SpaceX Sets For Launch, SpaceX's Next Launch

NASA

SpaceX rocket set for next flight as company boosts production - SpaceX’s next launch from Cape Canaveral is set for Feb. 24, when a Falcon 9 rocket will carry a commercial television broadcasting satellite aloft for Luxembourg-based SES, the payload’s owner announced Monday.

The flight from SpaceX’s Complex 40 launch pad will be the first of more than a dozen missions the company plans from Cape Canaveral this year, and the second launch of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket that debuted in December.

The Falcon 9’s launch window Feb. 24 opens at 6:46 p.m. EST (2346 GMT).

The SES 9 satellite slated to fly aboard the 229-foot-tall rocket arrived at Cape Canaveral in early December after a cross-country trip from its Boeing factory in El Segundo, California.

With a launch mass of approximately 11,700 pounds, or 5,300 kilograms, the SES 9 satellite’s mission is tailored for television broadcasting and mobile communications services across a swath of the planet from Africa and the Middle East to Southeast Asia.

It is designed for a 15-year service life, eventually settling into an operating position in geostationary orbit along the equator at 108.2 degrees east longitude.

In a statement released Monday, SES said it agreed with SpaceX on a modification to the Falcon 9’s launch profile to put the communications satellite in an orbit closer to its final geostationary location nearly 22,300 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth.

SpaceX

SES/Boeing

Broadcasting satellites like SES 9 are typically deployed into an egg-shaped transfer orbit, with a high point near geostationary altitude and a low point much closer to Earth. In such cases, the satellite’s on-board propulsion system is responsible for adjusting its orbit to reach the craft’s ultimate operational post.

SES 9 carries a conventional liquid-fueled engine to complete major post-launch maneuvers, and an electric propulsion system to fine-tune its orbit and slide into position at 108.2 degrees east longitude.

The use of electric propulsion saves fuel aboard the satellite, but the low-impulse ion thrusters take longer to change the trajectory of the spacecraft, meaning SES 9 will take several months to reach geostationary orbit, instead of the usual few weeks.

SES said the modification to the launch will allow SES 9 to still enter service as soon as July, in roughly the same timeframe it expected to begin broadcasting television programming had the satellite launched late last year. Industry sources said the adjustment will place SES 9 in a higher orbit than originally planned, reducing the time the satellite needs to raise its own altitude.