SpaceX conducted their thirteenth launch of the year Sunday, with a Falcon 9 rocket deploying the Telstar 19V communications satellite for Canada’s Telesat. The first of a pair of Falcon 9 launches slated to occur just three days apart, Sunday’s mission began with liftoff from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at the opening of a four-hour window at 01:50 Eastern Time (05:50 UTC). SpaceX also recovered the first stage of the Falcon 9 via their Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS), Of Course I Still Love You. Telstar 19 Vantage, or Telstar 19V, is a powerful new satellite that Telesat will place in geostationary orbit over Brazil, providing high-throughput communications to users in South America, the Caribbean, northeast Canada and the north Atlantic. Constructed by Space Systems Loral, the satellite is based around the SSL-1300 satellite bus and is expected to serve Telesat for at least fifteen years. It has a mass at launch of 7,080 kilograms (15,600 lb) – making it the heaviest payload that Falcon 9 has carried to geostationary transfer orbit. The Telstar 19V satellite will be positioned in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 63 degrees west, alongside the Telstar 14R satellite which has been in orbit since 2009. Telstar 19V carries a payload of Ka-band and Ku-band transponders. Hughes Network Systems will lease the satellite’s South American Ka-band capacity for the lifetime of the satellite, operating the transponders as Hughes 63 West. Telesat Canada acquired its fleet of Telstar satellites in a 2007 merger with Loral Skynet, a subsidiary of Loral Space and Communications which had itself been formed out of AT&T’s satellite fleet in another merger a decade earlier. The name Telstar harks back to the early years of spaceflight – when it launched in July 1962, AT&T’s Telstar was the first commercial satellite to go into orbit. An experimental low Earth orbit communications satellite, it was followed by the near-identical Telstar 2 the following year. However, once NASA’s Syncom satellites demonstrated the use of geostationary orbits for communication, Telstar and other low orbit projects were abandoned. AT&T revived its interest in operating satellites in the early 1980s, bringing back the Telstar name with the geostationary Telstar 301, 302 and 303 satellites. Telstars 401 and 402 were launched in 1993 and 1994. However, both were short-lived: Telstar 402 exploded in orbit shortly after separating from the Ariane 4 rocket that had deployed it; when the spacecraft’s propulsion system was activated, a gas leak ignited its hydrazine propellant. Telstar 401 was rendered unserviceable by a magnetic storm three years after launch. See Also Falcon 9 Vantage 19V UPDATES SpaceX Missions Section L2 SpaceX Section Click here to Join L2 Telstar 402R, a replacement for Telstar 402, was launched in September 1995. Renamed Telstar 4 after Loral acquired the fleet in 1997, this spacecraft remained in service until its power system failed in September 2003. At the time of the failure, Loral was negotiating to sell the spacecraft to Intelsat along with the Telstar 5, 6 and 7 satellites that had launched in the late 1990s, the recently-launched Telstar 13 and Telstar 8 which was then under construction. The sale of the remaining satellites went ahead, helping to relieve some of Loral Space and Communications’ debts after the company filed for bankruptcy protection. Loral Skynet acquired Orion Network Systems in 1998, absorbing its fleet of Orion satellites. Orion 1 – which had been launched in November 1994 – was renamed Telstar 11, while Orion 2 became Telstar 12 shortly after its launch in October 1999. A third Orion satellite, Orion 3, was left stranded in low Earth orbit after the second stage of its Delta III carrier rocket failed in May 1999. Despite discussions with NASA about sending a Space Shuttle mission to boost it into a higher orbit, Orion 3 never became part of the Telstar fleet. Under Loral’s ownership, the Telstar 14 satellite was added to the constellation in January 2004 – although one of the satellite’s solar panels had failed to deploy after launch. A replacement, Telstar 14R, was deployed in 2011 and also experienced the same anomaly but was still able to enter service. In October 2007, Telesat Canada completed its acquisition of Loral Space and Communications, adding Loral Skynet’s satellites to its own fleet of Anik and Nimiq spacecraft. In 2009 the Telstar 11N satellite, a replacement for the aging Telstar 11, was launched aboard a Zenit-3SLB rocket. The first new-generation Vantage satellite, Telstar 12V, was deployed by Japan’s H-IIA rocket in November 2015. Telesat has applied this designation to their newest satellites, signifying the additional capabilities that they will bring to the company’s fleet. Telesat has also begun to look into developing a network of low Earth orbit satellites for high throughput communications. The first prototype satellite was lost in the failure of Russia’s Soyuz rocket in late 2017, with a second satellite being deployed successfully by India’s PSLV this January. To deploy Telstar 19V, SpaceX used their Falcon 9 rocket, which made its fifty-eighth flight in its single-core configuration. Falcon 9 is designed to be partially-reusable, with the first stage (or core) making a controlled landing where practical after completing its role in the ascent, to be refurbished and fly again on later missions. Despite this, Sunday’s launch used a newly-constructed booster, B1047, which was the second Block 5 core to fly. Block 5 is intended as the ultimate conclusion of SpaceX’s program of incremental upgrades to the Falcon 9 v1.2 vehicle, freezing the design with a specification that meets NASA’s criteria for human-rating the vehicle and allowing each booster to be reused many times with minimal refurbishment between flights. Previous versions of Falcon 9 were only able to fly twice, and SpaceX has now retired or expended its inventory of these earlier vehicles. A two-stage rocket, Falcon 9 first flew in June 2010 with an inert structural mockup of the company’s Dragon spacecraft, the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit (DSQU).<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — SpaceX launched the first of two missions planned for this week on Sunday, July 22, lofting the Telstar 19 Vantage telecom satellite for Telesat using a Falcon 9 rocket. The Block 5 Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida at 1:50 a.m. Eastern, and deployed Telstar 19 Vantage into a geostationary transfer orbit almost 33 minutes later. The rocket’s first stage landed on the sea-faring droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” approximately eight and a half minutes later. Telstar-19 Vantage is the first of two SSL-built satellites SpaceX is launching for Canadian fleet operator Telesat this year. The satellite has a mix of traditional Ku-band wide beams and Ku- and Ka-band spot beams for connectivity services including internet for consumers, stores, offices and mobile platforms like boats and airplanes. Telesat is positioning Telesat-19 Vantage at 63 degrees West, the same orbital slot as its seven-year-old Ku-band Telstar-14R satellite. Two anchor customers, Hughes Network Systems of Germantown, Maryland, and Bell Canada of Québec, Canada signed 15-year capacity leases prior to launch, affirming Telesat’s business plan for Telstar-19 Vantage, which is a growth satellite, not a replacement. Hughes secured all of the satellite’s Ka-band capacity over Latin America, rebranding it as “Hughes 63 West,” and customers including Bell Canada are leasing the entire Canadian Ka-band payload. Along with operating geostationary satellites, Telesat is preparing a constellation of 117 low-Earth-orbit spacecraft for high-speed broadband in 2022. The company has one prototype satellite in orbit from Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. Partners OmniAccess, a maritime connectivity company, Australian fleet operator Optus Satellite and Global Eagle Entertainment, an aeronautical, maritime and remote connectivity provider, are all testing the service. SpaceX’s next mission is a Falcon 9 with 10 Iridium Next satellites scheduled for launch July 25 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Telesat’s next satellite, the Telstar-18/Apstar-5C satellite shared with APT Satellite of Hong Kong, is scheduled for a Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral no earlier than August.<doc-sep>SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket executed a textbook launch to put the heavy-duty Telstar 19 Vantage telecommunications satellite into orbit tonight and bring back the first-stage booster for an at-sea landing. The successful mission kicked off what’s expected to be a rapid-fire series of three liftoffs in two weeks’ time. The recently upgraded Block 5 variant of SpaceX’s workhorse rocket blazed into the night sky from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:50 p.m. PT (1:50 a.m. ET Sunday), at the start of a four-hour launch window. Over the course of eight and a half minutes, the two-stage rocket sent the satellite on the first leg of its journey to a geostationary transfer orbit. While the second stage powered onward, the first-stage booster relit its engines to navigate its way through the night to an autonomous landing ship named “Of Course I Still Love You,” stationed hundreds of miles off the Florida coast in the Atlantic Ocean. Webcam video showed the rocket’s descent to the deck, and after a break in the video stream, the booster could be seen standing tall. SpaceX workers broke out in cheers back at mission control in Hawthorne, Calif. A SpaceX recovery team was tasked with fishing the two halves of the Falcon 9’s nose cone out of the Atlantic, in an experiment aimed at advancing the company’s plans to save millions of dollars by reusing the nose cone, or fairing, as well as the booster. Telstar 19V is the latest in a new generation of satellites operated by Canada’s Telesat, and will be used by Hughes Network Systems to expand broadband satellite services in Brazil and other South American countries. It’ll also enhance broadband coverage for NorthwesTel, a Bell Canada subsidiary, in the far northern territory of Nunavut. The satellite has a 15-year design life. It weighs 15,600 pounds, making it by some accounts the heaviest commercial telecom satellite ever successfully launched. SpaceX is to launch yet another satellite in the series, Telstar 18 Vantage, in mid-August. But first, the California-based launch company is due to execute two other missions. A Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch 10 telecom satellites into low Earth orbit for Iridium from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Wednesday. The spotlight returns to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Aug. 2, when yet another Falcon 9 is due to launch the Merah Putih satellite for Telkom Indonesia. The Falcon 9 Block 5 is designed to be capable of far more reuse than SpaceX’s previous Block 4 variant. The new-generation rocket is also an essential part of SpaceX’s plans to start sending astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA by 2019. Among the witnesses to tonight’s launch was Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who took in the sight just a little more than a day after the 49th anniversary of his history-making moonwalk at Neil Armstrong’s side:<doc-sep>SpaceX launched its first Block 5 Falcon 9 rocket from Florida in May 2018 as part of the Bangabandhu Satellite-1 Mission. SpaceX will launch a powerful Telstar communications satellite into orbit early Sunday morning (July 22), testing out the spaceflight company's new Block 5 version of the Falcon 9 rocket for the second time. The launch is set to occur Sunday between 1:50 a.m. and 5:50 a.m. EDT (0550 to 0950 GMT) from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and you can watch it live online here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX. You can also follow the action directly at SpaceX's site. SpaceX successfully completed a test-fire of the two-stage Falcon 9 Wednesday (July 18), firing the first stage's nine Merlin engines at full power to test them before lowering the rocket to attach the satellite payload, according to SpaceflightNow. See more The Telstar 19V satellite, from the Canadian company Telesat, will end up in a high, geostationary orbit — orbiting at the same rate as Earth turns, so it hovers over one point — and provide broadband access across the Americas and Atlantic Ocean, according to Telesat. After the Falcon 9 lofts the satellite into space, the rocket's first stage will return to Earth for a landing on the SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. This launch is SpaceX's second to use the company's new Block 5 Falcon 9, which first launched May 11 carrying Bangladesh's first communications satellite into orbit and whose first stage was recovered for analysis. This launch will use an all-new Block 5, although the rockets' first stages are designed to last for 10 or more flights with no refurbishment in between — in fact, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said they could ideally last for 100 launches with some refurbishment. The Block 5 also has increased thrust over the previous version and is designed to meet NASA's commercial crew requirements. While additional minor changes might be made, Musk has said the Block 5 will be the final version of the Falcon 9, freeing up SpaceX to work on newer rocket designs, such as the potentially Mars-bound BFR. As of Friday (July 20), the weather forecast from Patrick Air Force Base's 45th Space Wing showed a 60-percent chance of acceptable launch weather; the potential problem spots are thick clouds. If SpaceX is unable to make the launch window, the backup will be the next night. This launch will be the first in a busy streak for SpaceX, if launch dates hold. The company is set to launch 10 satellites for the Iridium Next mobile communications fleet on July 25 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Then, on Aug. 2, the company will launch a communications satellite for Telkom Indonesia from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.<doc-sep>
Telstar 19V communications satellite orbited by SpaceX Falcon 9 Derek Richardson CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla — SpaceX’s rapid-fire launch cadence continued July 22, 2018, with the early-morning launch of the company’s second Block 5 Falcon 9. The rocket placed the Telesat-owned Telstar 19 VANTAGE communications satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 took place at 1:50 a.m. EDT (05:50 GMT) at the opening of a four-hour launch window. The weather was predicted to have a 60 percent chance of acceptable conditions with evening rain showers lasting longer into the night than typical for the area. However, thick, cumulus clouds stayed far enough away from the area to allow for an on-time flight. The countdown for the launch was smooth and quiet. Because this is a Block 5 Falcon 9, the fueling of the 230-foot (70-meter) tall vehicle began a mere 35 minutes before liftoff. It started with the loading of rocket grade kerosene into the first and second stages of the vehicle and liquid oxygen in the first stage. Then some 16 minutes before launch, pumps began filling the second stage with liquid oxygen as well. Seven minutes before the countdown reached zero, the nine Merlin 1D engines at the base of the Falcon 9’s first stage began conditioning themselves for launch. Six minutes later, the propellant tanks pressurized to flight pressure. Forty-five seconds before liftoff, the SpaceX launch director verified the vehicle was “go” for launch. At three seconds, the nine Merlin 1D engines ignited and began spooling up to full power. Once the computer verified all the engines were healthy, the launch mount released the Falcon 9. It’s nine engines, generating some 1.7 million pounds (7,600 kilonewtons) of thrust, began pushing the whole stack upward and into the sky toward the black of space. Within just over a minute the vehicle had passed the speed of sound and the moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket. About 1.5 minutes later, the Falcon 9’s first stage finished its job and its engines stopped firing, as planned. Separation of the first and second stages occurred several seconds later at about two minutes, 33 seconds into the flight. The second stage’s lone Merlin Vacuum engine ignited about two minutes, 34 seconds after leaving Florida to continue pushing it and Telstar 19 VANTAGE toward a parking orbit. Next, because it was no longer needed, the clam shell-like payload fairing was jettisoned three minutes 40 seconds after launch, exposing the spacecraft to space. After about six minutes of burning toward space, the planned parking orbit was achieved and the second stage’s engine cut off as planned. This coast phase lasted about 18 minutes. Meanwhile, the Block 5 first stage continued on a parabolic trajectory after it separated from the second stage. Using cold gas thrusters, the booster turned around by nearly 180 degrees to prepare itself for an entry burn some six minutes into the flight. Lasting only for about 20 seconds, this burn cushioned the vehicle as it slammed back into Earth’s atmosphere. Two minutes later, the first stage fired its center engine to slow itself down and land on the automated spaceport drone ship called “Of Course I Still Love You.” Over the next several days, SpaceX engineers out at sea near the drone ship will work to safe the rocket and tow it back to Port Canaveral where it will be evaluated, refurbished, and prepped for another flight. Back in orbit, the second stage fired its single engine for a second time at the conclusion of its coast phase. This 50-second burn placed it and the satellite payload into a highly-elliptical geostationary transfer orbit. The spacecraft separated about five minutes later at a mission elapsed time of about 33 minutes. Using onboard thrusters, the SSL-built Telstar 19 VANTAGE satellite is expected to circularize its orbit over the coming weeks and months at about 22,300 miles (35,900 kilometers)—geostationary orbit. It’s orbital slot is expected to be the 63 degrees west location where it will provide Ku- and Ka-band coverage between northern Canada and South America. Additionally, it is designed to provide coverage over the North Atlantic Ocean for aircraft and ocean-going vessels. Based on the SSL 1300 platform, the spacecraft is about 15,600 pounds (7,076 kilograms) and is designed to operate for about 15 years. It’s two solar panels are expected to provide about 15 kilowatts of power.