Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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.

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.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 06 2018, @08:31AM

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.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/.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2