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SpaceX Rockets Toward 50th Falcon 9 Launch Tonight: Tues 2018-03-06 05:33 UTC (00:33 EST)

posted by martyb on Tuesday March 06 2018, @12:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the that-was-pretty-quick dept.

Update: Spaceflight Now reports successful Hispasat 30W-6 separation from the Falcon 9 rocket.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Falcon 9 satellite launches are big business for SpaceX.

SpaceX plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida late Monday, Pacific time, for the 50th time since the first Falcon 9 mission less than eight years ago.

It's perhaps fitting the milestone mission will be a rather routine delivery of Hispasat 30W-6, a Spanish communications satellite, to a geostationary orbit high above the equator. Such commercial satellite missions, along with the occasional flight to resupply the International Space Station, have been the bread and butter of SpaceX's business for the past several years.

Along the way, the Falcon 9 has also pioneered the era of the reusable rocket. The company has successfully landed and recovered a Falcon 9 a total of 23 times (a pair of those landings included boosters that made up the Falcon Heavy launch last month). Six of the 23 landings involved rockets making their second flights.

The launch will be live-streamed on YouTube. Here is SpaceX's description of the mission:

Scheduled for Mar 5, 2018

SpaceX is targeting a Falcon 9 launch of the Hispasat 30W-6 satellite to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) on Tuesday, March 6 from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The two-hour launch window opens at 12:33 a.m. EST, or 5:33 UTC. The Hispasat 30W-6 satellite will be deployed approximately 33 minutes after launch.

A two-hour backup launch window opens on Wednesday, March 7 at 12:33 a.m. EST, or 5:33 UTC. SpaceX will not attempt to land Falcon 9's first stage after launch due to unfavorable weather conditions in the recovery area off of Florida's Atlantic Coast.

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  • (Score: 2) by jelizondo on Tuesday March 06 2018, @02:23AM

    by jelizondo (653) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 06 2018, @02:23AM (#648315) Journal

    So it has come to this [xkcd.com]

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Tuesday March 06 2018, @02:43AM (2 children)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Tuesday March 06 2018, @02:43AM (#648327) Journal

    It's only news if it blows up! They have made launches boring again! What a boring company!

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    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 06 2018, @08:31AM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday March 06 2018, @08:31AM (#648421) Homepage
      It's not boring until you're in your hundreds, which does happen, at least if you're a commie:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_orbital_launch_systems

      What that table shows me is that SpaceX are still the promising kids who are growing up. Let's hope they don't turn to drugs and girls when they hit /that age/.
      --
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    • (Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Tuesday March 06 2018, @04:50PM

      by Rivenaleem (3400) on Tuesday March 06 2018, @04:50PM (#648548)

      Where's the "+1 I See What You Did There" mod?

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday March 06 2018, @06:25AM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Tuesday March 06 2018, @06:25AM (#648381) Journal

    https://twitter.com/SpaceflightNow/status/970903415646752768 [twitter.com]

    Hispasat 30W-6 separation! A new communications satellite to serve the Americas, Europe, North Africa, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean has deployed from the Falcon 9 rocket after launch from Cape Canaveral.

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  • (Score: 1) by cocaine overdose on Tuesday March 06 2018, @12:52PM (1 child)

    by cocaine overdose (6886) <cocaineoverdose@protonmail.com> on Tuesday March 06 2018, @12:52PM (#648477) Homepage Journal

    Now if only Tesla could launch the same amount of Model Ss. Otherwise, that reality distortion field comes one day closer to being popped abruptly.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday March 06 2018, @02:06PM

      by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Tuesday March 06 2018, @02:06PM (#648494) Journal

      Tesla is a slow motion disaster due to the need (because of debt and overinflated stock price) to appeal to fickle mass market consumers with an expensive niche product. Whereas SpaceX can provide some of the cheapest launches in the industry and unbeatable $/kg to orbit, and caters mostly to governments and commercial customers.

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