Iridium Next Flight 5 (x10) - Falcon 9 (B1041.2) - Vandenberg SLC-4E - 30.03.2018 14:14 UTC

[tnt22]

SpaceX‏Подлинная учетная запись @SpaceX 24 сек. назад

Successful deployment of all 10 @IridiumComm NEXT satellites to low-Earth orbit confirmed.

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Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF 7 мин. назад

Spacecraft #10 is away. MISSION SUCCESS! 10 new baby satellites will now undergo post-orbit insertion checkouts and be readied for decades of active service!

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Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF 5 мин. назад

Only one thing now remains for this #Falcon9 2nd stage, and that's deorbit.

[tnt22]

Pauline Acalin‏ @w00ki33 5 мин. назад

Successful mission = mission patch. Beautiful launch. Congrats #SpaceX and @IridiumComm !

[tnt22]

NOAA Communications‏Подлинная учетная запись @NOAAComms 32 мин. назад

We are looking into questions on the broadcast interruption of this morning's @SpaceX launch of #Iridium5. We will be in touch when we know more.

[tnt22]

http://www.spacex.com/news/2018/03/30/iridium-5-mission

MARCH 30, 2018

IRIDIUM-5 MISSION

On Friday, March 30 at 7:13 a.m. PDT, SpaceX successfully launched the Iridium-5 NEXT mission from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. This was the fifth set of 10 satellites in a series of 75 total satellites that SpaceX will launch for Iridium's next generation global satellite constellation, Iridium® NEXT. The satellites were deployed about an hour after launch.

Falcon 9's first stage for the Iridium-5 mission previously supported the Iridium-3 mission from SLC-4E in October 2017. SpaceX did not attempt to recover Falcon 9's first stage after launch.

[tnt22]

http://investor.iridium.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=

Mar 30, 2018

Fifth Successful Iridium® NEXT Launch Completed as Iridium Surpasses 1 Million Subscribers

50 Iridium NEXT Satellites Are Now in Orbit as Iridium Nears Completion of New Global Communications Network

MCLEAN, Va., March 30, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) announced today that at 7:13:51 am PDT (14:13:51 UTC) SpaceX successfully launched the fifth set of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites into orbit fr om Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. All 10 new satellites have successfully communicated with the Iridium Satellite Network Operations Center and are preparing to begin testing. Shortly before launch, the Iridium network met a major milestone as it surpassed 1 million active subscribers. This continues a trend of significant growth and serves as a testament to the reliable, resilient and uncompromising nature of the Iridium network.

Спойлер

Paving the way for Iridium's growth is the Internet of Things (IoT), where Iridium has established itself as the satellite network of choice to keep "things" connected beyond the limits of cellular coverage. More than half of the subscribers on the Iridium network are IoT devices, delivering a wide variety of solutions by hundreds of licensed technology partners. These devices are designed to do everything from tracking endangered species and monitoring power lines to controlling shipping container temperature levels or serving as tsunami warning systems. Further positioning the company for success is the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation, which is now well more than half way completed. Once fully deployed later in 2018, the constellation will blanket the entire earth with its new capabilities like the Iridium CertusSM L-band broadband service and AireonSM global aircraft surveillance and tracking.

"It's a unique coincidence that we passed the one million subscribers mark right at this launch, and it's particularly exciting because we've surpassed this milestone earlier than we had anticipated," said Matt Desch, chief executive officer at Iridium. "The new satellites and services we're launching and continued strong subscriber growth are cementing our position as an industry leader and critical global communications platform and underscore the significant transformation we've undergone as a company over the last 10 years. This truly is a testament to the trust our partners and customers have in our network, which is only going to continue growing as the deployment of the Iridium NEXT constellation nears completion."

To date, Iridium has completed five launches of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites, all with SpaceX from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A total of eight Iridium NEXT launches are currently planned with SpaceX delivering a total of 75 new satellites to orbit. In total, 81 satellites are being built, with 66 in the operational constellation, nine serving as on-orbit spares and six as ground spares.

The first stage booster for today's launch was previously flown during Iridium-3 in October 2017, making this the second Iridium NEXT launch to use a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket. Each launch strategically delivers new satellites to specific orbital planes to ensure the earliest possible completion of the constellation. The Iridium network is comprised of six polar orbiting planes, each containing 11 operational, crosslinked satellites, for a total of 66 in the active constellation. The 10 Iridium NEXT satellites launched today were successfully delivered to orbital plane one wh ere they will replace first generation satellites over the next 30 days.

Iridium NEXT is the company's $3 billion, next-generation, mobile, global satellite network scheduled for completion in 2018. Iridium NEXT will replace the company's existing global constellation in one of the largest technology upgrades ever completed in space. It represents the evolution of critical communications infrastructure that governments and organizations worldwide rely on to drive business, enable connectivity, empower disaster relief efforts and more.

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Eric Berger‏Подлинная учетная запись @SciGuySpace 6 мин. назад

So here's the NOAA issue:

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НОРАД выдал набор TLE на 1-й объект запуска

Код Выделить Развернуть

0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43249U 18030A   18089.65957750  .00000028  00000-0  00000+0 0  9993
2 43249  86.6850 104.3315 0016569 238.5525 251.4935 14.83978964    09

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Elon Musk‏Подлинная учетная запись @elonmusk 4 мин. назад

GPS guided parafoil twisted, so fairing impacted water at high speed. Air wake from fairing messing w parafoil steering. Doing helo drop tests in next few weeks to solve.

[triage]

Для тех кто плохо читает с картинки Эрика

Jason Davis @jasonrdavis 1 ч.1 час назад

So, just to chime in on the SpaceX/NOAA situation, LightSail had to get a NOAA license to take pics in orbit. Which is silly, of course, b/c the cameras are from like 2009 and have 1600x1200 px resolutions

Loren Grush@lorengrush 1 ч.1 час назад

NOAA is responsible for licensing remote sensing satellites, which take pictures of Earth from orbit, however this seems to be the first time that cameras on a SpaceX rocket qualified as part of NOAA domain


Loren Grush @lorengrush 2 ч.2 часа назад

Looks like this might have been a recent change, and it won't be a problem when SpaceX gets a full license. Doesn't expect it to be a problem for the launch on Monday
 

Loren Grush@lorengrush 2 ч.2 часа назад

So.... looks like NOAA decided the cameras on the Falcon 9 upper stage qualify as a "remote sensing space system," and required an extra provisional license

[Чебурашка]

Пишите Трампу, он обещал отменить мудацкие регуляции 

[Старый]

Оххх, не даются Маску парашюты...

[opinion]

Я где-то читал, что в одном из ранних полетов аполлонов случайно сфотографировали территорию СССР. После чего американская разведка обиделась и сказала, что только им можно это снимать.

[Старый]

tnt22 пишет:
НОРАД выдал набор TLE на 1-й объект запуска

Код Выделить Развернуть

0 TBA - TO BE ASSIGNED
1 43249U 18030A   18089.65957750  .00000028  00000-0  00000+0 0  9993
2 43249  86.6850 104.3315 0016569 238.5525 251.4935 14.83978964    09  

Долгота узла 104. Это первая (самая левая) плоскость.
Предыдущие четыре были соответственно в шестую, третью, четвёртую и вторую плоскости. 

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Старый пишет:
Это первая (самая левая) плоскость.

Yes, sir! И весь десяток - в неё.
#7

... Destined for Iridium orbital plane one, all 10 of the Iridium NEXT satellites deployed during this launch will immediately go into service following rigorous testing and validation.

#49

The liftoff from Vandenberg, a military base on the Pacific coast northwest of Los Angeles, is timed to place the 10 Iridium Next satellites into Plane 1 of the constellation. The network's 66 active satellites are spread out in six orbital planes, providing uniform coverage worldwide. 

#58

One hour to today's instantaneous window for Iridium-5, set for the optimized in-plane launch time to reach Plane 1 of the six-plane Iridium constellation. All ten satellites launching today will enter operational slots within Plane 1, no drifting will be required.

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https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/space/press-release/successful-5th-launch-10-iridiumr-next-satellites

SUCCESSFUL 5TH LAUNCH OF 10 IRIDIUM® NEXT SATELLITES!

30.03.2018

The Iridium® NEXT Constellation now has 50 communications satellites in orbit

Cannes, March 30th, 2018 - The fifth batch of Iridium NEXT satellites built by Thales Alenia Space has been successfully launched by SpaceX from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
 
Thales Alenia Space, the system prime contractor for the Iridium® NEXT program, is in charge of engineering, integration, and in-orbit validation of all 81 Iridium NEXT satellites, in addition to the definition and validation of the overall system. The satellites are manufactured in production line process by Thales Alenia Space's subcontractor Orbital ATK, at its Satellite Manufacturing Facility in Gilbert, Ariz. under the supervision of a dedicated local Thales Alenia Space team. Launch and Early Operations (LEOP) and In Orbit Tests are performed by Thales Alenia Space from Iridium's Satellite Network Operation Center (SNOC) in Leesburg, Va. The success of this fifth launch for the Iridium NEXT program further solidifies the company's reputation for excelled expertise as prime contractor for sophisticated satellite communications (SATCOM) systems.
...

[tnt22]

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/03/30/iridium-messaging-network-gets-another-boost-from-spacex/

Iridium messaging network gets another boost fr om SpaceX

March 30, 2018 Stephen Clark


A Falcon 9 rocket climbs away from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on Friday. Credit: SpaceX

Ten more satellites for Iridium's commercial communications network flew into orbit Friday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, raising the total number of upgraded Iridium spacecraft launched to 50 and clearing the way for liftoff of a SpaceX supply ship Monday from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station.

The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 7:13:51 a.m. PDT (10:13:51 a.m. EDT; 1413:51 GMT) Friday after a smooth countdown. Nine Merlin 1D engines on the Falcon 9's reused first stage booster throttled up to full power, putting out 1.7 million pounds of thrust as the rocket turned southward from the military spaceport on California's Central Coast northwest of Los Angeles.

Спойлер

After exceeding the speed of sound, the Falcon 9's first stage shut down and jettisoned around two-and-a-half minutes later. The booster dropped away to conduct experimental descent maneuvers, but SpaceX did not try to recover the rocket intact on Friday's mission.

SpaceX is disposing of its reused older-generation rockets — like the one launched Friday — as an uprated Falcon 9 version called "Block 5" is set to debut next month. The Block 5 configuration's first stage is designed more multiple reuses.

The Falcon 9's single Merlin upper stage engine lit two times during Friday's flight, pushing the 10 Iridium satellites toward a circular orbit targeted around 388 miles (625 kilometers) above Earth.

In a secondary objective, SpaceX recovery crews tried to retrieve part of the Falcon 9's payload fairing with a fast-moving vessel in the Pacific Ocean, but the experiment ran into trouble, according to Elon Musk, the company's billionaire founder and CEO.

The fairing recovery boat, named Mr. Steven, is outfitted with a net — or "catcher's mitt" — to catch the shroud as it descends slowly under a steerable parafoil guided by GPS navigation signals. On Friday's flight, SpaceX wanted to get back one half of the fairing, a bulbous nose cone which jettisoned in two segments around three-and-a-half-minutes after liftoff.

The aerodynamic fairing covers the sensitive satellites during final launch preps and the first phase of the flight.

But Musk wrote on Twitter that the fairing's parafoil became twisted, and it hit the Pacific Ocean at high speed.

...

SpaceX wants to eventually recover and reuse payload fairings like it does first stage boosters.

The company's engineers devised a way to capture the fairing after it "falls back from space at about eight times the speed of sound," Musk wrote on Instagram before a similar fairing recovery attempt after a launch in February. "It has onboard thrusters and a guidance system to bring it through the atmosphere intact, then releases a parafoil and our ship, named Mr. Steven, with basically a giant catcher's mitt welded on, tries to catch it."

On the last fairing catch attempt, the shroud splashed down intact a few hundred meters from Mr. Steven. But engineers want to catch the fairing before it hits the ocean to minimize refurbishment from contamination by seawater.

Mr. Steven is currently based at the Port of Los Angeles, so SpaceX's fairing recovery experiments are currently limited to launches from California.

SpaceX ended its live webcast unusually early due to what the company's launch commentator said were restrictions from NOAA on imagery from the Falcon 9's upper stage. During most SpaceX missions, on-board cameras beam back live views of engine burns and deployment events.

NOAA is in charge of regulating remote sensing cameras that view Earth from space, such as sharp-eyed commercial reconnaissance satellites capable of monitoring global military movements, spotting cars and ships, and tracking other activities in high-resolution.

But "rocketcams" like those used on missions by SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and other companies are not so powerful.

SpaceX said NOAA recently asserted that cameras on the second stage, used for engineering purposes, qualify as a "remote sensing space system," placing the cameras within the government's regulatory reach. A provisional license obtained by SpaceX for the launch prohibited the company from airing views from the second stage once on orbit, the company said.

SpaceX does not expect this restriction remain in effect once the company obtains a full license. No such imagery limitations are expected during the next Falcon 9 flight, scheduled for Monday from Cape Canaveral, SpaceX said.

Under NOAA's guidelines, small, hand-held cameras are not supposed to be considered remote sensing space systems, and should be exempt the regulations.

A NOAA spokesperson did not respond to questions on the matter.

On-board cameras made a splash last month during the maiden flight of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket. SpaceX's cameras returned spectacular, widely-shared imagery of a spacesuit-wearing dummy Musk nicknamed "Starman" that launched on the Falcon Heavy, riding in the driver's seat of Musk's Tesla sports car.

The video blackout had no impact on the mission, and the Falcon 9's upper stage engine successfully guided the 10 Iridium payloads into orbit, deploying the satellites one-at-a-time around an hour after liftoff.

Iridium officials said all 10 satellites — each with sophisticated L-band and Ka-band radios and antennas, plus aircraft and ship tracking receivers — were healthy following Friday's launch.

The spacecraft will replace 10 aging satellites in Iridium's network, which recently surpassed a million subscribers.


Artist's concept of several Iridium Next satellites, with Iridium's Block 1 satellite fleet in the background. Credit: Thales Alenia Space

"It's a unique coincidence that we passed the one million subscribers mark right at this launch, and it's particularly exciting because we've surpassed this milestone earlier than we had anticipated," said Matt Desch, CEO at Iridium. "The new satellites and services we're launching and continued strong subscriber growth are cementing our position as an industry leader and critical global communications platform and underscore the significant transformation we've undergone as a company over the last 10 years."

With Friday's mission, the Iridium kicked off the second half of its eight-launch campaign with SpaceX. Four previous missions — in January, June, October and December 2017 — each delivered 10 Iridium Next satellites to orbit.

Iridium ordered 81 new satellites from a Thales Alenia Space/Orbital ATK industrial team to refresh the company's communications fleet, which provides message, data and voice communications worldwide. Iridium's old satellites launched in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and are now functioning well beyond their planned seven-year missions.

The modernized satellites — the centerpiece of a $3 billion upgrade investment — will ensure Iridium's subscribers have uninterrupted telephone service, and they also enable higher-speed applications, such as broadband connectivity for video and data transmissions.

SpaceX is under contract to launch 75 of the satellites. Sixty-six are needed for Iridium's full network, and another nine will serve as spares. The six remaining satellites will remain on the ground for now for a potential launch to replenish the constellation in the future.

"Two-thirds of our satellites are now in orbit and performance is exceeding expectations," said Denis Allard, vice president of constellations for Thales Alenia Space.

Iridium expects the 10 satellites launched Friday to boost themselves into higher orbits around 484 miles (780 kilometers) in altitude in the next few weeks. They will take positions near the old satellites, allowing ground controllers to switch the network to the upgraded spacecraft one-by-one over the next 30 days, Iridium said.

Desch said in an interview before Friday's launch that he was satisfied by the pace of satellite deployments achieved since the campaign began in January 2017.

"It's meeting our needs," Desch said. "We really are focused on completing our Iridium Next constellation this year. I'd like it completed in the third quarter if possible. What I'm really pleased with is that SpaceX has stepped up this year so far.

"Unlike last year, wh ere we might have been waiting for SpaceX, I think this year I'm trying to make sure my suppliers are delivering fast enough to go as quickly as possible," he said.

Iridium says more than half of its 66-satellite network is now populated with Iridium Next satellites.

"If you look at the service, every customer is getting a new satellite about 60 percent of the time, so it's already over half of the time that they're getting service from the new satellites, just by the way that the beams lay down," Desch said.

A new broadband service powered by the Iridium Next satellites, known as Iridium Certus, will begin commercial operations in mid-2018, Desch said. The L-band broadband service will reach users on the land, at sea and in the air, and testing of ground terminals is well underway.

Each Iridium Next satellite also hosts an aircraft tracking transceiver built by Harris Corp. The air traffic monitoring project, led by an Iridium affiliate named Aireon, will become operational once at least 66 Iridium Next spacecraft are in space.

"They are doing a lot of trials and demonstrations with all their customers, but you really can't provide air traffic control services if you don't have 100 percent coverage, so they need all 66 satellites in operation for that," Desch said. "They're expected to turn on their service later this year as the network goes live ... and they'll start providing second-by-second coverage for air traffic controllers."

The 10 spacecraft launched Friday also carry ship tracking antennas for exactEarth, a Canadian company.

Engineers are deactivating Iridium's retiring satellites, built by Lockheed Martin, as the new relay stations arrive in orbit. Most of the old satellites will be maneuvered out of orbit to fall back into Earth's atmosphere, and the others will undergo a procedure known as "passivation," in which their batteries and propellant tanks are drained, rendering them inert.

Iridium flares, a popular phenomena for sky-watchers over the last 20 years, will end when the last of the old satellites is retired. The Lockheed Martin-built Iridium satellites have silver-coated Teflon antennas that behave like mirrors, reflecting sunlight down to Earth just before sunrise and just after sunset.

The flares are predictable — to the second — and the satellite briefly becomes one of the brightest objects in the night sky. Sky-watching apps and websites can provide the times of upcoming Iridium flares anywhere in the world.

The Iridium Next satellites designed by Thales Alenia Space have a different antenna shape that does not produce flares.

"The era is unfortunately coming to an end one of these days," Desch said.

"The most important thing if you're watching flares is that the vehicle be upright and predictable — its momentum wheels are spinning and it's in operation," Desch said. "In other words, it's not tumbling because it's been de-boosted and/or passivated."

"It's a little different for me because it's out network, but I found it to be almost an emotional experience the first time I saw one," he said. "It was almost like signaling to me."

"People love seeing the International Space Station for the same reason, because you know there are people there," he said. "It's hundreds of miles away, and yet you can still it gleaming. I highly encourage people to go out (and see a flare). I think it's really cool — a great party trick for friends and a great way to win a drink at the right time at a bar."

Three more Iridium satellite launches are planned by SpaceX, with the next one in May.

SpaceX's next Falcon 9 launch is set for 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) Monday from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A Dragon cargo craft packed with several tons of supplies and experiments for the International Space Station will ride the Falcon 9 into orbit.

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[tnt22]

http://spaceflight101.com/falcon-9-launches-fifth-set-of-iridium-satellites/

Falcon 9 Dispatches 5th Iridium-NEXT Group to Orbit after Morning Launch fr om California
 March 30, 2018

Photo: SpaceX

A flight-proven SpaceX Falcon 9 – the eighth of its kind to take flight – leapt of its Pacific-side launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base at sunrise on Friday to loft the fifth set of Iridium-NEXT communications satellites into orbit and take the largest constellation upgrade in history one step closer to the finish line.

Rising into mostly clear morning skies at 14:13 UTC, 7:13 a.m. local time, the 70-meter tall Falcon 9 fired its first stage for two and a half minutes before it was expended via some post-separation testing towards a soft-splashdown in the Pacific while the second stage first boosted into a preliminary orbit ahead of a circularization maneuver to dispatch Iridium-NEXT satellites 41 through 50 to their checkout orbit.

SpaceX's fairing recovery ship, "Mr Steven," was deployed to make its second attempt at catching a Falcon 9 payload fairing half, pegged as the second major component of Falcon 9 to be advanced to an operational re-use stage. A fairing recovery attempt in February saw the fairing half chosen to be caught descend to a gentle water landing a few hundred meters from the net installed on Mr Steven and the hope was for better aim on Friday to prove the efficacy of a sea-based recovery technique.

Спойлер

Photo: SpaceX Webcast

Friday's launch was the sixth conducted by SpaceX in 2018, responsible for two thirds of all orbital launches performed from U.S. soil this year. It was the fifth Falcon 9 mission this year, the third employing a flight-proven first stage. Returning from a three-week break after its last mission, SpaceX expects to conduct four orbital launches in as many weeks, shifting focus to the East Coast for three upcoming launches in close succession:

The company's fourteenth operational Dragon mission, the second mission to re-use both the spacecraft and the rocket's first stage, is targeting launch on Monday to begin a two-day link-up with the International Space Station. Next on the Cape Canaveral manifest is NASA's TESS exoplanet hunter, aiming for a one-minute launch window on April 16, and after that will come the debut of SpaceX's Falcon 9 Block 5 on the Bangabandhu-1 mission, currently looking at NET April 24.


Photo: SpaceX

Friday's launch was the third Falcon 9 in a row that flew its first stage in throw-away mode. Two of these missions expended their first stage by choice while one was forced to forego a Drone Ship landing due to rough seas in the designated landing area.

Opting against recoveries although mission performance would easily permit the stage to be recovered is a strategic move by SpaceX to dispose rockets that are not deemed suitable for more than two missions. Through expending stages that would not fly again anyway, SpaceX is making room for an upcoming flood of Block 5 first stages, ideally expected to be recovered and re-flown dozens of times.

Closed up inside the nose cone of Friday's Falcon 9 were the next ten Iridium-NEXT communications satellites – numbers 41 through 50 in what is the largest satellite constellation upgrade undertaken to date. Since January 2017, SpaceX successfully delivered fifty satellites for the Virginia-based telecommunications provider – taking them to the 2/3 mark as 25 satellites remain to be launched by late summer to complete the replacement of the entire first generation constellation that has been operating since the late 1990s.


Image: Thales Alenia

Friday's mission was the fourth Iridium launch in nine months, not far from the original goal of launching one set every two months starting with the second mission. This launch cadence was in large part made possible by Iridium's decision to opt for previously flown Falcon 9 vehicles since the production of new first stages had become the major bottleneck in SpaceX's quest to step up its launch pace.

Financial incentives offered by SpaceX for the initial re-use missions were not a driver for Iridium; it had all been about getting the satellites up on time.

Iridium reviewed their options in 2017 and, based on the success of SpaceX's initial re-flight missions, decided to fly on used hardware in order to keep their schedule. The original contract signed between Iridium and SpaceX had specified all eight missions to ride on new rockets — the same was the case for NASA's Commercial Resupply Services Program which also agreed to the use of flown rockets last year.

With the success of December's mission, Iridium CEO Matt Desch recently Tweeted that Iridium-6 – the shared ride between five Iridiums and two GRACE-FO gravity observatories – would also fly on a proven vehicle.

SpaceX is also feeling a change in the wind as company President Gwynne Shotwell recently noted that 2018 would be the first year that SpaceX will be waiting for their customers to have satellites ready for launch after it had been the other way around for the last five years.


Iridium Satellite Assembly – Photo: Thales Alenia

Up to 30 missions are on SpaceX's manifest for 2018, another large step forward after a record-setting 2017 with 18 Falcon 9 missions.

Iridium put all their eggs into one basket when selecting SpaceX back in 2010 for the launch of the entire Iridium-NEXT fleet – at the time the largest commercial launch contract ever awarded with a total value of $492 million for seven Falcon 9 rockets. 81 Iridium-NEXT satellites were ordered from Europe's Thales Alenia and Orbital ATK was sel ected for the integration under an assembly-line architecture at the company's Gilbert, Arizona facility.

An eighth Falcon 9 launch was procured under a shared agreement with the U.S.-German GRACE mission to loft a total of 75 NEXT satellites, enough to fill all 66 constellation slots and pre-position nine spares to go into service at a moment's notice while six more satellites could be stored on the ground to replenish the constellation when needed. All in all, replacing the entire first-generation Iridium constellation came with a price tag in excess of $3 billion – covering satellite manufacture, launch services and ground segment enhancements.


Iridium Constellation – Image: Iridium Communications

Iridium functions by carefully spacing its satellites in six orbital planes in a near-polar orbit to ensure at least one satellite is visible from any location of Earth at any given time. Inter-satellite links and a state-of-the-art ground system then route communications packages from one terminal to a destination point that can be located anywhere on Earth – creating the only true global communications architecture currently in operation.

Iridium operates eleven active satellites in each orbital plane, flying 780 Kilometers in altitude at an inclination of 88° to create pole-to-pole coverage. Nearly one million customers use Iridium's network, ranging from personal satellite phones, over sea-going terminals to Low-Earth Orbit satellites.

Each member of the constellation weighs 860 Kilograms at launch and hosts a powerful communications terminal covering a 4,700-Kilometer footprint on the ground with its L-Band phased array antenna while the cross-link between neighboring satellites is handled through powerful Ka-Band links.

>> Iridium Satellite & Constellation Overview


Image: Iridium Communications


Photo: Thales Alenia

Services provided by Iridium-NEXT range from telephony over short-burst data delivery all the way to newly introduced high-capacity services with data speeds up to 8 Mbit/s realized via Ka-Band up/downlinks not possible with the heritage constellation.

With the upgrade to the Iridium-NEXT constellation, the company also explores new business areas as the NEXT satellites host terminals to receive Automatic Identification System messages for real-time ship-tracking across the globe and hosted payloads for commercial company Aireon capture ADS-B transmissions from commercial aircraft to offer global air tracking services on the commercial market.

Iridium CEO Matt Desch noted that the company continues on track to finish launching Iridium-NEXT satellites by late summer which should enable all constellation slots to be filled with upgraded satellites by the end of the third quarter. The company is keeping some of the older satellites in standby until the upgraded constellation is finalized and spares are positioned in every plane at which point the last of the remaining first generation satellites will be de-boosted – also putting an end to the well-known Iridium flares that have dazzled observers on the ground for the last two decades.

Gearing up for the Iridium-5 mission, Falcon 9 fired up its first stage at sunrise on March 25th for the customary Static Fire Test that is of additional importance for re-use missions since Falcon 9 boosters do not go through a complete re-acceptance test cycle after refurbishment. With a clean vehicle, teams were proceeding into integration of the payload; however, a faulty ground harness cable forced the mission to move from Thursday to Friday due to the time consumed for troubleshooting.

>> Falcon 9 Launch Vehicle


Photo: SpaceX Webcast

Falcon 9 was raised to its vertical position atop Space Launch Complex 4E on Thursday and entered an overnight countdown operation for a detailed set of checkouts before computers were handed control at the T-70-minute mark for propellant loading. A new day dawned upon Vandenberg just as Falcon 9 began its expedited tanking sequence, receiving some 155 metric tons of chilled Rocket Propellant 1 from T-70 minutes and loading up on ~360 metric tons of sub-cooled Liquid Oxygen from T-35 minutes.

Propellants were still flowing into the two-stage rocket when the fast-paced final countdown events got underway at T-7 minutes to condition the nine Merlin 1D engines for ignition, exercise the rocket's fuel valves and actuators one last time, retract the Strongback structure and arm the Autonomous Flight Termination System. The completion of fueling was called out at T-2 minutes and Falcon 9 became fully autonomous when its flight computers assumed control at T-1 minute.


Photo: SpaceX Webcast

The green flash of Falcon's igniter mixture erupted from the engines at T-3 seconds as all nine were commanded to fire-up and throttle to a collective thrust of nearly 700 metric tons for liftoff at precisely 14:13:51 UTC, the optimized launch time for Plane #1 of the Iridium constellation.

Shooting into clear morning skies, Falcon 9 climbed vertically for less than 15 seconds before pitching onto a trajectory taking it due south and out over the Pacific. Falcon 9 consumed 2,500 Kilograms of propellant per second as its engines pushed the vehicle through the speed of sound at T+65 seconds followed around eleven seconds later by Maximum Dynamic Pressure for which the engines were throttled back briefly to reduce stress on the rocket's structure.

The first stage boosted Falcon 9 to a speed of 2.11 Kilometer per second, shutting down its engines two minutes and 33 seconds after launch.


Falcon's stages going separate ways – Image: SpaceX Webcast

Four pneumatic pushers sent the two stages of the rocket on their separate ways three seconds later as the vehicle passed 69 Kilometers in altitude. From there, it was up to the MVac-powered second stage to first lift the stack into a preliminary Parking Orbit and then carry out a critical circularization maneuver before sending the ten satellites off into orbit.

The first stage, although eventually headed to a watery grave in the Pacific, was tasked with a series of return maneuvers to use its remaining life for a data-gathering exercise in a bid to study different return profiles to further cut propellant margins for future Falcon 9 recovery missions. Immediately after separation, the 47-meter long booster used its nitrogen thrusters to flip around for a single-engine boostback maneuver. This 18-second partial boost back was designed to lim it the rocket's downrange travel distance – aiming for the northern half of a 325-Kilometer long and 140-Kilometer wide box centered some 565 Kilometers from the launch pad.


Mr. Steven – Photo: SpaceX

SpaceX's NRC Quest support ship was dispatched to the northern half of the downrange safety box to observe the splashdown and, more importantly, capture telemetry from the descending vehicle as the atmospheric flight portion was of greatest relevance. Mr Steven, the fairing recovery vessel, was tracked in the southern half of the box, waiting to receive one of the fairing halves.

Stage 1 was expected to conduct a brief Entry Burn around T+7 minutes to lessen the aerodynamic loads experienced upon re-entry. The vehicle's four actuated grid fins were then charged with maneuvering it toward its landing point – setting the appropriate angle of attack and correcting any trajectory errors ahead of a landing burn designed to bring the vehicle to a gentle touchdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Continuing the morning's primary mission, Falcon's second stage fired up its 95,000-Kilogram-force engine two minutes and 45 seconds into the flight, setting its sights on an elliptical transfer orbit.


Iridium-5 Payload Fairing – Photo: SpaceX

By T+3 minutes and 26 seconds, the vehicle passed 110 Kilometers in altitude and pushed open its two payload fairing halves which then rotated outward and away from the second stage, en-route to another attempt at refining SpaceX's fairing recovery process.

Fairing 2.0 – debuting earlier this year – hosts a number of upgrades to make the fairing easier and cheaper to manufacture while also introducing a series of recovery systems. From an external appearance, the upgraded fairing seems to be slightly larger than its predecessor, growing around 0.1 meter in diameter and length, but what differentiates it from the baseline Falcon fairing resides on the inside and at the fairing base in the form of an upgraded structural interface.

Each fairing half has its own avionics system, pressure vessels holding Nitrogen gas, a manifold of lines transporting propellant to a series of cold gas thrusters and a compartment for an auto-steering parachute.  As the fairings separate from the ascending rocket, they are to employ their thrusters to stabilize from their initial tumble and enter a pre-determined orientation for atmospheric re-entry. The auto-steering chute will then be tasked with guiding each fairing half toward a recovery boat positioned to 'catch' it.

Whether Mr. Steven was successful on its quest on Friday has not been revealed immediately after the day's launch.


Iridium Payload Stack (Iridium-3) – Photo: SpaceX/Iridium

While the fairing slowly descended back to Earth, Falcon's second stage successfully reached orbit – shutting down right at the T+9-minute mark and transitioning to 43 minutes of passive coasting in order to climb to the high point of its elliptical Parking Orbit for the critical circularization burn.

SpaceX ended live coverage of the mission after the initial Parking Orbit insertion, citing a restriction imposed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that prevented the company from continuing to broadcasting imagery fr om the second stage's onboard camera. NOAA spokespeople were not aware of a restriction related to the Iridium-5 mission and were looking into the matter.

Crossing Antarctica, the second stage entered a northerly leg, approaching the island of Madagascar when re-lighting its MVac engine at T+52 minutes and five seconds on a brief burn to speed up by 125 meters per second and lift the orbit's perigee altitude. Mission Control confirmed a nominal orbit was achieved and the second stage entered the carefully planned release sequence at T+57 minutes to send one Iridium satellite off into orbit every 110 seconds.

In the hours after launch, the ten new additions to the Iridium constellation will spread their wings by deploying their power-generating solar arrays, complete initial health checks and begin communicating with ground stations to head into commissioning. All ten satellites of the Iridium-5 mission will move into operational slots within the first orbital plane, requiring no lengthy drifting.

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Michael Baylor‏ @nextspaceflight 8 мин. назад

NOAA statement on why #SpaceX was not able to webcast the second stage flight. It makes it seem like second stage video is something new. #SpaceX and ULA have been doing that for years without any issues. What changed?

http://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-statement-on-todays-broadcast-of-spacex-iridium-5-launch ...