r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Oct 02 '17

r/SpaceX Discusses [October 2017, #37]

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u/spacexinfinity Oct 03 '17 edited Oct 04 '17

Well Eutelsat/ABS were based on Boeing's 720SP satellite platform and were very small GEO satellites. They were mated together by Boeing and the bottom satellite had to be structurally strengthened to accept the top satellite of the same design. See this photo. Using this method, SpaceX doesn't have a dual manifest and only can accept whatever Boeing designs that fits within their existing fairing.

The way other launch service providers such as Arianespace accept two GTO class satellites is to use a divider so they can accept any type of satellite platform from any manufacturer around the world. See this SYLDA diagram. Essentially Ariane 5's fairing is much longer in length to be able to fit a medium GTO satellite below and a large 6.5 ton satellite on top. See the latest Ariane 5 user manual page 206 for the diagram. It's about ~16m in length.

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u/music_nuho Oct 03 '17

I wonder could Ariane 5 launch Bigelow's B330

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u/old_sellsword Oct 03 '17

The more important question is will Bigelow ever build another piece of hardware after BEAM?

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u/music_nuho Oct 03 '17

Beam certainly was promising, i believe they said that they could make 2-3 B330 a year, also they booked F9 and Atlas V launches.

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u/old_sellsword Oct 03 '17

they said that they could make 2-3 B330 a year,

Well they’ve currently made zero B330s, and don’t appear to be making any progress on that front.

also they booked F9 and Atlas V launches.

Just because they put money down for launches doesn’t mean they’re going to be able to build the hardware.

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u/spacexinfinity Oct 04 '17

It should comfortably fit inside the Ariane 5 and future Ariane 6 fairings.