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SpaceX Falcon9 Launch Tonight Window: 1700-2055 EDT (2100-0055 UTC)

posted by martyb on Monday July 20 2020, @08:00PM   Printer-friendly

martyb writes:

Launch time: one hour from now: 2100-0055 GMT (5:00-8:55 p.m. EDT)
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Weather Forecast: 70% favorable
Drone Ship: Just Read the Instructions
Fairing Recovery Attempt: Unknown
Live Stream: YouTube (Starts approximately 15 minutes before launch).

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Anasis 2, or KMilSatCom 1, communications satellite for the South Korean military. The spacecraft was built by Airbus Defense and Space. Delayed from July 14. [July 14]

Notable: If successful, at 51 days this would be the fastest turnaround ever for an orbital rocket (beating the 54 day turnaround for the Space Shuttle Atlantis).

Also at Ars Technica.

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  • (Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Monday July 20 2020, @11:48PM (2 children)

    by ElizabethGreene (6748) Subscriber Badge on Monday July 20 2020, @11:48PM (#1024323) Journal

    Mr. Musk described the fairings as “a pallet of cash worth $6 million dollars falling through the sky”. Catching and re-flying them is exceptionally cool.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 20 2020, @11:53PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Monday July 20 2020, @11:53PM (#1024326) Journal

    They are willing to use fairings that made a splash down, for Starlink missions at least.

    https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/04/12/spacex-retrieves-falcon-heavy-fairings-from-sea-for-reuse-on-future-launch/ [spaceflightnow.com]

    SpaceX has recovered numerous fairings from the ocean. The concept of catching the fairing with Mr. Steven was intended to keep the hardware from being damaged by salt water. SpaceX’s experience with refurbishing Dragon cargo capsules that splash down at sea has shown the effort to be time-consuming.

    In recent months, Musk has said cleaning fairings recovered from the ocean may not be a show-stopper to reusing the shroud.

    After Mr. Steven narrowly missed catching a fairing after a Falcon 9 launch from California in December, Musk tweeted: “Falcon fairing halves missed the net, but touched down softly in the water. Mr. Steven is picking them up. Plan is to dry them out & launch again. Nothing wrong with a little swim.”

    But it is better if they hit the net and not the water.

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  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday July 21 2020, @02:58PM

    by Freeman (732) on Tuesday July 21 2020, @02:58PM (#1024591) Journal

    Which is why it's awesome that SpaceX is a private company, that's not working a Cost Plus basis. Why should a Cost Plus contractor care whether they recovered $6M fairings, when they could charge $12M for a new set.

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