Alpha Centauri 2

Community => Recreation Commons => Destination: Alpha Centauri => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on August 05, 2014, 02:19:09 am

Title: SpaceX Rocket to Launch Commercial Satellite Early Tuesday: Watch Live
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 05, 2014, 02:19:09 am

SpaceX Rocket to Launch Commercial Satellite Early Tuesday: Watch Live
SPACE.com
by Mike Wall, Senior Writer  2 hours ago


(http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Praqv5KoJ2wPx6t2fNkHTg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTMxMDtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz01NzU-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/News/SPACE.com/SpaceX_Rocket_to_Launch_Commercial-d9632dbcfe0bbb56ddc98545952fea15)
The AsiaSat 8 satellite mated to SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket ahead of a planned liftoff on Aug. 5, 2014.



The private spaceflight company SpaceX will blast a commercial telecommunications satellite into orbit in the wee hours of Tuesday morning (Aug. 5), and you can watch all the action live online.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch the AsiaSat 8 satellite at 1:25 a.m. EDT (0525 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. You can watch the launch webcast here (http://www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-space-tv.html), courtesy of SpaceX, beginning at 1:10 a.m. EDT (0510 GMT).

If all goes according to plan on Tuesday, the Falcon 9 rocket will carry AsiaSat 8 to a highly elliptical geosynchronous transfer orbit. The satellite will eventually make its way to a geosynchronous orbit about 22,300 miles (35,900 kilometers) above Asia; from there, it will provide a variety of telecom services for the next 15 years, SpaceX officials said.

The spacecraft will be the most powerful member of AsiaSat's fleet, said representatives of the Hong Kong-based firm, whose full name is Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited.

SpaceX has conducted reusability tests during three recent Falcon 9 launches, attempting to bring the rocket's first stage back for a soft ocean splashdown in September 2013, April 2014 and last month. These efforts are part of the company's quest to develop a fully and rapidly reusable rocket launch system, which SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said could dramatically cut the cost of spaceflight.

But the AsiaSat 8 launch will not feature a reusability test, SpaceX representatives said. The next such attempt will likely come in September with the launch of SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule on a resupply mission to the International Space Station. That mission will be the fourth of 12 unmanned flights to the space station as part of a $1.6 billion cargo delivery deal with NASA.

The next Dragon launch will probably feature another ocean splashdown. But after that, SpaceX will likely attempt to bring the Falcon 9 first stage back softly on dry land, or on a pad in the ocean. Company representatives have said they hope to accomplish this big milestone by the end of the year.

You can track SpaceX's early-morning launch via our partner Spaceflight Now (http://www.spaceflightnow.com/), which will provide up-to-the-minute information on the flight through its Mission Status Center (http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/011/status.html). You can also follow SpaceX' Twitter (https://twitter.com/SpaceX) page for launch updates.


http://news.yahoo.com/spacex-rocket-launch-commercial-satellite-early-tuesday-watch-223336467.html (http://news.yahoo.com/spacex-rocket-launch-commercial-satellite-early-tuesday-watch-223336467.html)