Telstar 18 Vantage (APStar 5C) - Falcon 9 - CCAFS SLC-40 - 10.09.2018

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Cowboy Dan‏ @CowboyDanPaasch 10 ч. назад

Good way to check a storm's severity. Mariner's givin' #Florence a wide berth. @SpaceX's #Telstar18v rocket booster recovery group hustlin' back to @PortCanaveral.
#SpaceXArmada #Cat4Flo



SpaceX Marine Updates‏ @SpaceXFleet 5 ч. назад

#SpaceXFleet are well under half-way back towards the Cape. They've got about 200km to go, if they keep pace we could see them arrive tomorrow morning!

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SpaceX Marine Updates‏ @SpaceXFleet 1 ч. назад

Fleet arrival is looking to be an early morning one! I'll be providing coverage from 3am local time for an expected arrival after 6am. There are no cruise ships arriving until midday tomorrow so they will have a clear run into port.

50 мин. назад

Slight Amendment: A cruise ship WILL be coming in tomorrow at 7am local time to divert away from Hurricane Florence. This will influence arrival time of the fleet and they may be forced to wait outside the port.

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SpaceX Marine Updates‏ @SpaceXFleet 49 мин. назад

No radio communication from cruise ship or #SpaceXFleet yet but it can be assumed that the cruise ship will come in first making the fleet wait until 6am at least. Will update if this changes!

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Julia‏ @julia_bergeron 19 мин. назад

I spy a @SpaceX booster on the horizon. The #SpaceXFleet is coming home.



Tom McCool‏ @Cygnusx112 29 мин. назад

The #SpaceX booster on the horizon.

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Tom McCool‏ @Cygnusx112 18 мин. назад

#SpaceX booster 1049 along with tugs Hawk and Go Quest are 1Nm offshore and headed into port

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Tom McCool‏ @Cygnusx112 5 мин. назад

Getting close! #SpaceX booster 1049 entering port.

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SpaceX Marine Updates‏ @SpaceXFleet 14 мин. назад

Hawk, Droneship, Booster and Octograbber have safely arrived back in Port Canaveral marking another successful recovery. Photo from @julia_bergeron

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Tom McCool‏ @Cygnusx112 4 мин. назад

Booster 1049 is back @PortCanaveral after delivering #TelStar18 to orbit. @SpaceX @NASASpaceflight

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TomCross‏ @_TomCross_ 6 мин. назад

SpaceX block 5 booster 49 arrived to port Canaveral this morning looking like it hardly felt the launch. They keep getting better! #spacex #block5 #telstar18v #rocketscience @SpaceX @Teslarati

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Julia‏ @julia_bergeron 1 ч. назад

Something, somewhere leaked a little. A containment line was just layed out at the back of #OCISLY.
#SpaceXFleet

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Ken Kremer‏ @ken_kremer 8 мин. назад

Landing legs Up Close: #Falcon9 precision landed/recovered booster arrives into Port Canaveral at 10 am towed by @SpaceX Naval Fleet just 2 days after #Telstar18v launch 1245 am Sep 10. Credit: @ken_kremer

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Julia‏ @julia_bergeron 30 с. назад

Merlin engines, legs and an Octagrabber holding on tight.
#SpaceXFleet #OCISLY #SpaceX #Telstar18V

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Tom McCool‏ @Cygnusx112 5 мин. назад

Quick work by #SpaceX removing booster 1049 from the drone ship. #OCISLY

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Jonathan McDowell‏Подлинная учетная запись @planet4589 4 мин. назад

Telstar 18V made its first apogee raising burn around 0800 UTC Sep 11, boosting the orbit to 292 x 20475 km

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https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/09/12/another-recovered-falcon-9-booster-arrives-back-in-port/

Another recovered Falcon 9 booster arrives back in port
September 12, 2018 | Stephen Clark

SpaceX brought another Falcon 9 booster into Port Canaveral on Wednesday, a little more than two days after landing the rocket on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean as the company enters an unusually quiescent period of launch activity in Florida — at least by recent standards.

The rocket arrived at Port Canaveral around 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) Wednesday aboard SpaceX's drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" after a two-day trek fr om the booster's landing point in the Atlantic Ocean around 400 miles (650 kilometers) east of Florida's Space Coast.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 12:45 a.m. EDT (0445 GMT) Monday fr om Cape Canaveral's Complex 40 launch pad, carrying the Telstar 18 VANTAGE communications satellite into orbit. The Telstar 18 VANTAGE spacecraft, also known as APSTAR 5C, was developed in a joint venture between Ottawa, Ontario-based Telesat and APT Satellite of Hong Kong.

The high-power satellite will raise its orbit to geostationary altitude in the coming weeks, parking itself along the equator at 138 degrees east longitude, wh ere it will replace the aging Telstar 18/APSTAR 5 spacecraft to expand broadband, television broadcast and cellular connectivity across the Asia-Pacific.

The Falcon 9's first stage fired for the first two-and-a-half minutes of Monday's mission with Telstar 18 VANTAGE, then shut down and dropped away from the rocket's second stage, which continued the trip into orbit. The first stage descended to a propulsive, precision touchdown on SpaceX's rocket recovery barge about eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff.

That landing marked the 29th time SpaceX has recovered a first stage booster, and the 18th successful landing at sea.


The Falcon 9 first stage from Monday morning's launch of the Telstar 18 VANTAGE communications satellite arrived back at Port Canaveral on Wednesday. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

Crews at the port hoisted the 15-story rocket stage off the drone ship a few hours after it docked Wednesday, moving it to an onshore cradle wh ere technicians will prepare it to be lowered horizontal for the trip to a nearby hangar for inspections and refurbishment.

The launch with Telstar 18 VANTAGE was the fifth time SpaceX has flown the latest generation of the Falcon 9 first stage, known as Block 5.

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The Falcon 9 Block 5 debuted in May with the launch of a satellite for Bangladesh, and the first stage recovered from that mission launched again last month with the Merah Putih communications craft, then landed a second time for a possible third flight.

A previous Telesat satellite launched in July from Cape Canaveral aboard a newly-built Block 5 first stage, and the most recent batch of 10 Iridium voice and data relay satellites also flew on a new Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket from California the same month. Telstar 18 VANTAGE's launch Monday also used a Block 5 booster fresh from SpaceX's factory.

All of the Block 5 first stages launched to date have successfully landed.

SpaceX says the Block 5 first stage sports upgrades to reduce the time and money required to ready the boosters for re-flights. The latest version of the Falcon 9 booster carries a beefed up heat shield, improved landing legs, and titanium grid fins SpaceX says can be reused, replacing aluminum fins that had to be replaced before launching the same rocket again.


The Falcon 9 first stage from Monday morning's launch of the Telstar 18 VANTAGE communications satellite arrived back at Port Canaveral on Wednesday. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and chief executive, told reporters in May that each Falcon 9 Block 5 first stage could be launched 10 times without significant refurbishment. With overhauls, reach rocket could launch up to 100 times before retirement, he said, adding that SpaceX would re-fly the same Block 5 booster in less than 24 hours as soon as next year.

That goal remains on track for 2019, according to Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer, who spoke on a panel at Euroconsult's World Satellite Business Week meeting Tuesday in Paris. She said the time needed to refurbish a Block 5 booster is now down to four weeks, according to an account of her remarks shared on social media.

Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust

Shotwell: Falcon 9 first stages come back in much better shape than anticipated. Have refurbishment time down to four weeks; goal is still a one-day turnaround next year.
#WSBW

8:11 - 11 сент. 2018 г.

SpaceX's first re-flight of a Falcon 9 first stage in March 2017, which used a previous iteration of the rocket, came nearly one year after the booster's first launch. The first reuse of a Block 5 booster Aug. 7 occurred less than three months after that vehicle's inaugural flight.

Musk also said in May that SpaceX's cut its price for a Falcon 9 rocket flight from around $60 million to $50 million for missions using a recycled first stage booster, with further price reductions planned as the company launches more reused rockets and recoups expenditures made during development of the Falcon 9's recovery and re-flight capability.

With the Telstar 18 VANTAGE mission in the books, SpaceX's next launch is scheduled no earlier than Oct. 7 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, with Argentina's SAOCOM 1A Earth observation satellite. That flight is expected to be the first to attempt a return of the booster to SpaceX's landing pad at the California military base.

Rocket landings on missions launched from California so far have occurred on a drone ship downrange in the Pacific Ocean.

SpaceX typically determines whether to return a booster to a touchdown on land or at sea based on the mass of the satellite and the type of orbit targeted on each mission.

The SAOCOM 1A mission will be followed by at least two additional Falcon 9 launches before the end of the year from the Vandenberg spaceport, which is suited for flights heading into orbits that fly around Earth pole-to-pole.


The Falcon 9 first stage from Monday morning's launch of the Telstar 18 VANTAGE communications satellite arrived back at Port Canaveral on Wednesday. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

One of the launches from California will haul up to 71 microsatellites and CubeSats into a polar, sun-synchronous orbit for numerous satellites owners, including NASA, the U.S. military, and U.S. and international research institutions. Spaceflight, a Seattle-based rideshare launch broker, is arranging the launch after purchasing the full capacity of a Falcon 9 mission.

The final planned satellite deployment for Iridium's new-generation mobile telecom fleet is scheduled in November, again with a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg.

At SpaceX's launch base in Florida, there are no Falcon missions planned until at least November. The gap in launch activity is set to be the longest break in SpaceX missions from Cape Canaveral since the Falcon 9 rocket returned to service in early 2017 following an explosion on the launch pad the previous year.

But the lack of missions in the next couple of months does not mean SpaceX will be on the sidelines at the Florida launch site. One major project that will continue is the outfitting of launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin supporting launches of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, a human-rated capsule in development to transport NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

SpaceX says the first orbital test flight of the Crew Dragon — without any astronauts on-board — is scheduled for no sooner than November from pad 39A, setting the stage for a demo mission with a two-man crew next year. An unpiloted resupply launch to the International Space Station with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and a cargo version of the Dragon capsule is scheduled for Nov. 27 from neighboring pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The U.S. Air Force says the first in a new series of GPS navigation satellites is set to ride a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit from Cape Canaveral on Dec. 15. Another commercial communications satellite launch may also fit into SpaceX's schedule from Florida before the end of the year.

The launch range at Cape Canaveral will not be entirely quiet next month. A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is set for liftoff Oct. 17 with an Air Force communications payload, and an air-dropped Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket will be deployed over the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida in October carrying a long-delayed NASA science satellite.

So far in 2018, SpaceX has launched 16 missions, including the maiden flight of its Falcon Heavy rocket. Twelve of those flights originated from Cape Canaveral, at an average pace of one SpaceX launch from Florida every three weeks.

SpaceX logged 18 Falcon 9 flights in 2017, setting a record for the busiest year of launches in the company's history that should be broken again before the end of December.

Additional photos of the Falcon 9 first stage at Port Canaveral on Monday are posted below.


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now


Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

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Tom McCool‏ @Cygnusx112 6 мин. назад

#SpaceX is in the process of removing the first leg.
#SpaceFlight #Falcon9

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Ken Kremer‏ @ken_kremer 5 мин. назад

1st Landing leg retracted!This AM cranecrews success raised #Falcon9 @SpaceX leg booster1049-sailed @PortCanaveral Sep12 #OCISLY droneship after #Telstar18v launch Sep10. Encounted difficulties/manually intervened/lowerd/reraise leg over 90min.
@ken_kremer http://www.facebook.com/spaceupclose321/ ...

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Tom McCool‏ @Cygnusx112 24 мин. назад

Definitely folding the legs on the #SpaceX booster.

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SpaceX - Returns From The Edge - 1049 09-12-2018

USLaunchReport

Опубликовано: 13 сент. 2018 г.

(12:33)