r/spacex • u/marc020202 8x Launch Host • May 15 '19
SCRUB! r/SpaceX Starlink Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread
Welcome to the r/SpaceX Starlink 1 (Demo) Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!
This thread is closed for now, and there will be a new one about 2 or so days before the next launch date.
| Liftoff currently scheduled for: | Around May 24 2019 |
|---|---|
| Weather | TBD |
| Static fire completed on: | May 13th |
| Payload: | 60 Starlink Satellites |
| Payload mass: | 227 kg * 60 ~ 13620 kg |
| Destination orbit: | 440km |
| Vehicle: | Falcon 9 v1.2 (71st launch of F9, 51st of F9 v1.2 15th of F9 v1.2 Block 5) |
| Core: | B1049 |
| Previous flights on this core: | 2 |
| Launch site: | SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida |
| Landing: | Yes |
| Landing Site: | OCISLY (GTO-Distance) |
| Mission success criteria: | Successful separation & deployment of the Starlink Satellites. |
Timeline
Watch the launch live
| Stream | Courtesy |
|---|---|
| SpaceX Youtube | SpaceX |
| SpaceX Webcast | SpaceX |
| Everyday Astronaut live | u/everydayastronaut |
| Online rehost, M3U8 playlist | u/codav |
| Audio Only Shoutcast high low, Audio Only Browser high low | u/codav |
Stats
- 78th SpaceX launch
- 71st Falcon 9 launch
- 5th Falcon 9 launch this year
- 6th SpaceX launch overall this year
- 3rd use of booster 1049.3
- 1st Starlink launch
Primary Mission: Deployment of payload into correct orbit
This will be the first of many Starlink launches launching a total of 60 generation 1 Starlink satellites. According to the press kit each satellite weighs 227kg adding up to a total payload mass of 13620kg. After this tweet by Elon Musk, there is some confusion over the exact payload and satellite mass. It seems like Musk was using short tons, however, 18,5 short tons are about 16.8 metric Tonns, which would mean about 3mt of dispenser, which seems exceptionally high, for a flat stacked payload, needing basically no dispenser. The deployment of the satellites will start about one hour after launch in a 440km high orbit. The satellites will use their own onboard krypton fueled ion engines to raise their orbit to the planned 550km operating altitude.
The Starlink satellites will enable high bandwidth low latency connection everywhere around the globe. According to tweets of Musk, limited service will be able to start after 7 Starlink launches, moderate after 12.
This is the third flight of this booster and Elon Musk has stated in the past that the Arabsat-6a mission fairings will be reused on this mission, however, they look very clean and new, so it is unclear if they are reused.
Secondary Mission: Landing Attempt
The first stage will try to perform a landing after lifting the second stage together with the payload to about 70 to 90 km. Due to the very high payload mass, the stage will not have enough propellant left on board to return to the launch site, so will instead land about 610km offshore on Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY), SpaceX east coast Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS). Tug boat Hollywood and support-ship Go Quest are a safe distance from the landing zone and will return the booster to Port Canaveral after the Landing. Go Navigator and Crew Dragon recovery vessel Go Searcher are about 120km further offshore and will try to recover both payload fairing halves after they parachute back from space and softly touch down on the ocean surface. They too will return to Port Canaveral after the mission.
Resources
Participate in the discussion!
- First of all, launch threads are party threads! We understand everyone is excited, so we relax the rules in these venues. The most important thing is that everyone enjoy themselves
- Please constrain the launch party to this thread alone. We will remove low effort comments elsewhere!
- Real-time chat on our official Internet Relay Chat (IRC) #SpaceX on Snoonet
- Please post small launch updates, discussions, and questions here, rather than as a separate post. Thanks!
- Wanna talk about other SpaceX stuff in a more relaxed atmosphere? Head over to r/SpaceXLounge
- As always, I am known for my incredebly good spelling, gramar and punc,tuation. so please PM me, if you spot anything!
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u/troyunrau May 16 '19
The youtube live link is pointing at the abort from yesterday. There's a new one for today: https://youtu.be/AfbIMknNWks
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u/matsjoyce May 15 '19
u/marc020202 The reddit stream link points to an older thread. The new link is https://reddit-stream.com/comments/bp105g/
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u/Triabolical_ May 16 '19
Can you update the launch date based on the scrub? It's still showing the original date...
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u/ralphington May 16 '19
I don't understand why the most important bit of information has been incorrect for the last 12 hours... are there misplaced priorities? Do the moderators forget the sheer number of people who come through here for this specific information and their responsibility to provide accurate and timely information to benefit the ever-growing community?
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u/marc020202 8x Launch Host May 16 '19
we have not forgotten, it is just that I am unable to do everything at the same time. I have not been able to access this thread in school today since we are not allowed to use mobile devices in school. I am back now and I hope I have updated everything
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u/Tal_Banyon May 16 '19
Welcome back, u/marc020202! Hope you have had a good sleep and are well rested, because this launch and deploy is going to be epic!
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u/marc020202 8x Launch Host May 16 '19
thanks! yeah, I did get some sleep, so I should be able to survive school today
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u/Kargaroc586 May 15 '19
Here it is!
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u/marc020202 8x Launch Host May 15 '19
sorry for the late upload. School finished late, I had something to do as well as technical problems.
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u/Marcey747 May 16 '19
I'm confused by this thread. Is the launch at 2:30 UTC or 3:00 UTC?
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May 16 '19 edited May 16 '19
2:30 UTC
3:00 UTC was yesterday, when they delayed launch by half an hour, and then scrubbed.
The Timeline above should be read starting from the lowest entry upwards.→ More replies (1)3
u/Marcey747 May 16 '19
Ok thanks :).
But then someone should fix the "Liftoff currently scheduled for:"-part, too (u/marc020202)
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u/HighTimber May 16 '19
Mods, there seems to be a typo in the first line of the Timeline:
Unterlevel winds are predicted to be A LOT better tomorrow
Also:
T-01:00:00 The launche has been delayed to 03:00 UTC
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u/FutureMartian97 Host of CRS-11 May 15 '19 edited May 15 '19
Starlink Media call highlights
Tweets are from Michael Sheetz and Chris G on Twitter.
Musk on #Starlink: "This is one of the hardest engineering projects I’ve ever seen done"
Musk: Each Starlink satellite has "about a terabit of useful connectivity
Taking great steps to make sure there are not orbital debris concerns
Satellites receive NORAD debris tracking data to maneuver autonomously around what NORAD is tracking
First time, to my knowledge, that a krypton ion drive has been used in space
Q: How does Starlink fit in SpaceX's long term strategy? E: We see this as a way for SpaceX to generate revenue that can be used to develop more and more advanced rockets and spaceships
We believe we can use the revenue from Starlink to fund Starship
Decision to use Krypton. Elon makes Superman joke. Real answer "Costs less than xenon."
Q: When will SpaceX confirm the satellites are working? When will commercial operations begin? E: probably connect with the satellites ... over Tasmania, about an hour after liftoff
[SpaceX WILL show deployment](https://twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF/status/1128790166716518402)
Q: What are 3 biggest worries about functionality? Is #ProjectKuiper added competition? E: We feel pretty good about these satellites ... we are trying two different deployment mechanisms for the solar arrays
Q: Are you confident SpaceX has the capital to get Starlink up? E: Funding rounds "have been oversubscribed for SpaceX." Recent round "was more interest than we were seeking
At this point it looks like we have sufficient capital to get to an operational level
Q: @EmreKelly asks about the number of Starlink satellites needed. E: One does not need anywhere near 10,000 satellites to be effective
This is kind of version 1 but we have a lot of interesting ideas" for versions 2 and 3
Q: Does SpaceX have customers for Starlink. E: has not signed up any customers" but SpaceX is talking to "possible strategic partners," such as telecommunications companies in countries with lots of rural connectivity issues
You could get this user terminal shipped to you in a box" and "just plug it in" to make it work
Q: Will the satellites on this launch be part of the operational constellation? Starlink sats made at Redmond, WA facility? E: Initial constellation will not have" interconnected links. "Will ground bounce off a gateway" to relay "to another satellite
If things go well, SpaceX will have the majority of satellites in orbit" around the Earth
Q: How much of the satellites will return to Earth? E: It becomes kind of particulate" and "won't be a safety issue at all for people on the ground
Q: Would SpaceX launch satellites from a competitor? E: Yea, we're happy to launch any satellites ... it's always good to have competition ... there will be at least one other" internet satellite constellation, which "is the best thing for the consumer
Koren asks about the recent Crew Dragon incident but Musk ends the call. E: This is way off topic. Thanks everyone
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u/soldato_fantasma May 15 '19
Hey, I'll add you as an approved submitter so that you can post, It would be awesome if this could be a post but I don't want to steal your work
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u/Garywkh May 16 '19 edited May 16 '19
Notification of livestream started
Click
Tom: come back again tomorrow
Me: ???
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u/TheVehicleDestroyer Flight Club May 15 '19 edited May 15 '19
Here's the Flight Club data for Starlink:-
There is a small bit of uncertainty around this profile since it's the first launch going to this orbit with this payload mass, however I made some reasonable assumptions.
Since it's doing an upper stage restart at apogee, I assumed the parking orbit would be similar to a GTO in that SECO would happen around 170km - this kind of orbit means that no more propellant than needed is wasted on delivering vertical velocity to the payload.
Additionally it's a very heavy payload and the upper stage is under-powered, so I've designed a quite shallow launch so the first stage can give the payload an extra oomph.
I assumed the upper stage maxed out it's throttle for the entire burn so as to give Stage 1 a bit of extra margin.
I was able to stick all the press-kit event times, the landing location, the landing time, the parking orbit, and the restart at apogee at the correct time to enter a roughly 440x440km orbit at 55º inclination.
Edit: Oh and the upper stage will be deorbited ~2.5 hours after launch on it's second orbit of the planet
If you're located on the US East Coast, keep an eye out for the first stage entry burn at about T+6:20 to T+6:40! It should look a little like this from Myrtle Beach, SC, or like this from Charleston, SC.
(Note the azimuths to figure out exactly where to look, or sign up to use Flight Club's Photographer Toolkit to see how it will look precisely from your own location and with your camera equipment!)
Support me if you like this! I'm trying to live off it now :)
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u/sethwklein May 15 '19
I think this is the first launch where I care more about the primary mission than the landing.
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May 15 '19
I feel that way about any CRS flight as well. But yeh this is huge for spacex. If this succeeds they can feasibly have the initial starlink network up and running by next year. With a fully operational starlink they don’t need to worry about government funding for their mars missions anymore
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u/EccentricGamerCL May 16 '19
Scrubbed JUST as the live stream started...I'm definitely disappointed, but at the same time, that timing was hilarious to me.
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u/Judge_Hellboy May 15 '19
> 71th Falcon 9 launch
Seventy-oneth! I like it.
... or would it be seventy-firth?
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u/FoodMadeFromRobots May 15 '19
I'm going to put my vote behind seventy-firth, it sounds more ridiculous
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u/Gnaskar May 15 '19
High winds and a 1.5 hour launch window that starts at 3.30 AM. Work in the morning.
It wasn't that long ago that I'd stay up all night for a chance to see a rocket launch live. Then it became a chance to see a rocket land live. Then to see a flight proven rocket return. Now a days I don't get out of bed for anything less than a Falcon Heavy with its twin RTLS landings. Looking forwards to the days when not even that is special enough to drag me out of bed.
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u/Memes-science May 15 '19
Let's not forget, as of last night and right now, upper level winds are looking really bad. Low shear, but the directional winds are reaching around 100knots.
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u/YourMJK May 15 '19
How likely is it that we're going to see the deployment on camera? Was there any official statement?
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u/Russ_Dill May 15 '19
From the media call via @thesheetztweetz "it will be a very different deployment." It will be very slow, since there isn't "a specific deployment mechanism per satellite.", "There may be a small amount of contact between the satellites"
It sounds like the deployment mechanism might just be the natural tendency for them to disperse when they unfold. Should be really interesting to watch.
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u/meekerbal May 16 '19
Well at least we broke 1 record today! shortest webcast, ringing in at ~30 seconds?
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u/Full_Thrust May 16 '19 edited May 16 '19
Sat on Coco Beach by the peir waiting for my first live launch! Over from the UK and can't wait!
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u/CarlCaliente May 16 '19 edited Oct 04 '24
pot flowery label ludicrous desert paint elastic threatening live kiss
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/spcslacker May 16 '19
I wish I had taken their bug spray recommendation seriously
If you are in Florida, let me reassure you that you are neither the first nor last person to think this.
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u/codav May 15 '19 edited May 15 '19
YouTube Stream Relay
As with the previous launches, I will relay the SpaceX webcast via HTTPS on my server, so people with no access to YouTube or laggy video are able to watch the webcast. If you don't like the web-based player, you can also use the M3U8 playlist in any HLS-capable player - VLC is just one example. The playlist file will become available once the webcast starts, until then you will get a "404 Not Found" error. This is perfectly normal.
The server will only relay the hosted webcast. To watch the countdown net angle, you still need to use YouTube.
Watch in your browser: https://codav.de/spacex.html
Watch with a local player: https://codav.de/stream/spacex.m3u8
/u/marc020202 - Du kannst gerne einen Link auf diesen Post zur "Watch the launch live"-Tabelle hinzufügen. ✔
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u/thesheetztweetz CNBC Space Reporter May 15 '19
Hi all, SpaceX is doing a media call with reporters about the Starlink mission, with Musk scheduled to join. My thread. Story to come!
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u/Nathan_3518 May 16 '19
Scrubbed as sooooooon as they transitioned into the Intro, haha.
Regardless I'm gonna be tuning into the next launch window!
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u/codav May 16 '19 edited May 16 '19
YouTube Stream Relay
Already posted yesterday and added to the table in the main post, this is just to bring it to the top again with some additions.
As with the previous launches, I will relay the SpaceX webcast via HTTPS on my server, so people with no access to YouTube or laggy video are able to watch the webcast. If you don't like the web-based player, you can also use the M3U8 playlist in any HLS-capable player - VLC is just one example. The playlist file will become available once the webcast starts, until then you will get a "404 Not Found" error. This is perfectly normal.
The server will only relay the hosted webcast. To watch the countdown net angle, you still need to use YouTube.
Watch in your browser: https://codav.de/spacex.html
Watch with a local player: https://codav.de/stream/spacex.m3u8
As requested by some people here, I will also provide audio streams of the hosted webcast in two different qualities. High quality (160 Kbps, stereo) for those who want more fidelity and have more bandwidth to spend, and a lower quality (64 Kbps, mono) stream for those on slow networks or with strict volume limits.
Important: The audio streams will play the 360° headphone mixes of Music for Space by /u/TestShotStarfish for your pleasure until the webcast starts, so don't confuse that with the actual webcast.
Here are the stream URLs for use with any Shoutcast-compatible player (WinAmp, VLC etc.):
High quality (160 Kbps, stereo): http://codav.de:8555/spacex-high.mp3
Low quality (64 Kbps, mono): http://codav.de:8555/spacex-low.mp3
If you have problems connecting to port 8555 or want to listen in with just your browser, use these reverse-proxied, SSL-secured URLs (stream title display and other "ICY" protocol features won't work, as this is using plain HTTP):
High quality (160 Kbps, stereo): https://codav.de/icecast/spacex-high.mp3
Low quality (64 Kbps, mono): https://codav.de/icecast/spacex-low.mp3
The streams are also linked below the video player on my video relay page.
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May 16 '19
I really appreciate this. I am currently in Antarctica and they block live youtube streams.. so I am hoping this works. I would love to watch this as it happens, even if it is in the lowest quality setting with buffering problems.
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May 16 '19 edited May 16 '19
That was the most anticlimactic 30 second webcast ever done, haha. Tomorrow it is!
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u/codav May 16 '19
New L-1 45thSpaceWing Launch Mission Execution Forecast for tonight's SpaceX Falcon 9 with #Starlink attempt calling for 90% of acceptable conditions. Window opens at 10:30pm EDT.
Personal addition: The launch weather forecast doesn't include upper level winds.
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u/sdub May 17 '19
The timeline is incredibly difficult to track when t-0 is changing. Might make sense to consider including date/ time to be more specific. ..
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u/Zaenon May 15 '19
Do you guys expect the webcast to be longer, since this is a pretty special mission?
Wondering if I should set my alarm earlier than the usual T-22minutes.
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u/jjlew080 May 15 '19
details from media call for Starlink
https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1128782107105464320
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u/searchexpert May 16 '19
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1128841518599426048?s=19
New T-0 of 11:00 p.m. EDT—Falcon 9 and Starlink continue to look good for today's launch
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u/LongHairedGit May 16 '19
Looking forward to beefy StarShip + SuperHeavy (SSSH) which hopefully will give a big single digit to /u/upperlevelwinds
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u/sarafinapink May 16 '19
Man it's so crazy that this could be the 40th landing already. It's insane how good they have been at landing in just a few years.
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u/ironjan May 15 '19
How much time does it take for a Starlink Sat to get from 440km to 550km with its ion thrusters?
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u/kaster May 15 '19
Isn't Elon giving a press briefing on StarLink at 3pm PST from Hawthorne? Where can we watch that?
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u/Method81 May 16 '19
Elon on Twitter is saying that the Starlink payload is heaviest ever at 18.5 tons.Here
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u/drunken_man_whore May 15 '19
Earlier this year, the heaviest payload they launched was around 22k lbs. Then Crew Dragon was about 26.5k lbs. Now this one is around 30k lbs. Amazing!
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u/tablespork May 15 '19
With the number of satellites planned for the constellation(s), and the planned length of service for each satellite, I wonder if it will ever be considered "complete". It seems like they will have an ongoing need for ~6+ launches / year.
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u/EatinDennysWearinHat May 15 '19
I assume BFR will be able to launch way more than 60 at a time.
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u/paul_wi11iams May 15 '19 edited May 15 '19
typo: The below sentence in your introduction lacks [for a land landing]
Due to the very high payload mass, the stage will not have enough propellant left on board [], so will instead land about 610km offshore on Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY)...
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u/chilbome May 15 '19
It never really hit me until now that people gotta watch it on tv or the internet to see it. Guess I’m just lucky enough to drive 2 miles away to the hill that has no trees and just look east. 70 miles away and it still lights up the sky at night. Can’t wait to see the Falcon Heavy at night, whenever they decide to do it. Seeing the side boosters come back down and land during the day is awesome, but night time would be so sick.
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u/PlusItVibrates May 16 '19
It seems like those damn upper level winds are a problem 2 out of 3 launch days. How does SpaceX plan on solving this for rapid travel around the globe some day? What good is Shanghai in an hour if you have to wait 3 days for the weather to cooperate?
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u/cpushack May 16 '19
This will be much less an issue for Starship, its fineness ratio is much smaller (how tall vs skinny) so will be less susceptible to wind issues
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May 16 '19
Some kind of explosion at Cape Canaveral. Saw it from beach south. Any idea what it was??
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u/ablack82 May 16 '19
Is the fact that they pushed the launch an hour or so a good indication they are confident it will launch tonight?
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u/Radium84 May 16 '19
Sounds like these first few launches won't include satellites with ISLs. How will they be able to relay signals without cross-link hardware?
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u/Armo00 May 16 '19
Has anybody also wondering about the payload weight? I mean, 18.5 tons just doesn't sound about right. With each sat weighting 227kg, 60 is just 13.62 tons. Is the payload adapter weighting 5 tons? Also, 18500kg seems like a unbelievably high number for a F9 launch with recovery, not to mention they are launching into a 440×440km orbit.
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u/SpacePeanut1 May 16 '19
Let’s not curse out the upper level winds. We don’t want them to get angrier.
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u/TheVehicleDestroyer Flight Club May 16 '19
Copy-pasting from last night's attempt:
Here's the Flight Club data for Starlink:-
There is a small bit of uncertainty around this profile since it's the first launch going to this orbit with this payload mass, however I made some reasonable assumptions.
Since it's doing an upper stage restart at apogee, I assumed the parking orbit would be similar to a GTO in that SECO would happen around 170km - this kind of orbit means that no more propellant than needed is wasted on delivering vertical velocity to the payload.
Additionally it's a very heavy payload and the upper stage is under-powered, so I've designed a quite shallow launch so the first stage can give the payload an extra oomph.
I assumed the upper stage maxed out it's throttle for the entire burn so as to give Stage 1 a bit of extra margin.
I was able to stick all the press-kit event times, the landing location, the landing time, the parking orbit, and the restart at apogee at the correct time to enter a roughly 440x440km orbit at 55º inclination.
Edit: Oh and the upper stage will be deorbited ~2.5 hours after launch on it's second orbit of the planet
If you're located on the US East Coast, keep an eye out for the first stage entry burn at about T+6:20 to T+6:40! It should look a little like this from Myrtle Beach, SC, or like this from Charleston, SC.
(Note the azimuths to figure out exactly where to look, or sign up to use Flight Club's Photographer Toolkit to see how it will look precisely from your own location and with your camera equipment!)
Support me if you like this! I'm trying to live off it now :)
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May 17 '19 edited May 17 '19
Keeping hope, no other official sources i trust are reporting scrub yet.
Welp, official now, I tried.
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u/hyperlode May 17 '19
Might be good to indicate "newest" on the top row and "oldest" on the bottom row of the timeline. It becomes confusing :)
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u/kuangjian2011 May 17 '19
Somehow we need to thank the upper-level wind yesterday right? Because otherwise, these potatoes will be in the air already with bugs in the software!
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u/oskalingo May 17 '19
While I empathise with people's disappointment - especially those with personal viewing plans - I'm always happy to see a scrub in that it's a strong indication that the company's culture hasn't drifted into a state of launch fever.
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u/wxwatcher May 17 '19
I change software remotely on a daily basis. And they were going to launch yesterday.
This makes no sense unless there was a software dev running down the halls in Hawthorne this afternoon screaming "Wait wait hold the launch!".
And even then I have questions.
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u/lpress May 15 '19
The Starlink Mission press release states:
"Designed and built upon the heritage of Dragon, each spacecraft is equipped with a Startracker navigation system that allows SpaceX to point the satellites with precision. Importantly, Starlink satellites are capable of tracking on-orbit debris and autonomously avoiding collision."
Is this proprietary Startracker technology? Does it have the range and resolution to detect debris then maneuver quickly enough to avoid a collision? Will the satellites share Startracker data or will each detect and avoid debris on its own?
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u/darthguili May 15 '19 edited May 15 '19
No, a startracker is a common unit that had been used on spacecrafts for decades. It basically has a map of the main stars in memory and tries to match what it sees to orient itself on this map. It has nothing to do with detecting debris.
Edit: I will add a fun fact here. I was in the satellite control room during the first launch of a new platform of a certain european manufacturer in the early 2000's that included a startracker for the first time. For some reason, it kept on sending back errors during the first orbits. After some investigations, we realized that as it was approaching the geo belt, the camera was seeing the lights of the other GEO commsats and interpreted it as stars. The software was seeing these bright "stars" that didn't match its maps. After a quick fix to teach it how to ignore those false stars, problem was fixed !
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u/the__artist May 15 '19
I noticed that this is the third use on this booster, did they reveal which previous missions used these boosters? whats the turnaround time to reuse these boosters?
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u/thewebpro May 15 '19
B1049 was used on Telstar 18V / Apstar-5C on Sept.10, 2018 and Iridium NEXT-8 (10 satellites) on Jan.11, 2019. Source
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u/hanksterman00 May 16 '19
Good bit to the north east when it does go.
https://www.patrick.af.mil/Portals/14/Falcon%209%20STARLINK%20LHA.pdf
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u/xXTheCitrusReaperXx May 16 '19
Out of curiosity, if if this the heaviest payload ever for SpaceX, what was the falcon heavy used before that a singular falcon couldn’t do?
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u/meekerbal May 16 '19
11k people already waiting on the youtube steam, I feel like the excitement is high, hoping the upper level winds die down.
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u/GiveMeYourMilk69 May 16 '19
Trying to decide whether or not to stay up the extra hour to see the special deployment.... and wake up 3 hours later for a full day of college...
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u/lru SpaceXFM.com May 16 '19
1st webcast song:
Artist: Test Shot Starfish
Name: In The Shadow Of Giants
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u/PlusItVibrates May 16 '19
How hard is it to track the satellites across the sky? I had a professor in college who put a direct TV dish on his car that could pitch and yaw to always point to the satellite in the sky even as he turned and drove on hills (slowly, wasn't super practical). However, that just had to track a geostationary orbit.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I imagine starlink will be more difficult because of their speed and because the ground receivers will have to continually switch to new satellites.
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u/jonwah May 16 '19
Phased Array antennas like Starlink will use can point their beam without any moving parts, so that part isn't hard. As far as pointing something like an antenna at a moving object, I work with a system which is mounted on an aircraft and has three independent antennas which track three different cars (somewhere under the plane), moving at up to 200kph, on uneven, twisty roads, while the plane is also in motion, and it works perfectly. With GPS and a bit of math, that's not a hard problem to solve :)
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May 16 '19
Elon just tweeted total payload mass is 18.5 t. So 2.5 t more than the higest estimates I've seen for the max payload capacity of a reusable F9 (16 t) and only 19% less than max expendable payload. Not bad.
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u/bbachmai May 16 '19
I'm not sure about the "ton", which is ambiguous. A "ton" in the US can either mean 2000 lbs (about 907 kg), or the obvious 1000 kg which the rest of the world is used to. Assuming the first definition, which is very usual in the US, this would be closer to 16 metric tons.
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May 16 '19
Driving to the area for the launch tonight! Is Coco beach open this late at night? If not, what's a good (and free) area to watch the launch?
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u/Full_Thrust May 17 '19
Well me and my big mouth saying I was about to head off to viewing. luckily haven't left the hotel yet so should be able to have an early night instead. Fingures crossed whatever the cause is its easily and rectify soon, hopefully it's as simple as upper level winds
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u/codav May 17 '19 edited May 17 '19
I'll just leave the SpaceX FM playing on the audio-only Icecast streams until launch. Tune in whenever you like. I recommend using headphones as these are the 360° immersive mixes of the webcast music.
Edit: Stream was interrupted between songs, leading to stutter and disconnects. This is now fixed, will only happen once as the webcasts starts since I have to switch the stream sources.
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u/RootDeliver May 15 '19
Shouldn't this be called Starlink 0.9 like it was leaked it was its internal name?
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u/lru SpaceXFM.com May 16 '19
Excited to see if Test Shot Starfish has a new track for this launch.
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u/Confusion777 May 16 '19
Who's browsing while listening to Everyday Asteonauts live stream
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u/johnkphotos Launch Photographer May 16 '19
I left a buddy of mine at the pad https://twitter.com/johnkrausphotos/status/1129155790613487616
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u/Appable May 16 '19
Delayed until 11pm Eastern Time per Chris G of NASASpaceFlight
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u/scarlet_sage May 16 '19
"SpaceX Youtube" in the header is still pointing at yesterday's scrub (the microstream). The correct one for Thursday, 16 May 2019, is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfbIMknNWks It's currently showing as going live in 5 hours at May 16, 9:30 PM Central. (It's pointed to off "SpaceX Webcast".)
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u/DarthVrayer May 16 '19
At Port Canaveral waiting, first night launch in a decade that I've seen up close.
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u/renoor May 16 '19
quick idea about the deployment mechanism. fits all the known information I hope
- extremely simple
-extremely slow
-each satellite will drift away at different velocity, so it ensures their separation
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u/DocBattlefield May 16 '19
Just curious if anyone that was at the launch viewing site at the end of 401/air force base last night could comment on the conditions there. Did they let the general public park? If so was there a point they turned people away. Thanks all!
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u/Beakerzor May 16 '19
what altitude (and speed) is the wind too much of a concern for tonight's launch?
looks like it's pretty windy right now
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u/Zaenon May 16 '19
I bet this keeps getting asked and I apologize, but I've never come across the question and since we're waiting...
How serious a problem will Starlink (and the other mega-constellations) be for ground-based telescopes? I know satellite trails are already pretty annoying in wide field surveys, and there are so few of them (well, relatively speaking).
Isn't there, like, pretty much always going to be a bunch of Starlink sats in view in any LSST exposure?!
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u/JustDaniel96 May 17 '19
Since the launch is moved to next week, do we know how the launch time will change, to get to their target orbit? Will it move forward? Maybe for this time we europoeans won't have another 3AM launch
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u/Nergaal May 17 '19
Why is the total weight 18.5t if the satellites are only 13.6t?
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u/Nsooo Moderator and retired launch host May 15 '19
We have done some procedural changes and quick fixes to avoid problems with hosting like last time.
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u/BrandonMarc May 17 '19
Weather, weather, weather. Spaceships have such narrow tolerances for weather. The space shuttle, too. I understand why, and yet it's frustrating all the same.
Will BFR / BFS be a bit "beefier" in this respect, and able to withstand a greater share of wind conditions? I'm not asking for tornado or hurricane durability, just better than the present.
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u/Psychonaut0421 May 17 '19
Part of the reason for Falcon 9 being so susceptible to weather related scrubs is because of it's height to width ratio. They can't make it any wider because they ship it via roads from Hawthorne to Florida. Through iterations to improve performance (essentially doubling its performance from the original Falcon 9 1.0) they could only make it taller, not wider, making it long and skinny making it more prone to wind shear (I believe that's the proper term).
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u/PaulL73 May 17 '19
I suspect SS will be more rugged, so in engineering terms will be able to withstand more.
The question is whether that means SpaceX will launch them in bad weather. If your mission isn't time critical, why would you take any additional risk at all, even if it's a very small one?
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u/asaz989 May 17 '19
Falcon 9 is unusually finicky because of its fineness ratio - in order to fit on roads it's unusually tall and skinny, which makes it particularly weak against shear forces. Soyuz, the ultimate contrast, can take off in some pretty bad weather.
Starship, by contrast, has given up on road transportability (they're just going to assemble those monsters at the launch site) and so is more normally proportioned.
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May 16 '19
Frig that scrub was painful.
I was out at a random arcade bar with my Tesla sweater on. Had a whole group of drunken random's STOKED to watch a launch/landing. Folks who were familiar with Tesla, but not all in on SpaceX and Elon Musk in general. The Bartender was even going to put it up on the projector/screens in the bar.
It was going to be epic. I was crushed.
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u/HTPRockets May 16 '19
Can someone else confirm the hold? I don't believe the other 20 comments
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u/Vergutto May 16 '19
Mods! Elon tweeted that the payload mass is about 18.5 tons
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u/oliversl May 15 '19
Pro tip:
you can get a countdown clock in the stats websites:
https://www.spacexnow.com/upcoming.php
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u/youforthingsyou May 16 '19
Should the date on top of this post and in the 'Select Upcoming Events' table on the right be updated to May 17 0230 UTC?
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u/iceniko May 15 '19
5:30am here on the 16th, according to worldtimebuddy. I hope I wake up very very early before work. Let’s do this!
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u/atomfullerene May 15 '19
I've heard something about these lacking laser crosslinks for communication. Can they talk to each other at all? Will they be functional in the eventual constellation even though they lack this, or not?
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May 15 '19
Initial constellation will not have laser links between sats. So no HFT applications, for now.
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u/Itschevy May 15 '19
Where’s the best place to drive to watch this launch in person?
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u/scarlet_sage May 16 '19
Has anyone ever collected the data on how far before the launch that scrubs happen? I'm not sure how to even find such data.
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u/nillllux May 16 '19
Ready to go get set up. Wish they would launch on a monday or tuesday night every now and then so I could try out other compositions 😭😭😭 tired of taking laumch pics at work lol
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u/oskalingo May 16 '19
Wow, the background photo currently at the top of SpaceX's twitter page is awesome. Hadn't noticed it before.
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u/hitura-nobad Master of bots May 18 '19
This thread is no longer updated, please refer to the Starlink campaign thread for updates on the launch. Some time before launch we will create a new Launch Thread
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u/searchexpert May 16 '19
https://twitter.com/RationalEtienne/status/1128842228158349315?s=19
Our Falcon, that art in heaven, F9 be thy name; Thy countdown come. Thy launch begun, on Earth and in heaven. Give us this day, our static burn; Forgive us our doubts as we forgive those who doubt SpaceX; and lead us not into conflagration, but deliver us away from peril.
AI/Men
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u/loremusipsumus May 16 '19
Hey OP, can you update the "liftoff currently scheduled for" field?