Echostar 23 – Falcon 9 – Кеннеди LC-39A – 16.03.2017 06:00 UTC

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Mission Timeline (all times approximate)

COUNTDOWN
 Hour/Min/Sec Events
 - 01:18:00 Launch Conductor takes launch readiness poll
 - 00:70:00 RP-1 (rocket grade kerosene) loading underway
 - 00:45:00 LOX (liquid oxygen) loading underway
 - 00:07:00 Falcon 9 begins engine chill prior to launch
 - 00:02:00 Range Control Officer (USAF) verifies range is go for launch
 - 00:01:30 SpaceX Launch Director verifies go for launch
 - 00:01:00 Flight computer commanded to begin final prelaunch checks
 - 00:01:00 Propellant tank pressurization underway
 - 00:00:03 Engine controller commands engine ignition sequence to start
 
00:00:00 Falcon 9 liftoff

LAUNCH AND SATELLITE DEPLOYMENT
 Hour/Min/Sec Events
 00:01:16 Max Q (moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket)
 00:02:43 1st stage engine shutdown/main engine cutoff (MECO)
 00:02:47 1st and 2nd stages separate
 00:02:55 2nd stage engine starts
 00:03:43 Fairing deployment
 00:08:31 2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO-1)
 00:26:19 2nd stage engine restarts
 00:27:19 2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO-2)
 00:34:00 EchoStar XXIII satellite deployed
 

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Трансляция SpaceX

ECHOSTAR XXIII MISSION

[Чебурашка]

Какие-то у них совсем тощие press-kit-ы

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https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/03/12/commercial-tv-broadcast-satellite-ready-to-ride-falcon-9-rocket/

Commercial TV broadcast satellite ready to ride Falcon 9 rocket
 March 12, 2017   Stephen Clark

Спойлер

The EchoStar 23 satellite is seen inside SpaceX's payload processing facility at Cape Canaveral after arriving at the launch base in November. Credit: SpaceX

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SpaceX is expected to transfer its next Falcon 9 rocket to launch pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday with a direct-to-home television broadcast satellite on-board, setting up for a two-and-a-half hour predawn launch window Tuesday.

The Falcon 9 rocket will ride a heavy-duty transporter-erector system for the quarter-mile (400-meter) rollout from a horizontal assembly hangar at the southern edge of pad 39A. The carrier, which doubles as an umbilical mast during launch countdowns, will hydraulically hoist the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket upright once it arrives at the top of the incline leading to the pad.

SpaceX will verify connections between the transporter-erector strongback and ground supplies of propellant, power and other systems needed during Monday night's launch countdown.

Since Thursday, when the Falcon 9 rocket performed a hold-down engine firing at pad 39A, engineers returned the launcher to its hangar and attached a U.S.-owned commercial communications on its way to space to provide television broadcast services across Brazil.

The EchoStar 23 satellite was already encapsulated inside the Falcon 9's payload fairing after being fueled and prepared for liftoff inside a nearby clean room facility.

The Falcon 9 launch conductor will poll the launch team for a "go" for fueling of the two-stage rocket at 12:16 a.m. EDT (0416 GMT), followed by the start of tanking with RP-1 kerosene fuel around eight minutes later.

Super-chilled liquid oxygen propellant, cooled to near its freezing point, will begin pumping into the Falcon 9 at T-minus 45 minutes.

The computer-controlled countdown will prep the rocket's nine Merlin 1D main engines for ignition, transition the Falcon 9 to internal battery power, and pressurize the booster's propellant tanks in the last 10 minutes of the countdown.

The launch window Tuesday opens at 1:34 a.m. EDT (0534 GMT) and runs until 4:04 a.m. EDT (0804 GMT).

Спойлер

File photo of a Falcon 9 rocket. Credit: SpaceX

Officials will be watching the weather during Tuesday morning's launch window, with forecasters predicting mostly cloudy skies and isolated rain showers in the forecast.

The weather outlook issued by the U.S. Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron on Sunday calls for a 60 percent chance that conditions will be favorable for a launch. A weather system over Florida was triggering scattered rain showers over the Space Coast and adjacent waters of the Atlantic Ocean late Sunday.

"This system will be very slow to transit Central Florida, keeping cloud cover and isolated showers over the Space Coast through the day on Monday," the Air Force weather team wrote in a forecast released Sunday.

Meteorologists believe weather conditions will improve overnight and throughout the launch window.

"The frontal boundary associated with the system should push south of the spaceport by Monday evening. This will allow the extensive cloud cover to begin diminishing and become shallower through the countdown. The primary weather concern for launch Tuesday morning will be lingering thick clouds that haven't cleared through the spaceport area."

The official forecast calls for scattered clouds at 3,000 feet and 12,000 feet, and a broken deck of clouds at 22,000 feet. Winds will be from the west at 15 to 20 mph, and the temperature at launch time should be around 64 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cooler conditions are on tap across the Space Coast later in the week. If the rocket is unable to take off Tuesday, there is an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather during the Falcon 9's backup window Thursday morning.

After liftoff, the slender white launcher will pitch on an easterly course from Cape Canaveral atop more than 1.5 million pounds of thrust, heading over the Atlantic on the way to a high-altitude geostationary transfer orbit, the drop-off point for most large telecom satellites.

Its first stage engines will shut off and fall away around two-and-a-half minutes into the flight, and the Falcon 9's single Merlin upper stage engine will ignite two times to deliver the EchoStar 23 satellite into its intended egg-shaped orbit.

The Falcon 9's first stage booster will fall into the Atlantic without trying to land on SpaceX's recovery ship. The heavyweight EchoStar 23 satellite requires all of the Falcon 9's lift capacity, leaving no fuel leftover to attempt a powered descent and touchdown.

The rocket is stripped of the four landing legs usually fastened to the base of the first stage, the first time a Falcon 9 has launched without the landing gear since April 2015.

 
The EchoStar 23 satellite during final assembly and testing at Space Systems/Loral's factory in Palo Alto, California. Credit: Space Systems/Loral

Diverging from the public disclosure practices by most commercial launch and satellite companies, SpaceX and EchoStar have not revealed the parameters — such as the altitude and inclination — of the orbit targeted on Tuesday's flight.

But the orbit will likely range in altitude from a few hundred miles above Earth to approximately 22,300 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers).

An EchoStar spokesperson also declined to provide the mass of the EchoStar 23 satellite, which was manufactured by Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, California. Based on the SSL 1300 satellite bus, EchoStar 23 was ordered by EchoStar Satellite Services in 2014 and is based on the spacecraft chassis originally built for the CMBStar mobile communications station, a venture into the Chinese market led by EchoStar and canceled in 2008.

The tri-band EchoStar 23 satellite is designed with flexibility, according to EchoStar, with the ability to carry out multiple types of missions. Its communications payload includes Ku-band, Ka-band and S-band transponders.

EchoStar 23's first operating post in geostationary orbit will be along the equator at 45 degrees west longitude, once the spacecraft completes a series of burns with its own main engine to circularize its orbit from the initial transfer orbit reached by the Falcon 9.

The craft was originally supposed to launch by the end of 2016, in time to meet a licensing deadline from ANATEL, the Brazilian communications regulatory agency, that requires EchoStar 23 be in service by the end of June.

EchoStar says it will meet that deadline for the Ku-band spectrum, which the company intends to use for television broadcast services in Brazil. The operator has sought an extension on the Ka-band and S-band deadlines, EchoStar said in its annual report released Feb. 24.

The company said is still exploring options to use its Ka-band and S-band spectrum rights by the regulatory deadline in mid-2017.

Rippling delays in SpaceX's launch manifest caused the slip in EchoStar 23's liftoff after a Falcon 9 rocket exploded Sept. 1 on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, grounding SpaceX missions more than four months.

Tuesday's launch will the third SpaceX rocket flight since the launch operator resumed service Jan. 14 with a successful Falcon 9 blastoff from California with 10 Iridium communications satellites.

SpaceX dispatched a Dragon supply ship to the International Space Station on a Feb. 19 launch from Florida, the first time the company has flown from pad 39A, which it leases from NASA.

Launch pad 39A was the starting point for all of NASA's Apollo moon landing missions, plus the majority of space shuttle flights, including the first and last launches in 1981 and 2011.

The launch of EchoStar 23 will be the 31st Falcon 9 flight overall since the privately-developed booster debuted in June 2010.

This week's SpaceX mission marks the start of a busy few weeks of launch activity on Florida's Space Coast.

Two United Launch Alliance rockets, a Delta 4 and an Atlas 5, are due for liftoff soon.

A Delta 4 rocket is scheduled to launch Friday, March 17, with the U.S. Air Force's WGS 9 communications satellite built with funding from military partners in Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and New Zealand.

An Atlas 5 launcher is set for liftoff March 21 with a NASA-contracted, commercially-owned Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo carrier with supplies and experiments to the International Space Station.

SpaceX's next launch, set for no earlier than March 27, will loft the SES 10 communications satellite for SES of Luxembourg. That mission will mark the first time SpaceX has launched a Falcon 9 powered by a previously-flown first stage, a major leap in the firm's cost-cutting reusability initiative.

[свернуть]

[Max Andriyahov]

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Spaceflight Now‏ @SpaceflightNow 3 мин. назад
 
The Falcon 9 rocket has been raised into position at pad 39A, in readiness for tonight's launch of the EchoStar 23 satellite.
 

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Прогноз погоды L-0
Falcon 9 EchoStar L-0 Launch Forecast

Launch probability of violating launch weather constraints: 60%
Primary concern(s): Thick Cloud Layer Rule
Delay probability of violating launch weather constraints: 10%
Primary concern(s): Liftoff Winds

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Echostar XXIII Hosted Webcast

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Echostar XXIII Technical Webcast

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03/13/2017 16:45


SpaceX lifted the Falcon 9 rocket vertical at pad 39A earlier this morning as engineers proceed toward an early Tuesday launch opportunity to loft the EchoStar 23 communications satellite.

The spacecraft, built in California and owned by Colorado-based EchoStar Satellite Services, is about to kick off a 15-year mission broadcasting television across Brazil, and potentially conducting other telecom relay functions.

The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is set for blastoff at 1:34 a.m. EDT (0534 GMT) Tuesday at the opening of a two-and-a-half hour launch window.

After liftoff, the slender white launcher will pitch on an easterly course from Cape Canaveral atop more than 1.5 million pounds of thrust, heading over the Atlantic on the way to a high-altitude geostationary transfer orbit, the drop-off point for most large telecom satellites.

Its first stage engines will shut off and fall away around two-and-a-half minutes into the flight, and the Falcon 9's single Merlin upper stage engine will ignite two times to deliver the EchoStar 23 satellite into its intended egg-shaped orbit.

The Falcon 9's first stage booster will fall into the Atlantic without trying to land on SpaceX's recovery ship. The heavyweight EchoStar 23 satellite requires all of the Falcon 9's lift capacity, leaving no fuel leftover to attempt a powered descent and touchdown.

The rocket is stripped of the four landing legs usually fastened to the base of the first stage, the first time a Falcon 9 has launched without the landing gear since April 2015.

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03/13/2017 17:51
The official launch weather forecast released by U.S. Air Force meteorologists this morning now predicts a 60 percent chance conditions will prohibit a liftoff early Tuesday.

"Overcast skies, widespread showers and isolated thunderstorms are expected over Central Florida today, associated with a deepening low pressure moving in from the Gulf of Mexico," the weather forecasters wrote Monday. "The frontal boundary associated with the system will not push south of the spaceport until late Monday night. Then cloud cover will begin diminishing, which will continue through the countdown and launch window. The primary weather concern for Tuesday will be lingering thick clouds that haven't cleared through the spaceport area."

The two-and-a-half launch window opens at 1:34 a.m. EDT (0534 GMT).

The outlook calls for cloudy weather and isolated rain showers diminishing through the launch window, with scattered clouds at 3,000 feet, broken clouds at 12,000 feet, and an overcast deck at 22,000 feet. Winds will be from the west-southwest at 15 to 20 mph, and the temperature at launch time should be around 64 degrees Fahrenheit.

Clearing skies and cooler temperatures are in the forecast later Tuesday. If launch does not occur Tuesday, the next opportunity is early Thursday, when conditions will be more favorable for a launch, with a 90 percent chance of good weather.

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Вид с тыла

Stephen C. Smith‏ @SpaceKSCBlog 3 мин. назад
 
The backside of the @spacex Falcon 9 on the pad at @NASAKennedy 39A.
 

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SpaceX‏Подлинная учетная запись @SpaceX 14 мин назад
 
Falcon 9 on Pad 39A. Launch window for @EchoStar XXIII opens early tomorrow morning at 1:34am EDT.
 

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https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/03/13/falcon-9-launch-timeline-with-echostar-23/

Falcon 9 launch timeline with EchoStar 23
 March 13, 2017    Stephen Clark

 SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral early Tuesday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the EchoStar 23 communications satellite into orbit 34 minutes later.

The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is poised for launch from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:34 a.m. EDT (0534 GMT) Tuesday at the opening of a 150-minute launch window.

Perched atop the rocket is the EchoStar 23 communications satellite, a spacecraft made by Space Systems/Loral, ready to beam television programming across Brazil for EchoStar Satellite Services The rocket will place the satellite into a high-altitude geosynchronous transfer orbit.

The timeline below outlines the launch sequence for the Falcon 9 flight with EchoStar 23. On this mission, SpaceX does not plan to attempt a recovery of the rocket's first stage booster due to the high performance required to place the heavy EchoStar 23 spacecraft into a high-altitude orbit.

The Falcon 9 does not carry landing legs, the first SpaceX launch without landing gear since April 2015.

Спойлер

Data source: SpaceX

 T-0:00:00: Liftoff


After the rocket's nine Merlin engines pass an automated health check, hold-down clamps will release the Falcon 9 booster for liftoff from pad 39A.

T+0:01:13: Mach 1


The Falcon 9 rocket reaches Mach 1, the speed of sound, as the nine Merlin 1D engines provide more than 1.5 million pounds of thrust.

T+0:01:16: Max Q


The Falcon 9 rocket reaches Max Q, the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure.
 
T+0:02:43: MECO


The Falcon 9's nine Merlin 1D engines shut down.

T+0:02:47: Stage 1 Separation


The Falcon 9's first stage separates from the second stage moments after MECO.

T+0:02:55: First Ignition of Second Stage


The second stage Merlin 1D vacuum engine ignites for a nearly 6-minute burn to put the rocket and EchoStar 23 into a preliminary parking orbit.

T+0:03:43: Fairing Jettison


The 5.2-meter (17.1-foot) diameter payload fairing jettisons once the Falcon 9 rocket ascends through the dense lower atmosphere. The 43-foot-tall fairing is made of two clamshell-like halves composed of carbon fiber with an aluminum honeycomb core.

T+0:08:31: SECO 1


The second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket shuts down after reaching a preliminary low-altitude orbit. The upper stage and EchoStar 23 begin a coast phase scheduled to last nearly 18 minutes before the second stage Merlin vacuum engine reignites.

T+0:26:19: Second Ignition of Second Stage


The Falcon 9's second stage Merlin engine restarts to propel the EchoStar 23 communications satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit.

T+0:27:19: SECO 2


The Merlin engine shuts down after a short burn to put the EchoStar 23 satellite in the proper orbit for deployment.

T+0:34:00: JCSAT 16 Separation


The EchoStar 23 satellite separates from the Falcon 9 rocket in a geostationary transfer orbit. SpaceX and EchoStar have not released the exact orbit targeted on tonight's launch.

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[silentpom]

упс, только сейчас заметил, что посадки не будет

[тавот]

silentpom пишет:
упс, только сейчас заметил, что посадки не будет

Уже ступени складывать некуда, какая посадка ?  

[tnt22]

Текущая погода

[Зловредный]

Это будет скучный репортаж -- посадки не будет

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Тучи, тучи, а тучи как... (C), м-да, сгущаются тучи  :|  

Stephen Clark‏ @StephenClark1 3 мин. назад
 
Falcon 9 at pad 39A under overcast skies. Liftoff set for 1:34am EDT (0534 GMT) with EchoStar 23 TV broadcast satellite.
 

[tnt22]

И всё это богатство движется на Мыс  :|  

Chris G - NSF@CwG_NSF 13 мин. назад
 
There's a launch scheduled tonight for @SpaceX w/ #Echostar23 @ 0134-0404 EDT. But will weather cooperate? )That's all moving toward Cape.)