Inmarsat 5 F4 – Falcon 9 – Кеннеди LC-39A – 15.05.2017 – 23:21 UTC

[tnt22]

https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/05/10/satellite-for-broadband-on-the-go-next-in-rapid-fire-spacex-launch-campaign/

Satellite for broadband on-the-go next in rapid-fire SpaceX launch campaign
May 10, 2017 Stephen Clark

Спойлер

The Inmarsat 5 F4 satellite pictured with one-half of the Falcon 9 rocket's payload fairing. Credit: Inmarsat

[свернуть]

A powerhouse communications satellite owned by Inmarsat has been fueled for liftoff on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Monday fr om the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a mission to provide broadband links for passengers and crews aboard ships and airplanes, while ground crews are loading space station-bound supplies into a commercial Dragon cargo capsule and preparing a Bulgarian telecom for launch on two other SpaceX boosters by mid-June.

Спойлер

The launch for London-based Inmarsat on Monday is the first of four SpaceX missions slated to blast off by the end of June fr om launch pads in Florida and California. The quick launch cadence, if achieved successfully, put a dent in SpaceX's backlogged manifest, which officials say stands at 70 missions worth more than $10 billion, figures that apparently include the company's lucrative contract to develop a human-rated spaceship to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.

Since arriving at the Florida launch base last month, the Boeing-built Inmarsat 5 F4 communications station was filled with 5,372 pounds (2,437 kilograms) of hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants during a four-day procedure inside SpaceX's payload processing facility at Cape Canaveral.

Technicians lifted the spacecraft on the Falcon 9's payload adapter, made by Ruag Space in Sweden, ahead of encapsulation this week inside the rocket's composite payload fairing.  The adapter is fitted with a ring connecting the Inmarsat 5 F4 spacecraft to the Falcon 9's second stage.

Meanwhile, SpaceX workers inside the Falcon 9 hangar at nearby launch pad 39A were mounting the two-stage booster on a mobile transporter-erector Wednesday. SpaceX intends to roll out the rocket to pad 39A for a customary fueling test and a hold-down engine firing as soon as Thursday.

The Falcon 9's Merlin 1D main engines will ignite for more than three seconds as clamps keep the rocket grounded. Engineers plan to analyze the performance of the rocket before clearing it for liftoff Monday.


The Inmarsat 5 F4 satellite mounted on top of the Falcon 9 rocket's payload adapter. Credit: Inmarsat

After the hotfire test, crews will return the Falcon 9 to the hangar at the southern perimeter of pad 39A, wh ere the Inmarsat 5 F4 satellite and the rocket's nose fairing will be attached. The rocket's final rollout to the historic launch complex, previously used by Saturn 5 moon rockets and space shuttles, is expected Sunday or early Monday.

The 50-minute launch window Monday opens at 7:20 p.m. EDT (2320 GMT).

The heavy weight of Inmarsat 5 F4 — more than 13,000 pounds, or around 6 metric tons — will prevent the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage booster from attempting a landing on SpaceX's recovery vessel in the Atlantic Ocean. The booster is not expected to launch with landing legs, grid fins, or other hardware needed for descent maneuvers.

Inmarsat 5 F4 will deploy into an oval-shaped geostationary transfer orbit, with a low point a few hundred miles above Earth and an apogee tens of thousands of miles in altitude. The craft's on-board hydrazine-fueled engine will circularize its orbit at an altitude of nearly 22,300 miles (around 35,800 kilometers) over the equator.

Monday's launch will be the sixth SpaceX mission this year. The company's founder and chief executive, Elon Musk, said in late March that SpaceX planned between 20 and 25 rocket flights in 2017, aiming to average missions every two weeks or so.

The rapid-fire launch campaigns have long been promised by SpaceX, but two rocket failures in June 2015 and September 2016 grounded the company's missions for months, combining to set back its manifest by nearly one year.

Shorter delays stemming from satellite issues, rocket production bottlenecks, and the difficulty of scheduling launches to the International Space Station have also stricken SpaceX. NASA must weigh the readiness of station astronauts and other missions heading to the orbiting research outpost when approving launch dates for SpaceX's Dragon supply ships.

But SpaceX now has a surplus of customers with payloads ready for launch.

Managers from the launch company's biggest commercial client, Iridium, said last month that half of the firm's 81 next-generation communications satellites have been constructed by Thales Alenia Space and Orbital ATK at a factory in Arizona. The first batch of 10 Iridium Next spacecraft were launched into orbit a few hundred miles above Earth in January on a Falcon 9 rocket, and the rest await Falcon 9 rides into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California promised by SpaceX every two months beginning June 29.


A Falcon 9 rocket takes off Jan. 14 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, with Iridium's first 10 new-generation low Earth orbit communications satellites. The same first stage that flew Jan. 14 will launch again around June 15 with a Bulgarian communications satellite. Credit: SpaceX

Intelsat officials said in an April 27 conference call with investors that the Boeing-made Intelsat 35e communications satellite, the fourth in the operator's new-generation "Epic" high-throughput relay satellites, is scheduled for a Falcon 9 launch in late June from Florida.

But first comes three Falcon 9 flights with launches targeted for Monday, June 1 and June 15.

The fourth member of Inmarsat's Global Xpress network, a $1.6 billion, four-satellite update to the operator's geostationary fleet, will add back-up capacity and new business opportunities to the London-based company's constellation following its launch Monday.

Based on the Boeing 702HP satellite bus, Inmarsat 5 F4 joins three nearly identical spacecraft successfully orbited on three Russian Proton rockets from 2013 through 2015 under the auspices of International Launch Services, a U.S.-based, Russian-owned launch services provider.

The first three Inmarsat 5-series satellites are parked in geostationary orbit at positions around the globe. The first Global Xpress satellite is positioned to cover Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the second is over the Atlantic Ocean and the Americas, and a third Inmarsat 5 satellite launched in August 2015 provides coverage to the Asia-Pacific and Australia.

Rupert Pearce, Inmarsat's CEO, said May 4 that Inmarsat 5 F4 will probably begin service over Europe, supplementing the Inmarsat 5 F1 satellite's coverage there.

Pearce said there is a "strong business case" for locating the new satellite over Europe, but he said Inmarsat has not solidified its plan for Inmarsat 5 F4.

"Because it's not needed (for) complete global coverage, the role of Inmarsat 5 F4 could change through its life," said Tony Bates, Inmarsat's chief financial officer, in a May 4 quarterly conference call with investment analysts. "And obviously, they are for in-orbit redundancy, which would lim it it if it was needed for that purpose. But otherwise, it can go off to discrete business opportunities that may differ during its life."

The major customers for the Global Xpress network — Inmarsat's fifth-generation fleet — include airlines, which use satellite links for safety and passenger entertainment, the maritime industry, oil and gas platforms, media companies, and the military.

Boeing is responsible for selling Global Xpress services to U.S. government and military users.


Artist's concept of an Inmarsat 5-series satellite in orbit. Credit: Boeing

Each Inmarsat 5-series satellite carries 89 fixed and steerable spot beams in Ka-band. The company's earlier satellites broadcast in L-band, but Inmarsat switched to Ka-band for the Global Xpress system, offering improved downlink communications speeds to 50 megabits per second, with up to 5 megabits per second on the uplink side.

Inmarsat 5 F4 was originally supposed to launch in 2016 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, a triple-core booster formed by three Falcon 9 first stages. But the heavy-lifter still has not flown, and Inmarsat transferred the Inmarsat 5 F4 launch to a smaller Falcon 9, forcing SpaceX to forego recovery of the first stage booster on the coming flight in order to lift the Global Xpress satellite into orbit.

...

[свернуть]

[tnt22]

Подняли...
 

[tnt22]

05/11/2017 12:54  Falcon 9 in position for engine test
The Falcon 9 has been hoisted vertical at launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in readiness for a test of its nine Merlin first-stage engines. The rocket was in position at approximately 5am EDT (0900 GMT).

[tnt22]

05/11/2017 14:26
SpaceX has not released a time for today's static fire test at pad 39A, but loading of the two-stage Falcon 9 with super-chilled RP-1 and liquid oxygen propellants should begin at about T-minus 70 minutes.

Venting of oxygen vapors should be visible around the rocket in the final hour before ignition, and the strongback support structure next to the Falcon 9 will retract 1.5 degrees from the vehicle in the final few minutes of the countdown.

[tnt22]

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/05/falcon-9-static-fire-1-inmarsat5f4/

Falcon 9 readies for Static Fire test ahead of Inmarsat 5 F4 mission
May 11, 2017 by Chris Gebhardt
 


SpaceX is set to demonstrate for a second time just how short a turnaround it can accomplish at LC-39A with Thursday's planned static fire of the Falcon 9 that is set to launch the Inmarsat 5 F4 satellite Monday afternoon.  As preparations for that mission continue, the flight two slots down on the manifest, the mid-June launch of BulgariaSat 1, has now been announced and confirmed as the next mission to make use of a flight-proven Falcon 9 core stage.
 
Inmarsat 5 F4 static fire:

Coming an impressive 10 days after the launch of the NROL-76 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office, SpaceX is set to bring fire to LC-39A again for the static fire of the Inmarsat 5 launch campaign.

Спойлер

The static fire will tie the shortest turnaround the pad has seen for SpaceX at just 10 days between a launch and a static fire, with an anticipated – and only once seen before – 14 days between two launches.

That record was set with the 14 day turnaround at SLC-40 in September 2014 – between the AsiaSat 6 launch on the 7th and the CRS-4 mission on the 21st.

Documentation in L2 shows that the time between Echostar XXIII and SES-10 could have been even shorter, at just 12 days fr om launch to launch; however, range shuffling with the continuously-delayed Atlas V for the Orbital ATK OA-7 mission pushed SES-10 out of its range approved 27 March date, with the launch eventually falling on 30 March.
 
After SES-10, a two week delayed due to the NRO's secretive payload precluded SpaceX from repeating its rapid turnaround efforts with the NROL-76 mission, though it is understood and documented in L2 that Pad-A and the TEL (Transporter/Erector/Launcher) were ready to support the NRO launch in its original mid-April slot.

Importantly for SpaceX, this soon-to-be repeated two week turnaround between missions is crucial to launching the myriad of satellites currently in the company's full manifest.

Pointedly, the ability for SpaceX to perform this kind of short turnaround is due in large part to a change in the TEL retract sequence that occurs at T0.



At SpaceX's other launch pad, SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the TEL retracted slowly from the Falcon 9 at T0, resulting in damage to several of the TEL umbilicals from the Falcon 9's exhaust plume that necessitated timely replacement and repair operations between missions.

For Pad-A, SpaceX adopted a new "throwback" procedure for the TEL, which quickly moves it away from the rising Falcon 9 to protect its umbilicals.

This "throwback" procedure has been praised by the company as immensely successful in eliminating the timely turnaround efforts needed for the TEL between missions – as is now being fully re-demonstrated with the 10 day period between the NROL launch and Inmarsat 5's static fire.



For Inmarsat 5, the Falcon 9 rocket and its mated second stage will be rolled to the launch pad and hoisted to vertical on Wednesday afternoon, after which final connections to Pad 39A's propellant, electrical, and data systems will be made.

As with Echostar XXIII, the Inmarsat 5 Falcon 9 is expected to look slightly different than what we have come to know as the traditional Falcon 9.

Inmarsat 5's mission profile denotes the need to fly the Falcon 9 in its expendable configuration and the vehicle will therefore not sport any landing legs and will not attempt an ocean landing on the ASDS (Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship) Of Course I Still Love You.



As with standard static fire procedures, roadblocks and Emergency Operations Command (EOC) will be established to prevent access to Pad 39A and to assist with recovery efforts in the unlikely event of a static fire mishap.

As with the previous static fires from Echostar XXIII through NROL-76, Pad 39B will remain open to workers at the Kennedy Space Center during the static fire.

While a specific window for Thursday's static fire is not yet known, the event is understood to be targeting an 0800 to 1200 EDT window – though as with previous static fires, that window can be adjusted day of.

For the static fire, the Falcon 9's first and second stages will be completely filled with propellant as the launch team conducts what is essentially a full-up Wet Dress Rehearsal practice countdown, going through every step and procedure that will be used on launch day.



When the count reaches T-3 seconds, the "start" command for the nine Merlin 1D engines at the base of the Falcon 9 first stage will be sent, with chamber ignition occurring at T-2 seconds.

The Falcon 9 engines will then run for three seconds, as is standard for static fires, before engine shutdown is commanded and safing of the vehicle occurs.

The engine firing and shutdown sequence not only allows SpaceX to gather valuable data about the entire rocket's performance – guaranteeing it is ready for liftoff – but also gives the launch team the opportunity to practice shutdown and safing operations of the Falcon 9 should that occur during the actual countdown.

Following static fire, the Falcon 9 will be de-tanked, returned to horizontal, and rolled back into the Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) at Pad-A wh ere it will then be mated with its Inmarsat 5 F4 payload.

At this time, liftoff is slated to occur on Monday, 15 May 2017 during a launch window of 1920 – 2010 EDT (2310 – 0010 GMT – Monday into Tuesday).

...

[свернуть]

[tnt22]

Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 4 мин. назад

SpaceX Falcon 9 (Inmarsat 5 F4) Static Fire window openiing Midday Eastern. T-0 45 mins into the window right now.

[tnt22]

Ждём...
 

[tnt22]

[tnt22]

Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 3 мин. назад

Prop loading. Small venting spotted.

[tnt22]

[tnt22]

[tnt22]

SFT!
 

[tnt22]

Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 3 мин. назад

STATIC FIRE! SpaceX Falcon 9 (Inmarsat 5 F4) has fired up at 39A. Wait for SpaceX tweet (after test data review). http://original.livestream.com/spaceflightnow 


William Harwood‏ @cbs_spacenews 42 сек. назад

F9/Inmarsat: Falcon 9 hot-fire test complete at 12:45pm EDT; appeared to run normal duration; will now await update from SpaceX

[tnt22]

William Harwood‏ @cbs_spacenews 31 сек. назад

F9/Inmarsat: Assuming data confirms good burn/system performance, SpaceX should be clear for launch of Inmarsat 5 F4 comsat Monday

[tnt22]

Brady Kenniston‏ @TheFavoritist 6 мин. назад

Static Fire complete now just waiting for good confirmation from @SpaceX!

[tnt22]

Julia Bergeron‏ @julia_bergeron 9 мин назад

Appears to be a successful #staticfire for @SpaceX at 12:45pm EST

[tnt22]

05/11/2017 20:04
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket fired its engines at 12:45 p.m. EDT (1645 GMT), sending a plume of exhaust away from launch pad 39A. We'll await confirmation from SpaceX of a good static fire test.

[tnt22]

(0:54)

[tnt22]

SpaceX‏Подлинная учетная запись @SpaceX 2 мин. назад

Static fire test of Falcon 9 complete—targeting launch of Inmarsat-5 Flight 4 from Pad 39A on Monday, May 15.

[tnt22]

05/11/2017 20:32
SpaceX has confirmed a good static fire and that launch remains on track for Monday.