Cassiope, три POPACS, CUSat 1&2, DANDE - Falcon 9 v1.1 - Ванденберг SLC-4E - 29.09.2013

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http://www.spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html

Summer     Falcon 9  •  Cassiope

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https://twitter.com/Leone_SN/status/342384957349568513

Dan Leone ‏@Leone_SN

@CSA_ASC says notional launch date for #CASSIOPE space weather satellite is Aug. 14 - little later than expected - on @SpaceX Falcon 9 1.1.

[Salo]

http://mertensiana.phys.ucalgary.ca/

June 17, 2013: The Cassiope launch date has been updated to September 5, 2013 aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The launch will take place from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, making it the first spacecraft to launch from this new SpaceX facility. Watch for continued updates as this milestone approaches!

[Salo]

http://www.wacotrib.com/blogs/joe_science/spacex-test-in-works-as-nasa-milestones-reached-russians-lose/article_e89db09c-e35a-11e2-8996-001a4bcf887a.html

SpaceX test in works as NASA milestones reached; Russians lose rocket

Posted: Tuesday, July 2, 2013 4:03 pm | Upd ated: 4:47 pm, Tue Jul 2, 2013.

By JOSEPH ABBOTT jabbott@wacotrib.com

SpaceX in McGregor may be celebrating the approach to Independence Day with its rocket's yellow glare. From SpaceX's Christina Ra:

 

SpaceX is planning to run another test at our rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas that will be significantly louder than the typical tests we run daily. This test will be similar in scope to recent tests, running from seconds in duration up to several minutes. The earliest possible date for the upcoming test is Wed., July 3rd.

This would probably be one of the stage acceptance tests in preparation for the Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California of the Canadian CASSIOPE satellite. The launch date is se t but being kept under wraps since the client is a private company, Ra has previously said.

[Salo]

igorvs пишет:
Илон сообщает, сегодня завершились полномасштабные испытания первой ступени нового F9
 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/356771814271234050
ПОЗДРАВЛЯЮ!

До пуска осталось 52 дня.

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/article/launch-report/36286spacex-test-fires-upgraded-falcon-9-core-for-three-minutes#.UeYrtqzzPTo

SpaceX Test-fires Upgraded Falcon 9 Core for three minutes
By Dan Leone | Jul. 16, 2013
The current version of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket features nine Merlin 1-C engines in a three-by-three configuration. Credit: SpaceX photo

WASHINGTON — Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) on July 14 test fired the core stage of the Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket that will be used to launch Canada's Cassiope space weather satellite this September, a company spokeswoman confirmed.

"The recently tested booster is the first stage for SpaceX's upcoming next-generation Falcon 9 demonstration flight for MDA and their Cassiope mission," SpaceX spokeswoman Christina Ra said in a July 15 email. "The same updated design will apply to all Falcon 9 flights moving forward."

The test lasted "for approximately three minutes, simulating what the booster may experience in flight before stage separation," Ra said.

Cassiope is a small satellite built by Richmond, British Columbia-based MDA Corp. for the Canadian Space Agency.

SpaceX founder and chief executive officer Elon Musk first announced the test on Twitter.

Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk

Just completed full mission duration firing of next gen Falcon 9 booster. V proud of the boost stage team for overcoming many tough issues.
4:46 PM - 15 Jul 2013

"Just completed full mission duration firing of next gen Falcon 9 booster," Musk wrote in a July 15 Twitter post. "[Very] proud of the boost stage team for overcoming many tough issues."
SpaceX test fired Falcon 9 v1.1 core stage for 112 seconds June 12 at its McGregor, Texas, test site.

Ra declined to explain what the "tough issues" were that Musk referred to in his tweet.

"The details of SpaceX's testing program are considered proprietary," Ra wrote in her email.

SpaceX has been testing this integrated core stage — which uses 9 kerosene-fueled Merlin 1-D engines in an octagonal layout as an upgrade to the three-by-three, tic-tac-toe grid of Merlin 1-C engines used on the current Falcon 9 — for more than a month.

A June 1 test lasted only 10 seconds. A subsequent test, video of which the company uploaded to YouTube June 10, lasted 112 seconds. No video of the latest test has appeared on SpaceX's YouTube channel.

Falcon 9 v1.1, besides being the first SpaceX vehicle scheduled to launch a commercial communications satellite to geostationary orbit, is also a big part of the company's plans to develop a reusable space rocket.

On a March 28 conference call with the media, after the company's Dragon space capsule returned fr om its second space station cargo delivery, Musk said SpaceX would expand its reusable rocket tests this year by attempting to steer a Falcon 9 v1.1 first stage to a soft water-landing after a launch. He did not say when this test would take place.

Meanwhile, if SpaceX successfully launches Cassiope, it will clear a contractual hurdle required by its first commercial geostationary customer, SES of Luxembourg, to launch that company's SES-8 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Commercial Launches for Orbcomm of Fort Lee, N.J., and Thailand's Thai Comm would follow, as would a third cargo run to the international space station for NASA. In all, SpaceX has four more launches left on its manifest for 2013, two of which are to geostationary transfer orbit, wh ere most commercial communications satellites are dropped off before using onboard propulsion to maneuver into their orbital slots.

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igorvs пишет:
На конференции в Сан-Хосе, Том Мюллер сказал, что первая ступень поедет в Ванду на следующей неделе, а вторая через неделю

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igorvs пишет:
SpaceX завершает испытания обтекателя в Glenn Research Center
 http://spacefellowship.com/news/art34581/spacex-testing-complete-at-nasa-glenn-s-renovated-facility.html

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=31429.msg1075847#msg1075847

edkyle99 пишет:

There was a development test of the second stage attempted on May 21, 2013, that ended in an abort.  I haven't heard anything since about second stage testing.

 - Ed Kyle

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Chris Bergin: SpaceX's new Falcon 9 v1.1 begins to arrive in California
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/07/spacexs-falcon-9-v1-1-begins-arrive-california/

[Salo]

На NSF поговаривают о том, что пуск состоится не ранее ноября.

[Salo]

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=31429.msg1083295#msg1083295

Antares пишет:
SpaceX publishes borderline unrealistic dates to keep everyone pushing internally.  The better question, as AJW posed, is what are the key milestones.

Rocket on stand (validates VAFB erector).**  
Rocket on stand with cryos in it (validates VAFB loading system, vehicle side should be validated by McGregor)**
Spacecraft and rocket in same building
Spacecraft encapsulated
Spacecraft mated
** N.B. - doing it once doesn't mean there weren't functions on the edge of invalidation.  Beware of repeats.

It's been a really long time since SpaceX handled someone else's spacecraft and mated something that wasn't a Dragon to the second stage.

[Salo]

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/08/spacex-bothering-bovines-revolutionizing-rockets/

SpaceX are continuing to make progress on several key projects as they head into a busy period of launches. With the debut launch of their Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket still on for September, an eye to the future for both their launch vehicles and spacecraft was highlighted over recent days, with the most spectacular event conducted by the Grasshopper test vehicle – as much as it was less-appreciated by some of the locals.

Next Up:
Preparations for an upcoming launch are continuing at SpaceX's SLC-4E pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California.

The launch will debut the upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, known as the v1.1, which was the subject of extensive testing at the company's Rocket Development and Test Facility in McGregor, Texas.
With the successful conclusion to development and acceptance testing on the core's nine Merlin 1D engines, the vehicle is currently being prepared at Vandenberg for its Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) – scheduled for the last week in August (L2) – and Hot Fire test.
The mission is tasked with launching the CAScade, Smallsat and IOnospheric Polar Explorer (CASSIOPE) – a made-in-Canada small satellite from the Canadian Space Agency – into orbit, early in September. The launch date will be firmed up once the on-pad testing and vehicle integration tasks have been completed.
  A successful mission for the upgraded launch vehicle will allow SpaceX to proceed toward the launch of what will be the debut launch of a geostationary satellite, with the lofting of the SES-8 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
In a sign of SpaceX's ability to hit the ground running with a busy launch schedule, an image was recently published showing several stages lined up on the factory floor at the company's facility in Hawthorne, California.
The photo shows the first stages for flights 7, 8, 9 – along with second stages for flights 8 and 9 – on the factory floor, with one unidentified stage and octoweb inside "SpaceX Falcon 9 spray booth".

Since the photo was taken, the core for Flight 7 (F9 S1-007) was shipped to the McGregor Test Facility for its acceptance test firing, as was the second stage (F9S2-007).
Following the development test firings on the F9 S1-006 core that will launch with CASSIOPE, stages are now expected to head in and out of Texas at a more rapid pace, with the objective of "simply" completing acceptance testing.
SpaceX officials usually inform the local media of firings, to provide nearby residents with a heads up of the loud noise and localized shaking that accompanies the ignition of their stages.

[igorvs]

Стартовое окно, если верить Spaceflightnow, по Москве с 20:00 - 22:00 5 сентября.

[igorvs]

T-10 дней

Не знаю как правильно называется документ от FAA о рисках SpaceX
https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2013-20726.pdf

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igorvs пишет:
T-10 дней

Успел ли конь там поваляться?  

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igorvs пишет:
T-10 дней

Не знаю как правильно называется документ от FAA о рисках SpaceX
 https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2013-20726.pdf

This petition for waiver addresses an upcoming flight that SpaceX plans to undertake transporting the Cassiope satellite and several small secondary payloads to earth orbit.  This will be the first launch by SpaceX from VAFB.  It will also be the first flight of the Falcon 9 v1.1 vehicle, which is larger and has greater thrust and payload capacity than SpaceX's Falcon 9 vehicle.  SpaceX's Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle will launch from VAFB and place the Cassiope satellite into a near-polar orbit.  The launch vehicle will also carry five secondary payloads to the same orbit.  The first stage will coast after stage separation, and then perform an experimental burn with three engines to reduce the entry velocity just prior to entry.  Prior to landing in the water, it will perform a second experimental burn with one engine to impact the water with minimal velocity.  The second stage will coast and then perform an experimental burn to depletion.

[igorvs]

Похоже запуск поедет вправо

[Salo]

Ну кто бы сомневался! Вопрос только в том на один месяц, или на два.  

[igorvs]

Пока вроде еще остается в сентябре

[igorvs]

Источники говорят о переносе запуска на 10 сентября