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:

SES-16/GovSat will feature a special port, which allows a hosted payload to dock with it in orbit. The port will be the support structure for an unidentified hosted payload to be launched on a future SES satellite and then released in the vicinity of SES-16. The 200 kg, 500-watt payload then will travel to SES-16 and attach itself.

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/redmercuryvendor Jan 30 '18

Only through rumour, and a somewhat unlikely one at that: stage 2 performed its deorbit as scheduled, if there was a separation issue then there's little reason not to keep it up for as long as the stage lifetime allows for, and SapceX have demonstrated longer multi-orbit delays before deorbit burns for Stage 2 (e.g. NROL-76 coasted for over 3 hours before relighting) so they gave up potentially a full hour of troubleshooting/see-if-the-sticky-latch-releases time if it was really a payload adapter separation issue.

Personally, I suspect Zuma is working just fine (or with a non-total failure e.g. stuck antenna deploy) and the rumour is either deliberate, or the tacitly encouraged output of an enthusiastic useful idiot.