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SpaceX, Blue Origin to Launch Within Minutes of Each Other on Tuesday (Updated)

posted by takyon on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the busy-space dept.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

SpaceX, Blue Origin to launch within minutes of each other Tuesday

The billionaires' battle for commercial space supremacy continues Tuesday with planned launches from both Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and SpaceX, run by Elon Musk.

Blue Origin only announced the launch window for one of its New Shepard rockets carrying nine NASA-sponsored experiments into space a day ahead of time. Blast-off is set for 8:30 a.m. Central time from the company's west Texas launch facility.

That comes less than 20 minutes after the launch window for a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket opens at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida starting at 9:11 Eastern time. A brand new Block 5 Falcon 9 booster will loft into orbit GPS III SV01, a new, super powerful global positioning system satellite for the US Air Force. You may also hear the satellite called by its nickname, "Vespucci."

And, not to be left out of the fun, Arianespace is set to launch about 2 hours later... and then India's GSLV is set to launch at 10:30 UTC that same day!

Launch Schedule – Spaceflight Now

Update: Double scrubbing has dashed hopes of a 4-launch day.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:46AM (3 children)

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 18 2018, @03:46AM (#775722) Journal

    https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/gps.html [lockheedmartin.com]

    3x more accurate

    Stronger and 8x harder to jam military signal (Russia...Norway....etc.)

    https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/12/16/us-air-force-set-to-launch-1st-next-generation-gps-satellite/ [airforcetimes.com]

    GPS III also will provide a new civilian signal compatible with other countries' navigation satellites, such as the European Union's Galileo system. That means civilian receivers capable of receiving the new signal will have more satellites to lock in on, improving accuracy.

    New L1C civil signal. Sounds like this won't be available until 2022 or later anyway though.

    Still, 3x higher accuracy is going to ruin the whole bounce around the area approach to playing Ingress.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday December 18 2018, @04:23AM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Tuesday December 18 2018, @04:23AM (#775729) Journal

    Still, 3x higher accuracy is going to ruin the whole bounce around the area approach to playing Ingress.

    That's what's important here!

    I would watch this launch's results. Articles like this [spacenews.com] should make us a little nervous.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @06:54AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 18 2018, @06:54AM (#775752)

    Stronger and 8x harder to jam military signal (Russia...Norway....etc.)

    I think you can take it for granted that the US military will never need to block or jam it. The probability that it does not have turn-off or deliberate inaccuracy capability is zero.
    If you meant harder for Russia to block, well yeah, but no big deal, if things get to that point then the nukes aren't far behind, and they don't need GPS.

  • (Score: 2) by Rich on Tuesday December 18 2018, @11:00AM

    by Rich (945) on Tuesday December 18 2018, @11:00AM (#775783) Journal

    GPS III also will provide a new civilian signal compatible with other countries' navigation satellites, such as the European Union's Galileo system. That means civilian receivers capable of receiving the new signal will have more satellites to lock in on, improving accuracy.

    That would mean the US could interfere with Galileo accuracy (or even entire functionality)? Did I understand that right? I thought the French initiated Galileo so the US could not??? I'd bet the Russians wouldn't want such "improvements" in their GLONASS...