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

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09/10/2018 03:32 Stephen Clark

Today's mission will mark the fifth flight of a Falcon 9 Block 5 first stage, an upgraded version of the Falcon 9 rocket featuring reliability and reusability enhancements.

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SpaceX launched the first Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket May 11 with Bangladesh's first communications satellite. Officials heralded the successful debut as pivotal in allowing SpaceX to reduce the time and money needed to turn around a recovered booster for another mission.

The first Block 5 booster fr om the May 11 mission was re-flown last month during the launch of the Merah Putih communications satellite, then recovered a second time, potentially to be reused again.

The flight plan tonight calls for the Falcon 9's second stage to fire its engine twice, then deploy the Telstar 18 VANTAGE/APSTAR 5C payload into an elliptical, egg-shaped transfer orbit with a low point a few hundred miles above Earth, and a high point ranging tens of thousands of miles in altitude.

The Falcon 9 Block 5 will give the communications satellite a high-altitude lift while its first stage still retains enough propellant to return to a SpaceX drone ship parked in the Atlantic Ocean around 400 miles (650 kilometers) east of Cape Canaveral.

The improved Block 5 version of the Falcon 9 has now launched four times with upgraded first and second stages together on the same flight.

The upgrades to the Falcon 9 Block 5 include a beefed up heat shield, retractable landing legs and other modifications to make the first stage simpler to reuse, reducing the refurbishment needed between missions.

Funded in partnership between Telesat and APT Satellite, the Telstar 18 VANTAGE/APSTAR 5C satellite will use its on-board chemical and electric propulsion systems to circularize its orbit at geostationary altitude more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator, reaching an operating post at 138 degrees east longitude.

After post-launch testing and deployments of the satellite's solar panels and antennas, Telstar 18 VANTAGE/APSTAR 5C will enter service some time in mid-October, assuming all goes according to plan.

The new telecom craft, which weighs around 15,564 pounds (7,060 kilograms) at launch, was built by SSL in Palo Alto, California. It will replace the aging Telstar 18/APSTAR 5 satellite delivered to orbit by a Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rocket in 2004.

"We have an embedded base that's on Telstar 18 today that will migrate over to Telstar 18 VANTAGE," said Tom Eaton, Telesat's vice president of international sales, in a pre-launch interview. "So there's an element of continuity of service at play here by replacing the existing satellite, but Telstar 18 VANTAGE, since it's the third of our high-throughput satellites, carries a lot more flexibility, switchability in its coverages, and then has high-throughput capability as well."

Carrying a combination of broad regional beams and high-bandwidth spot beams, the satellite's coverage area will span from India and Pakistan in the west, to Hawaii in the east.

APT Satellite — also known as APSTAR — of Hong Kong will use 57.5 percent of the satellite's communications capacity, in exchange for funding 57.5 percent of the mission's total cost.

"Through (the) APSTAR 5C Satellite, we will be able to maintain reliable services to our existing customers of APSTAR 5 satellite, and to assure the continuity of their businesses," said Cheng Guangren, executive officer and president of APT Satellite, in a statement at the time of the satellite's procurement in 2015. "Meanwhile, (the) APSTAR 5C satellite will carry more transponders, expand to broader service areas, and include regional high-throughput (HTS) capacities to satisfy growing market demand in Asia-Pacific region."

The Telstar 18 VANTAGE/APSTAR 5C spacecraft hosts two payloads -- one in C-band and another in Ku-band -- to provide services that range from direct-to-home television broadcasting, to Internet connectivity, to cellular phone bandwidth.

"With this newly-designed satellite, markets that we're looking at, I'd say top of mind would be the mobility market in Asia, which is rapidly growing," Eaton said. "Maritime is what we typically think of, but also aero, so connectivity to aircraft. The other applications are, the Asia-Pacific region is one that's in need of continuity for remote communities, especially when you look at a country like Indonesia, wh ere they have a government initiative to connect all of the country, and satellite is the best way to do that.

"Another area in the telecom space is backhaul for cellular and mobility towers, and there's a fair amount of oil and gas and mineral exploration that satellite supports, so we're interested in that market, as well as there are some DTH (direct-to-home television broadcast) opportunities," Eaton said.

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Ну почему такая полная (______)(______)  :?:  :?:  :?: . ТБМ, ну как какой-либо пуск, так обязательно либо '404', либо 'DB query error' - один Х форум, ТБМ, недоступен :!:

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09/10/2018 05:00 Stephen Clark

Countdown clocks at the Kennedy Space Center have been reset for T-minus 2 hours and counting, suggesting liftoff is now set for 12 a.m. EDT (0400 GMT).

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09/10/2018 05:34 Stephen Clark

A lightning advisory has been issued at the Kennedy Space Center after several storm cells popped up in the last few minutes over Cape Canaveral. The countdown clock continues ticking toward launch time of 12 a.m. EDT (0400 GMT).

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09/10/2018 05:48 Stephen Clark

Here's a view of the weather radar at Cape Canaveral a few minutes ago.

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SpaceX‏Подлинная учетная запись @SpaceX 1 ч. назад

All systems go for launch of Telstar 18 VANTAGE; team is monitoring weather conditions. Targeting liftoff at 12:00 a.m. EDT, 4:00 UTC. Launch webcast will go live about 15 minutes before liftoff → http://spacex.com/webcast 

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09/10/2018 06:22 New launch time Stephen Clark

SpaceX says tonight's launch will be reset for no earlier than 12:30 a.m. EDT (0430 GMT) to wait for improved weather at Cape Canaveral.

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SpaceX‏Подлинная учетная запись @SpaceX 8 мин. назад

Pushing T-0 to 12:45 a.m. EDT, 4:45 UTC for weather. Vehicle and payload remain in good health for launch of Telstar 18 VANTAGE.

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09/10/2018 06:44 New launch time Stephen Clark

SpaceX is reconfiguring countdown clocks to target liftoff at 12:45 a.m. EDT (0445 GMT) to give the heavy cloud cover over Cape Canaveral more time to clear the area.

The weather radar shows storms are slowly moving offshore to the northeast.

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Spaceflight Now‏ @SpaceflightNow 14 мин. назад

SpaceX has reconfigured the countdown clock to target liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket at 12:45am EDT (0445 GMT), allowing more time for heavy cloud cover to clear Cape Canaveral. Live coverage: https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/09/09/falcon-9-telstar-18-vantage-mission-status-center/ ...

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09/10/2018 06:54 Stephen Clark

The Phase 2 lightning advisory has been lifted across Cape Canaveral as thunderstorms continue moving northeast.

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09/10/2018 07:09 Stephen Clark

Final countdown preparations are underway at Cape Canaveral as teams prepare a Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff at 12:45 a.m. EDT (0445 GMT).

Fueling of the Falcon 9 rocket is expected to begin momentarily.

Super-chilled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen will be simultaneously pumped into the Falcon 9's first stage beginning at T-minus 35 minutes. Liquid oxygen will begin flowing into the second stage at T-minus 16 minutes.

In the final 10 minutes of the countdown, an automatic sequencer will command the Falcon 9's first stage engines to be chilled in preparation for ignition, the rocket's navigation computer will be configured for flight, its upper stage engine will run through a steering profile, and the launch pad's strongback will be retracted around 1.5 degrees away from the rocket.

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Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 3 мин. назад

And they are fueling!

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09/10/2018 07:12 Stephen Clark

T-minus 33 minutes. Here are some statistics on today's launch:

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• 61st launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010
• 67th launch of Falcon rocket family since 2006
• 1st launch of Falcon 9 Booster No. 49
• 50th Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral
• 37th Falcon 9 launch from pad 40
• 2nd SpaceX launch for Telesat
• 10th SSL-built satellite launched by SpaceX
• 22nd Falcon 9 night launch
• 15th Falcon 9 launch of 2018
• 16th launch by SpaceX in 2018
• 16th launch overall from Cape Canaveral in 2018
• 5th flight of a Falcon 9 Block 5 first stage
• 8th flight of a Falcon 9 Block 5 second stage
• 35th attempt to land a Falcon 9 first stage
  

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Муззаставка

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09/10/2018 07:26 Stephen Clark

Second stage fuel loading is reported complete.

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09/10/2018 07:30 Stephen Clark

The Telstar 18 VANTAGE/APSTAR 5C satellite has been switched to internal power in preparation for launch.

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