SpaceX is set to launch five more times before the end of 2018, bringing the total for the year to 22 launches. This falls short of a goal of 30 launches that was set previously:
SpaceX's launch manifest for the remainder of 2018 is beginning to take shape. The company has five launches remaining on its schedule for the year. Executing all of them would take SpaceX's 2018 launch total to 22 – surpassing the launch provider's previous record of 18 launches in a single year.
The next mission on SpaceX's manifest is Es'hail 2. Scheduled for no earlier than November 14th, a Falcon 9 will launch the communications spacecraft from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center for the Qatar Satellite Company. [...] The launch will be the first from Pad 39A since Bangabandhu-1 on May 11th of this year. Since then, the launch complex has been undergoing renovations to support NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Notable changes include the addition of a crew access arm and raising of the Emergency Egress System (EES).
[...] Just five days later, a Falcon 9 will launch Spaceflight Industries' SSO-A mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The launch will feature over 70 small payloads. Traditionally, small satellites have either launched on smaller launch vehicles or as rideshares with a larger payload. However, the SSO-A mission will combine numerous smaller payloads into one dedicated launch. Currently, the launch is targeting a liftoff time of 18:30 UTC on November 19th.
Interestingly, SpaceX's Vice President of Mission Assurance, Hans Koneigsmann, stated at the 2018 International Astronautical Congress that the SSO-A mission may feature a first stage booster being flown for the third time. Previously, SpaceX has only flown the same core twice. If SSO-A is the first to feature a milestone third flight of the same booster, then the launch would have to utilize either B1046 or B1048. Those are the only two Block 5 boosters in SpaceX's fleet which have already flown twice. B1048 would be the most likely candidate out of the pair, given that it has already been performing launches out of Vandenberg.
The SSO-A launch carrying 70 small payloads to orbit will be one to watch. The Iridium-8 launch scheduled for December 30 will be SpaceX's final launch for the Iridium NEXT constellation of satellites.
Related: A New Wave Of Satellites In Orbit: Cheap And Tiny, With Short Lifespans
SpaceX Attempts Historic West Coast Landing Tonight -- Successful! [Updated]
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It's one of the most recognizable images in aerospace: Highly specialized workers clad in gowns, hair nets and shoe coverings crawl over a one-of-a-kind satellite the size of a school bus. The months-long process is so delicate that even workers' metal rings must be covered with a translucent tape to prevent static transfer.
Contrast that with how things are done at Planet Labs Inc. in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. Satellites no bigger than a loaf of bread are propped on work benches, tended by technicians wearing simple rubber gloves and light lab coats. Largely using commercially available tech components, they can crank out and test 25 of these pint-sized satellites in a week.
Befitting its location, the Earth-imaging company's approach is more akin to that of a tech start-up than a traditional aerospace firm. Giant satellites might cost north of $1 billion and last for a decade or more. Planet churns out satellites that cost a tiny fraction of that—how much, it won't say—with a lifespan of just two to three years.
[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: 2, Insightful) by kanweg on Tuesday October 23 2018, @04:15PM (5 children)
So SpaceX set a goal of 30, but do "only" 22. Did something go wrong at their end? Too much competition? To little demand?
Bert
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @04:23PM (3 children)
We really had plans to launch several world leaders into orbit, possibly to the ISS, and intentionally "miss" our targets. Unfortunately, the Five Eyes caught on, and put the stops to our plans.
(Score: 1) by DECbot on Tuesday October 23 2018, @04:52PM (2 children)
I just figured you were waiting for stronger boosters to launch them into the sun.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday October 23 2018, @06:34PM (1 child)
The Falcon 9 can already launch a few chosen ones into the sun, and the Falcon Heavy would get us most of the way to getting rid of the worst.
Launching to the sun isn't too hard, if you don't try to brake and achieve some kind of orbit.
But we can save our efforts and money: Trump's latest Treaty moves strive to soon bring Sun-like weather a few thousand feet above Washington DC.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Sulla on Tuesday October 23 2018, @06:56PM
Or you know Russia could have just not violated the treaty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrahMos [wikipedia.org]
I checked various sources on the nuclear viability of the rocket
https://web.archive.org/web/20121220053816/http://en.rian.ru/military_news/20121009/176500812.html [archive.org]
I actually think the bigger thing here is forcing China into the same treaty instead of limiting Russia and India's R&D. Could very well be a US/India ploy to force China into the deal. With Chinese expansion into Mongolia this could also help the Russians.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45939544 [bbc.com]
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday October 23 2018, @05:46PM
The market for larger satellites is flattening. Small satellite launches may be growing. Whereas Rocket Lab might launch a rocket for every small satellite payload, SpaceX is going to put 70 small satellites on a single Falcon 9 in November. That might be an extreme case, but will there be enough small satellite demand and careful planning to repeat that feat throughout 2019 and beyond?
Fully reusable BFR might be able to revive the large satellite market if it can cut the price to significantly below $50 million (total paid by whoever is sharing the rocket). But launches are usually planned at least a year in advance.
SpaceX could become its own biggest "customer" if it starts launching the hundreds and thousands of satellites needed to provide Starlink satellite internet service. But it has only launched a couple of test satellites so far.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @06:21PM (5 children)
Musky bad, Orangina GOOD! Space force! Space force! Don't worry folks, our great Presidentress may have lost his mind with the mental stress of *his* sex change, but he'll get us to victory soon! All the liberal violent MOBS will be put down with extreme prejudice, one might even say extreme bigotry.
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Tuesday October 23 2018, @06:47PM (1 child)
K, do you have NPC poisoning?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @09:40PM
Ever since that new account was created I have such urges to MAGA all over the floor!
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Tuesday October 23 2018, @07:23PM (2 children)
Do liberals like Musk again? Last propaganda I was hearing is that he was evil for supporting Republicans (even though he also supports Democrats).
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday October 23 2018, @07:40PM (1 child)
What are you even talking about, Sulla? Musk left that White House advisory council back in June 2017. I guess you might be referring to this [billboard.com], which is more old and minor shit.
Whatever the case, plenty of liberals and conservatives have reasons to love or hate Musk. Conservatives or Boeing-paid trolls might point to Musk's companies getting "government handouts", for example.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Tuesday October 23 2018, @08:25PM
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-donations-republicans-spark-161225660.html [yahoo.com]
From a couple of months back
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @09:55PM (1 child)
Good thing the atmosphere has the capability of absorbing it without any adverse impact.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 24 2018, @11:52AM
That is why, citizen, you need to get an EV instead of that big 'ol truck. Save the planet and all that, what what.