 нояб. 2018 г.
Falcon 9 B1046.3 has arrived at SLC-4E for her static fire test ahead of launch on Monday with the SSO-A mission.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/69029.jpg)SpaceXПодлинная учетная запись @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 21:55 (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1063309442786062336) - 15 нояб. 2018 г.
Static fire test of Falcon 9 complete—targeting November 19 launch of Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/69029.jpg)SpaceXПодлинная учетная запись @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 21:59 (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1063310464870834176) - 15 нояб. 2018 г.
Falcon 9's first stage booster for this mission completed two East Coast launches earlier this year.
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Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/67521.jpg)Stephen Clark @StephenClark1 (https://twitter.com/StephenClark1) 5:09 - 16 нояб. 2018 г. (https://twitter.com/StephenClark1/status/1063418760265121792)18:31:47 UTC 19.11.2018
Next: Installation of Spaceflight's free flyers on the Falcon 9, carrying 64 smallsats. Launch set for 10:31:47am Pacific Time on Monday.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/185603.png)Leaf Space @leaf_space (https://twitter.com/leaf_space) 9:18 (https://twitter.com/leaf_space/status/1063481514267168768) - 16 нояб. 2018 г
We're ready to launch!
Two of our #LeafLine (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LeafLine?src=hash) GSs are ready to autonomously support Launch & Early Operation Phase for customers flying on #SSOA (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SSOA?src=hash) @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc) mission of @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) #Falcon9 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Falcon9?src=hash).
Stay tuned!
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ЦитироватьEuropean Student Earth Orbiter animationhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h61htZs-s5Ahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h61htZs-s5A (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h61htZs-s5A) (4:55)
European Space Agency, ESA (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIBaDdAbGlFDeS33shmlD0A)
Опубликовано: 16 нояб. 2018 г.
The ESEO satellite will be set into space on board the Spaceflight's SSO-A: SmallSat Express dedicated rideshare mission on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, (US), on 19 November 2018. ESEO will be a passenger together with about 70 other micro, nano, and pico satellites from several countries from all over the world.Спойлер
ESEO is an ESA micro-satellite project with an educational objective: for the participating university students to acquire hands-on experience of a real space project, in order to prepare a well-qualified technical workforce for the European space sector. This was achieved by offering the student the opportunity to develop the payload (scientific instruments or technology demonstration experiments), key satellite subsystems and the ground segment (ground stations and Mission Control) to the mission, under the coordination of ESA and SITAEL, the Industrial Prime Contractor, responsible for the satellite platform, system integration and testing, and the technical coordination of the student teams.
Run by the ESA Education Office, ESEO is part of ESA Academy's Hands-on Space Programme.
Ten Universities from eight ESA Member States (Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, UK) have participated in ESEO, with more than 600 university students involved in the project since its inception.
The ESEO mission will validate in-orbit the SITAEL S-50 platform (50kg including the payload), the smallest within the SITAEL products portfolio, and hence it represents a crucial milestone of the intensive hard work in designing, developing and manufacturing innovative multi-purpose small satellites platforms.[свернуть]
ЦитироватьEuropean Student Earth Orbiter ready for launchhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99QqVUzROTMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99QqVUzROTM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99QqVUzROTM) (4:53)
European Space Agency, ESA (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIBaDdAbGlFDeS33shmlD0A)
Опубликовано: 16 нояб. 2018 г.
The European Student Earth Orbiter (ESEO) is an educational micro-satellite, which involved European university students during the whole project lifecycle. This 50-kilogram microsatellite is now ready and waiting for launch on 19 November aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher from California.
The student teams developed experiments on board ESEO include cameras for Earth imaging, a radiation dosimeter, a plasma detector, and demonstrators of technologies that can be used for future education satellite missions.
Цитироватькукушка пишет:На какой орбите она побывала?
ервую ступень B1046.3, которая уже дважды побывала на орбите
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/69029.jpg)SpaceXПодлинная учетная запись @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 13:02 (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1063900263570788352) - 17 нояб. 2018 г.P.S.
Standing down from Monday's launch attempt of Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express to conduct additional pre-flight inspections. Once complete, we will confirm a new launch date.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/67521.jpg)Stephen Clark @StephenClark1 (https://twitter.com/StephenClark1) 13:06 (https://twitter.com/StephenClark1/status/1063901129141039110) - 17 нояб. 2018 г.
Hearing this is likely to slip until after Thanksgiving.
ЦитироватьLAUNCH UPDATE FOR BLACKSKY GLOBAL-1 AND GLOBAL-2
NOVEMBER 15, 2018
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Globals are ready to go!
The BlackSky constellation is taking shape. We're very excited for our first two Global satellites to be on orbit by the end of the month. Global-2 will be first, heading to orbit aboard the Spaceflight SSO-A Smallsat Express mission on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base. ...
ЦитироватьSpaceX postpones rideshare launch from California
November 17, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/11/) | Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)
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Artist's illustration of Spaceflight's free flyers and payloads on the Falcon 9 rocket's second stage. Credit: Spaceflight
SpaceX has ordered additional inspections on a Falcon 9 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California set to launch 64 small satellites, a decision that is expected to keep the launcher grounded for several days until after the Thanksgiving holiday, officials said Saturday.The launch window each day opens at 10:31:47 a.m. PST (1:31:47 p.m. EST; 1831:47 GMT) and runs nearly a half-hour. There's a chance the liftoff time could be adjusted within the launch window based on calculations on the day of launch to avoid a chance one of the spacecraft could collide with an object already in space.Спойлер
The Falcon 9 was supposed to take off Monday from Vandenberg — a military base around 140 miles northwest of Los Angeles — but SpaceX announced the postponement in a tweet Saturday.
"Standing down from Monday's launch attempt of Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express to conduct additional pre-flight inspections," SpaceX tweeted. "Once complete, we will confirm a new launch date."
The Falcon 9 rocket will launch 64 satellites on a rideshare mission arranged by Spaceflight, a launch broker for smallsats based in Seattle. The 64 payloads, ranging in size from a Rubik's cube to a refrigerator, are owned by a variety of U.S. and international operators, including the U.S. government, research institutions, and commercial companies.
The launch will set a record for the most satellites ever deployed in orbit on a U.S. rocket, but it will fall short of the global mark of 104 spacecraft launched on an Indian rocket last year.
The upcoming launch is also noteworthy because it will be SpaceX's first flight to reuse the same Falcon 9 first stage booster a third time.
The booster assigned to Spaceflight's SSO-A rideshare mission flew two times from Florida: On May 11 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center with the Bangladeshi Bangabandhu 1 communications satellite, and again Aug. 7 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with the Indonesian Merah Putih telecom payload.
On both occasions, the first stage landed on SpaceX's drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean and returned to port for inspections, some limited refurbishment and reuse.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145084.jpg)
File photo of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, before a previous mission. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX has re-launched a previously-flown first stage booster 17 times, most recently on Thursday's launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with Qatar's Es'hail 2 communications satellite. But all of the first stages to date have only flown twice.
That changes with SpaceX's next mission as the company aims to eventually reuse Falcon 9 boosters up to 10 times without refurbishment, and up to 100 times with periodic overhauls. The latest iteration of the Falcon 9 design, commonly known as the "Block 5" version, includes upgrades over earlier designs to make reusing the rockets easier.
SpaceX plans to recover the first stage again aboard its West Coast drone ship in the Pacific Ocean after Spaceflight's multi-satellite launch.
Several people working with the payloads on the rideshare mission said the delay was ordered by SpaceX to resolve concerns with the rocket.
One official with a company that owns payloads set to ride to orbit on the Falcon 9 rocket said the launch will be delayed until after Thanksgiving, and another customer on the SSO-A launch said in a tweet that the flight will be delayed by five or six days.
"Unfortunately, the (Spaceflight SSO-A) launch is delayed by 5-6 days due to some additional inspections of the SpaceX rocket," officials tweeted from an account associated with the MinXSS 2 CubeSat mission flying to orbit on the Falcon 9.
The satellites riding on the flight include 15 microsatellites and 49 CubeSats. Seven CubeSats were not ready in time for a November launch, and technicians replaced them with ballast that will stay aboard Spaceflight's dual deployment modules, ensuring mass and balance calculations for the launch remain unaffected, according to Jeff Roberts, Spaceflight's mission manager for the SSO-A mission.
The microsatellites and CubeSats come from 17 countries: the United States, Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Poland, Canada, Brazil, and India.
Rockets typically launch with one or two primary satellites, and sometimes carry additional secondary payloads to fill unused capacity, but the SSO-A launch follows a different model.
There are no primary payloads on the SSO-A mission. Spaceflight purchased the full capacity of the Falcon 9 launch in 2015, and satellite owners booked their launch contracts with Spaceflight, not with SpaceX.
Spaceflight has brokered rideshare launches on rockets before, including India's PSLV and Russia's Soyuz, but those missions flew on launches carrying bigger satellites in the primary payload slot.
The rideshare arrangement allows satellite owners to divide the cost of a rocket launch, instead of paying for the entire mission.
SpaceX test-fired the Falcon 9 rocket Thursday night at Vandenberg in a customary pre-flight countdown test at Space Launch Complex 4-East. Technicians planned to return the rocket to a nearby hangar for attachment with the SSO-A payload stack, which was already encapsulated inside the Falcon 9's nose fairing.
Spaceflight's unique spacecraft carrier modules, named the upper and lower free flyers, will separate from the Falcon 9's upper stage in a roughly 357-mile-high (575-kilometer) orbit after liftoff from Vandenberg.
"We refer to them as free flyers because that's exactly what they are. There is no propulsion system on-board. They just simply hold all the avionics and the dispensers to command deployment," Roberts said.
The upper free flyer is based on a commonly-used secondary payload adapter — known as an ESPA ring — built by Moog. The lower free flyer is Spaceflight's own design, according to Roberts.
Four of the microsatellites launching on the SSO-A mission will separate directly from adapter plates on the Falcon 9 second stage after it arrives in orbit. The other 60 will deploy from the free flyers in a timed sequence over the next five hours.
The free flyer modules will unfurl drag sails after the satellite deployments to help bring the dispensers back into Earth's atmosphere.
"Everyone is integrated, the entire structure has been encapsulated, and SpaceX has broken over (turned) the encapsulated structure horizontal in preparation for mating to the rocket," Roberts told Spaceflight Now.
The total mass of the free flyers and payloads launching on the SSO-A mission is around 8,800 pounds, or 4 metric tons.
With all the satellites now aboard the free flyer modules, there are no plans to delay the launch if engineers detect a problem with one of the payloads. It's a hands-off approach crafted to ensure a problem with one satellite does not affect the others.
"At this point, the train is still leaving the station," Roberts said in an interview.[свернуть]Спойлер
The launch caps a feverish two months of work installing the satellites on the dispensers at Spaceflight's facility in Auburn, Washington, then shipping the modules by road to Vandenberg. Eleven microsatellites were shipped directly to Vandenberg by their manufacturers — and added to the payload stack there — because they could not be transported by road when fueled with propellant.
"I'm really excited, and that's pretty much how the team feels, too," Roberts said. "This is the culmination of almost three years of work by this team, and in the last 60 days, many people on this team have been working 12-to-16 hours per day, seven days per week, so they put a lot of effort to make this successful for us and for all of our customers.
"We're excited to see this go on orbit and be successful."[свернуть]
Цитировать19 НОЯ, 06:02
Южная Корея объявила о задержке запуска спутника Next Sat-1 по просьбе компании SpaceX
Специалистам американской компании потребовалось больше времени для предстартовой инспекции ракеты-носителя Falcon 9
СЕУЛ, 19 ноября. /ТАСС/. Республика Корея в понедельник объявила о переносе запуска спутника Next Sat-1 из-за необходимости осмотра ракеты-носителя. Об этом сообщило министерство науки и информационно-коммуникационных технологий.
По его данным, компания SpaceX попросила отложить пуск, поскольку ее специалистам требуется больше времени для предстартовой инспекции ракеты-носителя Falcon 9. Каких-либо подробностей относительно причин задержки не приводится.
Министерство сообщает, что теперь запуск спутника состоится 25 или 26 ноября, либо 1 декабря на базе ВВС США Vandenberg в Калифорнии.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/29925.jpg)Michael Baylor @nextspaceflight (https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight) 10:44 (https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/1065314978993909761) - 21 нояб. 2018 г.
Upcoming Vandenberg launch schedule:
- SpaceX SSO-A NET Nov 27th (JRTI)
- ULA NROL-71 NET Dec 7th
- SpaceX Iridium-8 NET Dec 30th (JRTI)
ЦитироватьNAVAREA XII 513/2018 (18,19,83)Пуск: 28.11.2018.
PACIFIC OCEAN.
HAWAII.
CALIFORNIA.
1. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS, ROCKET LAUNCHING
281801Z TO 281945Z NOV, ALTERNATE
291801Z TO 291945Z AND 301801Z TO 301945Z NOV
IN AREA BOUND BY
32-46N 121-01W, 32-02N 120-11W,
31-09N 120-27W, 30-48N 120-48W,
30-41N 121-00W, 30-25N 121-31W,
30-26N 121-56W, 31-10N 122-01W,
32-14N 122-04W.
2. HAZARDOUS OPERATIONS, SPACE DEBRIS
282004Z TO 282105Z NOV, ALTERNATE
292004Z TO 292105Z AND 302004Z TO 302105Z NOV
IN AREA BOUND BY
00-52S 152-42W, 00-20S 155-10W,
07-06N 158-07W, 15-27N 156-51W,
19-27N 153-30W, 18-43N 147-59W,
14-23N 147-19W, 05-35N 149-07W.
3. CANCEL THIS MSG 302205Z NOV 18.
( 230807Z NOV 2018 )
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/69029.jpg)SpaceXПодлинная учетная запись @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 15:04 (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1066467725151780864) - 24 нояб. 2018 г.
Targeting November 28 for launch of Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California
ЦитироватьLaunch day Nov 28, with backup launch days Nov 29-30 is now confirmed also by issued NOTMAR Launch Hazard Area.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186329.jpg)Deimos Imaging @deimosimaging (https://twitter.com/deimosimaging) 0:54 (https://twitter.com/deimosimaging/status/1067340869383131136) - 27 нояб. 2018 г.
Vandenberg Air Force Base SLC-4 looked great yesterday, Nov. 26, from the orbit of #DEIMOS2 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/DEIMOS2?src=hash)! Good luck @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) for tomorrow's launch! (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/125513.png)
#KazSTSAT (https://twitter.com/hashtag/KazSTSAT?src=hash) #Falcon9 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Falcon9?src=hash)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172511.jpg)
Цитировать(https://scontent-frx5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-1/p112x112/14141726_10155247802079897_1176986817781108090_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_ht=scontent-frx5-1.xx&oh=77c704b965e472cd29a561fb9d09279d&oe=5C7737D3) (https://www.facebook.com/30thSpaceWing/?ref=nf&hc_ref=ARRbJhmpEFLuFm9HYvbqoECOh45kYE_Y07QpQJ9-MQ8CF_hXAVjfmufu9JLofOEwBTc&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBrb7at-a-UetURJ-IJg5DRTtgyATYYwf_QlYviv_wgoESumMBFnNmbTNqKWccAnLfyu3UDnnbCm4qyhosuzgEqNKct1WvEBgrORMu3uMGemk8tU94EFDJORevUGajWZAONv72EJfe71b6ZStqv1Txx0oVlSt-0aW-W97Tan5mpyUGiLXvrJMAkhXteHyZgWIPb7Lef70bvcNQSc6ZZXVxCB1w9nAA27NbvVkJulwhqXH-NG1SnhUMNzStoE0VGrKxxni56N02fSqlE&__tn__=%3C-R) Страница «30th Space Wing (Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.) (https://www.facebook.com/30thSpaceWing/?hc_ref=ARQy2H1LEO27oE59fMYlK5tS_zMBGhpaPhSkCQAArXAG-PQxOfXv0TLBe2ZTR8Z-Xks&fref=tag&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBrb7at-a-UetURJ-IJg5DRTtgyATYYwf_QlYviv_wgoESumMBFnNmbTNqKWccAnLfyu3UDnnbCm4qyhosuzgEqNKct1WvEBgrORMu3uMGemk8tU94EFDJORevUGajWZAONv72EJfe71b6ZStqv1Txx0oVlSt-0aW-W97Tan5mpyUGiLXvrJMAkhXteHyZgWIPb7Lef70bvcNQSc6ZZXVxCB1w9nAA27NbvVkJulwhqXH-NG1SnhUMNzStoE0VGrKxxni56N02fSqlE&__tn__=kC-R)» добавила мероприятие (https://www.facebook.com/events/203275143948457/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&source=3&source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&action_history=%5B%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D&has_source=1&hc_ref=ARQy2H1LEO27oE59fMYlK5tS_zMBGhpaPhSkCQAArXAG-PQxOfXv0TLBe2ZTR8Z-Xks&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBrb7at-a-UetURJ-IJg5DRTtgyATYYwf_QlYviv_wgoESumMBFnNmbTNqKWccAnLfyu3UDnnbCm4qyhosuzgEqNKct1WvEBgrORMu3uMGemk8tU94EFDJORevUGajWZAONv72EJfe71b6ZStqv1Txx0oVlSt-0aW-W97Tan5mpyUGiLXvrJMAkhXteHyZgWIPb7Lef70bvcNQSc6ZZXVxCB1w9nAA27NbvVkJulwhqXH-NG1SnhUMNzStoE0VGrKxxni56N02fSqlE&__tn__=C-R).
22 ч. (https://www.facebook.com/events/203275143948457/?ref=3&action_history=null&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBrb7at-a-UetURJ-IJg5DRTtgyATYYwf_QlYviv_wgoESumMBFnNmbTNqKWccAnLfyu3UDnnbCm4qyhosuzgEqNKct1WvEBgrORMu3uMGemk8tU94EFDJORevUGajWZAONv72EJfe71b6ZStqv1Txx0oVlSt-0aW-W97Tan5mpyUGiLXvrJMAkhXteHyZgWIPb7Lef70bvcNQSc6ZZXVxCB1w9nAA27NbvVkJulwhqXH-NG1SnhUMNzStoE0VGrKxxni56N02fSqlE&__tn__=-R)
Team V is scheduled to support launch of the Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex-4E on Wednesday, Nov. 28, with a launch window of 10:32 a.m. PST to 11:01 a.m. PST.
If the weather permits, the public can view this launch from the Hawk's Nest on Azalea Lane off of Hwy 1 just a half mile south of Vandenberg Air Force Base's main gate.
The Hawk's Nest gates will open on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. PST and close at 10:15 a.m. PST. As a reminder the public is asked not to bring or consume alcohol, smoke, nor have any open fires or barbecues. Weapons are not allowed, additionally, the use of small unmanned aerial systems within five miles of any active runway, such as Vandenberg's, is prohibited.
(https://scontent-frx5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/c0.14.717.376/p403x403/46723135_10157600379669897_1995610095425159168_o.jpg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_ht=scontent-frx5-1.xx&oh=bfa8caddd579c148dabd72e9e2aa562a&oe=5C66A087) (https://www.facebook.com/events/203275143948457/?acontext=%7B%22ref%22%3A%223%22%2C%22ref_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22feed_story_type%22%3A%22117%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22null%22%7D&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBrb7at-a-UetURJ-IJg5DRTtgyATYYwf_QlYviv_wgoESumMBFnNmbTNqKWccAnLfyu3UDnnbCm4qyhosuzgEqNKct1WvEBgrORMu3uMGemk8tU94EFDJORevUGajWZAONv72EJfe71b6ZStqv1Txx0oVlSt-0aW-W97Tan5mpyUGiLXvrJMAkhXteHyZgWIPb7Lef70bvcNQSc6ZZXVxCB1w9nAA27NbvVkJulwhqXH-NG1SnhUMNzStoE0VGrKxxni56N02fSqlE&__tn__=HH-R)
СР, 28 НОЯ В 10:32 PST
SpaceX Falcon 9 SSO-A Launch (https://www.facebook.com/events/203275143948457/?acontext=%7B%22ref%22%3A%223%22%2C%22ref_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22feed_story_type%22%3A%22117%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22%5B%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%22%7D&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBrb7at-a-UetURJ-IJg5DRTtgyATYYwf_QlYviv_wgoESumMBFnNmbTNqKWccAnLfyu3UDnnbCm4qyhosuzgEqNKct1WvEBgrORMu3uMGemk8tU94EFDJORevUGajWZAONv72EJfe71b6ZStqv1Txx0oVlSt-0aW-W97Tan5mpyUGiLXvrJMAkhXteHyZgWIPb7Lef70bvcNQSc6ZZXVxCB1w9nAA27NbvVkJulwhqXH-NG1SnhUMNzStoE0VGrKxxni56N02fSqlE&__tn__=HH-R)
SLC-4E, Vandenberg AFB
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/30256.jpg)Tom McCool @Cygnusx112 (https://twitter.com/Cygnusx112) 37 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/Cygnusx112/status/1067446452828413952)
#SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash) had the door open to the HIF at 39A this morning showing us a #Falcon9 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Falcon9?src=hash)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172670.jpg)
ЦитироватьThere is a low pressure weather system moving through the Vandenberg area with excessive high altitude winds. The launch scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed until Saturday, 1 December, when weather conditions are forecasted to be more favorable. SpaceX should be making a public announcement today using their twitter feed.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/185420.jpg)Marine Exchange @MXSOCAL (https://twitter.com/MXSOCAL) 12:03 (https://twitter.com/MXSOCAL/status/1067509231991980032) - 27 нояб. 2018 г.
From @AFPAA (https://twitter.com/AFPAA) at Vandenberg: The Falcon 9 SSO-A launch has cancelled for tomorrow the 28th of November; now tentatively scheduled pending approval for the 1st of December with a backup dates 12/2-4. Notification pending upon confirmation of date/time.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/69029.jpg)SpaceXПодлинная учетная запись @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 17:32 (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1067591952122531840) - 27 нояб. 2018 г.
Wednesday's launch attempt of Spaceflight SSO-A from Vandenberg Air Force Base is currently no-go due to extreme high-altitude winds that violate Range requirements. Vehicle and payloads are healthy. We will announce a new launch date once confirmed with the Range.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186062.jpg)David Knight @thespacedude (https://twitter.com/thespacedude) 26 нояб. (https://twitter.com/thespacedude/status/1066902723046428672)
A fantastic photo taken by good friend Tony Cacciarelli from his Icon A5 of the @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) landing barge, Just Read The Instructions
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172243.jpg)
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186343.jpg)Chris G - NSF @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF) 1 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/1067810289779904514)
How bad are the Upper Level Winds at Vandenberg that caused #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash) to preemptively delay launch of the #Falcon9 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Falcon9?src=hash) for several days you ask? Here are the current winds ascending from 14,000 ft (60mph) up through 40,000 ft (134mph). #SSOA (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SSOA?src=hash)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172745.jpg)(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172748.jpg)Спойлер
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172746.jpg)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172747.jpg)[свернуть]
ЦитироватьSpaceX postpones California launch to wait for better weather
November 27, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/11/) | Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145183.jpg)
Spaceflight's mission patch for the SSO-A: SmallSat Express flight, with flags representing nations with payloads on the rideshare launch. Credit: Spaceflight
SpaceX has postponed Wednesday's scheduled launch from California's Central Coast with 64 smallsats, electing to keep the Falcon 9 rocket on the ground until at least Saturday to wait for improved weather conditions.
The rideshare launch is set to loft 49 nanosatellites, or CubeSats, and 15 microsatellites from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg on a mission brokered by Spaceflight, a Seattle-based company specializing in multi-payload launch bookings on a variety of rockets worldwide.
"Wednesday's launch attempt of Spaceflight SSO-A from Vandenberg Air Force Base is currently no-go due to extreme high-altitude winds that violate Range requirements," SpaceX tweeted late Tuesday. "Vehicle and payloads are healthy. We will announce a new launch date once confirmed with the Range."
The Air Force's Western Range oversees tracking, communications and safety infrastructure for launches from Vandenberg, a military base around 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.
Three officials familiar with launch preparations on the SSO-A mission said the next available launch opportunity is Saturday, Dec. 1. The launch is timed for 10:31:47 a.m. PST (1:31:47 p.m. EST; 1831 GMT) each day, with a daily window extending nearly a half-hour.
The launch was previously scheduled for Nov. 19, but payload teams said SpaceX ordered a delay to conduct additional verifications on the Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX did not release information about the reason for the extra inspections.
The 64 payloads on the SSO-A mission, ranging in size from a Rubik's cube to a refrigerator, are owned by a variety of U.S. and international operators, including the U.S. government, research institutions, and commercial companies.
Spaceflight is launching two payload mounting platforms atop the Falcon 9 rocket, which will separate and become "free flyers" after arriving in a 357-mile-high (575-kilometer) sun-synchronous orbit that circles Earth over the poles.
The satellites riding on the flight include 15 microsatellites and 49 CubeSats. Seven CubeSats were not ready in time for a November launch, and technicians replaced them with ballast that will stay aboard Spaceflight's dual deployment modules, ensuring mass and balance calculations for the launch remain unaffected, according to Jeff Roberts, Spaceflight's mission manager for the SSO-A mission.Спойлер
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145084.jpg)
File photo of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, before a previous mission. Credit: SpaceX
Four of the larger microsats will deploy from adapter plates attached directly to the Falcon 9 second stage. The other satellites will separate from the free flyers in a programmed sequence lasting around five hours.
The microsatellites and CubeSats come from 17 countries: the United States, Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Poland, Canada, Brazil, and India.
Rockets typically launch with one or two primary satellites, and sometimes carry additional secondary payloads to fill unused capacity, but the SSO-A launch follows a different model.
There are no primary payloads on the SSO-A mission. Spaceflight purchased the full capacity of the Falcon 9 launch in 2015, and satellite owners booked their launch contracts with Spaceflight, not with SpaceX.
Spaceflight has brokered rideshare launches on rockets before, including India's PSLV and Russia's Soyuz, but those missions flew on launches carrying bigger satellites in the primary payload slot.
The rideshare arrangement allows satellite owners to divide the cost of a rocket launch, instead of paying for the entire mission.
The upcoming launch is also noteworthy because it will be SpaceX's first flight to reuse the same Falcon 9 first stage booster a third time.
The booster assigned to Spaceflight's SSO-A rideshare mission flew two times from Florida: On May 11 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center with the Bangladeshi Bangabandhu 1 communications satellite, and again Aug. 7 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with the Indonesian Merah Putih telecom payload.
On both occasions, the first stage landed on SpaceX's drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean and returned to port for inspections, some limited refurbishment and reuse.
SpaceX has re-launched a previously-flown first stage booster 17 times, most recently on a Nov. 15 launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with Qatar's Es'hail 2 communications satellite. But all of the first stages to date have only flown twice.
That changes with SpaceX's next mission as the company aims to eventually reuse Falcon 9 boosters up to 10 times without refurbishment, and up to 100 times with periodic overhauls. The latest iteration of the Falcon 9 design, commonly known as the "Block 5" version, includes upgrades over earlier designs to make reusing the rockets easier.
SpaceX plans to recover the first stage again aboard its West Coast drone ship in the Pacific Ocean after Spaceflight's multi-satellite launch.[свернуть]
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/69029.jpg)SpaceXПодлинная учетная запись @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 17:54 (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1067959871230726144) - 28 нояб. 2018 г.
Now targeting December 2 for launch of Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Цитировать...
Meanwhile, a SpaceX team at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is preparing to launch a different Falcon 9 rocket Sunday at 10:31 a.m. PST (1:31 p.m. EST; 1831 GMT) on a commercial flight with 64 smallsats built and owned by companies, governments and institutions from 17 countries. The launch was set for Nov. 19, but SpaceX ordered a delay to conduct additional inspections, and the launch was further pushed back to wait for better weather.
Sunday's launch from California will set a record for the highest number of satellites ever launched on a U.S. rocket. The rideshare mission, arranged by Seattle-based Spaceflight, will also mark the first time SpaceX has flown the same Falcon 9 first stage booster a third time.
SpaceX has re-launched Falcon boosters 17 times since March 2017 — the fruits of a multi-year effort to recover the rockets and cut launch costs — but no Falcon 9 first stage has flown more than twice. That changes Sunday.
Цитироватьна сайте SpaceXspacex.com/webcast (http://www.spacex.com/webcast)
или
на ТыТрубеyoutube.com/watch?v=Wq8kS6UoOrQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq8kS6UoOrQ)
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/69029.jpg)SpaceXПодлинная учетная запись @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 2 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1068913865612656641)
Falcon 9 rolls out to SpaceX's West Coast launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base ahead of Sunday's targeted launch of 64 payloads for the Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express mission. Falcon 9's first stage for this mission completed two East Coast launches & landings this year.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172912.jpg)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172913.jpg)
ЦитироватьSpaceX launch Sunday will signify a new advance in reusing rockets
December 1, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/12/) | Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145261.jpg)
The rocket set to launch the Spaceflight SSO-A rideshare mission Sunday previously flew twice — on May 11 fr om pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, and on Aug. 7 fr om pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX teams at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California are preparing to launch a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit Sunday, powered by a reused first stage booster flying on its third mission, a first for the company as engineers continue chasing a long-term goal of re-flying the same rocket on back-to-back days.
That heady goal is still some time away — SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said in May that a 24-hour rocket turnaround could happen in 2019 — but drives the company's efforts to gradually cut the time between flights of the same first stage.
Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability, said in October that Falcon 9 rockets will soon begin logging more flights using the same airframe, a step-by-step approach that will take a big leap forward with Sunday's mission fr om Vandenberg, a military base around 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.
"So far, we've only flown a booster twice," Koenigsmann said Oct. 3 in a speech at the International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany. "Beginning soon, we will start flying a booster three times, and then take it to four times, five times, an so on and so forth. We have obviously to be very careful in evaluating boosters that come back after multiple flights. We want to make sure that we don't see wear-and-tear in the wrong spots."
SpaceX is now launching what it says is the final version of the Falcon 9 — known as Block 5 — which debuted May 11 with a launch from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The booster that launched on that mission — carrying the Bangabandhu 1 comsat to orbit for Bangladesh — landed on SpaceX's drone ship downrange in the Atlantic Ocean, returned to Florida for inspections and refurbishment, then flew again Aug. 7 on a flight from pad 40 at neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with the Indonesian Merah Putih communications spacecraft.
Following another landing on the drone ship in the Atlantic, the rocket returned to shore, and SpaceX transported it cross-country to California in preparation for its third flight, now set for Sunday.
Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket is planned at 10:31:47 a.m. PST (1:31:47 p.m. EST; 1831:47 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg, at the opening of a roughly half-hour launch window. Sixty-four smallsats, ranging in size from a Rubik's cube to a refrigerator, are mounted on top of the rocket, hailing from 17 nations, with customers that include the U.S. Defense Department, the commercial Earth-imaging company Planet, international space agencies, universities and art museums.Спойлер
Spaceflight, a Seattle-based company that arranges launch services for small satellites, booked the full capacity of the Falcon 9 mission in 2015, then signed contracts with smallsat owners to fill the ride to a 357-mile-high (575-kilometer) sun-synchronous polar orbit.
SpaceX plans to again land the first stage, for the third time, on a drone ship stationed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast at Vandenberg, potentially for a future fourth launch.
While the new Block 5 version of the Falcon 9 rocket introduced changes to make the first stage easier to recover and reuse, re-flying the boosters is still a learning process for SpaceX, Koenigsmann said in October.
"One of the problems is fatigue," he said. "You've got to watch the life cycle on components. They vibrate, basically, and you've got to have an eye on fracture control and make sure that you don't have any fractures on those components. That is actually not new. Helicopters do this right now. They are basically vibration machines, and they track, actually, the number of cycles, and they know exactly when they have to go into maintenance or preventive maintenance.
"Something similar is what we can do here on the rocket," Koenigsmann continued. "We can basically record the flight load, and then log this to the history of the part, and we can figure out when the part has to be exchanged, if it actually has to be exchanged. Ideally, you do not want to change parts."
Asked about how well the Block 5 boosters are holding up after each launch, Koenigsmann said: "I'm actually surprised. The launch of course, the engines see pretty hot exhaust gas to begin with, so putting the engines into the (re-entry) flow should be fine ... I'm surprised how well the engines hold up. There are details. We receive damage, and we have made adjustments, I would say. That's part of the reason why we have these blocks. We basically roll in changes to ... improve the vehicle. At this point in time, I'm actually pretty happy."
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145203.jpg)
A Falcon 9 rocket lands on SpaceX's drone ship Nov. 15 following the company's most recent launch from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Credit: SpaceX
On missions launching satellites toward geostationary orbit, a perch more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) above Earth, the first stage can reach speeds of over 5,000 mph, subjecting it to hotter re-entry conditions on the way back to Earth. For payloads destined for low Earth orbit, a few hundred miles up, the first stage doesn't need to travel as fast.
"There are some of the hotter re-entries, it's still something we work on to perfect them and to make sure," Koenigsmann said. "In the end, the goal is to take the rocket and move it over and launch again. We have the goal of launching, basically, within two days, and that would be tremendous if we do that."
"The majority of work is the engine," he said. "We refurbish the engine. Most of it actually is parts that are not qualified for the next flight, so we just swap the parts. It's not actual damage. It's a preventive maintenance kind of thing, wh ere we know this part may fail the next time, so we just don't take the risk and we swap it. We have some impact damage from stuff that flies out of the heat shield and hits the aero cover. That's pretty much what it is. It's actually not that bad."
"The aero cover is the thing that basically is the raceway on the side," he said. "We do look into the tanks to make sure there are no surprises in the tank, and so far we've found only clean tanks on the inside. We sometimes see damage from the thermal protection system impacting the aero covers, so they are reinforced to make sure we don't break anything on landings."
"In terms of refurbishment and building a new rocket, it's way cheaper to refurbish," Koenigsmann said.
"This didn't happen overnight," Koenigsmann said of the reusability effort. "We worked on this for many, many years, and we put a lot of money in there, and it was our own money that we put in there."
SpaceX did have some financial help, not only from Musk's fortune, but also from venture capital investments, and a cash infusion from Google. The company's revenue-earning launch activity also generated money from commercial customers, plus NASA and the U.S. Air Force, which have billions of dollars in contracts with SpaceX.
SpaceX has offered discounts from the Falcon 9's advertised selling price of $62 million for customers willing to place their satellites on a reused rocket, or as SpaceX likes to say, a flight-proven booster. Musk said in May that SpaceX then charged around $50 million for flights using a previously-flown first stage, and he expected a "steady reduction in prices" as the company gains experience with reusing rockets, and as SpaceX pays off what Musk has said was a billion-dollar investment in the capability to recover and re-fly boosters.
In May, Musk said Falcon 9 launches could cost as little as $5 million or $6 million per flight within around three years, assuming SpaceX can rapidly reuse first stage boosters, payload shrouds, and eventually Falcon 9 second stages. But after considering upgrades to beef up the Falcon 9 second stage for re-entry — it travels faster than the first stage, and would need to survive higher entry temperatures — Musk tweeted Nov. 16: "SpaceX is no longer planning to upgrade Falcon 9 second stage for reusability."
He said in May that about 60 percent of the marginal cost of a Falcon 9 launch comes from the first stage, 20 percent from the second stage, 10 percent from the payload fairing — an aerodynamic cover that protects satellites from the rush of air during liftoff — and around 10 percent from the processing, testing and assembly of a rocket for flight.
SpaceX has successfully landed one of its rockets 31 times after an orbital launch — all since December 2015 — bringing back the 15-story boosters from the edge of space and speeds of more than 5,000 mph (nearly 2.3 kilometers per second). The company has reused a rocket 17 times to date, beginning in March 2017.
Thirty-six missions have been launched by SpaceX since the company resumed flights in January 2017 following an on-pad explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket the previous September. The company's record since return-to-flight nearly two years ago is perfect, after two failures in 2015 and 2016 — one in flight and one on the pad — resulted in the destruction of a space station supply ship and an Israeli-owned communications satellite.
Sunday's mission will mark the 64th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket overall since the first variant of SpaceX's workhorse debuted in June 2010. If the SSO-A mission goes well, SpaceX aims to follow it up with the launch of a brand new Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday with another cargo flight heading to the space station.
"There's an additional benefit or side effect in addition to just the economics of reusability," Koenigsmann said. "And that's, basically, you look at the booster after the flight, and you can find things you wouldn't see otherwise. You may see wh ere stuff leaks or wh ere heat comes through, or something like that. You might find loose joints that were tight before that you need to protect more. This kind of thing is actually incredibly valuable to make a more reliable rocket. You can actually inspect it.
"If you don't know what's happening you can just put a GoPro on the place and watch it during launch. That's what we do, we just pull it out and watch it and go, OK, that seems to be OK, or we figure out this is something that needs to be reinforced. Telemetry is typically limited by bandwidth. We just log the telemetry locally, just in case, and we get all the high-speed data right there from a solid state basically on the vehicle, and use that to look at all the loads that the vehicle sees, all the data that are important to us, and try to improve the vehicle based on those data.
"So there's not just the economic part,"he said. "There's the part that I'm interested in actually. My job is reliability, and reliability benefits tremendously from reusability."[свернуть]
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186319.jpg)Pauline Acalin @w00ki33 (https://twitter.com/w00ki33) 22 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/w00ki33/status/1068966075017027585)
Heading to Lompoc along with Just Read the Instructions, NRC Quest and tug Pacific Freedom. Incredible to imagine a thrice-flown booster sitting on JRTI's deck tomorrow morning, if all goes as planned. (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/125513.png)
#spacex (https://twitter.com/hashtag/spacex?src=hash)
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Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/185869.jpg)Spaceflight @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc) 1 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc/status/1068977846746378240)
Game ON. Patches for #SSOA (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SSOA?src=hash) #SmallSatExpress (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SmallSatExpress?src=hash).
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172941.jpg)
Цитировать(https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/981105707402477570/ClqZBljg_bigger.jpg)Jack Beyer @thejackbeyer (https://twitter.com/thejackbeyer) 8 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/thejackbeyer/status/1069037275961409536)
Stunning light at remote camera set up for tomorrow's @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) & @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc) SSO-A launch this evening. Just look at all the beautiful soot on this twice-used Falcon 9! @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk)
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4 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/thejackbeyer/status/1069090562358206465)
Closeup of the fairing art. This is a rideshare mission from @Spaceflightinc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc). 64 payloads from 34 orgs will be deployed including 5 imaging sats for @planetlabs (https://twitter.com/planetlabs) and a reflective art project called Orbital Reflector by @Trevorpaglen (https://twitter.com/trevorpaglen) & @Nevadaart (https://twitter.com/nevadaart). @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172958.jpg)
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/69029.jpg)SpaceXПодлинная учетная запись @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 1 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1069133406586363904)
Standing down from tomorrow's launch attempt of Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express to conduct additional inspections of the second stage. Working toward a backup launch opportunity on December 3.
ЦитироватьLive coverage: SpaceX delays commercial rideshare launch to Monday
December 2, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/12/) | Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)
12/02/2018 10:49 Stephen Clark
SpaceX has announced the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket and the SSO-A rideshare mission has been pushed back 24 hours to Monday.
The launch window each day is fixed, opening at 10:31:47 a.m. PST (1:31:47 p.m. EST; 1831:47 GMT).
Цитировать2 ДЕК, 12:01
SpaceX перенесла запуск Falcon 9
В компании заявили, что это связано с необходимостью провести дополнительную проверку ракеты
ТАСС, 2 декабря. Компания SpaceX заявила о переносе запуска ракеты-носителя Falcon 9, которая должна доставить груз для миссии Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express на низкой околоземной орбите, с воскресенья на 3 декабря в связи с необходимостью дополнительной проверки ракеты. Об этом компания сообщила в субботу в Twitter.
В компании уточнили, что запуск ракеты должен состояться с военно-воздушной базы Ванденберг в Калифорнии. Как отметили в SpaceX, сотрудники делают все возможное, чтобы запуск 3 декабря состоялся.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186319.jpg)Pauline Acalin @w00ki33 (https://twitter.com/w00ki33) 13 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/w00ki33/status/1069039274928955392)
This Falcon 9 is ready to launch and land for the THIRD time tomorrow morning. Look at those scorched legs! (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/125513.png) #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172937.jpg)Спойлер
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(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172939.jpg)[свернуть]
12 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/w00ki33/status/1069043115040722945)
Beautiful, clear evening during remote cam setup at Vandenberg. The Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express mission is set to launch tomorrow morning during a window opening at 10:32am PT. #spacex (https://twitter.com/hashtag/spacex?src=hash)
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Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/35828.jpg)Jay L. DeShetler @jdeshetler (https://twitter.com/jdeshetler) 15 мин.назад (https://twitter.com/jdeshetler/status/1069300629971980288)
SpaceX SSO-A is still in down position at SLC-4E this am. @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172668.jpg)
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/35828.jpg)Jay L. DeShetler @jdeshetler (https://twitter.com/jdeshetler) 3 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/jdeshetler/status/1069392609708142593)
SpaceX SSO-A is still in horizontal position as of 4:05 pm PST at SLC-4E at Vandenberg AFB.
@NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172687.jpg)
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/35828.jpg)Jay L. DeShetler @jdeshetler (https://twitter.com/jdeshetler) 38 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jdeshetler/status/1069445869613703168)
SpaceX SSO-A is now in vertical position for tomorrow launch at 10:31 am PST.
@SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172691.jpg)
ЦитироватьELaNa 24
Date: NET December 2, 2018
Mission: Spaceflight Industries SSO-A
2 CubeSat Missions scheduled to be deployed[/li]
- IRVINE02 – University High School, Irvine, California
- WeissSat-1 – Weiss School, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
ЦитироватьPhotos: Twice-flown Falcon 9 rocket prepared for third mission
December 3, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/12/) | Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)
SpaceX is readying a Falcon 9 rocket booster for launch Monday at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on a record-setting mission with 64 smallsats on-board that will also mark the launch provider's first use of the same first stage for a third flight.
The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is set for liftoff at 10:31:47 a.m. PST (1:31:47 p.m. EST; 1831:47 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg, and the first stage will return to a drone ship landing in the Pacific Ocean around 30 miles (50 kilometers) offshore from the military-run spaceport.
The Falcon 9's first stage set to launch on Monday's rideshare multi-payload mission has launched two previous times — on May 11 from the Kennedy Space Center with Bangladesh's Bangabandhu 1 communications satellite, and on Aug. 7 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with the Indonesian Merah Putih comsat. The booster will have launched from all three of SpaceX's active launch pads with Monday's flight.
SpaceX rolled out the rocket, exhibiting soot and scars from its two previous fiery flights to the edge of space and back, to the launch pad over the weekend in preparation for liftoff.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145245.jpg)
Credit: SpaceX
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Credit: SpaceX
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Credit: SpaceX
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Credit: SpaceX
ЦитироватьSpaceflight's 64-satellite rideshare mission set to last five hours
December 3, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/12/) | Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls7z7CWmoC8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls7z7CWmoC8)
Video credit: Spaceflight Industries
When SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket takes off with 64 small satellites — a payload cache representing 34 customers in 17 nations — it will be just the first act in a nearly five-hour sequence to deftly deploy each of the spacecraft, which range in size fr om a Rubik's cube to a refrigerator.
The mission, dubbed SSO-A SmallSat Express, is set for takeoff aboard a Falcon 9 rocket at 10:31:47 a.m. PST (1:31:47 p.m. EST; 1831:47 GMT) Monday fr om Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
The multi-payload rideshare mission was arranged by Spaceflight, based near Seattle, a company specializing in securing launch bookings for small satellite operators. Spaceflight has booked satellite launches on Antares, Dnepr, PSLV, Soyuz and Vega missions, but the company had never purchased the full capacity of a rocket until announcing plans for the SSO-A rideshare mission in 2015.
Most of the satellites on the SSO-A mission, which includes 15 microsatellites and 49 CubeSats, were installed on two free flyers at Spaceflight's facility in Auburn, Washington, officials said.
The deployment structure developed by Spaceflight consists of two hubs — an upper and a lower free flyer — carrying satellites and CubeSat dispensers. Both free flyers will separate fr om the Falcon 9 rocket once it enters a polar, sun-synchronous orbit around 357 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth.
Curt Blake, president of Spaceflight, said the free flyers are based on Spaceflight's Sherpa space tug, which the company intended to launch for the first time on a Falcon 9 flight shared with Taiwan's Formosat 5 Earth observation satellite. But delays in Formosat 5's launch, caused in part by a Falcon 9 rocket explosion on a launch pad in 2016, prompted Spaceflight to cancel the mission and find alternative launch opportunities for the smallsats reserved on the Sherpa flight.
The Formosat 5 mission finally launched last August.
"Generically, we call it the Sherpa," Blake said of the SSO-A mission in an interview with Spaceflight Now earlier this month. "But it is actually more than one hub. There's an upper free flyer and and a lower free flyer. There's a lot of spacecraft on each of those. It's kind of a combination stack."
A few of the larger passengers on the SSO-A mission were shipped directly to the Falcon 9 launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, wh ere technicians will mated them to the free flyers. In addition to the 60 payloads on the free flyers, four microsatellites are attached directly to the Falcon 9's second stage, which will command their separation after arriving in orbit.
The entire payload stack riding into orbit on the Falcon 9 rocket will weigh around 4 metric tons — nearly 9,000 pounds — at the time of launch. Once in orbit around minutes after liftoff, the Sherpa modules, or free flyers, will release from the rocket and begin releasing the smallsats.
Both free flyers and the four microsatellites attached to the Falcon 9's second stage will be released in orbit by the T+plus 43-minute point in the mission, but Spaceflight's deployment module's themselves will continue on, using on-board batteries to power avionics and issue commands to release the separate the 60 spacecraft.
The exact sequence of the satellite separation maneuvers is considered proprietary by Spaceflight, but mission managers said each deployment is timed approximately every six minutes, with the final payload set for separation around 4 hours, 45 minutes, after liftoff — approximately 3:16 p.m. PST (6:16 p.m. EST; 2316 GMT), assuming an on-time launch.
It will then take another hour or so for Spaceflight to confirm all the satellites have separated, once the free flyers pass over a ground station to enable communications. There are no on-board cameras on either free flyer, according to Spaceflight, but SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is expected to provide live video as the Sherpa modules separate from the rocket, and show release of the four microsatellites directly attached to the second stage.
"We've developed a deployment sequence that's based off a high-fidelity analysis that we did specifically to make sure our customers don't collide into each other upon deployment, so we're taking our time," said Jeff Roberts, Spaceflight's SSO-A mission manager, said in an interview with Spaceflight Now. "We make sure that we phase that to maximize the distance in separation between all of our customers."
That should help the U.S. military, which tracks objects in orbit, more quickly identify the satellites released on the SSO-A mission, an issue that has caused headaches in the past.
The free flyers will operate as independent spacecraft themselves, with their own computers, electronics and batteries.
"We refer to them as free flyers because that's exactly what they are. There is no propulsion system on-board. They just simply hold all the avionics and the dispensers to command deployment," Roberts said.
The upper free flyer is based on a commonly-used secondary payload adapter — known as an ESPA ring — built by Moog. The lower free flyer is Spaceflight's own design, according to Roberts.
The free flyer modules will unfurl drag sails after the satellite deployments to help bring the dispensers back into Earth's atmosphere.
Spaceflight has not publicly released an accounting of all 64 payloads aboard the SSO-A rideshare mission, citing non-disclosure agreements signed with the company's customers. But Roberts said the company provided a list to the Federal Communications Commission to obtain launch licenses for the mission, and Spaceflight submitted the separation sequence to the U.S. military's Combined Space Operations Center, which is charged with cataloguing, tracking and identifying all objects launched into orbit.
Roberts said some concerns about the mission are unfounded, such as worries about the difficulty of tracking the smallsats launched on the SSO-A mission to ensure they don't create a space debris hazard. "Our engineering team has put a ton of effort into every aspect of this mission," he said.
Some customers have disclosed their payloads are on the SSO-A launch.Спойлер
Planet is one of major commercial customers on the mission. Two of its SkySat microsatellites and three Dove CubeSats — debuting new camera and telescope designs — set to join its large fleet of more than 100 Earth-imaging craft in orbit. Planet is also sponsoring the launch of two CubeSats from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Colorado in Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
Three missions funded by the U.S. military are among the largest spacecraft slated to fly on the SSO-A mission later this year. They are STPSat 5, a microsatellite from the Air Force's Space Test Program which hosts five experiments, the eXCITe spacecraft funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — DARPA — and the FalconSat 6 satellite built by students at the Air Force Academy.
There is also a microsatellite from DLR, the German Aerospace Center, named Eu:CROPIS, which carries tomato seeds to monitor how they germinate and grow in reduced gravity. The spacecraft will slowly spin during its mission, simulating gravity conditions on the moon and Mars.
One of the CubeSats on the Falcon 9 launch — Elysium Star 2 — carries cremated human remains, and another was conceived as an art project and sponsored by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to honor Robert Lawrence, an African American astronaut was selected for the U.S. Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. A bust of Lawrence, who died in 1967 before he flew in space, is on the Enoch CubeSat.
"To honor the astronaut's legacy, (Tavares) Strachan created a 24-karat gold canopic jar with a bust of Lawrence," the Los Angeles County Museum of Art wrote on a page deviated to the mission. "The canopic jar nods to a practice employed by the ancient Egyptians to protect and preserve organs of the deceased for use in the afterlife. The canopic jar was blessed at a Shinto shrine in Fukuoka, Japan, and was recognized as a container for Lawrence's soul."
Spaceflight considers future rideshare plans after SSO-A's 'complex undertaking'
Blake told Spaceflight Now the SSO-A mission turned out to be a complex undertaking.
"To fill, or to make profitable buying a rocket the size of Falcon 9, you have to aggregate a lot of small spacecraft," he said. "Just understanding what kind of timescale that's going to take and how many satellites you're going to have to aggregate to hit that one point in time — that's one lesson — just understanding wh ere that is, and how difficult it is.
"The second one is during the timeframe as you're getting ready, different customers have different potential issues," he added. "Some float through as easy as can be. Others may have difficulties along the way. We've had to move different customers around on the stack. That means that you really need to have an ability to configure and reconfigure the stack, (and) the electronics that go into the deployments."
Seven CubeSats dropped off the SSO-A mission since August because they were not ready for launch, or had difficulty obtaining regulatory approval.
The record number of satellites launched on a single rocket is 104, set by an Indian PSLV mission last year. Some of those payloads were customers of Spaceflight, but not all. The SSO-A mission will set a record for the most satellites aboard a U.S. launcher.
Blake said Spaceflight has no immediate plans to buy another dedicated Falcon 9 launch. The economical and logistical sweet spot for rideshares may be using a smaller rocket, he said.
"We're making sure to see how this one goes, and getting all the lessons learned out of it, before turning our attention to doing another one this large," Blake said. "Having said that, we're actively looking at different ones on medium-sized launch vehicles.
The company has agreements for future smallsat rideshare launches on Arianespace's Vega rocket, Rocket Lab's Electron, and Virgin Orbit's air-dropped LauncherOne vehicle — all significantly smaller, and less expensive, than a Falcon 9, which currently sells for around $50 million to $60 million per flight.
"We know about aggregating a number of payloads onto small launch vehicles," Blake said. "You can think of those as dedicated missions as well, wh ere we've got five or 10 different spacecraft on a smaller launch vehicle, 30 or 40 on a medium-sized launch vehicle. The thing we'll take time to sort out is how it goes on a large launch vehicle like this."
Here's a list of most of the payloads on the SSO-A mission, based on the best public information available.Спойлер
[/li]
- Audacy Zero – Audacy – USA
- BlackHawk – ViaSat – USA
- BRIO – SpaceQuest- USA
- THEA – SpaceQuest – USA
- Capella 1 – Capella Space – USA
- Landmapper BC-4 – Astro Digital – USA
- CSIM-FD – LASP/University of Colorado – USA
- Flock 3s Doves (3 spacecraft) – Planet – USA
- SkySat 14, 15 (2 spacecraft) – Planet – USA
- Elysium Star 2 – Elysium Space – USA
- Enoch – Los Angeles County Museum of Art – USA
- eXCITe/SeeMe – Novawurks & DARPA – USA
- FalconSat 6 – U.S. Air Force Academy – USA
- Fox 1C – AMSAT – USA
- BlackSky Global 2 – BlackSky Global – USA
- Hawk A, B, C (3 spacecraft) – HawkEye 360 – USA
- ICE-Cap – U.S. Navy – USA
- IRVINE02 – Irvine CubeSat STEM Program – USA
- MinXSS 2 – LASP/University of Colorado – USA
- ORS 7A, 7B Polar Scouts – Operationally Responsive Space, Dept. of Defense, Dept. of Homeland Security – USA
- Orbital Reflector – OR Productions & Nevada Museum of Art – USA
- RANGE A, B (2 spacecraft) – Georgia Tech – USA
- ROSE 1 – Phase Four – USA
- SeaHawk 1 – University of North Carolina at Wilmington – USA
- SpaceBEE 5, 6, 7 (3 spacecraft) – Swarm Technologies – USA
- STPSat 5 – U.S. Air Force Space Test Program – USA
- WeissSat 1 – Weiss School – USA
- Centauri II – Fleet Space Technologies – Australia
- RAAF M1 – University of New South Wales – Australia
- SIRION Pathfinder 2 – Sirion Global – Australia
- ITASAT – Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica – Brazil
- ICEYE X2 – ICEYE – Finland
- Suomi 100 – Aalto University Science and Technology – Finland
- Eu:CROPIS – DLR, German Aerospace Center – Germany
- MOVE-II – Technische Universität München – Germany
- ExseedSat-1 – Exseed Space – India
- Eaglet-1 – OHB Italia S.p.A./Italian Ministry of Defense – Italy
- ESEO – ESA & SITAEL – Italy
- JY1-Sat – Crown Prince Foundation – Jordan
- KazSciSat-1 – Ghalam LLP – Kazakhstan
- KazSTSAT – Ghalam LLP – Kazakhstan
- Hiber 2 – Hiber/Innovative Solutions in Space – Netherlands
- PW-Sat 2 – Warsaw University of Technology – Poland
- K2SAT – Korean Air Force Academy – South Korea
- NEXTSat-1 – Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology – South Korea
- SNUGLITE – Seoul National University – South Korea
- SNUSAT-2 – Seoul National University – South Korea
- VisionCube – Korea Aerospace University – South Korea
- AISTECHSAT 2 – Aistech – Spain
- Astrocast 0.1 – Astrocast – Switzerland
- KNACKSAT – King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok – Thailand
- VESTA – Honeywell Aerospace/SSTL/exactEarth Ltd. – UK/Canada
[свернуть][свернуть]
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/69029.jpg)SpaceXПодлинная учетная запись @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 30 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1069625058996305921)
Falcon 9 and Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express went vertical last night on SpaceX's California launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Vehicle and weather are go ahead of today's launch window, which opens at 10:32 a.m. PST, 18:32 UTC → http://spacex.com/webcast (https://t.co/gtC39uBC7z)
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Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186343.jpg)Chris G - NSF @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF) 15 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/1069649296390332417)
Right now, all is proceeding well ahead of fueling, which should start in 9mins.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186343.jpg)Chris G - NSF @ChrisG_NSF (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF) 10 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/1069651183902605313)
Range is GO for LAUNCH and LANDING of the Falcon 9.
Цитировать12/03/2018 21:02 Stephen Clark
Fueling of the Falcon 9 rocket with kerosene and liquid oxygen should have begun at 9:56 a.m. PST (12:56 p.m. EST), but SpaceX is not yet providing updates on the countdown to media, as they typically do.
Цитировать12/03/2018 21:09 Stephen Clark
The countdown has been adjusted by a couple of minutes, with launch now targeted for 10:34:05 a.m. PST (1:34:05 p.m. PST; 1834:05 GMT). Fueling is underway.
ЦитироватьLesobaza пишет:Да чего там раскрывать - страшный ветер! (с) :D
Тема обтекателя не раскрыта )))
ЦитироватьFalcon fairing halves missed the net, but touched down softly in the water. Mr Steven is picking them up. Plan is to dry them out & launch again. Nothing wrong with a little swim.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/69029.jpg)SpaceXПодлинная учетная запись @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) 36 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1069675820770222080)
Successful deployment of four microsats and the upper and lower free flyer with additional payloads for Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express confirmed. Follow @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc) for further mission updates.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186373.jpg)Elon MuskПодлинная учетная запись @elonmusk (https://twitter.com/elonmusk) 24 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1069679948103847939)
Falcon fairing halves missed the net, but touched down softly in the water. Mr Steven is picking them up. Plan is to dry them out & launch again. Nothing wrong with a little swim.
Цитироватьtnt22 пишет:Заголовки новостей - Очередная неудача Илона Маска!
Не поймал :(ЦитироватьElon Musk Подлинная учетная запись @elonmusk 24 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1069679948103847939)
Falcon fairing halves missed the net, but touched down softly in the water. Mr Steven is picking them up. Plan is to dry them out & launch again. Nothing wrong with a little swim.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/67521.jpg)Stephen Clark @StephenClark1 (https://twitter.com/StephenClark1) 1 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/StephenClark1/status/1069699371783073800)
One emendation to the payload list on this page, the ROSE-1 CubeSat was not aboard the SSO-A launch
ЦитироватьАтяпа пишет: Заголовки новостей - Очередная неудача Илона Маска!Пока что я вижу Ваш заголовок ;)
ЦитироватьElon Musk Подлинная учетная запись @elonmusk 24 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1069679948103847939) Nothing wrong with a little swim.
ЦитироватьNot пишет:С точки зрения тех, кто не знает, что НАСА вылавливала ускорители шаттла из океана и повторно использовала.ЦитироватьElon Musk Подлинная учетная запись @elonmusk 24 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1069679948103847939) Nothing wrong with a little swim.
Одна из причин (помимо косяков) почему NASA не подпускает Маска к своим проектам - чрезмерный пофигизм.
Цитироватьopinion пишет:С точки зрения тех, кто знает, сколько это стоило. Вылавливание старого, дефектовка и подготовка его к новому пуску стоили примерно в три раза дороже создания нового. Главным же достоинством возвращения бустеров была оценка их физического состояния, с точки зрения анализа конструктивных решений.ЦитироватьNot пишет:С точки зрения тех, кто не знает, что НАСА вылавливала ускорители шаттла из океана и повторно использовала.ЦитироватьElon Musk Подлинная учетная запись @elonmusk 24 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1069679948103847939) Nothing wrong with a little swim.
Одна из причин (помимо косяков) почему NASA не подпускает Маска к своим проектам - чрезмерный пофигизм.
ЦитироватьNot пишет:Вы за новостями вообще следите? https://www.space.com/42387-spacex-falcon-9-rocket-nasa-certification.htmlЦитироватьElon Musk Подлинная учетная запись @elonmusk 24 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1069679948103847939) Nothing wrong with a little swim.
Одна из причин (помимо косяков) почему NASA не подпускает Маска к своим проектам - чрезмерный пофигизм.
ЦитироватьSergei пишет:Это было до раскуренного косяка или после? :D Спрашиваю потому, что "после" Маска не включили в лунную программу NASA.ЦитироватьОдна из причин (помимо косяков) почему NASA не подпускает Маска к своим проектам - чрезмерный пофигизм.Вы за новостями вообще следите? https://www.space.com/42387-spacex-falcon-9-rocket-nasa-certification.html
ЦитироватьNot пишет:После.
Это было до раскуренного косяка или после? :D Спрашиваю потому, что "после" Маска не включили в лунную программу NASA.
Цитировать12/04/2018 00:34 Stephen Clark
The German Aerospace Centre, or DLR, has confirmed its made contact with the Eu:CROPIS satellite after its separation in orbit following today's launch. This spacecraft carries tomato seeds for scientists to monitor how they germinate in reduced gravity conditions. The Eu:CROPIS satellite will be put into a slow spin to simulate the gravity of the moon and Mars, allowing researchers to assess differences in the tomato plants' growth under different conditions.
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Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/184852.jpg)PlanetПодлинная учетная запись @planetlabs (https://twitter.com/planetlabs) 13:59 (https://twitter.com/planetlabs/status/1069712850799648768) - 3 дек. 2018 г.
We've made contact with the two SkySats, the lead payload on @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX)'s SSO-A launch, who have joined the rest of Planet's largest-ever high resolution fleet. The Doves are up next!
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186200.jpg)ICEYE @iceyefi (https://twitter.com/iceyefi) 2 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/iceyefi/status/1069697230356008966)
Confirmed - ICEYE-X2 SAR satellite has separated successfully. Communications with the satellite have been established at 19:58 CET, December 3rd 2018. Thank you @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc)! Launch success!
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186274.jpg)Surrey SatellitesПодлинная учетная запись @SurreySat (https://twitter.com/SurreySat) 3 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/SurreySat/status/1069687074113183744)
Our joint Ghalam-SSTL spacecraft operations team have successfully made contact with KazSTSAT - nominal telemetry received on this first pass. Our thanks to @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc) & @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX)
Press Release at https://www.sstl.co.uk/KazSTSat-launch (https://t.co/BsUhTzS6Fn)
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Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/185866.jpg)BlackSky @BlackSky_Inc (https://twitter.com/BlackSky_Inc) 53 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/BlackSky_Inc/status/1069712204243587072)
We've heard from Global-2! Data is flowing. Congrats to the whole team! Stay tuned for more updates.
ЦитироватьSergei пишет:Обещать - не означает жениться :{}ЦитироватьNot пишет:После.
Это было до раскуренного косяка или после? :D Спрашиваю потому, что "после" Маска не включили в лунную программу NASA.
ЦитироватьNot пишет:Кстати, любопытно, каким место SpaceX могла туда войти? Не носителей не кораблей же нет лунных у них. Контракт на разработку? А кто вошел? LM? NG?
Это было до раскуренного косяка или после? :D Спрашиваю потому, что "после" Маска не включили в лунную программу NASA.
ЦитироватьSergei пишет: А кто вошел? LM? NG?
ЦитироватьSpaceX могла бы войти со своей Б (прости Господи) ФР, но не срослось ;)[/li]
- Astrobotic Technology, Inc.: Pittsburgh
- Deep Space Systems: Littleton, Colorado
- Draper: Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Firefly Aerospace, Inc.: Cedar Park, Texas
- Intuitive Machines, LLC: Houston
- Lockheed Martin Space: Littleton, Colorado
- Masten Space Systems, Inc.: Mojave, California
- Moon Express: Cape Canaveral, Florida
- Orbit Beyond: Edison, New Jersey
ЦитироватьDECEMBER 03, 2018
SPACEFLIGHT SSO-A: SMALLSAT EXPRESS MISSION
On Monday, December 3rd at 10:34 a.m. PST, SpaceX successfully launched Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express to a low Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Carrying 64 payloads, this mission represented the largest single rideshare mission from a U.S.-based launch vehicle to date. A series of six deployments occurred approximately 13 to 43 minutes after liftoff, after which Spaceflight began to command its own deployment sequences. Spaceflight's deployments are expected to occur over a period of six hours.
This mission also served as the first time SpaceX launched the same booster a third time. Falcon 9's first stage for the Spaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Express mission previously supported the Bangabandhu Satellite-1 mission in May 2018 and the Merah Putih mission in August 2018. Following stage separation, SpaceX landed Falcon 9's first stage on the "Just Read the Instructions" droneship, which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
ЦитироватьSpaceflight SSO-A: SmallSat Expresshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq8kS6UoOrQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq8kS6UoOrQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq8kS6UoOrQ) (31:41)
Доступ по ссылке
SpaceX (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtI0Hodo5o5dUb67FeUjDeA)
Трансляция началась 6 часов назад
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43758U 18099A 18337.96498439 -.00000058 00000-0 00000+0 0 9991
2 43758 97.7700 47.1161 0011235 262.6207 166.1298 14.95248089 32
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43759U 18099B 18337.96372405 -.00000058 00000-0 00000+0 0 9996
2 43759 97.7689 47.1152 0012042 259.1147 162.7507 14.95062141 38
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43760U 18099C 18337.97019110 -.00000058 00000-0 00000+0 0 9990
2 43760 97.7702 47.1182 0012256 258.1065 198.5032 14.94988289 33
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43761U 18099D 18337.96255366 -.00000058 00000-0 00000+0 0 9995
2 43761 97.7696 47.1191 0012341 260.5835 154.9244 14.94965007 37
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43762U 18099E 18337.96611913 -.00000058 00000-0 00000+0 0 9990
2 43762 97.7719 47.1221 0011074 259.1180 175.7918 14.95310988 39
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43763U 18099F 18337.95217911 -.00000058 00000-0 00000+0 0 9990
2 43763 97.7695 47.1074 0011790 262.7075 97.2818 14.95454765 36 43758..43763 / 2018-099A..F - 573 x 591 km x 97.770°
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/29920.jpg)D. Stamos/Helodriver @SpacecoastPix (https://twitter.com/SpacecoastPix) 2 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/SpacecoastPix/status/1069735610863112192)
Imaged from the summit of a coastal mountain, JRTI and NRC Quest can be seen sailing 50+ kilometers offshore in his high power lens shot an hour after touchdown. This was SpaceX's third successful landing of this booster, flown from both coasts. #SSOA (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SSOA?src=hash) #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash) @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight)
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Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/185879.jpg)HawkEye 360 @hawkeye360 (https://twitter.com/hawkeye360) 3 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/hawkeye360/status/1069729255150534656)
Telemetry confirms successful deployment of all three of HawkEye 360's Pathfinder satellites! Thanks to @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) and @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc) for a great ride into orbit.
#SSOA (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SSOA?src=hash) #smallsatexpress (https://twitter.com/hashtag/smallsatexpress?src=hash)
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Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/67516.jpg)Jonathan McDowellПодлинная учетная запись @planet4589 (https://twitter.com/planet4589) 2 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1069732203922366465)
Six objects from the SSO-A launch cataloged in 573 x 589 km x 97.8 deg sun synch orbit at 1017 local time descending node. These are probably the four sats deployed from the MPC plus the UFF and LFF vehicles. Second stage has probably now deorbited
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/184852.jpg)PlanetПодлинная учетная запись @planetlabs (https://twitter.com/planetlabs) 51 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/planetlabs/status/1069758382242811906)
Flock 3s, reporting for duty! Our three Doves have made contact and joined the rest of our 130+ sats in low earth orbit. Thanks for the ride today, @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) and @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc)! Read more in our post-launch blog here: https://www.planet.com/pulse/five-satellites-launch-on-falcon-9-sso-a/ ... (https://t.co/pyEFGgNMUi)
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Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/184943.jpg)S.Korean Spaceflight @Kor_Spaceflight (https://twitter.com/Kor_Spaceflight) 3 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/Kor_Spaceflight/status/1069730194842238976)
Nominal signal received from KAIST's NextSat-l. Thanks for @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc) and @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX). NextSat-I is the first satellite to demonstrate Korea's small/cube sat technology. Photo is inside the KAIST satellite office. (KAIST=Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
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Цитировать12/04/2018 04:17 Stephen Clark
Spaceflight, the company which organized today's rideshare launch, has announced all 64 microsatellites and CubeSats have successfully separated in orbit. Many of the satellite owners have already acquired signals or beacons from their spacecraft, confirming their status following today's ride into orbit on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
"This was an incredibly complex mission, and I'm extremely proud of what our talented team at Spaceflight has achieved," said Curt Blake, president of Spaceflight. "SSO-A is a major milestone for Spaceflight and the industry. We've always been committed to making space more accessible through rideshare. This mission enabled 34 organizations from 17 different countries to place spacecraft on orbit. It's also special because it was completely dedicated to smallsats."
Here are some statements from two managers involved with payloads aboard the mission -- SeaHawk 1 and Capella 1.
"We are thrilled to have SeaHawk-1 on orbit and to be part of such a historic launch superbly executed by Spaceflight," said John Morrison, SeaHawk's co-project manager and lead principal investigator at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. "SeaHawk will make ocean observations at significantly higher spatial resolution and at much lower costs than standard satellite systems. Since the data collected will be publicly available, our hope is that it will benefit not only researchers, but policymakers and others to make informed decisions when addressing issues related to the environment."
"This launch was an impressive undertaking and an important milestone for the smallsat industry as well as for many of the organizations involved," said Payam Banazadeh, founder and CEO of Capella Space Corporation. "Capella's first satellite is now on orbit and we are one step closer to our goal of providing timely, reliable, and frequent information using Synthetic Aperture Radar technology."
ЦитироватьNot пишет:Не подпущають, ой не пущають... так сильно не пущають что сейчас смотрят - не пересадить ли Europa Clipper с сенатской ракеты от совершенно не пофигистического Боинга на Falcon Heavy + Star 48.
Одна из причин (помимо косяков) почему NASA не подпускает Маска к своим проектам - чрезмерный пофигизм.
ЦитироватьКазахстан запустил два спутника на ракете-носителе Falcon 9
04.12.2018 7:16:35
Астана. 4 декабря. ИНТЕРФАКС-КАЗАХСТАН - На космодроме Вандерберг (США) состоялся запуск двух первых казахстанских космических аппарата космической системы научно-технологического назначения - микроспутник "KazSTSat" и наноспутник "KazSciSat-1" на ракете-носителе "Falcon 9", сообщила пресс-служба министерства оборонной и аэрокосмической промышленности Казахстана.
Согласно распространенной во вторник информации, пуск спутников состоялся во вторник в 00:32 по времени Астаны и прошел в штатном режиме.
...
Пресс-секретарь Миноборонаэропрома Казахстана Асет Нуркенов пояснял ранее, что данная стартовая площадка для запуска первых научных спутников Казахстана была выбрана, поскольку "дешевле производить запуск на Falcon-9". Сумму он не назвал, сославшись на "коммерческую тайну", но отметил, что в последующем подобные спутники Казахстан будет запускать с Байконура.
ЦитироватьSpaceX launches swarm of satellites, re-flies rocket for third time
December 3, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/12/) | Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)
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A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off Monday at 10:34 a.m. PST (1:34 p.m. EST; 1834 GMT) fr om Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Credit: SpaceX
Setting new commercial launch and satellite industry records, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled by a first stage booster launched and recovered two times before soared into a clear morning sky over California's Central Coast on Monday with 64 small satellites, then returned to a pinpoint landing on a vessel parked offshore in the Pacific Ocean, potentially to be flown again.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket launched Monday became the first commercial booster to accomplish three flights hauling satellites toward orbit, pushing SpaceX closer to its goal of re-flying boosters 10 times without maintenance or refurbishment between missions. Elon Musk, SpaceX's billionaire founder and chief executive, considers that goal central to the company's mission of reducing the cost of space transportation, enabling exploration — and ultimately settlements — on Mars.
Going into Monday's launch, SpaceX had re-launched one of its Falcon 9 boosters 17 times, including a pair of modified first stages used on the inaugural flight of company's Falcon Heavy rocket in February. But none of the boosters had launched more than twice before Monday's re-flight of a first stage that debuted May 11 with a launch fr om the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, then lifted off again Aug. 7 fr om Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and touched down again on the drone ship.
SpaceX transported the rocket by road fr om Florida to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, for final launch preps to blast off for.a third time.
The 229-foot-tall (70-meter), two-stage Falcon 9 rocket — its booster stage covered in soot and scorch marks fr om two fiery trips to the edge of space and back — ignited its nine Merlin main engines and lifted off fr om Vandenberg Air Force Base at 10:34:05 a.m. PST (1:34:05 p.m. EST; 1834:05 GMT) Monday.
The launcher tilted toward the south, riding 1.7 million pounds of thrust into a cloudless late autumn sky at the military-run spaceport around 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.
The first stage shut down its engines less than two-and-a-half minutes into the mission after accelerating the rocket to a velocity of more than 3,600 mph (about 5,900 kilometers per hour), and pneumatic pushers separated the booster from the Falcon 9's second stage, which SpaceX builds new for each mission.
While the upper stage's single Merlin engine ignited for a roughly seven-and-a-half minute firing to place the mission's payloads into orbit, the first stage fired a subset of its engines for boost-back and entry burns to aim the descending rocket for SpaceX's drone ship "Just Read the Instructions" positioned around 30 miles (50 kilometers) off the coast of Vandenberg in the Pacific Ocean.Спойлер
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The Falcon 9 rocket's first stage descends back to Earth as its engines fire for the entry burn before landing on SpaceX's drone ship in the Pacific Ocean on Monday. Credit: SpaceX
Long-range tracking cameras at Vandenberg captured spectacular views of the rocket coming back to Earth, then lighting its center engine and extending four landing legs before nailing a landing on the drone ship — all within view of spectators on the coast, thanks to an unusually clear morning at the military base.
SpaceX's rocket landing drone ships are typically parked hundreds of miles offshore, but the company's California-based rocket recovery vessel held position much closer to shore Monday.
Meanwhile, the Falcon 9's second stage continued firing until T+plus 10 minutes to reach a targeted orbit around 357 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth, flying on a north-to-south path inclined 97.8 degrees to the equator.
During the second stage burn, the Falcon 9 jettisoned its clamshell-like nose shroud, which covered the mission's 64 small satellite payloads during the first few minutes of the flight. After falling away from the rocket, the two halves of the fairing unfurled parafoils to slow their fall back to Earth, wh ere a SpaceX-leased fast-moving boat named "Mr. Steven" tried to catch the shroud with a giant net.
The fairing catch attempt Monday was the first in more than four months by SpaceX, but Mr. Steven missed the fairing halves, despite the installation of a bigger net earlier this year, and several apparent practice runs in recent weeks using test hardware dropped from a helicopter.
Musk tweeted after Monday's launch that the fairing halves will be retrieved from the sea, dried and used again.
But it's not clear how easy it will be to refurbish fairings after dropping into salt water. The method of catching the fairings using a net was intended to keep the shrouds away from the corrosive effects of sea water, a problem that lengthens the time needed for SpaceX to refurbish Dragon cargo capsules for reuse after splashing down in the ocean.
Earlier this year, Musk said the fairing costs around $6 million, representing about 10 percent of the total cost of a Falcon 9 launch. Approximately 60 percent of the marginal cost of a Falcon 9 launch comes from the first stage, 20 percent from the second stage, and around 10 percent from the processing, testing and assembly of a rocket for flight, according to Musk.
SpaceX has offered discounts from the Falcon 9's advertised selling price of $62 million for customers willing to place their satellites on a reused rocket, or as SpaceX likes to say, a flight-proven booster. Musk said in May that SpaceX then charged around $50 million for flights using a previously-flown first stage, and he expected a "steady reduction in prices" as the company gains experience with reusing rockets, and as SpaceX pays off what Musk has said was a billion-dollar investment in the capability to recover and re-fly boosters.
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Mr. Steven, SpaceX's fairing recovery ship. Credit: SpaceX
In May, Musk said Falcon 9 launches could cost as little as $5 million or $6 million per flight within around three years, assuming SpaceX can rapidly reuse first stage boosters, payload shrouds, and eventually Falcon 9 second stages. But after considering upgrades to beef up the Falcon 9 second stage for re-entry — it travels faster than the first stage, and would need to survive higher entry temperatures — Musk tweeted Nov. 16: "SpaceX is no longer planning to upgrade Falcon 9 second stage for reusability."
After a few initial crash-landings, SpaceX's recoveries of Falcon 9 first stages continue to produce results. More than half of SpaceX's 19 launches this year have flown with reused boosters.
The new Block 5 version of the Falcon 9 rocket introduced in May includes changes to make the first stage easier to recover and reuse. But re-flying the boosters is still a learning process for SpaceX, said Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability
"One of the problems is fatigue," he said in Oct. 3 remarks at the International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany. "You've got to watch the life cycle on components. They vibrate, basically, and you've got to have an eye on fracture control and make sure that you don't have any fractures on those components. That is actually not new. Helicopters do this right now. They are basically vibration machines, and they track, actually, the number of cycles, and they know exactly when they have to go into maintenance or preventive maintenance.
"Something similar is what we can do here on the rocket," Koenigsmann continued. "We can basically record the flight load, and then log this to the history of the part, and we can figure out when the part has to be exchanged, if it actually has to be exchanged. Ideally, you do not want to change parts."
Asked about how well the Block 5 boosters are holding up after each launch, Koenigsmann said: "I'm actually surprised. The launch of course, the engines see pretty hot exhaust gas to begin with, so putting the engines into the (re-entry) flow should be fine ... I'm surprised how well the engines hold up. There are details. We receive damage, and we have made adjustments, I would say. That's part of the reason why we have these blocks. We basically roll in changes to ... improve the vehicle. At this point in time, I'm actually pretty happy."
On missions launching satellites toward geostationary orbit, a perch more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) above Earth, the first stage can reach speeds of over 5,000 mph, subjecting it to hotter re-entry conditions on the way back to Earth. For payloads destined for low Earth orbit, a few hundred miles up, the first stage doesn't need to travel as fast.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145208.jpg)
Hans Königsmann, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
"There are some of the hotter re-entries, it's still something we work on to perfect them and to make sure," Koenigsmann said. "In the end, the goal is to take the rocket and move it over and launch again. We have the goal of launching, basically, within two days, and that would be tremendous if we do that."
Speaking to reporters Monday at the Kennedy Space Center, Koenigsmann said he hopes SpaceX can re-fly the same rocket twice in 24 hours next year, a goal set by Musk earlier this year.
"It depends a little bit on how the missions work out," Koenigsmann said Monday. "I hope we can do this next year ... but it might slip a little bit. It's certainly something we want to try as soon as we get the chance. It depends, basically, on which missions are ready."
"The majority of work is the engine," he said in October. "We refurbish the engine. Most of it actually is parts that are not qualified for the next flight, so we just swap the parts. It's not actual damage. It's a preventive maintenance kind of thing, wh ere we know this part may fail the next time, so we just don't take the risk and we swap it. We have some impact damage from stuff that flies out of the heat shield and hits the aero cover. That's pretty much what it is. It's actually not that bad."
"The aero cover is the thing that basically is the raceway on the side," he said. "We do look into the tanks to make sure there are no surprises in the tank, and so far we've found only clean tanks on the inside. We sometimes see damage from the thermal protection system impacting the aero covers, so they are reinforced to make sure we don't break anything on landings."
"In terms of refurbishment and building a new rocket, it's way cheaper to refurbish," Koenigsmann said.
"This didn't happen overnight," Koenigsmann said of the reusability effort. "We worked on this for many, many years, and we put a lot of money in there, and it was our own money that we put in there."
SpaceX did have some financial help, not only from Musk's fortune, but also from venture capital investments, and a cash infusion from Google. The company's revenue-earning launch activity also generated money from commercial customers, plus NASA and the U.S. Air Force, which have billions of dollars in contracts with SpaceX. Much of that revenue was invested into research and development.
The next launch by SpaceX is scheduled for Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, wh ere a Falcon 9 rocket is set for takeoff with a Dragon cargo craft heading for the International Space Station. The resupply launch will be SpaceX's 20th mission of the year.
SpaceX, Spaceflight partner to deploy 64 satellites in orbit
An orbital ballet of sorts took over once the Falcon 9 rocket's 10-minute powered flight sequence ended on Monday's launch, involving the release of 64 small satellites, most of which were carried on two free-flying deployment buses designed and outfitted by Spaceflight, a company based near Seattle which specializes in securing launch bookings for small satellite operators.
Spaceflight has booked satellite launches on Antares, Dnepr, PSLV, Soyuz and Vega missions, but the company had never purchased the full capacity of a rocket until announcing plans for the "dedicated rideshare" mission, known as SSO-A: SmallSat Express, in 2015.
Most of the satellites on the SSO-A mission, which included 15 microsatellites and 49 CubeSats, were installed on two free flyers at Spaceflight's facility in Auburn, Washington, officials said.
The deployment structure developed by Spaceflight consists of two hubs — an upper and a lower free flyer — carrying satellites and CubeSat dispensers. Both free flyers separated from the Falcon 9 rocket once it entered a polar, sun-synchronous orbit.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/31270.jpg)
Artist's illustration of one of the free flyers on the SSO-A mission separating from the Falcon 9's second stage, which carried four microsatellites on its own multi-payload carrier. Credit: Spaceflight
Curt Blake, president of Spaceflight, said the free flyers were based on Spaceflight's Sherpa space tug, which the company intended to launch for the first time on a Falcon 9 flight shared with Taiwan's Formosat 5 Earth observation satellite. But delays in Formosat 5's launch, caused in part by a Falcon 9 rocket explosion on a launch pad in 2016, prompted Spaceflight to cancel the mission and find alternative launch opportunities for the smallsats reserved on the Sherpa flight.
The Formosat 5 mission finally launched in August 2017.
"Generically, we call it the Sherpa," Blake said of the SSO-A mission in an interview with Spaceflight Now earlier this year. "But it is actually more than one hub. There's an upper free flyer and and a lower free flyer. There's a lot of spacecraft on each of those. It's kind of a combination stack."
A few of the larger passengers on the SSO-A mission were shipped directly to the Falcon 9 launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base, wh ere technicians mated them to the free flyers. In addition to the 60 payloads on the free flyers, four microsatellites were attached directly to the Falcon 9's second stage, which commanded their separation after arriving in orbit.
The entire payload stack riding into orbit on the Falcon 9 rocket weighed around 4 metric tons — nearly 9,000 pounds — at the time of launch. Once in orbit around minutes after liftoff, the Sherpa modules, or free flyers, released from the rocket and begin separating the smallsats.
Both free flyers and the four microsatellites attached to the Falcon 9's second stage were in orbit by the T+plus 43-minute point in the mission, but Spaceflight's deployment module's themselves continued on, using on-board batteries to power avionics and issue commands to release the separate the 60 spacecraft.
The exact sequence of the satellite separation maneuvers was considered proprietary by Spaceflight, but mission managers said each deployment was timed approximately every five-to-six minutes, with the final payload set for separation around 4 hours, 45 minutes, after liftoff — approximately 3:19 p.m. PST (6:19 p.m. EST; 2319 GMT).
It was then expected to take another hour or so for Spaceflight to confirm all the satellites have separated, once the free flyers pass over a ground station to enable communications. There were no on-board cameras on either free flyer, according to Spaceflight.
"We've developed a deployment sequence that's based off a high-fidelity analysis that we did specifically to make sure our customers don't collide into each other upon deployment, so we're taking our time," said Jeff Roberts, Spaceflight's SSO-A mission manager, said in an interview with Spaceflight Now. "We make sure that we phase that to maximize the distance in separation between all of our customers."
That should help the U.S. military, which tracks objects in orbit, more quickly identify the satellites released on the SSO-A mission, an issue that has caused headaches in the past.
The free flyers were designed to operate as independent spacecraft themselves, with their own computers, electronics and batteries.
"We refer to them as free flyers because that's exactly what they are. There is no propulsion system on-board. They just simply hold all the avionics and the dispensers to command deployment," Roberts said.
The upper free flyer is based on a commonly-used secondary payload adapter — known as an ESPA ring — built by Moog. The lower free flyer is Spaceflight's own design, according to Roberts.
The free flyer modules, which had a 16-hour battery life, will unfurl drag sails after the satellite deployments to help bring the dispensers back into Earth's atmosphere.
Spaceflight has not publicly released an accounting of all 64 payloads aboard the SSO-A rideshare mission, citing non-disclosure agreements signed with the company's customers. But Roberts said the company provided a list to the Federal Communications Commission to obtain launch licenses for the mission, and Spaceflight submitted the separation sequence, information on spacecraft sizes, and points-of-contact for each payload to the U.S. military's Combined Space Operations Center, which is charged with cataloguing, tracking and identifying all objects launched into orbit.
Roberts said some concerns about the mission are unfounded, such as worries about the difficulty of tracking the smallsats launched on the SSO-A mission to ensure they don't create a space debris hazard. "Our engineering team has put a ton of effort into every aspect of this mission," he said.
Some customers have disclosed their payloads were on the SSO-A launch.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145284.jpg)
This oblique view of Lower Manhattan in New York City was captured by one of Planet's SkySat satellites. Credit: Planet
Planet was one of major commercial customers on the mission. Two of its SkySat microsatellites and three Dove CubeSats — debuting new camera and telescope designs — joined its large fleet of Earth-imaging craft in orbit, which now numbers 137 active satellites. Planet also sponsored the launch of two CubeSats from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Colorado in Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
Three missions funded by the U.S. military were among the largest spacecraft on the SSO-A mission. They are STPSat 5, a microsatellite from the Air Force's Space Test Program which hosts five experiments, the eXCITe spacecraft funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — DARPA — and the FalconSat 6 satellite built by students at the Air Force Academy.
There was also a microsatellite from DLR, the German Aerospace Center, named Eu:CROPIS, which carries tomato seeds to monitor how they germinate and grow in reduced gravity. The spacecraft will slowly spin during its mission, simulating gravity conditions on the moon and Mars.
Spaceflight announced in a press release Monday evening that all 64 microsatellites and CubeSats successfully separated in orbit. Many of the satellite owners announced they acquired signals or beacons from their spacecraft, confirming their status following Monday's ride into orbit on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
"This was an incredibly complex mission, and I'm extremely proud of what our talented team at Spaceflight has achieved," Blake said in a post-launch statement. "SSO-A is a major milestone for Spaceflight and the industry. We've always been committed to making space more accessible through rideshare. This mission enabled 34 organizations from 17 different countries to place spacecraft on orbit. It's also special because it was completely dedicated to smallsats."
The mission set a record for the highest number of satellites ever to launch on a U.S. rocket, but it fell short of the global mark of 104 satellites, which flew on a single Indian rocket last year.
Two managers involved with additional payloads aboard the SSO-A mission — SeaHawk 1 and Capella 1 — offered their thoughts after the successful launch.
"We are thrilled to have SeaHawk-1 on orbit and to be part of such a historic launch superbly executed by Spaceflight," said John Morrison, SeaHawk's co-project manager and lead principal investigator at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. "SeaHawk will make ocean observations at significantly higher spatial resolution and at much lower costs than standard satellite systems. Since the data collected will be publicly available, our hope is that it will benefit not only researchers, but policymakers and others to make informed decisions when addressing issues related to the environment."
"This launch was an impressive undertaking and an important milestone for the smallsat industry as well as for many of the organizations involved," said Payam Banazadeh, founder and CEO of Capella Space Corporation. "Capella's first satellite is now on orbit and we are one step closer to our goal of providing timely, reliable, and frequent information using synthetic aperture radar technology."
The British smallsat manufacturer SSTL confirmed the 231-pound (105-kilogram) KazSTSAT Earth-imaging satellite contacted ground controllers to confirm its health. KazSTSAT was one of the biggest payloads launched today, and it's owned by Ghalam LLC, a joint venture between JSC "National Company Kazakhstan Garysh Sapary" (KGS) and Airbus Defense and Space.
The ICEYE X2 radar imaging satellite, the second spacecraft launched by the Finnish company ICEYE, was also broadcasting telemetry after its deployment Monday. ICEYE says it has eight more spacecraft due for launch by the end of 2019, as the company seeks to build out the world's largest constellation of synthetic aperture radar satellites. Earlier this year, the company became the first to send a satellite with a mass less than 100 kilograms — about 220 pounds — into orbit with a radar imager, a type of all-weather Earth-observing instrument previously relegated to heavier, more power-hungry, and more expensive spacecraft.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145267.jpg)
Artist's concept of the ICEYE X2 radar satellite. Credit: ICEYE
One of the CubeSats on the Falcon 9 launch — Elysium Star 2 — carries cremated human remains, and another was conceived as an art project and sponsored by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to honor Robert Lawrence, an African American astronaut was selected for the U.S. Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. A bust of Lawrence, who died in 1967 before he flew in space, is on the Enoch CubeSat.
"To honor the astronaut's legacy, (Tavares) Strachan created a 24-karat gold canopic jar with a bust of Lawrence," the Los Angeles County Museum of Art wrote on a page deviated to the mission. "The canopic jar nods to a practice employed by the ancient Egyptians to protect and preserve organs of the deceased for use in the afterlife. The canopic jar was blessed at a Shinto shrine in Fukuoka, Japan, and was recognized as a container for Lawrence's soul."
Spaceflight considers future rideshare plans after SSO-A's 'complex undertaking'
Blake told Spaceflight Now the SSO-A mission turned out to be a complex undertaking.
"To fill, or to make profitable buying a rocket the size of Falcon 9, you have to aggregate a lot of small spacecraft," he said. "Just understanding what kind of timescale that's going to take and how many satellites you're going to have to aggregate to hit that one point in time — that's one lesson — just understanding wh ere that is, and how difficult it is.
"The second one is during the timeframe as you're getting ready, different customers have different potential issues," he added. "Some float through as easy as can be. Others may have difficulties along the way. We've had to move different customers around on the stack. That means that you really need to have an ability to configure and reconfigure the stack, (and) the electronics that go into the deployments."
Seven CubeSats dropped off the SSO-A mission since August because they were not ready for launch, or had difficulty obtaining regulatory approval.
The record number of satellites launched on a single rocket is 104, set by an Indian PSLV mission last year. Some of those payloads were customers of Spaceflight, but not all. The SSO-A mission will set a record for the most satellites aboard a U.S. launcher.
Blake said Spaceflight has no immediate plans to buy another dedicated Falcon 9 launch. The economical and logistical sweet spot for rideshares may be using a smaller rocket, he said.
"We're making sure to see how this one goes, and getting all the lessons learned out of it, before turning our attention to doing another one this large," Blake said. "Having said that, we're actively looking at different ones on medium-sized launch vehicles.
The company has agreements for future smallsat rideshare launches on Arianespace's Vega rocket, Rocket Lab's Electron, and Virgin Orbit's air-dropped LauncherOne vehicle — all significantly smaller, and less expensive, than a Falcon 9, which currently sells for around $50 million to $60 million per flight.
"We know about aggregating a number of payloads onto small launch vehicles," Blake said. "You can think of those as dedicated missions as well, wh ere we've got five or 10 different spacecraft on a smaller launch vehicle, 30 or 40 on a medium-sized launch vehicle. The thing we'll take time to sort out is how it goes on a large launch vehicle like this."
Here's a list of most of the payloads on the SSO-A mission, based on the best public information available.Спойлер
[/li]
- Audacy Zero – Audacy – USA
- BlackHawk – ViaSat – USA
- BRIO – SpaceQuest- USA
- THEA – SpaceQuest – USA
- Capella 1 – Capella Space – USA
- Landmapper BC-4 – Astro Digital – USA
- CSIM-FD – LASP/University of Colorado – USA
- Flock 3s Doves (3 spacecraft) – Planet – USA
- SkySat 14, 15 (2 spacecraft) – Planet – USA
- Elysium Star 2 – Elysium Space – USA
- Enoch – Los Angeles County Museum of Art – USA
- eXCITe/SeeMe – Novawurks & DARPA – USA
- FalconSat 6 – U.S. Air Force Academy – USA
- Fox 1C – AMSAT – USA
- BlackSky Global 2 – BlackSky Global – USA
- Hawk A, B, C (3 spacecraft) – HawkEye 360 – USA
- ICE-Cap – U.S. Navy – USA
- IRVINE02 – Irvine CubeSat STEM Program – USA
- MinXSS 2 – LASP/University of Colorado – USA
- ORS 7A, 7B Polar Scouts – Operationally Responsive Space, Dept. of Defense, Dept. of Homeland Security – USA
- Orbital Reflector – OR Productions & Nevada Museum of Art – USA
- RANGE A, B (2 spacecraft) – Georgia Tech – USA
- SeaHawk 1 – University of North Carolina at Wilmington – USA
- SpaceBEE 5, 6, 7 (3 spacecraft) – Swarm Technologies – USA
- STPSat 5 – U.S. Air Force Space Test Program – USA
- WeissSat 1 – Weiss School – USA
- Centauri II – Fleet Space Technologies – Australia
- RAAF M1 – University of New South Wales – Australia
- SIRION Pathfinder 2 – Sirion Global – Australia
- ITASAT – Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica – Brazil
- ICEYE X2 – ICEYE – Finland
- Suomi 100 – Aalto University Science and Technology – Finland
- Eu:CROPIS – DLR, German Aerospace Center – Germany
- MOVE-II – Technische Universität München – Germany
- ExseedSat-1 – Exseed Space – India
- Eaglet-1 – OHB Italia S.p.A./Italian Ministry of Defense – Italy
- ESEO – ESA & SITAEL – Italy
- JY1-Sat – Crown Prince Foundation – Jordan
- KazSciSat-1 – Ghalam LLP – Kazakhstan
- KazSTSAT – Ghalam LLP – Kazakhstan
- Hiber 2 – Hiber/Innovative Solutions in Space – Netherlands
- PW-Sat 2 – Warsaw University of Technology – Poland
- K2SAT – Korean Air Force Academy – South Korea
- NEXTSat-1 – Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology – South Korea
- SNUGLITE – Seoul National University – South Korea
- SNUSAT-2 – Seoul National University – South Korea
- VisionCube – Korea Aerospace University – South Korea
- AISTECHSAT 2 – Aistech – Spain
- Astrocast 0.1 – Astrocast – Switzerland
- KNACKSAT – King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok – Thailand
- VESTA – Honeywell Aerospace/SSTL/exactEarth Ltd. – UK/Canada
[свернуть][свернуть]
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/184942.jpg)Capella Space @capellaspace (https://twitter.com/capellaspace) 11 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/capellaspace/status/1069783322245513219)
CONFIRMED: We have successfully established communication with Denali. The purpose of this satellite is to test a wide variety of technologies we have developed over the last 2 years. Denali has now extended our R&D lab into space. San Francisco CA, Boulder CO, and SPACE!
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1 43764U 18099G 18338.43819552 -.00000059 00000-0 00000+0 0 9995
2 43764 97.7716 47.5856 0014126 266.8663 189.2575 14.96093359 94
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1 43765U 18099H 18338.42411846 -.00000059 00000-0 00000+0 0 9999
2 43765 97.7647 47.5753 0012824 269.8326 110.2578 14.95948189 92
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1 43766U 18099J 18338.50681123 -.00000058 00000-0 00000+0 0 9995
2 43766 97.7732 47.6625 0008916 249.9621 211.8330 14.94468391 119
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1 43767U 18099K 18338.44021164 -.00000058 00000-0 00000+0 0 9992
2 43767 97.7772 47.5890 0013203 294.7480 169.1528 14.94642736 103
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/185730.jpg)MinXSS CubeSat @minxsscubesat (https://twitter.com/minxsscubesat) 6 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/minxsscubesat/status/1069868073174294528)
MinXSS-2 is alive and well! We're able to decode telemetry at our @LASPatCU (https://twitter.com/LASPatCU) ground station, Fairbanks station, and from ham operators around the world. We've been able to get commands in. (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/125513.png)AMAZING first day in space (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/125535.png)(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/125421.png)!
#SSOA (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SSOA?src=hash) #GoMinXSS2 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoMinXSS2?src=hash)
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Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/185805.jpg)Fleet @fleetspace (https://twitter.com/fleetspace) 8 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/fleetspace/status/1069843704691609601)
We are four for four!!! Our second Centauri satellite launched this morning has reported operational and healthy! @spacex (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc) thanks for the ride!!!
ЦитироватьЧебурашка пишет:Бедный Русский Космос. Это если по четверть страницы на каждый то 64 мусоросата займут все отведённые под зарубежную космонавтику 15 страниц. А ещё фотографии...
Бедный NORAD. Теперь всю это толпу надо упорядочить в каталоге.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186319.jpg)Pauline Acalin @w00ki33 (https://twitter.com/w00ki33) 33 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/w00ki33/status/1070004127294349313)
Mr Steven arrived at port early this morning carrying both fairing halves recovered from yesterday's SSO-A mission, each having made a soft landing in the ocean. #spacex (https://twitter.com/hashtag/spacex?src=hash)
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Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186319.jpg)Pauline Acalin @w00ki33 (https://twitter.com/w00ki33) 11 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/w00ki33/status/1069844692198510592)
Falcon 9 B1046 landing on droneship Just Read the Instructions, located just over the horizon, ~50km off the coast of Vandenberg Airforce Base. This was the booster's 3rd successful launch and landing. #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash) @Teslarati (https://twitter.com/Teslarati)
https://video.twimg.com/tweet_video/DtjYAs0VsAAHETB.mp4 (https://video.twimg.com/tweet_video/DtjYAs0VsAAHETB.mp4) (0:03 (https://video.twimg.com/tweet_video/DtjYAs0VsAAHETB.mp4))
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/184905.jpg)Helios Wire @HeliosWireCo (https://twitter.com/HeliosWireCo) 1 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/HeliosWireCo/status/1070020762789015552)
Following a fantastic launch and deployment by @SpaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) and @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc), we can confirm that Pathfinder II is sending along data nicely. Thanks and congrats again to the entire #SmallsatExpress (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SmallsatExpress?src=hash) team (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/125484.png)
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ЦитироватьFALCON 9 LAUNCH SUCCESSFUL
30th Space Wing Public Affairs
Dec. 3, 2018 | 2:00
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Spaceflight SSO-A SmallSat Express, launches from Space Launch Complex-4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Dec. 3, 2018 at 10:34 a.m. PST.
https://cdn.dvidshub.net/media/video/1812/DOD_106266137/DOD_106266137.mp4 (https://cdn.dvidshub.net/media/video/1812/DOD_106266137/DOD_106266137.mp4) (2:00 (https://cdn.dvidshub.net/media/video/1812/DOD_106266137/DOD_106266137.mp4))
ЦитироватьFalcon 9 Launch with SSO-A and barge landing - 2018-12-03https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCnG7zfsdokhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCnG7zfsdok (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCnG7zfsdok) (3:33)
Justin Foley (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTjmcmUjTm551Gk6RqB1tSw)
Опубликовано: 3 дек. 2018 г.
Launch of SSO-A mission on board a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This video is a combination of footage shot with a Sony A7sII through a 1500mm Celestron 6" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and a piggybacked Sony A6000 with 210mm telephoto lens. Tracking was guided manually via joystick control. Landing on the barge occurs after 2:56.
ЦитироватьSpaceX - SSO-A - Close up launching at SLC-4E - 4Khttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqjKm58iA14https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqjKm58iA14 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqjKm58iA14) (0:12)
Jay DeShetler (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxK2xRWY2jsE4vDmaMuopUg)
Опубликовано: 3 дек. 2018 г.
SpaceX - SSO-A - Close up launching at SLC-4E - 4K
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/184896.jpg)SpaceX Maritime Updates @SpaceXFleet (https://twitter.com/SpaceXFleet) 4 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/SpaceXFleet/status/1070077514205282306)
Droneship and booster spotted offshore near Santa Barbara. (https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/125426.png)
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Цитировать(https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/981105707402477570/ClqZBljg_bigger.jpg)Jack Beyer @thejackbeyer (https://twitter.com/thejackbeyer) 8 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/thejackbeyer/status/1070444978248110080)
While #SpaceX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceX?src=hash) didnt nail landing the first stage from today's successful CRS-16 launch, their west coast team was busy recovering the thrice flown booster from monday's SSO-A launch (B1046). 2018 has been an incredible year for spaceflight. @NASASpaceflight (https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight)
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Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186312.jpg)Will Marshall @wsm1 (https://twitter.com/wsm1) 2 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/wsm1/status/1070470868134838272)
First Light image from @planetlabs (https://twitter.com/planetlabs) SkySats launched Monday. This is Recife, Brazil. More soon from the other 20 sats launched! Thx again to @spaceX (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) & @isro (https://twitter.com/isro) for the rides up!
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0 OBJECT L
1 43768U 18099L 18340.76443353 -.00000491 +00000-0 -40181-4 0 9990
2 43768 097.7695 049.8886 0009721 248.5214 111.5073 14.94415243000174
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43769U 18099M 18340.66071831 +.00014908 +00000-0 +13760-2 0 9995
2 43769 097.7662 049.7839 0012696 255.5778 268.9285 14.94666537000439
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43770U 18099N 18340.64944310 -.00000080 +00000-0 -20289-5 0 9991
2 43770 097.7693 049.7751 0012500 260.4949 203.3630 14.94637364000430
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43771U 18099P 18340.64944326 -.00000381 +00000-0 -29742-4 0 9995
2 43771 097.7707 049.7687 0012306 255.6870 208.2388 14.94642412000421
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43772U 18099Q 18340.30859258 +.00009464 +00000-0 +87540-3 0 9996
2 43772 097.7737 049.4433 0012328 247.8156 183.6612 14.94705476000375
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43773U 18099R 18340.66047138 +.00001105 +00000-0 +10699-3 0 9997
2 43773 097.7652 049.7878 0011688 246.2611 277.5888 14.94711787000421
0 OBJECT S
1 43774U 18099S 18340.66044376 .00001644 00000-0 15648-3 0 9996
2 43774 97.7715 49.7845 0011035 250.7436 273.4950 14.94768966 423
0 OBJECT T
1 43775U 18099T 18340.62973674 +.00005149 +00000-0 +47712-3 0 9996
2 43775 097.7717 049.7521 0013136 239.8015 120.1187 14.94851909000422
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43776U 18099U 18341.03136130 .00005237 00000-0 48504-3 0 9999
2 43776 97.7704 50.1672 0012656 258.7581 101.1972 14.94867784 470
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43777U 18099V 18340.69690908 .00008509 00000-0 78715-3 0 9991
2 43777 97.7691 49.8294 0011352 257.6475 102.3325 14.94741098 433
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43778U 18099W 18340.64932395 -.00000058 00000-0 00000+0 0 9996
2 43778 97.7635 49.7760 0012694 261.1774 203.0351 14.94742652 10
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43779U 18099X 18341.16525654 .00000843 00000-0 82635-4 0 9991
2 43779 97.7682 50.2948 0013137 253.4883 106.4624 14.94842049 498
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43780U 18099Y 18340.69668349 -.00000372 00000-0 -28802-4 0 9994
2 43780 97.7683 49.8182 0011803 257.1086 102.8804 14.94846885 424
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43781U 18099Z 18340.76356024 -.00000058 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 9993
2 43781 097.7618 049.8874 0012061 245.5790 114.4184 14.94882097000448
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43782U 18099AA 18340.36185974 +.00000263 +00000-0 +29362-4 0 9997
2 43782 097.7705 049.4922 0011144 242.6736 117.3351 14.94932312000382
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43783U 18099AB 18341.16492710 -.00026467 00000-0 -24264-2 0 9996
2 43783 97.7620 50.2755 0014065 222.9304 137.0663 14.94911152 496
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43784U 18099AC 18340.76331968 -.00000793 +00000-0 -67105-4 0 9996
2 43784 097.7669 049.8846 0013192 257.3438 102.6312 14.95007216000458
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43785U 18099AD 18340.78117354 -.00016381 00000-0 -14955-2 0 9993
2 43785 97.7628 49.9038 0012235 242.2541 213.8574 14.94984587 14
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43786U 18099AE 18340.69635834 -.00000058 +00000-0 +00000-0 0 9999
2 43786 097.7697 049.8227 0013311 256.9329 103.0432 14.95024103000442
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43787U 18099AF 18340.83020689 -.00000462 +00000-0 -36847-4 0 9994
2 43787 097.7614 049.9539 0012243 251.7778 108.2107 14.95029661000465
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43788U 18099AG 18340.76323490 -.00000908 00000-0 -77572-4 0 9998
2 43788 97.7683 49.8883 0011991 248.6615 111.3318 14.95048384 447
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43789U 18099AH 18340.43948125 .00007790 00000-0 70869-3 0 9996
2 43789 97.7679 49.5456 0014271 251.5247 170.1788 14.95403981 97
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43790U 18099AJ 18340.64812241 -.00005525 00000-0 -49448-3 0 9995
2 43790 97.7691 49.7831 0012548 253.2818 211.1656 14.95421319 129
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43791U 18099AK 18340.76246029 -.00001239 00000-0 -10668-3 0 9994
2 43791 97.7685 49.8934 0011334 258.7072 101.2922 14.95438738 445
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43792U 18099AL 18340.71416306 -.00000058 00000-0 00000+0 0 9999
2 43792 97.7702 49.8460 0011435 258.4380 201.8593 14.95454829 193
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43793U 18099AM 18340.82931027 -.00000058 00000-0 00000+0 0 9994
2 43793 97.7626 49.9425 0011170 253.6956 106.3025 14.95473703 183
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43794U 18099AN 18340.82914307 +.00000851 +00000-0 +81954-4 0 9999
2 43794 097.7687 049.9575 0010513 258.4854 101.5177 14.95561098000446
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43795U 18099AP 18340.69531287 +.00001052 +00000-0 +10000-3 0 9994
2 43795 097.7629 049.8188 0011713 257.8605 102.1408 14.95569869000428
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43796U 18099AQ 18340.82904057 -.00003655 +00000-0 -32361-3 0 9996
2 43796 097.7667 049.9577 0013231 236.1266 123.8718 14.95615985000452
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43797U 18099AR 18340.69522399 +.00000484 +00000-0 +48834-4 0 9995
2 43797 097.7683 049.8252 0011838 259.4062 100.5856 14.95611610000426
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43798U 18099AS 18340.69517377 +.00001054 +00000-0 +10000-3 0 9993
2 43798 097.7677 049.8241 0010907 233.8312 126.1884 14.95656911000426
0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43799U 18099AT 18340.76195682 +.00000238 +00000-0 +26599-4 0 9997
2 43799 097.7632 049.8940 0010799 260.6677 099.3345 14.95707484000442 ЦитироватьPhotos: Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Vandenberg on SSO-A rideshare mission
December 6, 2018 (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/12/) | Stephen Clark (https://spaceflightnow.com/author/stephen-clark/)
The first of two launches by SpaceX this week lifted off Monday, Dec. 3, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying 64 microsatellites and CubeSats to an orbit more than 350 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 10:34:05 a.m. PST (1:34:05 p.m. EST; 1834:05 GMT) Monday from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg, on a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Towering 229 feet (70 meters) tall, the Falcon 9 climbed into a sunny sky atop 1.7 million pounds of thrust, heading south toward a polar orbit on a multi-payload rideshare mission arranged by Spaceflight, a Seattle-based company specializing in booking launch services for CubeSats and other small satellites.
The launch Monday marked the first time SpaceX re-flew a Falcon 9 first stage booster on a third mission, and the first stage returned again to a drone ship stationed around 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the California coast a few minutes after liftoff.
The landing platform returned to the Port of Los Angeles with the rocket standing vertical, for SpaceX to inspect and potentially reuse again.Спойлер
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145216.jpg)
Credit: SpaceX
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145220.jpg)
Credit: SpaceX
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145215.jpg)
Credit: SpaceX
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145219.jpg)
Credit: SpaceX
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145217.jpg)
Credit: SpaceX
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145260.jpg)
Credit: SpaceX
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145218.jpg)
Credit: SpaceX
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/145244.jpg)
The Falcon 9 rocket's first stage returns to the Port of Los Angeles after the SSO-A launch, its third trip to space and back. Credit: Port of Los Angeles[свернуть]
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186319.jpg)Pauline Acalin @w00ki33 (https://twitter.com/w00ki33) 3 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/w00ki33/status/1071425244789800961)
Falcon 9 B1046.3 at dawn awaiting another day of inspection and disassembly. #spacex (https://twitter.com/hashtag/spacex?src=hash) #PortofLA (https://twitter.com/hashtag/PortofLA?src=hash) @Teslarati (https://twitter.com/Teslarati)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172599.jpg)2 ч. назад (https://twitter.com/w00ki33/status/1071433505416957952)Спойлер
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172598.jpg)[свернуть]
Couple shots of yesterday's activities at port of LA... lifting fixture being lowered and fitted, and later that day Falcon being lowered onto its mount. Such an incredible experience watching the technicians hard at work. #spacex (https://twitter.com/hashtag/spacex?src=hash)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172600.jpg)13 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/w00ki33/status/1071462774834790405)Спойлер
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172601.jpg)[свернуть]
Legs are being removed from B1046.3 at port of LA. #spacex (https://twitter.com/hashtag/spacex?src=hash) @Teslarati (https://twitter.com/Teslarati)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172622.jpg)9 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/w00ki33/status/1071463546494451712)Спойлер
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172623.jpg)[свернуть]
First grid fin has been removed from the 3x flown Falcon 9 standing at port of LA. Been wanting to see this happen for years. So NEAT! #spacex (https://twitter.com/hashtag/spacex?src=hash) @Teslarati (https://twitter.com/Teslarati)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172610.jpg)Спойлер
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172612.jpg)
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/172611.jpg)[свернуть]
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/186319.jpg)Pauline Acalin @w00ki33 (https://twitter.com/w00ki33) 16:03 (https://twitter.com/w00ki33/status/1072280623455207424) - 10 дек. 2018 г.
Falcon 9 B1046.3 went horizontal this afternoon after spending 6 days at port of LA. #spacex (https://twitter.com/hashtag/spacex?src=hash) @Teslarati (https://twitter.com/Teslarati)
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1072280577649258496/pu/vid/900x720/y5ZIkCsY37h-SthJ.mp4?tag=6 (https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1072280577649258496/pu/vid/900x720/y5ZIkCsY37h-SthJ.mp4?tag=6)
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/185785.jpg)PA0DLO @HAMSATNL (https://twitter.com/HAMSATNL) 19 дек. (https://twitter.com/HAMSATNL/status/1075323546203774978)
Object 43798 has its downlink on 437.14665 MHz. As this is close to the expected downlink frequency for RANGE-A, we assumed this object is RANGE-A. But it seems that RANGE-A has not been activated (yet).
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/185785.jpg)PA0DLO @HAMSATNL (https://twitter.com/HAMSATNL) 19 дек. (https://twitter.com/HAMSATNL/status/1075324348678967296)
Therefore object 43798 appears to be yet another unknown satellite from the SSO-A launch. We are trying to identify these unknown satellites now.
ЦитироватьDecember 9, 2018 (https://www.amsat.org/fox-1cliff-ao-95-commissioning-status/) by Paul Stoetzer (https://www.amsat.org/author/n8hm/)
Following the launch of Fox-1Cliff/AO-95, AMSAT Engineering began the commissioning process, with the help of AMSAT Operations, on Tuesday December 4. Satellite telemetry indicates that the bird is healthy, and I thank all of the stations who have captured and relayed the telemetry that enabled us to monitor and determine the health of the various systems on board. Fox-1Cliff required an extended period monitoring battery and power levels due to the anomaly and fix that was applied back in February of 2016 during environmental testing, and the result of that is positive.
However, during the next steps of commissioning we discovered an anomaly with her receive capability. After a few days of tests, analysis, and discussion, it appears that Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 will not be commissioned as our fourth Fox-1 amateur radio satellite.
AMSAT Engineering will continue to evaluate and test Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 for solutions to the anomaly and your continued help in providing telemetry is appreciated so that we can have data throughout her daily orbits rather than limited data over our U.S. stations. The data, analysis, and testing could lead to a positive solution but at the very least will be important to AMSAT's satellite programs in providing information that would help us and others, as we do freely share our successes and failures, to avoid similar situations with future missions.
I would like to thank all of the AMSAT Fox Engineering volunteers who made Fox-1Cliff possible and continue to build our new satellites, becoming even better as we move forward.
I will provide more information on the anomaly and any determination we make regarding the possible cause or causes as well as information on the possibility of recovery, over time. Please be patient regarding that. Many of you have probably built a project and had to troubleshoot it on your bench, we are in a troubleshooting situation here with the additional challenge of being 600 km away from our bench.
73
Jerry Buxton, N0JY
AMSAT Vice President of Engineering
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/173483.jpg)
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/185677.png)PW-Sat2 @PWSat2 (https://twitter.com/PWSat2) 1 ч.1 час назад (https://twitter.com/PWSat2/status/1078265168465985537)
On Dec 29th we're going to conduct the final experiment of @PWSat2 (https://twitter.com/PWSat2) - deorbit sail deployment. Point your antennas and tune your receivers (at 1k2 bps)! The first attempt is possible at 9:12 CET, however next pass at 10:47 CET seems to be more favorable for the sail deployment.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/173382.jpg)
Цитировать 30.12.2018 (https://r4uab.ru/2018/12/30/sputnik-pw-sat2-razvernul-parus/) R4UAB (https://r4uab.ru/author/r4uab/) 0 комментариев (https://r4uab.ru/2018/12/30/sputnik-pw-sat2-razvernul-parus/#respond)
Получены первые фотографии, подтверждающие успешное разворачивание паруса. Данные частично загружаются.
PW-SAT — второй польский наноспутник. Построен на основе платформы 2U CubeSat и оснащен разворачиваемыми солнечными батареями. Основной полезной нагрузкой PW-Sat является система увода аппарата с орбиты. Ее отличительной особенностью является наличие парашютной системы (паруса), которая должна обеспечить быстрое торможение аппарата. Дополнительной полезной нагрузкой служат звездный датчик и две камеры. Одна из камер снимает Землю, а вторая используется для наблюдения за развертыванием парашютной системы.
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/67516.jpg)Jonathan McDowellПодлинная учетная запись @planet4589 (https://twitter.com/planet4589) 9 ч.9 часов назад (https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1084715673744486400)
Large cubesat deployments remain a hard tracking problem. As of Jan 13, 41 days after launch, 40 percent (26 of 65) of the objects from the SSO-A launch remain unidentified, including the large UFF and LFF deployment platforms.
ЦитироватьWhy the Air Force still cannot identify more than a dozen satellites from one December launch
The case of the unknown satellites
By Loren Grush (https://www.theverge.com/authors/loren-grush)@lorengrush (https://www.twitter.com/lorengrush) Apr 2, 2019, 8:15am EDT
On the afternoon of December 3rd, 2018, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off from the southern coast of California, lofting the largest haul of individual satellites the vehicle had ever transported. At the time, it seemed like the mission was a slam dunk, with all 64 satellites deploying into space as designed (https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/1/18114894/spacex-falcon-9-reusability-sso-a-mission-rideshare-satellites).
But nearly four months later, more than a dozen satellites from the launch have yet to be identified in space. We know that they're up there, and wh ere they are, but it's unclear which satellites belong to which satellite operator on the ground.
The launch, called the SSO-A SmallSat Express, sent those small satellites into orbit for various countries, commercial companies, schools, and research organizations. Currently, all of the satellites are being tracked by the US Air Force's Space Surveillance Network — an array of telescopes and radars throughout the globe responsible for keeping tabs on as many objects in orbit as possible. Yet 19 of those satellites are still unidentified in the Air Force's orbital catalog. Many of the satellite operators do not know which of these 19 probes are theirs exactly, and the Air Force can't figure it out either.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/135189.jpg)
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that carried the 64 satellites on the SSO-A mission Image: SpaceX
For a good portion of these satellites, it's possible that they have experienced some kind of technical problem, preventing the operators from contacting the spacecraft in orbit. But part of the identification issue stems from the SSO-A mission's structure. This was a rocket ride-share, a type of launch that's become popular in the industry. As satellites grow smaller, operators can pack a bunch of these tiny probes together on larger launch vehicles, sending them into space all at once. But with so many satellites going into orbit at the same time, it can be hard for the Air Force's technology to distinguish the satellites from each other. And that, in turn, can make it hard for satellite operators to decipher which satellites are theirs.
"When you have objects that are in a cluster, so to speak, it's very difficult to disambiguate which one is which exactly," Moriba Jah, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas who specializes in space tracking and oversees a tracking site called AstriaGraph (http://astria.tacc.utexas.edu/AstriaGraph/), tells The Verge.
Not knowing the exact location of a spacecraft is a major problem for operators. If they can't communicate with their satellite, the company's orbiting hardware becomes, essentially, space junk. It brings up liability and transparency concerns, too. If an unidentified satellite runs into something else in space, it's hard to know who is to blame, making space less safe — and less understood — for everyone. That's why analysts and space trackers say both technical and regulatory changes need to be made to our current tracking system so that we know who owns every satellite that's speeding around the Earth. "The whole way we do things is just no longer up to the task," Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard and spaceflight tracker, tells The Verge.Спойлер
How to identify a satellite
Up until recently, figuring out a satellite's identity has been relatively straightforward. The Air Force has satellites high above the Earth that detect the heat of rocket engines igniting on the ground, indicating when a vehicle has taken off. It's a system that was originally put in place to locate the launch of a potential missile, but it's also worked well for spotting rockets launching to orbit. And for most of spaceflight history, usually just one large satellite or spacecraft has gone up on a launch — simplifying the identification process.
"For more traditional launches, wh ere there are fewer objects, it's fairly simple to do," Diana McKissock, the lead for space situational awareness sharing and spaceflight safety at the Air Force's 18th Space Control Squadron, tells The Verge. As a result, the Air Force has maintained a robust catalog of more than 20,000 space objects in orbit (https://www.dia.mil/Portals/27/Documents/News/Military%20Power%20Publications/Space_Threat_V14_020119_sm.pdf), many of which have been identified.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/135192.jpg)
One of the Air Force's tracking stations on Diego Garcia, which helps to catalog space objects Image: The Air Force
But as rocket ride-shares have grown in popularity, the Air Force's surveillance capabilities have sometimes struggled to identify every satellite that is deployed during a launch. One problem is that most of the spacecraft on board all look the same. Nearly 50 satellites on the SSO-A launch were modified CubeSats — a type of standardized satellite that's roughly the size of a cereal box. That means they are all about the same size and have the same general boxy shape. Plus, these tiny satellites are often deployed relatively close together on ride-share launches, one right after the other. The result is a big swarm of nearly identical spacecraft that are difficult to tell apart from the ground below.
Operators often rely on tracking data from the Air Force to find their satellites, so if the military cannot tell a significant fraction of these CubeSats apart, the operators don't know wh ere to point their ground communication equipment to get in contact with their spacecraft.
It's a bit of a Catch-22, though. The Air Force also relies on satellite operators to help identify their spacecraft. Before a launch, the Air Force collects information from satellite operators about the design of the spacecraft and wh ere it's going to go. The operators are also responsible for making sure that they have the proper equipment (in space and on the ground) to communicate with the satellite. "It's really a cooperative, ongoing process that involves the satellite operators as much as it involves us here at the 18th, processing the data," says McKissock.
The struggles of the SSO-A operators
Technical glitches seem to be plaguing at least some of the lost satellites from the SSO-A launch, such as Audacy Zero — a communications CubeSat launched by the company Audacy. "There are still a couple of communication methods we are exploring, but it is looking likely at this point that we have a technical anomaly on the satellite," Amanda Chia, head of business development at Audacy, tells The Verge.
Another complication to Audacy's communication efforts is that the company still doesn't know wh ere their satellite is. Ralph Ewig, Audacy's CEO, says his team has narrowed it down to five satellites from the launch, but they still aren't certain which one is theirs. "Having been on the launch of that many other satellites made our diagnostics and troubleshooting a whole lot more difficult than we had originally anticipated," Ewig tells The Verge.
For some operators, it seems that they were able to get in touch with their satellite at the beginning of the flight when all the satellites were in one big blob and close together in space. But as the probes have spread apart in the last few months, it's become more difficult to know wh ere to point their communication equipment, since so many identities are still unknown. Some operators have had trouble hearing back from the satellites in recent months.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/135190.jpg)
An artistic rendering of what the fully deployed Orbital Reflector satellite would look like Image: The Nevada Museum of Art
That seems to be the case for Trevor Paglen's Orbital Reflector — an art project that's supposed to deploy a giant reflective balloon capable of being seen from Earth. In January, the team behind the satellite said that they had been in contact with the spacecraft, but that the government shutdown had impacted their ability to deploy the balloon (https://www.orbitalreflector.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/OR_StatusReport_011719.pdf). The website for the project states that the team still doesn't have accurate orbital data (https://www.orbitalreflector.com/) for the satellite. "We are working to resolve these issues and will have more conclusive information to share in the near future," Amanda Horn, a representative for the Nevada Museum of Art, said in a statement to The Verge.
And sometimes, time is of the essence for operators. A satellite may need more immediate communication in order to work properly; perhaps the vehicle needs to be told to orient itself in such a way to keep its batteries charged. "Depending on the design, some satellites, you might not contact them for two years and then you contact them and they're fine," says McDowell, who provided detailed tracking information about SSO-A to The Verge. "And other satellites, not so much."
Where did SSO-A go wrong?
The SSO-A launch isn't the only example of mistaken satellite identity. Five satellites are still unidentified from an Electron launch that took place in December last year, which sent up 13 objects, according to McDowell. And in 2017, a Russian Soyuz rocket deployed a total of 72 satellites, but eight are still unknown, says McDowell. The SSO-A launch is perhaps the most egregious example of this ride-share problem, as nearly a third of the satellites are still missing in the Air Force's catalog.
The Air Force says the launch posed a unique challenge. One difficulty had to do with the way the satellites were deployed, according to McKissock, who says it was hard to predict before the launch wh ere each satellite was going to be. The SSO-A launch was organized by a company called Spaceflight Industries, which acts as a broker for operators — finding room for their satellites on upcoming rocket launches. Spaceflight bought this entire Falcon 9 rocket for the SSO-A launch, and created the device that deployed all of these satellites into orbit. One satellite tracker, T.S. Kelso, who operates a tracking site called CelesTrak, agreed with the Air Force, saying that Spaceflight's deployment platform made it hard to predict each satellite's exact position. "[Spaceflight] had no way to provide the type of data needed," Kelso writes in an email to The Verge.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/135187.jpg)
The infographic Spaceflight released before the SSO-A launch, detailing the diversity of satellites and operators. Image: Spaceflight Industries
Another hurdle revolved around the diversity of operators launching on SSO-A. Other launches have sent up even more satellites than the SSO-A mission did, but often the satellites primarily come from one operator. SSO-A boasted a wide range of operators, many of which were newcomers to spaceflight, and the Air Force had the complex task of getting necessary orbital information from each group on the flight. "There were so many different owner operators from 15 different countries, many of whom we hadn't worked with before," McKissock says. "That was a unique challenge — harnessing all of that information in an effective way."
And in the end, the Air Force is sometimes at the mercy of the operators' information. It's possible that some of the owners of the unidentified satellite got in touch with their vehicles recently and just have not informed the Air Force wh ere they are. "A lot of what we do is based on the information they provide, but that's all we can do," says McKissock. "So if an operator doesn't want to support the identification process, they don't have to." In fact, Kelso, the satellite tracker, says he was able to identify an additional seven satellites of the 19 unidentified ones, by working with the satellite operators. "That suggests 18 SPCS is either not receiving the same reports or discounting them for whatever reason," he writes.
The Air Force's 18th Space Control Squadron has other priorities to consider, too. While identifying spacecraft is something the team always hopes to accomplish on every flight, the main function of the 18th is to track as many objects as possible and then provide information on the possibility of spacecraft running into each other in orbit. The identification of satellites is secondary to that safety concern. "I wouldn't say it's not a priority, but we certainly have other mission requirements to consider," says McKissock.
How do we fix this?
For now, not knowing the identities of all the SSO-A satellites is mostly an inconvenience to the operators that aren't able to get the full benefits of their satellites. Additionally, if these CubeSats did pose a threat to any nearby spacecraft, there isn't much that could be done — even if we knew all the vehicles' owners. CubeSats are too small to have any thrusters, so they wouldn't be able to move out of the way of an imminent collision.
But there are still safety concerns with unidentified satellites, especially if we cannot identify probes from other countries that pose a threat to US satellites. "If you're talking about safety, what you really care about is: Wh ere is it? And who do I call if it's coming close to my satellite?" says Brian Weeden, director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation focusing on space operations and policy, tells The Verge. That way, if another country's spacecraft is getting close to, say, the International Space Station, the US knows who to contact to get it moved out of the way.
The SSO-A flight also demonstrates an issue that has plagued space tracking for decades: the ambiguity of what's happening up above Earth. If a satellite breaks apart in orbit, for instance, sometimes we know why — and sometimes we don't. Establishing causality in space, with numerous unidentified satellites around the planet, is even more complicated. "When something happens in space, there are multiple things that could have caused it, and they're equally unknown," says Jah. "And that's a problem. We'd love to get to the point wh ere when something happens, you could say, 'This happened because of this,' with near absolute certainty."
The best way to get to that future is to identify everything. And one thing most experts agree on is that the Air Force should be able to name satellites without requiring input from anyone else. "The best case scenario is if the object can be tracked, independent of the owner operator," says Jah. One idea is to have all operators add uniquely identifiable features to their satellites, something akin to an RFID tag or a license plate that can be read from Earth. Such a regulatory change could come about thanks to Space Policy Directive-3 (https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/19/17475940/trump-space-council-traffic-control-system-junk), signed on June 18th, 2018, which focuses on creating guidelines and best practices to help the US figure out what is going on in space at all times.
(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/135195.jpg)
An AGI visualization of the amount of debris and active satellites currently being tracked around Earth Image: AGI
The problem is this would only work for the US spaceflight industry. There's no way to force other nations to put license plates on their satellites. The United Nations came up with a set of best practices in 2018 (https://spacenews.com/un-committee-approves-space-sustainability-guidelines/) that describes ways in which countries can make their satellites easier to track, except there is no way to strictly enforce these measures. There have already been numerous Chinese launches, for instance, in which multiple satellites have launched on one rocket and the Air Force has been unable to identify some of the probes.
That's why some argue that the Air Force should improve its identification abilities by turning to the private sector. "There are a lot more potential sources of data that could be leveraged, in addition to the traditional military owned and operated radars and telescopes," says Weeden. Companies like AGI, LeoLabs, and more are developing new algorithms, radar, and telescopes that the Air Force could use for tracking and identification. In fact, some of these companies helped a few of the satellite operators on SSO-A, such as Audacy, attempt to track down their satellites.
Having better technology options may be helpful, since the Air Force will soon be tracking more objects in space than ever before. Soon, the military will activate what is known as the "space fence," a new radar system located on an island called the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific. It'll be able to track even smaller objects, which could be difficult for the 18th Space Control Squadron to process. "They're suggesting anywhere between 100,000 to 200,000 new objects that have never been tracked before that are going to get added to the catalog," says Weeden. "And their existing computer systems at the 18th just can't deal with that."
The Air Force acknowledges that processing the new data will require a lot of extra work. "We are fully aware the exponential increase in... data will make an already complex process more challenging," Major Cody Chiles, a spokesperson for the Air Force's Joint Force Space Component Command, said in a statement. "We are preparing for this challenge by actively working with our commercial, interagency, and military partners to identify ways to effectively and efficiently manage the influx of data."
Adding to the problem is that thousands of new satellites are set to be launched in the years to come (https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/28/17906158/nasa-spacex-oneweb-satellite-large-constellations-orbital-debris), thanks to companies like SpaceX, OneWeb, and more looking to beam internet from space. Earth orbit is going to get crowded, increasing the need for clarity and identification. That means something needs to change soon before the amount of satellites in space quadruples — and we're faced with the possibility of even more unidentified objects flying around our planet.
Correction April 2nd, 12:55PM ET: An original version of this article noted that an Indian PSLV launch had deployed 72 satellites in 2017, but it was a Russian Soyuz rocket, and the piece has been changed.[свернуть]
ЦитироватьИсследователи не могут связаться с 19 спутниками, которые запустили с помощью Falcon 9
Ильнур Шарафиев 7 апреля 2019
3 декабря 2018 года с южного побережья Калифорнии взлетела ракета SpaceX Falcon 9, которая вывела в космос 64 спутника. Однако сейчас выяснилось, что 19 из них потерялись, исследователи не могут выйти с ними на связь.
Спустя четыре месяца после запуска ученым только предстоит связаться с десятком спутников, оказавшихся в космосе. Пока они знают, где находятся, однако сигналы с Земли до них не доходят. Также ученые не знают, каким операторам принадлежат эти спутники.
Запуск, получивший название SSO-A SmallSat Express, позволил вывести на орбиту малые спутники для различных стран, коммерческих компаний, школ и исследовательских организаций. Сейчас все спутники отслеживаются Сетью космического наблюдения ВВС США — это телескопы и радары по всему миру, которые призваны следить за как можно большим количеством объектов на орбите. Однако 19 из этих спутников до сих пор не идентифицированы в орбитальном каталоге ВВС.
Для значительной части этих спутников, возможно, возникли технические проблемы, препятствующие контакту операторов с космическим аппаратом на орбите. Однако часть проблемы идентификации связана со структурой миссии.
Неизвестность точного местоположения космических аппаратов является серьезной проблемой для операторов. Если они не могут связаться со своим спутником, то орбитальное оборудование компании становится космическим мусором.
Кроме того, исследователи беспокоятся, что если неопознанный спутник врежется в другой объект в космосе, то им будет сложно определить кто в этом виноват, делая все пространство менее безопасным. Поэтому аналитики и космические трекеры говорят о необходимости внесения как технических, так и нормативных изменений в нынешнюю систему слежения, чтобы мы знали, кому принадлежит каждый спутник, который находится в космосе. «Все, что мы делаем, уже не соответствует поставленной задаче, — отметил изданию The Verge астрофизик из Гарварда и трекер космических полетов Джонатан Макдауэлл.
ЦитироватьSalo пишет:Кранты. Мы так и не узнаем кто из них кто. :(
Исследователи не могут связаться с 19 спутниками, которые запустили с помощью Falcon 9
ЦитироватьСтарый пишет:2 Старый, перечень опознанных ПН (46 объектов)
Кранты. Мы так и не узнаем кто из них кто. :(
А список покойников есть?
Цитироватьpossible 15 SSO-A spacecraft which have not been publicly confirmed operational:
(1) Audacy Zero; POINTR
//https://twitter.com/Audacy/status/1070569693348413441
//after 4 days, still no contact, from above link
//(3U CubeSat technology demonstration mission of Audacy, Mountain View, CA, built by Clyde Space)
(1) BlackHawk
(1) Enoch, no comm pkg (possible failure to deploy, TBD)
(1) ICE-Cap (U.S. Navy 3U Cubesat)
//The objectives are to demonstrate a cross-link from LEO (Low Earth Orbit) to MUOS (Mobile User Objective System) WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) in GEO (Geosynchronous Orbit). The objective is to send to users on secure networks.
(1) KazSciSat-1
//This may be confirmation....require a translation...
//http://kazscisat.istt.kz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=101
(2) OrbWeaver 1 & 2 (2018-099AP, 2018-099AD)
(1) RAAF M1 (an Australian 3U CubeSat (~4 kg) designed and built by UNSW (University of New South Wales) for the Australian Defence Force Academy, Royal Australian Air Force. RAAF-M1 is a technology demonstration featuring an AIS receiver, and ADS-B receiver, an SDR (Software Defined Radio).)
// possible DOA...see post #179 Steven Pietrobon
(1) STPSat-5 (The satellite was built by SNC (Sierra Nevada Corporation) on the modular SN-50 bus with a payload capacity of 50-100 kg and compatible with ESPA-class secondary launch adaptors.)
(1) THEA (a 3U CubeSat built by SpaceQuest, Ltd. of Fairfax, VA)
(3) US Government spacecraft
(1) VisionCube-1 (a 2U CubeSat designed by the Korea Aerospace University)
(1) WeissSat-1 (a 1U CubeSat mission by the Weiss School in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, to validate a a Lab-on-a-Chip system, NASA funded)
Цитироватьpossible 16 SSO-A spacecraft which have not been publicly confirmed operational:вояки точно должны свои спутники расписать?
(1) Audacy Zero; POINTR
(1) BlackHawk
(1) Corvus-BC 4
(1) Enoch, no comm pkg (possible failure to deploy, TBD)
(1) ICE-Cap
(1) KazSciSat-1 (TBD)
(2) OrbWeaver 1 & 2
(1) RAAF M1 (possible DOA, TBD)
(1) STPSat-5
(1) THEA
(3) US Government spacecraft
(1) VisionCube-1
(1) WeissSat-1
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/67516.jpg)Jonathan McDowellПодлинная учетная запись @planet4589 (https://twitter.com/planet4589) 13:52 PDT (https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1134563327600975872) - 31 мая 2019 г.
Six months after launch, the DOD has finally identified which objects are the three DoD cubesats on the SSO-A launch: SPAWAR-CAL-O, SPAWAR-CAL-R, and SPAWAR-CAL-OR, 2018-099J, U and W. Guessing they are passive optical and radar calibration targets for the uS Navy space group
13:58 PDT (https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1134564730838945793) - 31 мая 2019 г.
I missed this item last year which talks about these three 1U sats https://www.public.navy.mil/spawar/News/Pages/NNS181119-18.aspx ... (https://t.co/VHm25ytrxa)
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/29262.jpg) Jeff Foust @jeff_foust (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust) 4 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1159241574900879360)
Jeff Roberts of Spaceflight gives an overview of last year's SSO-A rideshare mission. Of 64 satellites, 4 cubesats never made contact after deployment; 12 sats never claimed by their owners with Air Force. (And 1 locked in its deployer because of lack of licensing.) #smallsat (https://twitter.com/hashtag/smallsat?src=hash)
Цитировать(https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/185869.jpg)Spaceflight @SpaceflightInc (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc) 20 мин. назад (https://twitter.com/SpaceflightInc/status/1159489637875761152)
В ответ @jeff_foust (https://twitter.com/jeff_foust)
To clarify, the 12 cubesats mentioned as "unclaimed" means those organizations did not go to the 18th Space Control Squadron to report which object was their satellite. It does NOT mean those satellites were not functioning or abandoned. -jeff roberts