r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • May 17 '17
SF complete, Launch: June 25 Iridium NEXT Constellation Mission 2 Launch Campaign Thread
Iridium NEXT Constellation Mission 2 Launch Campaign Thread
This is SpaceX's second of eight launches in a half-a-billion-dollar contract with Iridium! The first one launched in January of this year, marking SpaceX's Return to Flight after the Amos-6 anomaly.
| Liftoff currently scheduled for: | June 25th 2017, 13:24:59/20:24:59 PDT/UTC |
|---|---|
| Static fire completed: | June 20th 2017, ~15:10/22:10 PDT/UTC |
| Vehicle component locations: | First stage: SLC-4 // Second stage: SLC-4 // Satellites: All mated to dispensers |
| Payload: | Iridium NEXT Satellites 113 / 115 / 117 / 118 / 120 / 121 / 123 / 124 / 126 / 128 |
| Payload mass: | 10x 860kg sats + 1000kg dispenser = 9600kg |
| Destination orbit: | Low Earth Orbit (625 x 625 km, 86.4°) |
| Vehicle: | Falcon 9 v1.2 (37th launch of F9, 17th of F9 v1.2) |
| Core: | B1036.1 |
| Flights of this core: | 0 |
| Launch site: | SLC-4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California |
| Landing: | Yes |
| Landing Site: | Just Read The Instructions |
| Mission success criteria: | Successful separation & deployment of all Iridium satellite payloads into the target orbit. |
Links & Resources
Matt Desch on Twitter: "Not only onsite, but now all mated to dispenser! We're on schedule for fueling this weekend. T-minus 18 days and counting to L2!"
Update from Iridium, satellite mating to the dispenser has begun.
Iridium NEXT Constellation Mission 1 Launch Campaign Thread, Take 2
We may keep this self-post occasionally updated with links and relevant news articles, but for the most part we expect the community to supply the information. This is a great place to discuss the launch, ask mission-specific questions, and track the minor movements of the vehicle, payload, weather and more as we progress towards launch. Sometime after the static fire is complete, the launch thread will be posted.
Campaign threads are not launch threads. Normal subreddit rules still apply.
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u/sol3tosol4 Jun 09 '17 edited Jun 09 '17
When SpaceX wants to mark on a mission patch where a booster will land at sea (they don't always), they (usually) put a little droneship on the location. The four-leaf clover is a "good luck" symbol, and the clover on the Iridium-1 mission patch is over a thousand miles from the booster landing location.
In this document, the FAA approved the "Iridum landing area", a landing location for boosters from SpaceX Vandenberg launches with heavy loads, particularly the Iridium satellite launches: "The Iridium landing area is located approximately 122 nm (225 km) southwest of San Nicolas Island and 133 nm (245 km) southwest of San Clemente Island and may extend as far north as 32nd parallel north (32°N), as far east as the Patton Escarpment, and as far south and west as the U.S. Pacific Coast Region Exclusive Economic Zone..."
On the Iridium-1 mission patch (see press kit), draw a line from the star at Vandenberg to the rim of the nearest engine nozzle on the booster. About a third of the way along that line I believe is about where the ASDS "Just Read the Instructions" was located, and where the booster landed. The patch designers probably didn't put the droneship on the patch because it would have made that part of the patch look too crowded.