Falcon 9 Flight 21

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File:Jason-3 Rollout (24038722499) (2).jpg
Falcon 9 rolling out on 15 January 2015.

Falcon 9 Flight 21 (also known as Jason 3) was a Falcon 9 space launch by SpaceX that occurred on January 17, 2016 at 18:42 UTC from the company's launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 4E in California.[1][2][3] Its payload was the Jason-3 Earth-observation satellite for NOAA/NASA/CNES.

The launch was the second to be conducted by SpaceX following the catastrophic failure of a Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle's second stage on Falcon 9 Flight 19 in June 2015. It was also the final launch of a Block 2 Falcon 9—the Falcon 9 v1.1—although some parts of the rocket body were reworked following conclusion of the failure investigation.[4] It was the second Falcon 9 launch from Vandenburg AFB.

Launch schedule history

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The Jason-3 mission appeared on the SpaceX manifest as early as July 2013, with a no earlier than launch year of 2015.[5]

A 7-second static fire test of the rocket was completed on 11 January 2016.[6] The test was successful, and the Launch Readiness Review was successfully completed with all parties on 15 January 2015.

Payload

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The payload on Flight 21 is an Earth observation satellite named Jason-3, a follow-on to the Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM) (Jason-2). The initial OSTM satellite, Jason-1, was launched in 2001.

Jason-3 is the result of a four-agency international partnership consisting of NOAA, NASA, the French Space Agency CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales), and EUMETSAT (the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites). Thales Alenia Space built the spacecraft.

Jason-3 massed 525 kilograms (1,157 lb) at launch[7] and was successfully deployed into its target orbit after an orbital insertion burn about 56 minutes into the flight.[8]

Post-mission landing test

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First stage of Falcon 9 Flight 21 descending over the floating landing platform, 17 January 2016.

Following paperwork filed with US regulatory authorities in 2015,[9] SpaceX confirmed in January that they would attempt a controlled-descent flight test and vertical landing of the first stage on the west coast floating platform.[10]

This followed the first successful landing and booster recovery on the previous launch in December 2015.[11][12] The controlled-descent through the atmosphere and landing attempt for each booster is an arrangement that is not used on other orbital launch vehicles.[13]

Approximately 9 minutes into the flight, the live video feed from the autonomous drone ship Just Read the Instructions, located about 200 miles (320 km) out in the Pacific Ocean, went down due to the ship losing its lock on the uplink satellite. Elon Musk later reported that the first stage did successfully soft-land on the ship, but a lockout on one of the landing legs failed to latch and it fell over resulting in a rapid unscheduled disassembly event.[14][15][16][17][18][19]

Debris from the fire, including several rocket engines attached to the octaweb assembly, arrived back to shore on board the floating landing platform on 18 January 2016.[20]

See also

References

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  4. [1], NASASpaceFlight.com, 8 January 2016, accessed 9 January 2016.
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  6. Falcon 9 Static Fire Complete for Jason-3, NASA, 11 January 2016, accessed 12 January 2016.
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  10. SpaceX Plans Drone Ship Rocket Landing for Jan. 17 Launch, NBC News, 7 January 2016, accessed 8 January 2016.
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  15. tweet from SpaceX official twitter account after announcement on livestream
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External links