SpaceX to Launch Landmark Commercial Satellite Mission Today: Watch It Live

[Buster's Uncle]

SpaceX to Launch Landmark Commercial Satellite Mission Today: Watch It Live
SPACE.com
By Tariq Malik, Managing Editor  1 hour ago






The private spaceflight company SpaceX is counting down to a critical commercial satellite launch in Florida today (Nov. 25), and you can watch the launch attempt live online.

SpaceX's upgraded Falcon 9 rocket will blast off from a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:37 p.m. EST (0037 Nov. 26 GMT) carrying the SES-8 satellite into orbit for the communications satellite company SES. The mission will mark several big firsts for SpaceX, including the company's first launch of its upgraded Falcon 9 rocket from Florida, its first launch of a huge commercial satellite and its first flight to a high geostationary transfer orbit needed for commercial satellites.

SpaceX will be begin its launch webcast at 5 p.m. EST (0000 Nov. 26 GMT). If possible, SPACE.com will carry SpaceX launch webcast live here. You can also follow it directly at: http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

Today's launch will be the second flight of SpaceX's upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, known as the Falcon 9 Version 1.1. The mission will mark SpaceX's entry into the commercial satellite market with the Falcon 9 — a major milestone — after a series of test flights and launches for NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.

"Let me put this very, very clearly," said Martin Halliwell, SES chief technology officer, in a teleconference with reporters Sunday (Nov. 24). "The entry of SpaceX into the commercial market is a game-changer. It's going to really shake the industry to its roots."

Halliwell said that SES has had an extraordinary level of access to SpaceX's work on the new rocket, which gave his company the confidence to fly their 3.2-ton satellite on the Falcon 9.



The mission emblem for SpaceX's Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket launch carrying the SES-8 communications satellite


Founded in 2002, the Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX (the name is short for Space Exploration Technologies) already has a $1.6 billion deal with NASA to launch at least 12 commercial cargo missions to the International Space Station using its Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon space capsules. Two of those missions have been flown, with the third slated to fly in February. The company is also competing to launch manned versions of Dragon capsules to ferry NASA astronaut crews to and from the space station.

On Sept. 29, SpaceX launched its first Falcon 9 v1.1 from the company's pad at Vandenberg Air Force Station in California, sending the CASSIOPE space weather monitoring satellite into orbit for the Canadian Space Agency. That mission successfully placed the satellite in its intended orbit, but a test of the rocket's second stage restart capability — a necessity for today's launch — failed due to a frozen igniter fluid line. SpaceX has added more insulation to the fluid line to prevent the glitch from occurring again.

"We've done everything we can think of to maximize the reliability of this launch system," SpaceX's billionaire founder Elon Musk told reporters Sunday. "We're really happy with this rocket design and it's an incredibly capable vehicle."



An artist's illustration of the huge SES-8 communications satellite launching from Florida


The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket is a 224.4 feet (68.4 meters) booster designed to launch SpaceX's Dragon space capsule and satellites into orbit. The rocket made its launch debut in 2010 and has flown six missions to date. It is named after the Millennium Falcon from the "Star Wars" science fiction films, with SpaceX's Dragon capsules named for the fictional Puff the Magic Dragon, company officials have said.

SpaceX advertises standard Falcon 9 rocket launches at a price of $56.7 million. It is designed to be more affordable and reliable than other commercial rocket launch vehicles available today, Musk said.

"I believe its inherent reliability potential is better than any other rocket in the world," Musk said. "And it is up to us to live up to that potential."

The Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket's first stage is powered by nine Merslin 1D engines (also built by SpaceX) arranged in a circular "Octaweb" pattern to enhance engine performance. It is topped with a payload fairing 17 feet (5.1 m) wide, large enough to fit a bus inside. The upgraded rocket also includes a triple-redundant flight computer and a heat shield to protect its first stage during re-entry as part of SpaceX's reusable rocket project.

Today's launch will send the 6,918-lb. (2,138 kilograms) SES-8 satellite into an orbit that flies 183 miles (295 kilometers) above Earth at its nearest point and 49,709 miles (80,000 km) at its highest. The Orbital Sciences Corp.-built satellite is hybrid Ku-and Ka-band spacecraft designed to provide high-definition telecommunications services to customers across the South Asia and Pacific region.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch is one of two space missions launching into orbit today. A Russian Soyuz rocket is also slated to lift off at 3:53 p.m. EST (2053 GMT) to launch the unmanned Progress 53 cargo ship toward the International Space Station. You can watch NASA's webcast of the launch on SPACE.com beginning at 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT).

The Progress 53 spacecraft is packed with nearly 3 tons of food, fuel and gear for the six astronauts on the International Space Station. The spacecraft will launch today and fly within a mile of the space station on Wednesday (Nov. 27) "to test an upgraded automated rendezvous system," NASA officials said in a statement.

If all goes well, the Progress 53 spacecraft should dock at the space station on Friday (Nov. 29) at 5:28 p.m. EST (0028 Nov. 30 GMT).

Visit SPACE.com for updates on the SpaceX next-generation Falcon 9 rocket launch. SPACE.com partner Spaceflight now is also offering updates via its SpaceX Mission Status Center, which will also include a launch webcast.


http://news.yahoo.com/spacex-launch-landmark-commercial-satellite-mission-today-watch-153530081.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Cut-rate SpaceX poised for first commercial satellite launch
Reuters
By Irene Klotz 59 minutes ago



CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - - An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket developed by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, is poised to enter the commercial satellite market on Monday, a potential game-changer in a global industry worth nearly $190 billion a year.

Following a successful debut test fight on September 29, the privately owned firm's upgraded Falcon 9 rocket is due to lift off at 5:37 p.m. EST/2237 GMT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Perched on top of the rocket is a 6,400-pound (2,900 kg) communications satellite owned by Luxembourg-based SES S.A., which currently operates a 54-satellite fleet, the world's second-largest.

The satellite, known as SES-8 and worth about $100 million, will be positioned to provide television, cable, broadband and other services to customers in India, China, Vietnam and other markets in Asia.

"It's an extremely important satellite for us," Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer of SES, told reporters on Sunday in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

"We know that as we go forward into these very significant growth markets that it's absolutely critical that we have a cost-effective and efficient way to get to orbit. That's really what SpaceX has brought us," Halliwell said.

Previous SES satellites were launched primarily aboard Russian Proton and European Ariane rockets, which cost far more than the approximately $55 million the company paid for its ride on SpaceX's Falcon booster, Halliwell said.

He would not say exactly how much SpaceX undercut the competition, but did say SES got a bit of a discount by agreeing to fly on Falcon 9's first mission to the high altitudes that communication satellites require.

In addition to the upgraded Falcon 9's test flight in September, older versions of the rocket previously flew five times successfully, including three missions for NASA to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, which flies about 250 miles above Earth.


QUARTER OF THE WAY TO THE MOON

On Monday, SpaceX will aim to put SES-8 into an elliptical orbit that reaches more than 50,000 miles from Earth, about a quarter of the way to the moon.

That altitude requires less fuel for SES-8 to fly itself into its 22,369-mile (36,000-km) high operational orbit, thereby extending its service life.

SpaceX hoped to demonstrate its ability to fire up the Falcon 9's upper-stage engine twice during the September test flight, but that did not work. Engineers later realized that liquid oxygen, used for chilling, had come into contact with the motor's igniter lines, causing them to freeze.

"It was not a complicated issue to fix. Obviously, we were glad we caught it on a mission where we were only demonstrating that second burn, as opposed to one where we have to get it done," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told reporters during a prelaunch conference call.

The company needs three successful launches of its upgraded Falcon rocket before it will be eligible to compete to carry the U.S. military's largest and most expensive satellites, a market now monopolized by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

"There's always some risk associated with the flight not working. So we're very appreciative that SES would place a bet on SpaceX," added Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and chief executive.

SES has options for three more Falcon flights, including one on the firm's heavy-lift rocket that is under development and expected to debut next year.

SpaceX's launch manifest includes nearly 50 other launches, worth about $4 billion. About 75 percent of the flights are for commercial customers.

"Our prices are the most competitive of any in the world," Musk said. "We will force other rocket companies to either develop new technology that's a lot better or they have to exit the launch market."

Halliwell said SpaceX competitors were "shaking in their shoes."

"There are a lot of people who hope that SpaceX is going to fail," he said. "This is really rocking the industry."

The global satellite industry had revenues of nearly $190 billion in 2012, including nearly $90 billion in television services alone, the Satellite Industry Association trade group reported in October. The U.S. share of the market is 45 percent, the report said.


http://news.yahoo.com/cut-rate-spacex-poised-first-commercial-satellite-launch-163941373--finance.html