Merah Putih - Falcon 9 - CCAFS SLC-40 - 07.08.2018

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Ken Kremer‏ @ken_kremer 5 мин. назад

Thumbs Up at Sunset from #MerahPutih team holding mission Banner at #pad40 launching soon on @SpaceX #Falcon9 at 118 AM ET Aug. 7
@ken_kremer http://spaceupclose.com 

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NASA Nate‏ @NASA_Nerd 1 мин. назад

Waiting for @SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 launch from Catfish Creek under a sea of stars.

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Chris G - NSF‏ @ChrisG_NSF 17 с. назад

T-36mins and COUNTING. GO for propellant loading. #SpaceX #Falcon9 #MerahPutih #Telkom4

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08/07/2018 07:43 Stephen Clark

T-minus 35 minutes and counting. "Launch auto has started."

The beginning of the launch autosequence kicks off the first steps to begin pumping propellants into the 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 at Cape Canaveral's Complex 40 launch pad.

RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen are now being pumped into the Falcon 9 rocket. The liquid oxygen is chilled to near minus 340 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 206 degrees Celsius).

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08/07/2018 07:45 Stephen Clark

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

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• 60th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010
• 66th launch of Falcon rocket family since 2006
• 2nd launch of Falcon 9 Booster No. 46
• 49th Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral
• 36th Falcon 9 launch from pad 40
• 1st SpaceX launch for Telkom Indonesia (PT Telkom)
• 9th SSL-built satellite launched by SpaceX
• 21st Falcon 9 night launch
• 14th Falcon 9 launch of 2018
• 15th launch by SpaceX in 2018
• 13th launch overall from Cape Canaveral in 2018
• 4th flight of a Falcon 9 Block 5 first stage
• 7th flight of a Falcon 9 Block 5 second stage
• 34th attempt to land a Falcon 9 first stage
  

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Муззаставка

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08/07/2018 07:59 Stephen Clark

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

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.

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On that mission, the first stage descended to a landing at sea on SpaceX's drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You."

SpaceX returned the booster to port for inspections before committing to re-fly the first stage on today's mission with the Merah Putih communications satellite for Telkom Indonesia, also known as PT Telkom.

The flight plan calls for the Falcon 9's second stage to fire its engine twice, then deploy the Merah Putih 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 a few hundred miles east of Cape Canaveral.

The improved Block 5 version of the Falcon 9 has now launched three times with upgraded first and second stages together on the same flight, but Tuesday's mission will be the first time a Block 5 first stage booster has been re-launched.

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.

SpaceX intends to recover the reused stage again after Tuesday's launch. The company's drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" is en route to a position a few hundred miles east of Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean, the targeted touchdown point for the first stage.

The roughly 12,800-pound (5,800 kilogram) Merah Putih satellite will provide C-band telecommunications services over Indonesia and India. The new telecom craft was built by SSL in Palo Alto, California.

SSL completed construction of the Merah Putih satellite ahead of schedule, according to Telkom Indonesia. The new satellite will replace Telkom 1, which failed in a mysterious debris-shedding event in geostationary orbit last year.

Officials from Telkom Indonesia expected the Telkom 1 satellite, which launched in 1999, to remain operational until Merah Putih's launch. But Telkom 1's failure last year forced the operator to re-route communications traffic through other satellites.

The Merah Putih satellite is designed for a 16-year life, its owner said in a statement. The spacecraft will be positioned in geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator at 108 degrees east longitude.

Based on SSL's 1300-series satellite platform, Merah Putih carries 60 C-band transponders with coverage across the Indonesian archipelago, and other parts of South and Southeast Asia. The satellite will provide Internet, telephone and cellular backhaul services, according to SSL.

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08/07/2018 08:03 Stephen Clark

The Merah Putih communications satellite has been switched to internal battery power in preparation for liftoff.

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Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 4 мин. назад

Weather is green.

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William Harwood‏ @cbs_spacenews 4 мин. назад

F9/MerahPutih: 7 minutes to launch; SpaceX countdown commentator Lauren Lyons says range is green "and all systems are go."

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