Watch SpaceX launch a communications satellite on its Falcon 9 rocket tonight

[Buster's Uncle]

Watch SpaceX launch a communications satellite on its Falcon 9 rocket tonight
But don’t expect a landing this time
The Verge
by Loren Grush @lorengrush   Mar 13, 2017, 11:15am EDT   

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZmqbL-hz7U&amp;feature=youtu.be" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZmqbL-hz7U&amp;feature=youtu.be</a>

Tonight, in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, SpaceX plans to launch one of its Falcon 9 rockets from Cape Canaveral, Florida, lofting a communications satellite into orbit for satellite operator EchoStar. Called EchoStar XXIII, the satellite will sit in a high orbit above Earth and provide broadcast services for Brazil. The rocket is slated to launch the satellite at 1:34AM ET.

Unlike the majority of SpaceX’s launches over the past couple years, this mission will not include a rocket landing post-takeoff, CEO Elon Musk announced in a tweet in January. That’s because EchoStar XXIII is a particularly heavy satellite that’s going to an orbit about 22,000 miles above the Earth’s surface. Those two factors combined mean the Falcon 9 will need a lot of fuel for the launch, leaving little fuel leftover to perform a rocket landing.

This could be one of the last expendable launches SpaceX does for a while. Musk also tweeted that missions like EchoStar XXIII (heavy payloads going to high orbits) would launch on the Falcon Heavy — the future heavy-lift vehicle SpaceX is developing that’s essentially three Falcon 9s strapped together. Such missions could also fly on an upgraded version of the Falcon 9, called Block 5, in the future. This iteration of the Falcon 9 will supposedly be the final upgrade for the rocket, and it’s supposed to improve the vehicle’s performance and make it easier to reuse. Musk says Block 5 will fly for the first time by the end of the year.

Tonight’s launch will be the company’s second from Launch Complex 39A, a prominent site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The pad at LC39A has been used for some of the most historic space missions, including Apollo 11 that took people to the Moon for the first time, as well as the last launch of the Space Shuttle in 2011. SpaceX signed a lease with NASA in 2014 to move into LC39A and refurbish the pad to accommodate flights of the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy, which is supposed to fly for the first time this summer.

For the foreseeable future, SpaceX will be relying on LC39A for all its Florida launches, since the company’s other pad at the Cape — Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station — is still out of commission; the site was badly damaged in September, when one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9s exploded during a routine fueling procedure on the launchpad. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell recently noted that repairs to the pad at SLC-40 could be done this summer.

SpaceX has a 2.5-hour launch window tonight, so the Falcon 9 can take off any time between 1:34AM ET and 4:04AM ET. However, weather isn’t looking that great. There’s only a 40 percent chance that conditions will be favorable, due to thick clouds expected in the area, according to Patrick Air Force Base. If EchoStar XXIII doesn’t go up tonight, SpaceX has another chance to launch on Thursday at 1:35AM ET.

If you’re still awake, check back here 20 minutes before takeoff to watch the launch live.


http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/13/14906732/spacex-falcon-9-rocket-launch-echostar-xxiii-satellite