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SpaceX will attempt the launch of EchoStar 105/SES-11 at 6:53 PM EDT (10:53 PM UTC). This is SpaceX's second launch attempt in 3 days, following the successful launch of 10 satellites for Iridium on Monday:
It's the third time SpaceX has used one of its landed boosters for a second flight — and if it sticks the landing again, it'll also be the third to have come safely back to Earth for a second time. The first reused Falcon 9 flew in March, with the second one following close behind in June. It's possible we'll see more used rockets fly before the year is out: earlier this year, Musk said the company could fly as many as six used boosters in 2017. Eventually, SpaceX hopes to refly its Falcon 9s much more frequently, by making a landed booster ready to fly again in just 24 hours.
Going up on this flight is a hybrid satellite that will be used by two companies, SES and EchoStar. Called EchoStar 105/SES-11, the satellite will sit in a high orbit 22,000 miles above Earth, providing high-definition broadcasts to the US and other parts of North America. While this is the first time EchoStar is flying a payload on a used Falcon 9, this is familiar territory for SES. The company's SES-10 satellite went up on the first "re-flight" in March. And SES has made it very clear that it is eager to fly its satellites on previously flown boosters.
Update: Liftoff was successful and the first stage landed successfully on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Update 2: EchoStar 105/SES-11 successfully deployed.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday October 12 2017, @11:08AM
Having played Kerbal Space Program I am a defacto rocket expert</sarcasm>
So we had stage 1 launch from c. 90W, reach a suborbital trajectory, separate, wait a bit, fire retros, then land. Fine.
Stage 2 ignited shortly after separation, then pushed it either into a longer suborbital, or into a low orbit. It then coasted to c. 0W, then reignited pushing into a GTO, with presumably an apssis at GEO and a peripis of LEO, with a peripis low enough that it would de-orbit in a couple of months. Also fine.
I assume this means that when the satellite reaches GEO altitude, it will again fire, to push it into a circular orbit. Is this just with the satelite'ss manuvering thrusters? The second stage will return from GEO, graze the atmosphere at c. 200k peripis, which reduces its apsis down to GEO, and over the next few months will eventually change that apssis down to 200k, where it will then rather swiftly collapse into deeper atmosphere and burn up.