Falcon 9: SES-12 commsat (mission thread)


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Another regular customer, 

 

Payload: SES-12 commsat
Customer: SES S.A. 

 

Launch date: May 24
Window: 0029-0127 EDT (0429-0527 UTC) 
Core: B1040.2 (X-37B OTV-5)
Pad: KSC LC-40
Stage landing: expended (F9 Block 4)

 

Satellite bus: Airbus Eurostar-3000EOR
Orbit: Geostationary Transfer Orbit
GEO position: 95° East
Transponders: 54 Ku band (S. Asia, Asia-Pacific) 
Power: 19kw
Propulsion: OKB Fakel SPT140D electric (Russian)
Mass: 5,300kg

 

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The Eastern Range is down from May 29 - June 8 for scheduled maintenance.  

 

Launch date: NET May 31 

Launch window: abt. 0029-0127 EDT (0429-0527 GMT)

 

If the NET date holds its likely SpaceX can launch because of their Autonomous Flight Safety System not needing the closed range assets.

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Yep, they aren't even saving the Block-IV's for Falcon Heavy now. As expected. We called it, gents. So far we're 5/6. Only thing we missed was expecting them to build BFR/BFS stuff at the Cape, which SpaceX is apparently not going to do going forward (unless NASA foots the bill for the LF).

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Yep. They're gonna have more Block 5's than they'll know what to do with, and BFS/BFR fab is going to become SpaceX's primary focus in very, very short order. There's a mad dash to hire/reassign personnel right now. They're actually quite short-handed atm.

 

Starlink dev is in full swing too. First several hundred birds need to be in the sky to do Phase 2 testing ASAP. SpaceX needs that generating revenue so that they have the needed capital for the full-monty BFS/BFR stuff. That can't happen quickly/efficiently unless Starlink is doing it's thing.

 

It might appear off-topic but these things are very interconnected with one another. SpaceX want/need to retire Falcon 9 by the late 2020's. There might (might) be one more revision to the Falcon 9 family if there are enough advances to warrant backporting from BFR/BFS dev, however unlikely that scenario plays out. (I personally doubt it, though; but hey, never say never!)

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Bwahaha ... looks like the Referees are gonna be asked to get out the line markers for this one lmao ... :jump:

 

Wouldn't it be neat if SpaceX has a little green strip on the Mission Timeline thing at the bottom of the screen to indicate how far past the milestone they get? I wanna SEE the progress past nominal cutoff. Not overcooked but supernominal. (Yes, that's a thing.)

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Calculating the dV. :yes:

 

SES-12, weighing just about 5,300 kg (but I rounded it to 5,300) could have +2,900 m/s excess horizontal velocity and +2,100 m/s vertical velocity upon staging if the target MECO is to occur at 160s. The S1, relieved of it's excess buik (Landing Legs and associated hardware) is a [bleeping] BEAST. Depends on their flight profile and they'll likely trim the vertical velocity because nobody launches like that. In that case they'll conserve that work the rocket could do to maintain the flight profile they want.  Likely they'll trim that to about 1,800 m/s as they level off. Since they aren't going for reuse they'll give the S1 the full monty, so the horizontal number could likely double.

 

The S2 will have a FAR better time getting the bird where it needs to be. There's SO much spare dV to dump into this launch it's almost stupid. In a good way, of course.

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46 minutes ago, DocM said:

Which also means the NLS-II performance numbers for Falcon 9/Heavy are gross understatements. DoD may be interested in that ;)

 

At this point it's a metaphysical certitude that they'll wanna launch heavier birds, or (more likely) co-hosted payloads. The DoD loves efficiency and "more = better".

 

Those performance numbers, with the information that we're gleaning? HAH ... watch and see that the actual real-world performance of the Block-V Falcon 9's becomes "protected information". I betcha.

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As an aside, if SpaceX were so inclined SES-12 could be put on TLI and there would still be enough dV left to deorbit the S2 wherever they wanted. Talk about hotshotting ... :punk:

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And I wouldn't be surprised if USAF followed through on their Raptor development funding by ordering RUS (Raptor Upper Stage) for the EELV-2 competition.

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