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[Update: launch occurred on time, first stage separation and landing were successful, satellite release into orbit successful. And it IS rocket science that they made look easy. --martyb]
Spacex Will Attempt to Make a Historic West Coast Landing Sunday Night:
This will be SpaceX's 17th launch attempt this year.
[...] On Sunday night, SpaceX is scheduled to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, which is a couple of hours north of Los Angeles. While the company has landed several first stage boosters on a drone ship offshore from California, until now it has not attempted to land at a site along the coast. But now it has completed the "Landing Zone 4" facility and received the necessary federal approvals for rockets to make a vertical landing there.
[...] This will be SpaceX's 17th launch attempt this year, bringing the company close to tying its record-setting pace of 18 launches last year. With as many as half a dozen launch attempts left this year, SpaceX should easily surpass its 2017 total, barring a major accident.
This Block 5 first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket has previously flown once before, launching 10 Iridium NEXT satellites into a polar orbit 625km above the Earth. It returned to a drone ship off the West Coast after that flight. The payload launching Sunday night, the SAOCOM 1A satellite for Argentina's Space Agency, weighs less than a lot of the Falcon 9 payloads launched into a Sun synchronous orbit several hundred kilometers above the Earth. Therefore, the first stage will have ample fuel to return to the new coastal landing site.
SpaceX is also likely to try and retrieve one-half of the Falcon 9 rocket's payload fairing. It has come close to catching these before with its large, catcher's-mitt shaped net attached to a boat, but it has yet to succeed.
SpaceFlightNow reports:
Launch time: Approx. 0221 GMT on 8th (10:22 p.m. EDT; 7:22 p.m. PDT on 7th)
Launch site: SLC-4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the SAOCOM 1A for CONAE, Argentina's space agency. SAOCOM 1A is the first of two SAOCOM 1-series Earth observation satellites designed to provide radar imagery to help emergency responders and monitor the environment, including the collection of soil moisture measurements.
Launch will be live streamed on YouTube starting approximately 15 minutes before launch. Backup launch time is on Thursday.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by julian on Sunday October 07 2018, @09:18PM (7 children)
I'll be driving down to Lompoc to watch it, assuming it doesn't get scrubbed. My plan is to be somewhere around 34°40'13.9"N 120°33'39.3"W which is about 6.3km away from Launch Complex 4. I don't know if the road will be closed but even if I have to watch from just outside Lompoc that's still only around 10km.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Monday October 08 2018, @03:05AM
I'm a frequent traveller but the nearest I have been to a launch is West Palm Beach.
I'm hoping when a Prof. Friend of mine gets another few months in a Cali lab, I'll go "work" from there, and this would be a dream roadtrip!!!
We live in an age of wonders, but nothing is more wonderful than the amazing becoming "routine".
(Score: 2, Informative) by Some call me Tim on Monday October 08 2018, @03:27AM (4 children)
I was on the North end of town and had a great view! The sonic booms were much louder than I expected, very cool to see in person.
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 2) by julian on Monday October 08 2018, @04:17AM (3 children)
The sound is definitely something you have to be there for to appreciate. I've been to a lot of rocket launches, including some SLS launches in Florida, but this was the first time part of the rocket came back. That was the coolest part for me. The double boom when it was landing was great. And the expanding rocket exhaust trail in the upper atmosphere was beautiful.
I was not expecting so many people to turn out. Traffic was terrible, and there were at least 3 major accidents along the way. Police and CHP must hate launch days.
(Score: 2) by Some call me Tim on Saturday October 20 2018, @03:31AM (2 children)
Sorry this took so long, ya traffic was the worst I've seen for a launch. Show up at Hancock College(Lompoc) on Nov 19 and I'll have live countdown audio.
Depending on the time, if it's OMG early thirty you'll be alone LOL. There is also a Delta 4 heavy coming up in late November, that would be worth the trip.
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 2) by julian on Sunday October 21 2018, @04:39AM (1 child)
I live in the Five Cities area, so the drive isn't so bad if traffic is normal. Actually the biggest delay was from a motorcyclist who ate it on the on-ramp right where I tried to get on the freeway. He was still on the road covered in a tarp when I inched by. Then a few more accidents closer to Lompoc going in and leaving slowed things down.
I tried to listen to the SpaceX stream but despite having a full signal I was barely able to get it to load. I don't think the cell network in the area was able to handle all the extra phones. I heard Musk himself was in Lompoc for the launch too, so that didn't help.
I plan on going for the November 19th launch as long as it's not super late. Where do you set up at the college?
(Score: 1) by Some call me Tim on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:13AM
I set up on the left hand side of the parking lot by the fire training facility. Lift off and landing are hidden by a line of trees so you miss the the first and last few seconds of flight but it's a great view and it really wasn't that crowded. Bonus, you have a traffic light to get back on the highway going north.
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday October 08 2018, @04:00AM
These launches look a lot better at night, especially the attitude correction thrusters on the booster.
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