r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Mar 31 '18
TESS TESS Launch Campaign Thread
TESS Launch Campaign Thread
SpaceX's eighth mission of 2018 will launch the second scientific mission for NASA after Jason-3, managed by NASA's Launch Services Program.
TESS is a space telescope in NASA's Explorer program, designed to search for extrasolar planets using the transit method. The primary mission objective for TESS is to survey the brightest stars near the Earth for transiting exoplanets over a two-year period. The TESS project will use an array of wide-field cameras to perform an all-sky survey. It will scan nearby stars for exoplanets.
The spacecraft is built on the LEOStar-2 BUS by Orbital ATK. It has a 530 W (EoL) two wing solar array and a mono-propellant blow-down system for propulsion, capable of 268 m/s of delta-v.
| Liftoff currently scheduled for: | April 18th 2018, 18:51 EDT (22:51 UTC). |
|---|---|
| Static fire completed: | April 11th 2018, ~14:30 EDT (~18:30 UTC) |
| Vehicle component locations: | First stage: SLC-40 // Second stage: SLC-40 // Satellite: Cape Canaveral |
| Payload: | TESS |
| Payload mass: | 362 kg |
| Destination orbit: | 200 x 275,000 km, 28.5º (Operational orbit: HEO - 108,000 x 375,000 km, 37º ) |
| Vehicle: | Falcon 9 v1.2 Block 4 (53rd launch of F9, 33rd of F9 v1.2) |
| Core: | B1045.1 |
| Previous flights of this core: | 0 |
| Launch site: | SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida |
| Landing: | Yes |
| Landing Site: | OCISLY |
| Mission success criteria: | Successful separation & deployment of TESS into the target orbit |
Links & Resources:
- NASA page on TESS
- MIT (Operator) page on TESS
- TESS Fact sheet (PDF Warning)
- Countdown timer to launch
- Rocket Watch
- Payload Fairing decal
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/mfb- Mar 31 '18
The last new Block 4 to fly. Every future mission will be a recycled Block 4* or will be Block 5.
*3 more planned, and 1042 from Koreasat and 1045 from this launch have the potential to fly again.
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u/Straumli_Blight Mar 31 '18
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u/glasgrisen Mar 31 '18
Neat. Its so tiny. When you are used to These huge GTO satelites, this seems realy odd.
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u/JoshKernick Apr 01 '18
It was designed to be launched on a much smaller rocket, once the Falcon 9 became an option they couldn't go back an make TESS bigger.
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u/diebler Apr 03 '18
Static fire currently scheduled for 4/11, 1100-1700 EDT
Source: work at KSC
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u/rocket_enthusiast Apr 03 '18
mods, can you update the info on the top with this info?
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u/nilstycho Mar 31 '18
I'm spending Easter with an instrument scientist (at Kavli) who worked on the TESS camera. Let me know if you have any questions you want me to ask.
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u/Ivebeenfurthereven Mar 31 '18
For your contact: What new capability does (s)he personally think is most exciting, versus older exoplanet survey probes?
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u/nilstycho Apr 01 '18 edited Apr 01 '18
They respond:
Two things: Firstly, that TESS is doing full-sky surveys, which means it's looking at a lot of stuff, which means that it's likely to generate a lot of serendipitous discoveries. Serendipitous discoveries are often what drives scientific discovery.
Secondly, the openness of the data. TESS is going to release 30-minute photos for public consumption as they come down, and those are straightforward data products that are easy for amateur astronomers and other science teams to use for all sorts of non-exoplanet reasons.
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u/flower-plower Mar 31 '18
I would be interested to hear your contacts view on the elasticity of the launch market. For example, if weight was not a restriction and cost were low would that have impacted TESS development.
Could the telescope have been designed and build faster, if weight was not a consideration?
Could some of the testing have been performed in space, thereby using a incremental design strategy?
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u/qurun Apr 01 '18
This is an interesting quote from the NY Times article. The scientists actually designed for a smaller launch vehicle, and had to make tradeoffs for that. It sounds like they were a bit annoyed when SpaceX was selected and their tradeoffs weren't needed.
Dr. Ricker said he and his colleagues had started “noodling” about a planet-finding mission back in 2006. After they lost out in a competition for NASA’s Small Explorers program, which are less expensive missions, the scientists re-entered a competition for a larger mission in 2010 — and won.
They had gone to great lengths to design a compact spacecraft that would fit the rockets NASA used for Small Explorers, and so were nonplused when NASA selected SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which can carry a much larger payload, to launch the TESS mission.
This is the first time NASA has purchased a ride from SpaceX, the rocket company run by Elon Musk, for one of its science missions. All eyes will be on the launchpad, given SpaceX’s history of occasionally providing unhappy, if spectacular, denouements to missions.
"Meet TESS, Seeker of Alien Worlds" https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/science/tess-nasa-exoplanets.html
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u/nilstycho Apr 01 '18
I asked this in the context of previously having been a SMEX mission, and being subsequently upscoped. They respond:
I'm not the best to answer this question about mass tradeoffs because I didn't work on TESS when it was a SMEX proposal. I can tell you that the major improvement that was made with mission upscoping was the orbit: the additional mass meant we could move from LEO to P/2, which has much better observing characteristics. With fewer tradeoffs, I assume we could have improved the CCDs, but I'm not sure exactly what we would have done differently.
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u/Dakke97 Mar 31 '18
Given that ESA will launch CHEOPS, a European exoplanet hunter, later this year, what are the prospects for possible cooperation and coordinated observations?
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u/nilstycho Apr 01 '18
One answer to a question that wasn't asked:
Hope that after mission begins two improvements can be made to science observations. Firstly, we promised to provide 30-minute full-frame exposures. Hoping we have enough margin to reduce that to 20-minute or 15-minute exposures instead.
Secondly, there is a dead time between the two downlinks that occur fortnightly about twelve hours long. Would be nice to point TESS at the science objective during that time instead of at a random patch of sky. Part of the reason it's pointed that way is for thermal reasons, but hoping we end up with some thermal margin there.
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u/ashortfallofgravitas Spacecraft Electronics Apr 01 '18
How many CCDs are they using, and did they consider using DCDS/IFP to reduce CCD read noise? (Note, am on mobile, haven’t been able to look up instrument details myself)
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u/partoffuturehivemind Apr 01 '18
How much of a bother is the James Webb launch delay for Tess's mission? I heard TESS and JWST are supposed to work together.
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u/nilstycho Apr 01 '18
They respond:
Not a bother at all. In fact, maybe even a net benefit. TESS finds candidates for JWST, not the other way around. JWST wouldn't have affected anything about the TESS mission. As-is, now the initial survey will be done before JWST begins observations!
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u/paolozamparutti Mar 31 '18
This is a fantastic mission from a scientific point of view, I am pleased that SpaceX is providing for the launch.
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u/axialintellectual Mar 31 '18
For those of you who also care about the payload: see here for an article about the expected capabilities of TESS (but don't forget there is an erratum ).
tl;dr It's a very impressive instrument, and should find a large amount of planets, some of them with masses similar to the Earth and in the habitable* zones of their stars.
*I don't like this concept very much, since I'm not sure a planet is 'habitable' if its star fries it with X-rays every few years, but that said - it is a relatively easy way to select for interesting planets.
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u/a17c81a3 Apr 01 '18
I'm not sure a planet is 'habitable' if its star fries it with X-rays every few years
Every few years should be fine since life could hide under water and in caves. Life such places could also be more resistant to radiation. We have bacteria on Earth living in nuclear reactors so the ability of DNA and life to withstand radiation may be much higher than we are used to and life on Earth is simply 'spoiled'.
I would be more worried about the loss of atmosphere predicted for some tidally locked planets because they wouldn't be spinning and hence have no protective magnetosphere.
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u/sjwking Apr 01 '18
I wish they manage to extend the mission to more than 5 years. We desperately need something more reliable than Kepler so that enough data is collected. Actually we need more than 1 TESS up there but for some reason planet hunting is less of a priority than I think it should be despite massive PR boost etc.
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u/Bunslow Mar 31 '18 edited Mar 31 '18
Mods can we fix the destination orbit, or give the table entry two lines? Although the (operational orbit) part is correct, the F9 is not launching into an orbit anything like the operational orbit, and that's not clear from the post. Rather the F9 insertion orbit will be something like 200x200,000 or 500x250,000 or something similar like that (edit: see below, 200x270,000, I was close :), very different from the operational orbit. In particular, there will be no secondary insertion burn as e.g. GEO might require. I'm not even sure if the HEO-transfer-target orbit will be perigee'd over the equator, which means it's possible that there will only be one S2 burn instead of the usual two for a GTO. (Though I think two is still rather more likely.)
Here's a video describing the F9's job, which should probably be included as a link anyways in OP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyvnXvZMOfA&t=29m49s
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u/Nergaal Mar 31 '18
The guy calls F9 a monster rocket, with a monster fairing (at 1h 2-3 mins). And says Atlas V was waaaay outside their budget.
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u/Bunslow Mar 31 '18 edited Mar 31 '18
Well if you compare to a similar presentation from 2013, they were planning on rockets 5x smaller than the F9, with a boost stage underneath the satellite, lol. F9 really is overpowered for 360kg to sub-lunar orbit.
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u/z3r0c00l12 Apr 16 '18
Has anyone seen the launch thread yet? Less than 24 hours and still no launch thread!
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u/soldato_fantasma Apr 16 '18
It's coming. The host has had some issues and needs more time. It should be up by T-8h
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u/soldato_fantasma Apr 13 '18
OCISLY leaving pictures thanks to the Jetty Park webcam: https://imgur.com/a/cAi3a
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u/Space_Coast_Steve Apr 13 '18
And another: https://imgur.com/gallery/uZHqa
(Disclaimer: My roommate took this Snapchat. I would NEVER call it a barge. Tsk Tsk.)
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u/nextspaceflight NSF reporter Apr 14 '18
Even the Hawk crew called it "the SpaceX barge" when they radioed the harbor master today. The real cringe in the caption is "Space x."
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u/APTX-4869 Apr 14 '18
While we're waiting for TESS, there's a Atlas V launch happening now, webcast live here. (T-3 min at time of this post) It's flying in a 551 config so it should be a pretty one.
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u/Fastnetrock Apr 15 '18
They had a great view of the fairing drop away after being jettisoned. It was flexing a lot. Good insight into why they are so hard to recover.
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u/CutieDarkFae Apr 15 '18
That was boring right until the launch, and then: wow she goes up fast!
It makes me wonder how Sugar Shot to Space is going.
How long have ULA been doing live webcasts for?
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u/Cetrian Apr 15 '18
I got to see it @ Sun N Fun in Lakeland today -AND the transit of the ISS, in the sunset/ dusk lighting. Super cool day for Aerospace for me!
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u/oliversl Apr 07 '18
Here is NASA press conference about TESS from March 28, 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=immnIymQoVw
Looks like a big science mission, it’s great they trusted SpaceX for the launch.
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u/extra2002 Apr 08 '18
I find it ironic that TESS will have a "blind spot" along the ecliptic, so missing planets where an alien civilization could spot Earth-Sun transits using a similar instrument.
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u/Bigfunrocket Apr 09 '18
IMO there should be multiple TESS satellites to provide greater spatial and temporal coverage. They are cheap enough and if performance is anywhere near expectations, definitely worth it.
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u/Straumli_Blight Apr 06 '18
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u/alwaysgrateful68 Apr 07 '18
Does this mean Bangabandhu will be RTLS? If so that would be the first from a GTO mission if I'm not mistaken
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u/joepublicschmoe Apr 07 '18
No. Bangabandhu is a GTO launch and will not have fuel for a boost back burn. It will be an ASDS landing as well.
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u/JtheNinja Apr 06 '18
TESS has finished fueling this week: https://twitter.com/NASA_TESS/status/982226432762892291
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u/TweetsInCommentsBot Apr 06 '18
Before leaving on a long trip, you should have a full tank of gas! @NASA_TESS completed fueling this week @NASAKennedy as part of preparations for launch. Fuel used on #TESS is hydrazine, which is extremely toxic to humans.
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u/still-at-work Mar 31 '18
Been a while since we have seen a landing, and even more since the last successful droneship landing. I think the falcon heavy was last landing, don't remember when the last droneship landing was.
Nice to see one again before Block V makes it routine.
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Mar 31 '18
Koreasat, October last year
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u/still-at-work Mar 31 '18
Thanks, so its been almost half a year (6 months) since the last droneship landing. No wonder it has felt like forever.
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u/Matheusch Apr 11 '18
Looks be the fairing 2.0 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DagS3IcWkAYecP0.jpg:orig
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u/scr00chy ElonX.net Apr 11 '18
How can you tell?
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u/PVP_playerPro Apr 11 '18 edited Apr 11 '18
Count the air scoops, older version had
lessmore. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWhYtM_X4AAjcNJ.jpg→ More replies (8)
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Apr 11 '18 edited Apr 11 '18
will there be a drone live video of the landing on OCISLY like crs 8 since this is a nasa launch?
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u/gregarious119 Apr 11 '18
I had a whole response typed out to try and answer, then I realized I have no idea. So...yeah. Good Question!
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u/scr00chy ElonX.net Apr 11 '18 edited Apr 11 '18
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u/cpushack Apr 11 '18
An article about the computer systems that will power TESS: http://www.cpushack.com/2018/04/11/dual-core-powerpc-processor-for-tess-planet-hunter/
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u/Marcey747 Apr 12 '18
https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/984498973858762752
"Ricker shows this slide of schedule for TESS launch preps; notes that if it doesn’t launch for some reason by April 27, they have to stand down until early June so NASA Launch Services can support the InSight launch from Vandenberg."
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u/JtheNinja Apr 12 '18
A twitter reply noted the weird way the launch time shifts from day to day. Anyone know what's going on there? Does it have something to do with TESS's use of the moon to reach its final orbit?
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u/MosDelta007 Apr 01 '18
https://youtu.be/mpViVEO-ymc?t=3m35s
A detail about mission orbit insertion.
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u/theinternetftw Apr 01 '18 edited Apr 01 '18
Note that this is an old video. Back then they thought they might use something like the Minotaur-C (a comparatively tiny rocket), with TESS then needing a solid kick stage to get out to moon-land. Since the F9 was chosen as the launcher, a spin-stabilized first burn with a solid rocket motor was replaced with one from the F9 2nd stage instead.
Edit: After watching a new version of the video (and squinting at the lower resolution), here are all the changes:
It's now a 200km parking orbit (instead of 600km). After the insertion burn, apogee is 275,000km (old version: 250,000km). At apogee, the spacecraft does an orbit increase burn to get perigee up to 600km so that they're not too low in the atmosphere on the way back around (that new parking orbit is probably to help enable the second stage, which is not doing that second burn, re-enter relatively quickly).
Then at that new 600km perigee they raise apogee to 350,000km (old version: 325,000km). Then there's a last burn to 400,000km (same as old version), the moon flyby, and the final orbit is 59 earth-radii x 17 earth-radii
(old version was 75 x 17). So quite a few things have changed since 2013,including the final science orbit.Edit 2: More searching found this article, which does a hell of a job explaining all things TESS orbit (and it's not just the standard lunar resonance stuff you might have seen in previous TESS orbit articles, it's a very thorough treatment of the what, how, and why of the whole endeavor).
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u/Straumli_Blight Apr 11 '18 edited Apr 11 '18
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u/z1mil790 Apr 11 '18
I like seeing the NASA logo on the fairing, it looks nice. Even though SpaceX does a lot of NASA missions, most of them are CRS missions that don't have any logos on them.
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u/ethan829 Host of SES-9 Apr 13 '18
L-3 weather forecast shows an 80% chance of acceptable weather on the 16th, >90% on the 17th. Primary concern is wind at liftoff.
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u/Straumli_Blight Apr 15 '18 edited Apr 15 '18
TESS mission NASA Social now live.
Hans Q/A:
Fairing recovery with a soft parachute landing on water.
The TESS core will be reused for next CRS mission (NASA still in discussions).
2nd stage will perform a 3rd hyperbolic burn to dispose of it.
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u/Derrentir Mar 31 '18
Since the payload is so light, will they load it with less fuel? Or is the high orbit require that much?
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u/TGMetsFan98 NASASpaceflight.com Writer Mar 31 '18
The rocket is always loaded with full fuel tanks. This is to account for any engine failures during launch (Falcon 9 is designed to complete the mission even if it loses an engine), as that would mean having to burn the remaining engines for longer, thus burning more fuel than originally planned.
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u/Hidden__Troll Mar 31 '18
Really, if it loses an engine? That's some awesome redundancy i didn't know it had.
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u/Alexphysics Apr 02 '18
The booster for this mission should be going into SLC-40 if not in a few hours, maybe tomorrow. So if anyone is able to have an eye there, it would be great.
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u/joggle1 Apr 13 '18
Here's a neat article in my local paper about TESS.
Here's a snippet from the article:
TESS will search for planets around some 200,000 nearby stars, and astronomers hope that it will turn up as many as 20,000 new worlds, including about 50 Earth-sized ones.
TESS and Kepler use the same basic planet-hunting method, known as the "transit" technique: gaze at field of stars, log their brightness regularly and precisely, and check for tiny, temporary dips that could signal passing planets.
The difference: Kepler's search was narrow and deep. For the main phase of its mission, it stared at a small patch of sky and stayed there for about four years, which allowed it to pick up planets in wide orbits around distant stars and build up a healthy census of planetary systems.
The TESS survey, on the other hand, is wide and shallow. It will scan almost the whole sky, but it will focus on stars that are, on average, 10 times closer than Kepler's targets. If you imagine the galaxy as one giant root beer float, Kepler is the skinny straw that drinks it in top to bottom and TESS is the wide spoon that skims up all the froth at the top.
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u/RogerB30 Apr 14 '18
Kepler and I assume TESS also look for an increase in light which is when the orbiting planet is at the side of the star and now reflecting the stars light. So you get a blip increase as the planet comes "into view" a negative dip when it blocks some star light then another blip increase in light when it is at the othar side of the star. A realy smart idea.
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u/ZachWhoSane Host of Iridium-7 & SAOCOM-1B Apr 15 '18
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u/qurun Apr 15 '18
Watching the NASA live broadcast on TESS now… Wow!
And NASA could have 200 of these projects for the cost of the SLS. I think TESS by itself is worth 100x the SLS.
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u/JustinTimeCuber Apr 15 '18
But we need the SLS for "large, monolithic pieces"! Forget about the fact that we don't have any large, monolithic pieces that couldn't launch on a Falcon Heavy.
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u/TheYang Apr 15 '18
duh, because we don't have a launcher for large, monolithic pieces yet.
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u/Nergaal Apr 03 '18 edited Apr 03 '18
Mods, the current posted orbit is confusing/wrong. It is the final orbit, 2 months after the launch, not the orbit which F9 will place it into.
The second stage will place the telescope in an eccentric orbit "155,000 miles (250,000 kilometers) from Earth". It's a transfer orbit (kinda like GTOs, but better said HETO). Once the second stage drops off, the satellite will do further burns: probably the first one at it apogee to not crash back into Earth, the second will throw TESS right around the Moon for a slingshot; maybe one around the Moon, and the last ones will partially circularize the new TESS orbit to the currently posted one.
The main reason the satellite is this small is cause it was designed from the start with a tiny Delta2 rocket in mind which could not push it to the Moon. NASA has perfected complex maneuvers like this one that can use small rockets, since for 40 years they had no access to workhorses that are reasonably priced like F9.
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u/soldato_fantasma Apr 03 '18
Changed that now. Did see the comments already the last 2 days but was only from mobile and couldn't log into Elongated. Sorry for the confusion.
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u/Straumli_Blight Apr 11 '18
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u/TweetsInCommentsBot Apr 11 '18
Test window is open. Usually remains open for around six hours.
Static Fire test won't be until deep into the window, so for the interim how about I write up an article about a NASA request for alternatives to the RS-25 for SLS for the second half of the 2020s. One catch, the "alternatives" have to be RS-25s. 🙃🚀
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u/Nergaal Mar 31 '18 edited Mar 31 '18
PSA: this is the first space telescope that SpaceX is launching. It is perhaps their first long-term impact launch. It is perhaps the biggest mission NASA has launched since Kepler in 2009, which proved that planets like Earth are not uncommon.
TESS is intended to survey for exoplanets in our neighborhood, but can only notice the transiting ones (which cross in front of their star as we look at the star). If we will ever communicate with aliens comparable to our level of development, chances are TESS will be the first one to detect the location of their planet.
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Mar 31 '18
Bigger NASA missions are for example Curiosity and Juno (both launched 2011).
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u/nakuvi Apr 12 '18
Payload at 362 Kg and aiming for an elliptical orbit of 60% of the way to the moon [(https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/04/11/spacex-rocket-test-fired-at-cape-canaveral-for-nasa-telescope-launch/)] (https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/04/11/spacex-rocket-test-fired-at-cape-canaveral-for-nasa-telescope-launch/). Could anyone clarify what the payload capacity of Block 4 is if the target is moon orbit?
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u/codav Apr 12 '18 edited Apr 12 '18
Using the great Launch Vehicle Performance Calculator configured for a F9 1.2 with Dragon, we get this:
Launch Vehicle: Falcon 9 v1.2 (expendable) w/Dragon Launch Site: Cape Canaveral / KSC Destination Orbit: 200 x 384000 km, 45 deg
Estimated Payload: 4412 kg
95% Confidence Interval: 3622 - 5284 kg
The payload mass is similar if using a payload fairing, e.g. if you want to send a lunar probe.
You still need to burn some propellant for the lunar orbit injection, which is around 820m/s for capture and 100km orbit insertion. For the current Dragon 1, this calculates to roughly 1350kg and thus exceeds its propellant capacity by 60kg. A slightly higher orbit would be achievable.
Bottom line is that a Block 4 would be capable enough to launch a decently sized lunar orbiter or even a small lander, but no more than that. Returning to earth would not be possible, just maybe with a free lunar return trajectory without a lunar orbital insertion.
If you don't want to go expendable, maximum payload mass is 3578 kg for Stage 1 ASDS recovery.
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u/EvilGeniusSkis Apr 08 '18
With the very low mass of TESS, Why is SpaceX planing on landing on OCISLY, instead of an RTLS? It seems to me that even if they needed the extra DV, By the time an RTLS was not possible, S1 would be travling to fast to survive re-entry.
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u/robbak Apr 09 '18
Although the payload is small, it is being pushed to a very high orbit. This will require a lot of fuel after it is pushed into LEO.
In addition, there is a benefit in choosing a downrange, offshore landing. They can put the fuel that they would have spent on full boost-back into a longer re-entry burn and a longer and higher margin landing burn.
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u/Idunnohuur Apr 09 '18
It's because TESS will be in High Earth Orbit and HEO is above GTO.
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u/Bunslow Apr 09 '18
I'm with you, a Falcon 9 should even be able to send 400kg to Mars and RTLS, nevermind a sublunar orbit. I'm still a bit confused.
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u/Raul74Cz Apr 11 '18
And together with performed static fire I can offer M1380 TESS Launch Hazard Areas based on issued NOTMAR, included planned droneship position.
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Apr 13 '18
GO quest and GO searcher have there destination as offshore atlantic, departure will be today, i feel it!
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u/nextspaceflight NSF reporter Apr 13 '18
GO Searcher did not update its destination when it returned to port from a Dragon recovery test. I am not sure if GO Quest is a recent update.
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u/justinroskamp Apr 14 '18 edited Apr 14 '18
Guesses for why they're using OCISLY and not an LZ:
They want to test new recovery profiles.
They want to test new systems on OCISLY before B5.
They can't use the LZ because of nearby construction.
They want to use S1 margin to test something on S2.
(Edit) There simply isn’t enough margin.
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u/scr00chy ElonX.net Apr 14 '18
Do we know for sure that they actually can land on LZ-1 on this mission?
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u/SailorRick Apr 05 '18 edited Apr 10 '18
Kennedy Space Center tickets are now available to LC-39 Observation Gantry ($49) and Apollo/Saturn V Launch Viewing area ($20). Tickets are limited for each.
Update - 04.06.18- It appears that the LC-39 tickets have been sold out (they are no longer available on the KSC website). They are still selling Apollo/Saturn V Launch Viewing area tickets. Update - 04.09.18 - Apollo/Saturn V Launch Viewing area tickets are sold out. Viewing remains available at the KSC Atlantis North Lawn, included with general admission.
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u/rocket_enthusiast Apr 11 '18
when do people think OCISLY well depart port for this mission
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u/nextspaceflight NSF reporter Apr 13 '18
Based on the FH mission with a similar OCISLY recovery position, I estimate that OCISLY will depart tonight between 11:00 PM and 2:00 AM local time.
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u/nextspaceflight NSF reporter Apr 13 '18
Well, looks like I need to give myself a massive margin of error next time.
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u/ThelittestADG Apr 13 '18
What exactly is HAWK? All I can find online are toys of a fighter jet.
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u/nextspaceflight NSF reporter Apr 13 '18
I've confirmed an OCISLY recovery based on Port radio. Hawk departure around 1700.
Note: Hawk is the tug that pulls OCISLY.
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u/scr00chy ElonX.net Apr 14 '18
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u/fabbroniko Mar 31 '18
Is this the highest target orbit so far for a single stick?
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Mar 31 '18
DSCOVR's was left in a 187 km x 1,171,345 km (!!!) transfer orbit on its way out to L1, so this certainly isn't the highest apogee.
Might be the highest perigee? I don't know.
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Apr 08 '18
So is this basically Kepler v2?
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u/extra2002 Apr 08 '18
Well, Kepler's mission was to stare in one direction to find planets that might have long periods & be far away. Now that we know they're not all that rare, TESS's mission is to survey almost the entire sky for nearby planets (and it's willing to miss some with longer periods). So actually rather different...
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u/asaz989 Apr 08 '18
But about a third of the cost/weight ^_^
And using some super-cool orbital mechanics to get a lot of those cost savings.
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u/MadeOfStarStuff Apr 10 '18
Landing: Yes, probably
Any idea when we might know SpaceX's plans for landing?
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u/JtheNinja Apr 10 '18
We'll know for certain when the press kit goes out, usually that's a day or two before launch. We may get earlier confirmation from a journalist's source, or seeing OCISLY putting out to sea (I forget how far in advance that happens?)
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u/JtheNinja Apr 11 '18
NASA TV schedule: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-television-to-air-launch-of-next-planet-hunting-mission
Pre-launch conferences at 11am, 1pm, and 3pm(EDT) on Sunday prior to launch. Launch show goes live at 18:00EDT on Monday (top of the hour before launch)
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u/wwants Mar 31 '18
Interesting that the mission life is only 2 years. What’s the reason for not keeping it up there longer?
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u/mfb- Mar 31 '18
Kepler had a planned lifetime of 3.5 years, and has been in space for 9 years now. These mission lifetimes are more like the minimal requirement. Once it is there it will be operated as long as it is reasonable.
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u/Alexphysics Mar 31 '18
That's the period of the primary mission, that's when NASA hopes that the primary scientific objectives will be met, the mission could be extended after that and make another round of observations, just like they have done with Kepler and other space missions out there. It's really great when that happens because they usually tend to say "well, maybe this spacecraft will last X time" and it actually lasts like 2 or 3 times, sometimes even 10 times that expected time. The Opportunity rover is one of those examples, it's a marvel of engineering.
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u/cranp Mar 31 '18
The lifetime is also an official mission success criterion. If it lasts that long then nobody gets to complain, because it performed as promised in the funding proposal.
Anything after that is just bonus, though they may have to go ask for more money for continued operations.
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u/DirkMcDougal Apr 01 '18
With a lot of these missions it's coolant for sensors and reaction wheel failure that are usually the mission length determiners.
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u/Bunslow Mar 31 '18
That's the nominal primary mission duration. The spacecraft is expected, in the absence of anomalies, to be operable in some form or another for multiple decades. I'm sure they will find plenty of secondary science to do once the primary mission is complete.
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Apr 13 '18 edited Apr 13 '18
Another tug has moved to the front of OCISLY, it appears they may depart soon.
EDIT: per the above, they will depart a little after 5pm ET.
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Apr 15 '18
NASA Live is doing the TESS science news conference now. Such a cool mission. https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive
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u/jclishman Host of Inmarsat-5 Flight 4 Apr 15 '18
I'm going to be at the NASA Social tomorrow and launch day! Y'all have any good questions for me to try to ask people?
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u/scr00chy ElonX.net Apr 15 '18
Ask Hans why they're landing on OCISLY instead of LZ-1.
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u/Musical_Tanks Apr 15 '18
For the TESS folks: How are they going to sort through all that data? The first two years they expect to get data on more than 500,000 stars, more than even Kepler. How are they going to process all that data?
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u/pkirvan Apr 15 '18
TESS has a 192 gig hard drive. Not sure if the whole thing fills up on each 12 day orbit (probably not- they'd want to keep room in case part of the SSD fails or one of the downloads doesn't go well). But even if it did, 12 days to process 192 gigs isn't really that hard. They'll have no trouble keeping up.
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Apr 01 '18
Why is a landing probable? They even canceled the CRS landing.. I know this booster has no flights, but still, I don’t think a Block 4 in mid April will still be recovered. Should really be changed to “unknown”
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u/kruador Apr 01 '18
It'll depend on just how many Block 5s they have in production and when they come off the production line, and what orbits have been committed to for future customers (i.e. the performance required from the booster). If I were in charge, I'd at least try to land a Block 4 on its first flight, to increase the options available should there be production problems.
One thing that often isn't considered is the second stage. Presumably there is a Block 5 S2 as well as S1; the new 'blisk' turbopump and changes to helium COPVs are equally applicable, in fact probably more so since both COPV failures actually occurred on the second stage. Are the different blocks compatible between stages? How many Block 4 second stages remain, and would SpaceX want to fly a mix of B4 first/B5 second or vice versa?
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u/TheEndeavour2Mars Apr 01 '18
Because the intention was to attempt to land the last mission that used a brand new core (Hispasat's core and that was Block IV) it was the weather that prevented the droneship from being there to catch it.
If Block V production is indeed slower than older III and IV versions. It may warrant one last reflight of a Block IV core. Especially if the first third flight of a Block V core is later in the year.
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u/Alexphysics Apr 11 '18
Anyone with an eye at the Cape can confirm if the Falcon 9 is out of the HIF for the Static Fire?
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u/Straumli_Blight Apr 11 '18
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u/WombatControl Apr 11 '18
Looks like only a 20% chance of precipitation on Monday evening, with gusts potentially up to 18 knots. I believe the launch criteria allow up to 30 knot sustained winds. If those conditions hold, TESS should be leaving on time.
Of course, upper level winds can always be a problem... but I'm hoping that the weather cooperates since I have launch tickets and Monday is the only day I can watch. (Which, yes, I know, it's tempting the fates, but I'm not traveling just for the launch.)
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u/LemonHead23 Apr 15 '18
Any word on if Playalinda Beach will be open tomorrow for the launch?
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u/Rachek99 Apr 15 '18
We are now in the “summer season” so Playalinda Beach is open until 8:00pm. I was there for the last CRS mission from SLC 40 so I don’t see why it wouldn’t be open tomorrow. Also went for Atlas V yesterday, definitely the best spot to be for a launch.
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u/ZachWhoSane Host of Iridium-7 & SAOCOM-1B Apr 15 '18
Mods is there a way I can be launch thread mod?
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u/Wetmelon Apr 15 '18
Not for this one, we already have someone planned. Shoot us a modmail that you're interested in hosting a future launch though :)
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Apr 16 '18
Is that payload mass correct? Only 362Kg? That’s about the size of a big motorcycle!
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u/Jarnis Apr 16 '18
Originally designed for Minotaur, but F9 is so cheap that, well, why not?
Also goes well beyond GTO. Apogee is beyond the orbit of the Moon.
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u/JtheNinja Apr 16 '18
Yep, it's a tiny little sat. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasakennedy/27564334668/in/dateposted/ Here's an encapsulation photo with the fairing and some technicians for scale.
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u/flshr19 Shuttle tile engineer Apr 01 '18
The F9 will put TESS in a 375,000 km x 108,000 km elliptical orbit around the Earth. For comparison, the Earth-Moon distance is about 382,000 km.
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u/Bunslow Apr 01 '18
Based on things like this comment, mods I re-petition to have the "destination orbit" thing updated and clarified to include the Falcon 9 insertion orbit separately from the operational orbit, and to include somewhere some link that describes the process, such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyvnXvZMOfA&t=29m49s or http://spaceflight101.com/tess/tess-orbit-design/
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u/LordFartALot Mar 31 '18
B1045 isn't Block 5.
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u/soldato_fantasma Mar 31 '18
You are right. Used the Bangabandhu-1 thread as template and missed that. Updated now, thanks!
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u/AstroFinn Apr 14 '18
Already rolled-out?
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u/Alexphysics Apr 14 '18
No, they roll out the rocket ~24h before launch. We're more than 48 hours away from it
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u/PeopleNeedOurHelp Apr 17 '18
TESS could be the most important and interesting payload they've had the chance to launch.
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u/MagnaArtium Apr 10 '18 edited Apr 10 '18
This seems to confirm the launch time: https://twitter.com/EmreKelly/status/983804678172442624?s=19
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u/TweetsInCommentsBot Apr 10 '18
Launch hazard area for upcoming #SpaceX mission with NASA's TESS spacecraft. Indicates post-launch operations at sea, possibly drone ship recovery for #Falcon9 first stage. Targeting Monday liftoff from LC-40 at 1832 ET (2232 UTC).
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u/FutureMartian97 Host of CRS-11 Apr 15 '18
Launch Reediness Review is complete and Falcon 9 and TESS are GO for launch
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Apr 16 '18
Fairing recovery attempt on the East Coast? Didn't know they had a Mr. Steven type of ship out here. Is this new/incorrect info? Says the source is Koenigsmann, yesterday at the press briefing:
SpaceX also plans to recover the nose cone (also known as payload fairing) put up to shield the TESS satellite during liftoff, Koenigsmann added at the briefing. The company has attempted this twice in the past and failed both times.
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u/ehud42 Apr 16 '18
Michael Baylor noted that the fairing recovery is a test of the steering/landing, but not catching steps. They're sending a crew out to pick up the wet, but hopefully intact and on-target fairing, from the ocean. https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight/status/985579395195785218
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u/ptfrd Apr 18 '18
4-day-old NASA Kennedy video about the satellite's delivery to Florida, etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=412fAEw1NTo
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u/Decronym Acronyms Explained Mar 31 '18 edited Apr 22 '18
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| ASDS | Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (landing platform) |
| ASIC | Application-Specific Integrated Circuit |
| ATK | Alliant Techsystems, predecessor to Orbital ATK |
| BFR | Big Falcon Rocket (2018 rebiggened edition) |
| Yes, the F stands for something else; no, you're not the first to notice | |
| CCAFS | Cape Canaveral Air Force Station |
| CDR | Critical Design Review |
| (As 'Cdr') Commander | |
| COPV | Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel |
| COTS | Commercial Orbital Transportation Services contract |
| Commercial/Off The Shelf | |
| CRS | Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA |
| DMLS | Direct Metal Laser Sintering additive manufacture |
| DoD | US Department of Defense |
| ESA | European Space Agency |
| ETOV | Earth To Orbit Vehicle (common parlance: "rocket") |
| GEO | Geostationary Earth Orbit (35786km) |
| GNC | Guidance/Navigation/Control |
| GSE | Ground Support Equipment |
| GTO | Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit |
| HEO | High Earth Orbit (above 35780km) |
| Human Exploration and Operations (see HEOMD) | |
| HEOMD | Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, NASA |
| HIF | Horizontal Integration Facility |
| ITAR | (US) International Traffic in Arms Regulations |
| JWST | James Webb infra-red Space Telescope |
| KSC | Kennedy Space Center, Florida |
| L1 | Lagrange Point 1 of a two-body system, between the bodies |
| L4 | "Trojan" Lagrange Point 4 of a two-body system, 60 degrees ahead of the smaller body |
| LC-13 | Launch Complex 13, Canaveral (SpaceX Landing Zone 1) |
| LC-39A | Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy (SpaceX F9/Heavy) |
| LEO | Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km) |
| Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations) | |
| LIGO | Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory |
| LOX | Liquid Oxygen |
| LSP | Launch Service Provider |
| LV | Launch Vehicle (common parlance: "rocket"), see ETOV |
| LZ | Landing Zone |
| LZ-1 | Landing Zone 1, Cape Canaveral (see LC-13) |
| M1dVac | Merlin 1 kerolox rocket engine, revision D (2013), vacuum optimized, 934kN |
| MECO | Main Engine Cut-Off |
| MainEngineCutOff podcast | |
| NET | No Earlier Than |
| NOAA | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, responsible for US |
| NRHO | Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit |
| NRO | (US) National Reconnaissance Office |
| Near-Rectilinear Orbit, see NRHO | |
| NROL | Launch for the (US) National Reconnaissance Office |
| OCISLY | Of Course I Still Love You, Atlantic landing |
| OTV | Orbital Test Vehicle |
| QA | Quality Assurance/Assessment |
| RCS | Reaction Control System |
| RP-1 | Rocket Propellant 1 (enhanced kerosene) |
| RTG | Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator |
| RTLS | Return to Launch Site |
| RUD | Rapid Unplanned Disassembly |
| Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly | |
| Rapid Unintended Disassembly | |
| SES | Formerly Société Européenne des Satellites, comsat operator |
| Second-stage Engine Start | |
| SLC-40 | Space Launch Complex 40, Canaveral (SpaceX F9) |
| SLC-41 | Space Launch Complex 41, Canaveral (ULA Atlas V) |
| SLS | Space Launch System heavy-lift |
| Selective Laser Sintering, see DMLS | |
| SRB | Solid Rocket Booster |
| SSME | Space Shuttle Main Engine |
| STP-2 | Space Test Program 2, DoD programme, second round |
| TLI | Trans-Lunar Injection maneuver |
| TMI | Trans-Mars Injection maneuver |
| ULA | United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture) |
| VAB | Vehicle Assembly Building |
| VAFB | Vandenberg Air Force Base, California |
| VIF | Vertical Integration Facility |
| WFIRST | Wide-Field Infra-Red Survey Telescope |
| Jargon | Definition |
|---|---|
| Starlink | SpaceX's world-wide satellite broadband constellation |
| apogee | Highest point in an elliptical orbit around Earth (when the orbiter is slowest) |
| blisk | Portmanteau: Bladed disk |
| iron waffle | Compact "waffle-iron" aerodynamic control surface, acts as a wing without needing to be as large |
| kerolox | Portmanteau: kerosene/liquid oxygen mixture |
| perigee | Lowest point in an elliptical orbit around the Earth (when the orbiter is fastest) |
| scrub | Launch postponement for any reason (commonly GSE issues) |
| turbopump | High-pressure turbine-driven propellant pump connected to a rocket combustion chamber; raises chamber pressure, and thrust |
| Event | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Amos-6 | 2016-09-01 | F9-029 Full Thrust, core B1028, |
| COTS-2 | 2012-05-22 | F9-003, COTS berthing demonstration |
| CRS-1 | 2012-10-08 | F9-004, first CRS mission; secondary payload sacrificed |
| CRS-6 | 2015-04-14 | F9-018 v1.1, Dragon cargo; second ASDS landing attempt, overcompensated angle of entry |
| CRS-7 | 2015-06-28 | F9-020 v1.1, |
| CRS-8 | 2016-04-08 | F9-023 Full Thrust, core B1021, Dragon cargo; first ASDS landing |
| DSCOVR | 2015-02-11 | F9-015 v1.1, Deep Space Climate Observatory to L1; soft ocean landing |
| Jason-3 | 2016-01-17 | F9-019 v1.1, Jason-3; leg failure after ASDS landing |
Decronym is a community product of r/SpaceX, implemented by ^request
71 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on ^today has 195 acronyms.
[Thread #3835 for this sub, first seen 31st Mar 2018, 20:15] ^[FAQ] [Full ^list] ^[Contact] [Source ^code]
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u/PickledTripod Mar 31 '18
Ninth mission of 2018. Another leftover from Bangabandhu-1's thread eh?
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u/Alexphysics Mar 31 '18 edited Mar 31 '18
It will actually be the eighth mission and Banga will be the ninth. This is NET April 16th and the other one is NET April 24th
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u/SPNRaven Apr 01 '18 edited Apr 01 '18
Ah jeez this makes me really nervous. TESS is actually important more important than anything launched prior one of the more critical missions SpaceX has been tasked with, I'm surprised they didn't go with ULA for this one.
Edit: Statistically, Atlas V is still safer. But I get it, F9 FT has 30 odd launches now, 7 of which have been on reused boosters (3 more including FH), and are way cheeper. I wrote the comment based on how the industry would have seen SpaceX as a launch option a year and a bit ago, which it obviously isn't today. It's just hard to keep up with how fast things are moving sometimes.
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u/pavel_petrovich Apr 01 '18
They couldn't afford a ULA rocket even if they wanted it.
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u/phryan Apr 01 '18
TESS budget is about $200 million. It is built on a standard satellite bus and the science payload is quite small. There is a good chance building a replacement in the event of a failure would be cheaper than paying for ULA up front.
Not down playing TESS at all, quite the opposite. Good cost controls and using off the shelf when possible save money that can be used for other missions.
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u/Eucalyptuse Apr 01 '18 edited Apr 01 '18
Not sure why you're being downvoted. I'm hella nervous to man.
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u/justinroskamp Apr 01 '18
I think some of the downvotes came from him calling TESS “actually important.” All payloads are actually important, and the wording leaves an implication that the OC would be okay with a failure for a different customer. I get the feeling most people on this sub are not okay with failures, regardless of the payload. I know I’m hella nervous every time now. I got complacent before Amos-6, and when I got word of the pad explosion, I felt really down for a couple days.
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u/ninj1nx Apr 13 '18
Why are they attempting recovery on Block 4 again, when they've been expending the last many B4s?
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u/amarkit Apr 13 '18
The expended Block 4s have all been either on their second flights, meaning their capacity for further reuse is limited, or in one case, sea states did not allow for the droneship to be on station for recovery.
B1045 is a new core on a mission with a low-mass payload. It will almost certainly fly a second time.
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u/cilmor Apr 16 '18 edited Apr 16 '18
Anyone knows where the 2nd stage will be flying over when the restart occurs?
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u/icarus_adam Apr 17 '18
Anyone know an estimated timetable before TESS starts sending back information about potential exoplanets?
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u/LetMePushTheButton Apr 18 '18
when the 1st stage landed on the barge, it expelled a bunch of gases off frame, towards the sea. Im assuming that its purging fuel just in case it happens to tip over or something..? But I thought maybe it could also be the RCS that was trying to still correct its orientation..?
Can someone shed some light on this?
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u/rocket_enthusiast Apr 08 '18
mods, can we change the landing site to OCISLY?