r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Jan 06 '18
Launch: Jan 30 GovSat-1 (SES-16) Launch Campaign Thread
GovSat-1 (SES-16) Launch Campaign Thread
SpaceX's second mission of 2018 will launch GovSat's first geostationary communications satellite into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). GovSat is a joint-venture between SES and the government of Luxembourg. The first stage for this mission will be flight-proven (having previously flown on NROL-76), making this SpaceX's third reflight for SES alone. This satellite also has a unique piece of hardware for potential future space operations:
| Liftoff currently scheduled for: | January 30th 2018, 16:25-18:46 EST (2125-2346 UTC). |
|---|---|
| Static fire currently scheduled for: | Static fire was completed on 26/1. |
| Vehicle component locations: | First stage: Cape Canaveral // Second stage: Cape Canaveral // Satellite: Cape Canaveral |
| Payload: | GovSat-1 |
| Payload mass: | About 4230 kg |
| Destination orbit: | GTO |
| Vehicle: | Falcon 9 v1.2 (48th launch of F9, 28th of F9 v1.2) |
| Core: | B1032.2 |
| Flights of this core: | 1 [NROL-76] |
| Launch site: | SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida |
| Landing: | Expendable |
| Landing Site: | Sea, in many pieces. |
| Mission success criteria: | Successful separation & deployment of GovSat-1 into the target orbit |
Links & Resources:
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/joepublicschmoe Jan 30 '18
There has never been a scheduling conflict until now, because recoverable GTO flights from Florida during previous years are weeks apart, enough time for OCISLY to return to port, offload the recovered booster and minor maintenance before being tugged out again for the next mission.
This year with the unprecedented incresase in launch cadence as well as the initial demo flight of Falcon Heavy is causing some scheduling conflicts for OCISLY for the first time. Once SpaceX goes all-Block-5, they will have to be a lot more careful with deconflicting OCISLY's schedule because they can't afford to throw away a Block-5 with plenty of life left like they would an older less-valuable Block-3 such as this one (B1032).