Posted on 03/01/2015 6:20:12 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine
The 224-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket has been rolled out and rotated vertical atop Cape Canaveral's Complex 40 launch pad, aiming for liftoff at 10:50 p.m. EST (0350 GMT). Workers then began plugging into electrical and propellant lines ahead of the start of the countdown today.
No problems are reported at this stage in the launch preparations. Fueling of the two-stage rocket with RP-1 fuel -- a highly-refined kerosene -- and liquid oxygen should begin shortly around 7:50 p.m. EST (0050 GMT).
The rocket is one of the tallest in the world. The Falcon 9's first and second stages measure 12 feet in diameter, and the SpaceX-built payload fairing housing the Eutelsat 115 West B and ABS 3A spacecraft is 17 feet in diameter (5.2 meters) and 43 feet tall.
Today's flight marks the 16th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since debuting in June 2010. It's the 11th mission of the improved Falcon 9 v1.1 version, which made its inaugural launch in September 2013 from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The weather outlook for today's launch calls for a 70 percent chance of favorable conditions.
There will be no attempt to land the first stage with this one.
Are they going to try and recover the first stage again? I haven’t heard anything about it on this launch so I’m figuring they’re not.
Ah thanks.
See post #3!
Hoping one of these days they’ll get that to work!
The reason they are not attempting it this flight is because they have two satellites to launch, and they need all the fuel capacity for that. They won’t have enough fuel left to attempt a landing.
Bump
The launch is Boeing’s first-ever conjoined launch of a lighter-weight dual-commsat stack that was specifically designed to take advantage of the lower-cost SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
http://aviationweek.com/awin/spacex-says-falcon-9-compete-eelv-year
Falcon 9 launch manifest through 2019.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches
Falcon Heavy news...
Pad 39A – SpaceX laying the groundwork for Falcon Heavy debut
17NOV2014
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/11/pad-39a-spacex-groundwork-falcon-heavy-debut/
It might launch as early as 28DEC2015 as a demonstration flight followed by a second launch in April of 2016 that will lift an Air Force payload called STP-2 to orbit.
They also can’t do it when launching from the west coast because it would come down over land.
According to this news article
http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/02/11/spacex-to-forgo-booster-recovery-on-wednesdays-launch/
the next attempt at a booster landing on a barge will be
“SpaceX’s next resupply mission to the space station is due for liftoff April 8. Its launch profile will be identical to the Jan. 10 launch in which the Falcon 9 booster first attempted a shipboard landing, ending with a crash after the rocket ran out of hydraulic fluid to move its aerodynamic grid fins.
SpaceX plans to move its booster recovery operations to landing pads on the coast when the larger Falcon Heavy rocket begins flying. Its first launch is scheduled for no earlier than the third quarter of 2015 from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration safety regulators must approve the land touchdowns once SpaceX wrings out the process at sea.”
Ok thanks.
The next launch after this one is scheduled for 21MAR2015.
0210 GMT (9:10 p.m. EST on Sun.)
Testing of the Falcon 9 rocket’s flight termination system are getting underway at this point in the countdown, as fueling of the two-stage launcher is wrapping up.
A final weather briefing is planned at the T-minus 1 hour point in the countdown, but no problems with weather are expected this evening.
It will take about 35 minutes for the Falcon 9 rocket to deliver the ABS 3A and Eutelsat 115 West B satellites into supersynchronous transfer orbit. Using xenon-ion thrusters, the satellites will spend the next six to eight months reshaping their orbits to reach posts 22,300 miles over the equator.
Supersynchronous transfer orbit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersynchronous_orbit
0253 GMT (9:53 p.m. EST on Sun.)
Less than an hour until liftoff of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket with Eutelsat 115 West B and ABS 3A.
Weather conditions at Cape Canaveral are currently “go” for launch, and there is now a 90 percent chance of favorable weather at launch time. Conditions at launch are expected to be foggy with a few clouds at 2,500 feet and 12,000 feet, northeast winds at 5 to 7 mph and a temperature of 67 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Falcon 9 rocket has been fueled with kerosene and topping is underway on the liquid oxygen tanks. The cryogenic liquid oxygen tanks on the first and second stages will continue to be slowly replenished until the final minutes before launch to replace propellant that gradually boils off due to the warm ambient temperatures in Florida.
I’m surprised nasa tv doesn’t look like they’re covering it, just the ones you listed. And they’re starting close to launch too.
Any word on liftoff? Is it 2250?
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