SpaceX is preparing for a major satellite launch set to take place this week: The space transportation company is now targeting Aug. 6 to send Amos-17, an Israeli communications satellite, to space from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

On Tuesday, SpaceX aims to launch Amos-17 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in the evening, Space.com reported. The launch window will be open from 6:52 p.m. EDT to 8:20 p.m. EDT and it depends on launch range availability, SpaceX said in a tweet.

Owned by Israeli company Spacecom, Amos-17 will provide satellite communication services to Africa, according to the Amos-17 satellite mission webpage. It will operate from 17 degrees east and will expand the company’s coverage of growing satellite service markets in Europe, the Middle East, and other global areas.

The first stage booster that will be used for the mission, 1047.3, is a veteran Falcon 9 rocket that has flown twice before, first in July 2018 when it carried the Telstar 19 Vantage satellite, then in November 2018, it sent Qatar’s Es’hail 2 communications satellite into orbit.

The 1047.3 rocket will not be recovered once it takes Amos-17 to space, since it needs to conserve its fuel supplies to make sure that Amos-17, which clocks in at 14,330 pounds, reaches the highest possible orbit, so there won’t be enough fuel to land itself out at sea on SpaceX’s drone ship or back at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Due to these arrangements, the Falcon 9 doesn’t have its grid fins and landing legs, and will conclude its service by landing in the ocean.

Tuesday’s launch will be the first time a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will ferry a Spacecom payload after the Amos-6 satellite was lost in fall 2016. Liftoff for the Amos-17 communications satellite might be tough though, since it will need permission from the Air Force’s Eastern Range and one of United Launch Alliance’s rockets, the Atlas V rocket, is also scheduled to liftoff on Aug. 8 next to the Cape Canaveral launch site. </s> An Israeli communications satellite has been successfully launched from Florida, Spacecom, the company that operates the satellite, said on Wednesday.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted the satellite, Amos-17, into space on Wednesday from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, Spacecom said in a statement.

Amos-17 was deployed some 33 minutes after liftoff, Sapcecom said.

It maintains constant contact with the ground station and started its three-week journey towards its designated orbit in space.

Upon arrival, a series of three-month-long checks would begin before the satellite could become operational.

The 250-million dollars satellite is expected to provide communications services to Africa, the Middle East, and Europe through the next 15 years.

“It strengthens Israel’s international position in the field of communications satellites,” he wrote on Facebook.

The launch came amidst weather concerns over a lightning storm and heavy clouds.

In 2016, Spacecom lost Amos-6 after a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded on the launchpad. </s> • A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to launch an AMOS-17 communications satellite at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Tuesday evening local time.
• The mission comes three years after a launchpad explosion destroyed a different Israeli communications satellite.
• SpaceX will livestream the launch. The broadcast is set to begin 15 minutes before liftoff. The satellite will be deployed approximately 31 minutes later.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying Spacecom’s AMOS-17 communications satellite at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Tuesday. The mission comes nearly three years after a launch pad explosion destroyed a different Israeli communications satellite (Spacecom’s AMOS-6) in September 2016.

The satellite from Tuesday’s launch, which happened at 7:23 p.m. EDT, will provide increased connectivity across Africa by supporting a “growth in a variety of broadcast, broadband, mobility, and data services,” according to a press release.

The satellite will be deployed approximately 31 minutes later.

“AMOS-17 will operate in the C, Ku and Ka bands with a digital channelizer to provide fixed high throughput (HTS) C-band coverage to Africa, steerable HTS Ka-band coverage to anywhere from China to Brazil, and extensive Ku-band coverage throughout Africa with additional coverage in Europe, the Middle East, China, and India,” SpaceX said in the press release.

Read more: A rocket SpaceX was testing exploded on a launch pad in Florida

No injuries were reported in the 2016 blast, but it did result in “the loss of the vehicle and its payload,” the SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted shortly after the incident.

For this launch, SpaceX will not be trying to land or collect its boosters after the launch, CBS News reported.

SpaceX will livestream the launch. The broadcast is set to begin 15 minutes before liftoff.

The mission timeline, provided by the press kit with approximated times, goes as follows:
• 00:01:04- Max Q (moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket) </s> WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th August, 2019) US carrier rocket Falcon 9 loaded with Israeli AMOS-17 communication satellite successfully lifted off from a space center in Florida, spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX said on Wednesday.

"Falcon 9 launches AMOS-17 off Pad 40 in Florida, marking this booster's third flight and SpaceX's 25th reflight of an orbit class rocket," the company said on Twitter.

The rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 23:24 GMT on Tuesday.

Amos-17 is set to replace Amos-5 satellite launched in 2011. Communication with Amos-5 was lost in 2015. Amos-17, built by Boeing, will provide Ka, Ku and C-band signal transmission and expand Israeli communications satellite operator Spacecom's coverage in Africa, the middle East and Europe. </s> CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA (REUTERS) - SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying Spacecom's AMOS-17 communications satellite at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Tuesday (Aug 6).

The mission comes nearly three years after a launch pad explosion destroyed a different Israeli communications satellite (Spacecom's AMOS-6) in September 2016, Business Insider reported.

The satellite will provide increased connectivity across Africa by supporting a "growth in a variety of broadcast, broadband, mobility, and data services," according to a press release. </s> SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from its Florida launch pad. (SpaceX via YouTube)

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched a Boeing-built, Israeli telecommunications satellite called Amos-17 into geosynchronous transfer orbit today, adding to what’s shaping up as a largesse of liftoffs.

The launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida came at 7:23 p.m. ET (4:23 p.m. PT), toward the end of an 88-minute launch opportunity that was marked by weather concerns. This was a makeup launch for Spacecom, the Israeli satellite operator that lost its Amos-6 spacecraft when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded on the launch pad in 2016.

Amos-17 is designed to provide enhanced voice, video and data services to customers in Africa and parts of Europe, the Middle East, India and China.

The satellite headed for high Earth orbit, with a correspondingly high fuel requirement. That meant there wasn’t enough fuel left over to try bringing the first-stage booster back for a controlled recovery, as has become routine for SpaceX Falcon 9 missions. The booster had a good run: It was used previously for the Telstar 19 Vantage mission ln July 2018 and the Es’hail-2 mission in November 2018.

About half an hour after launch, SpaceX confirmed that Amos-17 was successfully deployed. “A great day for Falcon 9 and the Amos-17 customer,” launch commentator John Insprucker said.

Although the booster was a write-off, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reported that a section of the Falcon 9’s nose cone, or fairing, floated down on the end of a parachute and was caught in a net hooked up over a boat stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. The video clip accompanying Musk’s tweet looked like something from a science-fiction movie:

SpaceX says that recovering the Falcon 9’s fairing intact should raise the rocket’s reusability quotient and potentially reduce launch costs by millions of dollars.

Today’s SpaceX launch came just a few hours after Europe’s Arianespace consortium launched two satellites into different geostationary orbits from its spaceport in the South American country of French Guiana, using its heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket.

Intelsat 39 will provide upgraded communication services to customers across Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The second satellite, EDRS-C, is part of an effort led by the European Space Agency and Airbus to facilitate high-speed laser communications between orbiting satellites and ground stations.

On Thursday, United Launch Alliance is due to send an advanced communications satellite into geostationary orbit for the Air Force aboard an Atlas 5 rocket.

The latest Advanced Extremely High-Frequency satellite, AEHF-5, is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 41 – not far from Launch Complex 40, the pad that SpaceX used today. If today’s Amos-17 launch had been delayed, SpaceX would have had to stand down to let United Launch Alliance take its turn.

Built by Lockheed Martin, the satellites of the AEHF constellation are designed to provide secure, jam-resistant, nuclear-survivable satellite communications for military assets on land, sea and in the air. Communication services are provided to the U.S. military and partners in Australia, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands.

The Atlas 5’s Centaur upper stage will also deploy a small Air Force satellite to test orbital debris tracking technologies.
• SpaceX launches its Falcon Heavy rocket for first time, putting a sports car (and Starman) in space </s> SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is set to launch Israeli communication satellite Amos-17 into orbit from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday evening, after a suspected engine fault delayed its take-off, news agencies reported.

Communication company Spacecom, the Ramat Gan-based operator of the Amos (Affordable Modular Optimized Satellite) series, said on Monday that if final authorization is received, the launch will take place late Tuesday.

The satellite launch had been scheduled for Sunday, but was postponed after a suspect valve was identified in one of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle’s engines.

“As notified by launch company SpaceX, after an additional test of the launch site was successfully executed, the launch of the Amos-17 satellite has been scheduled for the early morning [Israel time] of August 7, 2019, subject to final approval from launch site authorities,” the company told the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Once operational, Spacecom claims that Amos-17 will be the most advanced high-throughput satellite to provide communication services to sub-Saharan Africa. The satellite also offers service to growing satellite service markets in the Middle East and Europe.

 The reusable Falcon 9 launch vehicle, designed and manufactured by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is a two-stage rocket for the transport of satellites and other commercial payloads into orbit. </s> Israeli communications manufacturer Spacecom's latest satellite will take the ride into orbit for free Tuesday night if it launches on time on a SpaceX rocket as planned.

The rare free of charge trip is perhaps the bookend to a chapter that opened in 2016, when an issue with a Falcon 9 rocket caused an explosion during a static fire test at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. That payload, Spacecom's $200 million Amos-6 satellite, was lost.

This week's planned launch will be SpaceX's first ferrying a Spacecom payload _ satellite Amos-17, this time _ since the 2016 accident. To prepare for it, the company conducted a successful static first test last week and then opted to perform a second one on Saturday after it replaced a suspect valve.

With both complete, the new launch date is now Tuesday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's launch complex 40. The launch window runs from 6:53 p.m. to 8:21 p.m.

The launch will be an opportunity for SpaceX to showcase how much the company has grown in the past three years. Then, the explosion was caused by a problem with a pressure vessel, known as a COPV, in the second-stage liquid oxygen tank, SpaceX found.

The company has since developed a new COPV design, which has been flying since the end of last year, and has had 45 consecutive successful mission since returning to flight after the explosion.

The lost satellite, Amos-6, was going to lease some of its capabilities to Facebook to provide Internet connectivity to developing areas, said Spacecom CEO David Pollack, who recalled at a press conference last week the response from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the time of the accident.

"When the satellite was destroyed, Mark Zuckerberg was in Kenya and he (told) his followers that his satellite was destroyed," Pollack said. "I'm very glad a big customer like this relates to that satellite as his satellite because they had great plans for that satellite _ we had big plans for that satellite."

Pollack called the explosion a "significant setback" for the company. So why return to SpaceX after the bad memories?

"The decision to go back to SpaceX is like a decision from scratch," Pollack said, pointing to SpaceX's successes since the accident. "They do a very good job."

For this mission, SpaceX will launch in expendable mode without landing legs to focus on lifting the 14,330-pound, Boeing-built Amos-17 satellite, which will bring Internet connectivity to parts of Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Without landing legs, SpaceX won't be attempting a landing of its booster as it typically does.

The weather is currently 40% "go" for launch, according to the Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron, due to the threat of thunderstorms in the region. If the launch doesn't go off Tuesday, SpaceX may have to wait some time.

The range will then have to reassess whether it has the resources to turn two launches around in 24 hours because, just down the way, pad 41 is also gearing up to launch Thursday with an Air Force military satellite.

"We would like to get to the point where we could launch within 24 hours. And so we're working toward that, to be able to do that in future endeavors," said the 45th Space Wing's Brig. Gen. Douglas Schiess. "It would be very dependent upon which ... space launch complexes those were at, what range sources resources they needed."

PHOTO (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194): </s> CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX successfully launched its ninth space mission of the year today (Aug. 6), delivering an Israeli communications satellite into orbit.

Despite typical summer storms in the area, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 here at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:23 p.m. EDT (2323 GMT), carrying skyward Amos-17, a communications satellite owned by the Israeli company Spacecom.

The California-based private spaceflight company originally aimed for a launch on Saturday (Aug. 3) but had to reevaluate its plans after preflight testing on Thursday (Aug. 1) indicated a valve issue on the Falcon 9. SpaceX opted to postpone the launch , replace the suspect valve and perform a second round of checks on the booster.

Related: Reusable Rocket Launch Systems: How They Work (Infographic)

Static-fire tests are a standard part of prelaunch testing that SpaceX conducts before each mission. During such tests, the rocket's first stage is held down and its engines are briefly fired to show that the booster's systems are working as expected prior to launch.

The Amos-17 mission is the first time a Falcon 9 rocket has flown a payload for Spacecom following the loss of its Amos-6 satellite on Sept. 1, 2016. On that day, SpaceX was in the process of conducting a prelaunch static-fire test when the rocket exploded. At the time, SpaceX performed its static-fire tests with the payload attached to the rocket, a practice the company has since stopped.

Spacecom says that the Amos-17 satellite will provide C-band, Ku-band and Ka-band communications services over Africa, Europe and the Middle East. The satellite is designed to last 20 years and costs an estimated $250 million, which includes the spacecraft, launch services and insurance.

The first-stage booster used for this mission, dubbed 1047.3 (an internal identifier by SpaceX), is a veteran member of the Falcon 9 fleet, having flown twice before. First launched in July 2018, it carried the Telstar 19 Vantage satellite.Then, in November 2018, the booster helped loft Qatar's Es'hail 2 communications satellite into orbit.

The sooty, stripped-down Falcon 9 first stage launched this evening without its iconic grid fins and landing legs, for this time it would not be recovered.

After pushing Amos-17 skyward, B1047.3 ended its service by splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. The vehicle needed every drop of its fuel to ensure that the heavy Amos-17 satellite — weighing in at 14,330 lbs. (6,500 kilograms) when fully fueled — is able to reach the highest possible orbit. So, there was not enough fuel for the booster to land itself back at the Cape, or out at sea on a SpaceX drone ship.

However, SpaceX is still perfecting another hallmark of its reusability efforts: recycling pieces of the payload fairing (also called the rocket's nose cone). The company dispatched its fleet of recovery vessels a few days prior to launch, ensuring that a net-equipped boat called GO Ms. Tree would be in position to (hopefully) catch another fairing as it parachuted back to Earth.

Payload fairings are designed to protect satellites during launch. SpaceX fairings come in two halves, which are jettisoned once their rocket reaches space. Together, the two pieces cost about $6 million — a hefty chunk of the rocket's overall cost. (It currently costs a minimum of $90 million to book a Falcon Heavy launch and $62 million for SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.)

When fairings fall back to Earth, they're typically reduced to scrap metal if they slam into the water or are exposed to briny seawater. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly stressed the corrosive nature of salt water, explaining that the company wants to reduce costs by cutting down on the refurbishments that each fairing half goes through after landing in the ocean. And that's where GO Ms. Tree comes in.

Related: SpaceX's Fairing-Catching Boat in Photos

In June, during the company's latest Falcon Heavy launch , SpaceX pulled off its first midair catch, a long-sought rocket-reusability milestone.

Acting as a giant catcher's mitt, GO Ms. Tree (formerly known as Mr. Steven) caught the powerful rocket's falling payload fairing off the Florida coast on June 25. This was a first for the speedy boat, which had come close on multiple occasions but had never managed to seal the deal.

SpaceX already reuses its first-stage rocket boosters, but it wants to expand its recycling efforts to include the fairings, further reducing launch costs. To that end, the California-based aerospace company equips both fairing halves with parachutes and small steering thrusters, to navigate themselves back to Earth and into GO Ms. Tree's net.

SpaceX has spent nearly two years testing the net-ship technique during select launches as well as performing numerous drop tests. GO Ms. Tree went through many design changes, including three different sets of arms and four nets, before the winning combination was found.

And that work paid off again today: About an hour after liftoff, Musk announced via Twitter that GO Ms. Tree succeeded in snagging a falling fairing half.

Fairing caught, video posting soonAugust 7, 2019

At an adjacent launch pad, just 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) away, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket awaits its own scheduled liftoff on Thursday (Aug. 8).

The Atlas V is equipped with five strap-on solid rocket motors designed to help lift the massive payload on board — the fifth Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite (AEHF-5). Built by Lockheed Martin, the communications satellite will be used by the U.S. military and other government agencies for secure voice, video and data communications.

Before the Falcon 9 could get Amos-17 off the ground today, SpaceX needed approval from the Air Force's Eastern Range.

During a media teleconference on Monday (Aug. 5) for the upcoming AEHF mission, Air Force officials discussed the Cape's two planned launches this week.

Air Force officials signed off on a plan to launch the Falcon 9 and Atlas V rockets 35 hours apart. The rapid-fire launch schedule began when the Falcon 9 took to the skies and will end early Thursday morning with the Atlas V's planned 5:44 a.m. EDT (0944 GMT) liftoff.

With more and more launch providers flocking to set up shop at the Cape, the Air Force has been streamlining its processes and updating infrastructure to be in a better position to support more launches with less downtime in between.

Related: Elon Musk Says SpaceX Will Reuse a Rocket Within 24 Hours in 2019

One key feature that helps enable faster turnaround times is the advent of an autonomous self-destruct mechanism on rockets, which cuts the workload for each launch.

The onboard safety system cuts out the need for military officers to manually send signals to self-destruct errant boosters in case of an emergency and instead relies on onboard computers. The switch will also save millions of dollars in infrastructure costs as old, outdated systems are updated.

(Range safety teams now use GPS data instead of relying on ground-based radar systems.)

With companies like SpaceX aiming to launch multiple times in a 24-hour period , the Air Force is also working to ensure that it can support multiple launches on the same day.

"We would like to get to the point where we could launch [multiple vehicles] in 24 hours," officials said.

Ultimately, meeting this goal will still depend on which launch complexes the vehicles were launched from and what range resources were needed. But Air Force officials expressed optimism that same-day launches are on the horizon.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 8:25 p.m. EDT with news of the successful payload-fairing catch by GO Ms. Tree.
SpaceX successfully launches Israeli communications satellite Amos-17 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The launch was provided by SpaceX for free following the destruction of Spacecom's Amos-6 satellite in 2016.