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-   -   FH liftoff in ~80 minutes! (http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showthread.php?t=17861)

blackshire 04-11-2019 04:17 PM

FH liftoff in ~80 minutes!
 
Hello All,

There is another countdown today (which, unlike Beresheet's attempted landing on the Moon, will hopefully have a successful conclusion!)--the live coverage of today's Falcon Heavy-Arabsat 6A launch is proceeding, with liftoff scheduled to occur in about 80 minutes (at 6:35 PM EDT), see: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/04/...unch-wednesday/ . The video coverage hasn't begun yet, but text updates are already appearing--fueling of the Falcon Heavy with super-chilled LOX and RP-1 kerosene will begin in about 40 minutes.

blackshire 04-11-2019 05:21 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
Hello All,

There is another countdown today (which, unlike Beresheet's attempted landing on the Moon, will hopefully have a successful conclusion!)--the live coverage of today's Falcon Heavy-Arabsat 6A launch is proceeding, with liftoff scheduled to occur in about 80 minutes (at 6:35 PM EDT), see: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/04/...unch-wednesday/ . The video coverage hasn't begun yet, but text updates are already appearing--fueling of the Falcon Heavy with super-chilled LOX and RP-1 kerosene will begin in about 40 minutes.
The live coverage is beginning now (and *here* www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXMGu2d8c8g is a larger-frame version on YouTube, linked from the SpaceFlightNow page whose link is above)--the countdown is at T-14 minutes and counting!

blackshire 04-11-2019 05:57 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
The live coverage is beginning now (and *here* www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXMGu2d8c8g is a larger-frame version on YouTube, linked from the SpaceFlightNow page whose link is above)--the countdown is at T-14 minutes and counting!
ALL THREE BOOSTERS HAVE LANDED SUCCESSFULLY! And more importantly--for the customer--the second stage and Arabsat 6A are in a nominal parking orbit! The satellite will be deployed at 9 minutes past the hour (7:09 PM EDT, which is 34 minutes after liftoff, which occurred at 6:35 PM EDT, as planned). Right now the real-time CGI animation of the stages' locations on Earth--and the orbital motion, for the second stage/Arabsat 6A combination--is being shown; the live coverage will continue when the time of the satellite's deployment (which--I *think*--will first involve a second Stage 2 burn, to inject it into a GTO [or a super-synchronous transfer orbit--STO]) approaches, after the top of the current hour.

blackshire 04-11-2019 06:02 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
ALL THREE BOOSTERS HAVE LANDED SUCCESSFULLY! And more importantly--for the customer--the second stage and Arabsat 6A are in a nominal parking orbit! The satellite will be deployed at 9 minutes past the hour (7:09 PM EDT, which is 34 minutes after liftoff, which occurred at 6:35 PM EDT, as planned). Right now the real-time CGI animation of the stages' locations on Earth--and the orbital motion, for the second stage/Arabsat 6A combination--is being shown; the live coverage will continue when the time of the satellite's deployment (which--I *think*--will first involve a second Stage 2 burn, to inject it into a GTO [or a super-synchronous transfer orbit--STO]) approaches, after the top of the current hour.
AOS (Acquisition Of Signal) has occurred over western Africa, and television views from the Stage 2 onboard cameras are now visible. (UPDATE: LIVE coverage has just resumed!)

blackshire 04-11-2019 06:09 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
AOS (Acquisition Of Signal) has occurred over western Africa, and television views from the Stage 2 onboard cameras are now visible. (UPDATE: LIVE coverage has just resumed!)
Nominal Orbit Insertion! The 85-second Stage 2 second burn increased the vehicle's velocity by 2800 m/s (meters per second), which will carry it 90,000 kilometers high--definitely an STO (Supersynchronous Transfer Orbit). Arabsat will separate from Stage 2 in about four minutes. After that, I suspect that the stage will perform a retro-burn to lower its perigee, to ensure a disposal burn-in (re-entry) soon.

blackshire 04-11-2019 06:15 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
Nominal Orbit Insertion! The 85-second Stage 2 second burn increased the vehicle's velocity by 2800 m/s (meters per second), which will carry it 90,000 kilometers high--definitely an STO (Supersynchronous Transfer Orbit). Arabsat will separate from Stage 2 in about four minutes. After that, I suspect that the stage will perform a retro-burn to lower its perigee, to ensure a disposal burn-in (re-entry) soon.
Arabsat 6A has separated and is climbing to its STO apogee; also, a call of "AOS Mauritius" could be heard, which bodes well (although it may have referred to the Stage 2 telemetry and/or video signals rather than any signals from Arabsat 6A). SpaceX makes such hard accomplishments *look* easy!

Flash 04-11-2019 07:52 PM

Watched the whole launch it was just awesome!

blackshire 04-11-2019 08:09 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash
Watched the whole launch it was just awesome!
Heartily agreed--it and Beresheet's lunar landing attempt were well worth giving up last night's sleep for! (I had numerous computer errands to catch up on). Also:

"Everyday Astronaut" videoed it from five miles away, and (despite a few unwanted drop-outs), he got some incredible ascent and outboard booster return footage (the link is below)! He also reported that the three booster cores account for 90% of the Falcon Heavy vehicle's dry mass, so that is significant savings for SpaceX! Below is a quick account of his coverage:

“Everyday Astronaut” recorded today’s Falcon Heavy launch from five miles away (see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpX16SePpVA ), and he also discussed an unusual aspect of this flight. Arabsat 6A could actually have been injected into a GTO by a Falcon 9, but it flew aboard a Falcon Heavy instead for contract history (it was originally signed up for a FH ride), schedule (it had been waiting for its launch for a *long* time), and logistical & time-saving reasons (modifying it to ride on a Falcon 9 would have cost more money and time, and utilizing the Falcon Heavy’s ability to put it into a Supersynchronous Transfer Orbit will get Arabsat 6A to its assigned Clarke Belt slot sooner than could be done using a Falcon 9), and:

All three of this Falcon Heavy’s standard Block 5 booster cores are now flight-proven, and--at least in the case of the outboard ones, if not all three--they will be used for the next Falcon Heavy flight, as the SpaceX hosts mentioned. (If the Russian IRDT inflatable Fregat upper stage [and test satellite] conical heat shield/parachute-substitute descent decelerator devices were adapted to bring down the second stage intact from orbit—and if the fairing halves were also recovered—the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy would become fully-reusable launch vehicles, something that NASA has only dreamed about—although nearly always in winged form—since the late 1960s through the early 1970s [although Douglas Aircraft’s Philip Bono always envisioned RLVs as wingless, rocket-braked vehicles].)

Flash 04-12-2019 05:32 AM

Great follow up info here. Thank you for being on top of the tech side of things to!

DeanHFox 04-12-2019 08:20 AM

More good news
 
They recovered and will reuse the fairing halves, too!

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...q83VzfETNeGJAvB


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