Falcon 9: JCSAT-14 (mission thread)

[DocM]

Tortilla chips

Habanero salsa

Mexican beer

Buffalo wings

Fish tacos

...

...

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Still looking for mass of payload, and it appears a lot of others are as well. I have read many inquiries and all replies are evasive. The mass of the others in the series are available, but not this one.   " Twilight Zone music floats in background"

 

Found this article...

 

SpaceX is ready to try another rocket landing

 

Quote

SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket into space on April 8, and after the first stage delivered its payload, the vehicle descended back to Earth and landed on an autonomous drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Now the company hopes to repeat that sea-based feat under more dynamically challenging conditions. The launch earlier this month carried a Dragon spacecraft, destined for the International Space Station about 400km above the surface. With a launch tentatively set for May 3 during the early morning hours, SpaceX plans to deliver a Japanese broadcast satellite into orbit 22,000km above the planet's surface.

 

This means that the first stage will accelerate to a greater velocity, moving almost parallel to the surface and away from the launch site, before it releases the second stage and the primary payload. This trajectory will leave the vehicle with far less fuel to arrest this horizontal motion, and to control its descent to the barge waiting below.

 

Since the April 8 launch, SpaceX has returned the flown first stage, including its nine engines, to Port Canaveral for initial checkouts. Last week, SpaceX moved the rocket stage to its hangar at Kennedy Space Center for further tests. The company plans to fire its engines 10 times in a row on the ground. “If things look good it will be qualified for reuse,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk said earlier this month. “We’re hoping to relaunch it on an orbital mission, let's say by June.”

 

The company needs to master the art of ocean-based landings because SpaceX estimates that only one-half of its launches will have enough fuel to fly back to the coast, where it has a ground-based landing zone, after fulfilling their primary missions. The May 3 launch attempt, with its challenging landing conditions, will go a long way toward determining how much SpaceX has learned so far.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/04/spacex-likely-to-make-next-launch-and-landing-attempt-on-may-3/

[DocM]

No mass on the satellite as the customer is withholding that info.

 

There will be no stage recovery boostback burn, just the re-entry and landing burns. 

 

No word yet of they'll do a conventional 1 engine landing burn or the 3 engine very short "Suicide Burn" like SES-9 to get that large payload technique down.

 

ASDS FCC comms permit & location

 

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/reports/STA_Print.cfm?mode=current&application_seq=69736&RequestTimeout=1000

 

ASDS coordinates:

 

28-11-30N, 73-50-15W - about 409 miles from LC-40 and similar to SES-9. Sounds like a ballistic trajectory.

 

I'm betting on a Suicide Burn. Cinch up your tighty whities.

[DocM]

One day slip to May 4, with a May 5 backup.

 

Window: 0121-0321 Eastern 

[anthdci]

1 hour ago, DocM said:

One day slip to May 4, with a May 5 backup.

 

Window: 0121-0321 Eastern 

My lovely new wife has said we can still go to watch this even though its in the middle of the night. Do you know where a good place to go and view it would be? I presume the normal viewing centre will be closed?

[DocM]

Normally you could get Visitor Center admission, and for an extra $50 watch from the LC-39 Gantry seating, but it's closed for these night launches.

 

According to launch photographer Ben Cooper, a launch photo god whose work you likely have seen, Rt. 401 just North of Port Canaveral will be the best place. Look just left of due North. It's over 10 mi distant, but with good skies you should be able to track the booster for some time. Falcon 9 is anything but subtle, even at >10 miles, and Falcon Heavy will be even more so.

 

For BFR, where ever it'll be, 10 miles will likely be the safety zone -  as close as humans should approach at all lest they get blasted out of their boots by the acoustics.

Edited April 26, 2016 by DocM

[flyingskippy]

Port Canaveral has an observation tower also.  Lately they have been selling tickets for launches.  I don't know if they will be for this early of a launch though.  Here is there website. I'd  give them a call and ask about the launch.

 

 http://www.explorationtower.com

 

When I was stationed in Georgia this was where I planned to go see a launch, but the date slipped. It's also cheaper than the KSC Visitors Center Tickets. 

[DocM]

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

As per ^ FCC permit...

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/reports/STA_Print.cfm?mode=current&application_seq=69736&RequestTimeout=1000

 

Location is approximately....area map

https://www.google.ie/maps/place/28%C2%B011'30.0%22N+73%C2%B050'15.0%22W/@28.0687937,-78.6191248,1519899m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0

 

National Data Buoy Center

 http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/obs.shtml

 

At the NDB site, choose USA southeast, find buoy # 41047 (station) at right of Bahama Ridge, left click on marker and get up to date info. It will give an idea of conditions prior to landing attempt.

 

Just got ninja'd by Doc on the mission patch.....

 

 

[DocM]

Looks like we have another high, hard fastball landing. Any bets on the 3 engine suicide burn?

 

https://twitter.com/gdoehne/status/726211059263127552

 

gdoehne: @elonmusk Will we get to see JCSAT land live too? Or was that a one-time thing for CRS-8?

 

elonmusk: @gdoehne JCSat is pushing the envelope as a very hot and fast mission, so will land on the droneship. Next land landing in a few months.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

I'm going with 3 engine slamfest....they need to be able to do this for the heavies going high anyway, might as well keep on testing and perfecting as best they can. I would think we are going to see "boo-boo's" here and there, no one partially following SpaceX will question "dis-assemblies" now.

 

[DocM]

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Generic article, but a bit of data......

 

Commercial Falcon 9 rocket launch scheduled for next week

 

Quote

SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 rocket launch is set for no earlier than May 5, sources said Friday, with a Japanese television broadcasting satellite heading to orbit from Cape Canaveral.

 

The two-stage booster was scheduled to roll out of SpaceX’s hangar to the Complex 40 launch pad this weekend for a static fire test of the rocket’s nine Merlin 1D first stage engines as soon as Sunday afternoon.

 

The Falcon 9 launch team will load super-chilled RP-1 kerosene fuel and liquid oxygen into the rocket, run the booster through a mock countdown sequence, then ignite the nine first stage engines to throttle up to 1.5 million pounds of thrust for a few seconds while the Falcon 9 remains firmly restrained to the launch pad.

 

The test is a customary preflight check SpaceX conducts before every Falcon 9 launch.

 

If the static fire test goes as planned Sunday, managers will likely approve the May 5 launch date at a readiness review early next week.

 

The Falcon 9’s launch window May 5 opens at 1:22 a.m. EDT (0522 GMT) and extends for two hours, according to a U.S. Air Force range schedule obtained by Spaceflight Now.

 

It will be the fourth Falcon 9 launch of the year.

 

The payload for next week’s launch is JCSAT 14, a Japanese broadcasting platform made by Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, California.

 

Officials pose with the JCSAT 14 satellite at the Space Systems/Loral factory in California. Credit: SSL

 

Quote

SpaceX has programmed the rocket’s first stage  to head for the landing barge, or “drone ship,” positioned several hundred miles east of Cape Canaveral. The JCSAT 14 satellite is headed for a high-altitude geostationary transfer orbit, requiring more speed and fuel than a mission to low Earth orbit.

 

That means there is a lesser chance of a successful touchdown than for missions like the April 8 flight with a space station resupply capsule, in which the Falcon 9’s first stage nailed its first successful landing at sea, a major achievement for SpaceX’s goal of making the rocket partially reusable.

 

Two more commercial Falcon 9 flights to geostationary transfer orbit will follow close behind JCSAT 14, meaning SpaceX plans more drone ship landings in the next couple of months. The Thaicom 8 telecommunications satellite is set for liftoff in late May, followed in mid-June by a tandem flight with two commercial broadcasting stations for Eutelsat and Asia Broadcast Satellite.

 

“JCSAT is pushing the envelope as a very hot and fast mission, so will land on the droneship,” SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted Friday.

 

“Next land landing in a few months.”

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/04/29/commercial-falcon-9-rocket-launch-scheduled-for-next-week/

 

[Unobscured Vision]

Yeah, they actually need to do these "suicide burn" ASDS returns to perfect these types of landings. We should in no way expect a successful landing from the S1 for this type of reentry yet.

 

In fact, it's too bad they didn't use the Mr. Bill paint scheme ... because I think the ASDS is going to get some abuse on this one.

 

 

[DocM]

On The pad for a static fire today.

[DocM]

@spacex

Static fire complete, teams reviewing data. Falcon 9 launch of JCSAT-14 communications satellite targeting May 5 at 1:21am ET

[DocM]

 

[DocM]

Thursday Weather: 70%
Friday Weather: 90%

[Jim K Global Moderator]

7 minutes ago, DocM said:

Thursday Weather: 70%
Friday Weather: 90%

I say...postpone it until Saturday @ 0900 EST.  Drink my coffee and watch a rocket launch/land. 

 

[DocM]

Weather for May 5 now 80%

 

Webcasts

 

These should start about 20 minutes before T-0

 

Livestream http://livestream.com/spacex/jcsat14

 

SpaceX site webcast (Livestream mirror)
http://www.spacex.com/webcast

 

Hosted YouTube Event (Livestream mirror)

 

 

Technical YouTube Event 

 

 

[Unobscured Vision]

Ahh lovely ... another diet "cheat day".  SpaceX Launches, Birthdays, Holidays, and End-of-Terms from College (that's a new one).

 

Gotta decide what I want for Launch Day. She's coming up pretty shortly. Hmmm ... I almost want Buffalo Wings, but that will completely wreck my diet; and I don't wanna go overboard. Decisions, decisions ...

[Draggendrop Veteran]

JCSAT-14 encapsulation

 

JCSAT-14    SpaceX

 

-----------------------

 

Hold-down test firing complete for next SpaceX launch

 

Quote

SpaceX technicians are attaching a Japanese communications satellite to the top of a Falcon 9 rocket ahead of a planned launch Thursday morning from Cape Canaveral.

 

The JCSAT 14 communications satellite, made in California by Space Systems/Loral, is fueled and encapsulated inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing. Workers were expected to connect the satellite with the launcher’s second stage inside the Falcon 9 hangar as soon as Monday.

 

The rocket passed a key preflight test Sunday evening, when SpaceX’s launch team fueled the Falcon 9 with super-chilled kerosene and liquid oxygen and fired its nine Merlin 1D first stage engines for several seconds at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad.

 

Hold-down restraints kept the rocket on the ground during the brief static fire test, a customary all-up check of the Falcon 9 and its ground systems before the real countdown begins.

 

The static fire occurred without the mission’s satellite payload on-board, and SpaceX planned to return the rocket to its hangar, where the JCSAT 14 spacecraft and the Falcon 9’s nose cone were scheduled to be added.

 

The Falcon 9’s fourth launch of the year is set for 1:21 a.m. EDT (0521 GMT) Thursday at the opening of a two-hour launch window.

 

Quote

A late-season frontal boundary is approaching Florida early the week, with rain and thunderstorms in the forecast for Wednesday.

 

“On Wednesday, more widespread rain and thunderstorms associated with the frontal boundary will move through the spaceport,” forecasters wrote in the Air Force weather outlook. “A few of the storms may contain hail and strong winds. The front is expected to be south of the area, with conditions clearing by the launch window.”

 

The primary weather concerns for Thursday morning are liftoff winds and the thick cloud rule, the Air Force weather team wrote in their forecast.

The outlook calls for scattered clouds at 12,000 feet and 28,000 feet, northwest winds at 20 to 25 mph, and a temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit at launch time.

 

If the launch is delayed to Friday morning, conditions should improve somewhat with a 10 percent chance of weather violating one of the Falcon 9 weather rules.

 

of note....

 

Quote

The distant orbit targeted by Thursday’s launch will require almost all of the Falcon 9’s propellant load, leaving little leftover fuel for landing maneuvers to touch down on a platform floating several hundred miles east of Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean.

 

“Following stage separation, the first stage of Falcon 9 will attempt an experimental landing on the ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ droneship,” SpaceX said in a post on the company’s website. “Given this mission’s GTO destination, the first-stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing unlikely.”

more at....

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/05/02/hold-down-test-firing-complete-for-next-spacex-launch/

[Unobscured Vision]

Payload delivery is priority over all other concerns -- including S1 Recovery. This bird's mission parameters are quite stringent; so the S1 could even break up as it's attempting the reentry (if SpaceX even bothers with trying it). Even if they do, they likely want to see what condition the components are in when subjected to this scenario.

 

Just because it's non-optimal doesn't mean they don't want the data. It's SpaceX, after all -- they always want the data.  

[Draggendrop Veteran]

I'm still going for a 3 engine hover slam.....and (fingers crossed), it will land.....it just might not stay upright if bounced....all valuable data, particularly the stage heating on re-entry.

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]