SpaceX readies Falcon 9 rocket for Friday launch
SpaceX engineers readied an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket for launch early Friday to boost a Japanese communications satellite into orbit, the California rocket builder's fourth launch so far this year.
Liftoff from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is targeted for 1:21 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Friday, the opening of a roughly two-hour window. The flight was delayed 24 hours because of stormy weather across Florida's Space Coast earlier this week, but forecasters are predicting near ideal conditions early Friday.
After propelling the rocket out of the thick lower atmosphere, the first stage will fall away and attempt a landing on a SpaceX "droneship" stationed well off shore east of Cape Canaveral. The Falcon 9's second stage, meanwhile, will continue the climb to space, releasing the JCSAT-14 relay station into an elliptical "transfer" orbit.
The satellite's on-board thrusters will be used to raise the low point of the ellipse, putting the spacecraft into a circular orbit 22,300 miles above the equator where it will deliver pay TV and broadband data relay services across Japan, Asia and Oceana.
While the second stage is completing the satellite's boost to the planned transfer orbit, the first stage will flip around, fire three of its nine engines to reverse course, fire them again to drop tail first into the atmosphere and then attempt to land on the droneship under the power of a single engine.
SpaceX pulled off its first successful offshore landing April 8 after sending a Dragon cargo ship on its way to the International Space Station. The first and, so far, only successful return to a Cape Canaveral landing occurred last December.
Company founder Elon Musk said last week that the JCSAT-14 satellite required a high launch velocity to achieve the proper geostationary transfer orbit and that not enough propellant would be left over for the first stage to make it all the way back to the launch site.
"JCSAT is pushing the envelope as a very hot and fast mission, so will land on the droneship," he tweeted Friday. "Next land landing in a few months."
But even an off-shore landing will be a challenge for the JCSAT-14 mission.
"Following stage separation, the first stage of Falcon 9 will attempt an experimental landing on the 'Of Course I Still Love You' droneship," SpaceX said in a mission press kit. "Given this mission's GTO destination, the first-stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing unlikely."
Successful or not, SpaceX engineers expect to collect more re-entry performance data and operational experience, key elements in the company's drive to lower launch costs by eventually recovering, refurbishing and re-launching spent rocket stages.
But the attempted recovery of the first stage after Friday's launch is a strictly secondary objective. The primary goal of the flight is to deliver the JCSAT-14 relay station to the intended orbit.
The satellite is owned by Sky Perfect JSAT Corp., the only non-governmental provider of multi-channel pay television and satellite communications in Japan and a major communications provider across Asia and Oceania.
Built by Space Systems/Loral, the JCSAT-14 spacecraft, which will boost the Sky Perfect fleet of relay stations to 16, is equipped with 26 C-band and 18 Ku-band transponders. With a design life of 15 years, the satellite will replace the aging JCSAT-2A now stationed at 154 degrees East longitude.
Two more SKY Perfect JSAT relay stations are scheduled for launch in 2016, one atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 and the other aboard a European Ariane rocket.
For SpaceX, the launching is the fourth of more than a dozen flights planned this year.
Next up is the Thaicom 8 communications station, believed to be targeted for launch in late May, and up to three flights in June: one from Cape Canaveral to boost a pair of relay stations into orbit; another from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.; and one to launch another Dragon cargo ship to the International Space Station.
And the pace picks up from there, including another station resupply flight in November and the maiden launch late this year of a huge Falcon 9 "Heavy" made up of three first stage boosters connected side-by-side, generating 5.1 million pounds of thrust.
"Our launch rate is going to continue to grow," Musk said after the April space station resupply launch. "We're expecting by maybe the third or fourth quarter that we would be doing a launch every two to three weeks."
