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[Update: Both launches successful. SpaceX tweeted that booster landing was successful, no word on SpaceX fairing recovery or either launch's satellite deployments.]
Wake up early Wednesday to see two launches within 15 minutes:
One Ariane 5. One Falcon 9. Fourteen satellites. It's a party.
The Western Hemisphere may host two launches within 15 minutes on Wednesday morning as both Arianespace and SpaceX prepare for satellite delivery missions. The launches are presently scheduled to occur between 7:25am ET (11:25 UTC) and 7:39am ET (11:39 UTC).
First up is Arianespace, with a mission launching from Kourou in French Guiana, over the Atlantic Ocean. This flight of the Ariane 5 ES rocket—the Ariane 5 fleet's third mission in 2018—will send four Galileo satellites into medium Earth orbit (at an altitude of 22,922km) for the European Commission. These satellites will form part of Europe's own global navigation system constellation.
[Ariane 5 live stream on YouTube. Scheduled for 7:25am ET (11:25 UTC); stream scheduled to start 25 minutes before launch.]
[...] Speaking of SpaceX, its rocket has a launch time less than 15 minutes after the scheduled Ariane 5 liftoff. The Falcon 9 rocket will launch from the west coast of the United States and seeks to deliver 10 Iridium NEXT satellites into a polar orbit 625km above the Earth.
This will be the third flight of the Block 5 version of the Falcon 9 rocket and, if the vehicle launches on Wednesday, it would be the company's second launch in just over two days.
Wednesday's flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern California will also feature two separate recovery attempts. The Just Read the Instructions droneship will serve as a mobile landing platform for the Falcon 9's first stage, and the smaller Mr. Steven vessel—now equipped with a larger net—will attempt to catch one half of the rocket's payload fairing.
[SpaceX live stream on YouTube. Scheduled for 7:39am ET (11:39 UTC); stream scheduled to start 15 minutes before launch.]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @01:06PM (2 children)
The SpaceX carrier just finished deploying the satellites at 622ish km.
It was going at 451km/sec when the broadcast ended.
Is it going to go higher to park as junk
or do they carry extra fuel to make it slow down so it can burn up?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday July 25 2018, @01:48PM (1 child)
Not entirely sure what you're asking, but I think you're asking what the payload adapter does after launch, but the payload adapter is past the spacex demarcation point; its someone else's invention, responsibility, and problem. See around page 34 of
https://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/falcon_9_users_guide_rev_2.0.pdf [spacex.com]
Famously, spacex got full payment last May for launching a US Govt spy sat where reportedly the NSA provided adapter failed, so because space-x's machinery worked perfectly they got payment. At least that was the cover story, if the story is not true. The govt seemed unusually cheerful and prompt about the "failure" which is suspicious looking in itself. Maybe it was some kind of extreme ASAT test or something, I donno.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 26 2018, @11:54AM
That was a fascinating document. Page 61 / 8.6.5 Disposal, along with what you say tells me that -- yesterday's payload adapter stays in that orbit as an 11th satellite. Somehow I thought that we'd already park or make these things burn up.