Falcon 9 Flight 22

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Flight 22 launching on 4 March 2016, carrying SES-9

Falcon 9 Flight 22 is a Falcon 9 space launch by SpaceX that occurred on 4 March 2016 at 23:25 UTC from the company's leased launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida. The payload was the SES-9 communications satellite which was inserted into a geosynchronous transfer orbit by Falcon 9. Spacecraft owner SES S.A. controls the spacecraft, and will use spacecraft propulsion to circularize the trajectory to a geostationary orbit.[1]

The flight was only the second launch of the third model of Falcon 9, the Falcon 9 full thrust, following the maiden flight of the upgraded rocket on Falcon 9 Flight 20 in December 2015.[2]

Launch schedule history

Flight 22 on 24 February 2016 launch attempt, which was scrubbed prior to loading propellants.

The launch was initially planned for 2015 but incurred an approximately six month delay following the loss of another SpaceX launch vehicle in June 2015. In the event, SES-9 endured four launch attempts that were scrubbed in late February and early March 2016 before successfully launching on 4 March 2016.

In addition to the earlier SES-8 mission ordered in 2011 and launched in 2013, SES contracted SpaceX for three additional launches starting with SES-9, originally planned for 2015. The deal was announced on 12 September 2012.[3] In early 2015, SES announced[4] that it would provide the payload on the first launch of the revised-design SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle: the Falcon 9 v1.2 (also called Falcon 9 v1.1 full thrust,[5]and later, just Falcon 9 full thrust). At the time, SES expected its SES-9 geostationary communications satellite would launch by September 2015.[6] By September 2015, SES held to the decision to be the first payload on the new model of the rocket despite the loss of the launch vehicle and payload of another SpaceX mission in June 2015, but postponed the launch until late 2015.[7]

SES-9 satellite encapsulated in the Falcon 9 payload fairing, but not yet mated with the launch vehicle, 20 February 2016.

However, after considering all options, SpaceX announced a change on 16 October 2015: Orbcomm's 11 OG2 satellites would be the payload on the return-to-flight launch of the redesigned Falcon 9 instead of SES-9.[6] The Orbcomm payload with its lower orbit would allow SpaceX to test relighting the second-stage engine, a capability required to successfully put the heavier SES-9 on a geostationary orbit.[6] The Orbcomm launch was subsequently delayed to mid-December or later, while SES-9 was scheduled to follow "within a few weeks".[6] In the event, the maiden launch of Falcon 9 full thrust occurred on 22 December 2015, and was followed in January 2016 by the final launch of the Falcon 9 v1.1 version of the rocket, with SES-9 moving to February.

A successful static fire test of the rocket was completed on 22 February 2016.[2] The launch was scheduled for 24 February 2016 at 6:46pm local time, with a backup launch window the next day at the same time.[8] Neither day produced a launch however as both attempts were scrubbed: on 24 February, prior to propellant loading "out of an abundance of caution, in order to get the rocket’s liquid oxygen propellant as cold as possible"; and on 25 February, just two minutes prior to launch “citing a last-minute problem with propellant loading.”[9]

Subsequently the launch was rescheduled for the evening of Sunday 28 February at 6:46pm EST (23:46 UTC), with a fallback slot same time next day.[10] The first Sunday launch attempt was aborted less than two minutes before scheduled liftoff due to a tugboat entering the area of the offshore safety zone.[11] A second attempt on 28 February was made about 35 minutes later, after the downrange zone had been cleared, however, the rocket shut-down a moment after ignition due to low thrust flag from one engine. Rising oxygen temperature due to the hold for the tugboat to clear and a suspected helium bubble were suggested by Elon Musk as the likely reasons for the alarm being triggered.[12] The next launch attempt on March 1st was postponed to March 4th due to high winds.[13]

The launch attempt was finally made, and was successful, on 4 March 2016.[1]

Launch attempts

Attempt Planned Result Turnaround Reason Decision point Weather go (%) Notes
1 24 Feb 2016, 11:46:00 pm Delayed [14] --- Issue loading cryogenic liquid oxygen[14] 60%
2 25 Feb 2016, 11:47:00 pm Aborted [15] 1 day, 0 hours, 1 minute Issue loading cryogenic liquid oxygen[15] (T-00:01:41[15]) 80%[14]
3 28 Feb 2016, 11:47:00 pm Aborted [16] 3 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes Fouled Range[16] 95%
4 29 Feb 2016, 12:21:00 am Aborted [16] 0 days, 0 hours, 34 minutes Low thrust alarm due to rising oxygen temps[16] 95%
5 4 Mar 2016, 11:35:00 pm Successful launch [17] 4 days, 23 hours, 14 minutes 90% Launch window: 23:35 to 01:06 UTC

Payload

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The payload on Flight 22 is SES-9, a large commsat intended to eventually operate in geostationary orbit in an orbital slot at 108.2 degrees east longitude, providing communication services to northeast Asia, South Asia and Indonesia, as well as maritime communications for vessels in the Indian Ocean,[18] as well as provide mobility beams for "seamless in-flight connectivity for domestic Asian flights operating in countries like Indonesia and the Philippines".[8]

The satellite was built by Boeing, using a model BSS-702HP satellite bus.[2]

SES-9 massed approximately Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value). at launch,[19][2][20] the largest Falcon 9 payload yet to a highly-energetic geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO).[8]

The original apogee for the transfer orbit contracted by SpaceX was 26,000 km (16,000 mi), a subsynchronous highly-elliptical orbit that SES would then circularize and raise over several months before the satellite would be ready for operational service at 36,000 km (22,000 mi). SES CTO Martin Halliwell indicated in February 2016 that SpaceX had agreed to add additional energy to the spacecraft with the launch vehicle and that a new apogee of approximately 39,000 km (24,000 mi) was the objective, in order to assist SES in the satellite becoming operational many weeks earlier than otherwise possible, in part to help compensate for the schedule delays leading up to the launch. This was to be achieved by the second stage burning to depletion, instead of to a target velocity.[19] SpaceX said they were projecting an apogee of at least 38,000 km (24,000 mi). In the event, the actual apogee achieved was approximately 40,600 km (25,200 mi), significantly reducing the estimated time for the satellite to become fully operational on station.

Post-mission landing test

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Following word from SES that SpaceX had allocated some of the normal propellant reserve margins for landing to placing the SES-9 satellite in a higher (and more energetic) orbit than originally planned,[21] SpaceX confirmed in February that they would still attempt a secondary goal of executing a controlled-descent and vertical landing flight test of the first stage on the SpaceX east-coast Autonomous spaceport drone ship (floating landing platform) named Of Course I Still Love You.[2][22][8] Although SpaceX successfully recovered a first booster on land following the December launch to a less-energetic orbital trajectory,[23][24] they had not yet succeeded in booster recovery from any of the several previous attempts to land on a floating landing platform.[22]

Moreover, because the SES-9 satellite is very heavy and is going to such a high orbit, SpaceX indicated prior to launch that "a successful landing is not expected" on Flight 22.[21]

As expected, booster recovery failed: the spent first stage “landed hard”,[25] but the controlled-descent and atmospheric re-entry, as well as navigation to a point in the Atlantic ocean over 600 kilometers (370 mi)[26] away from the launch site, were successful and returned significant test data on bringing back high-energy Falcon 9's.[1]

External video
video icon SES-9 Technical Webcast: Experimental Landing

The controlled-descent through the atmosphere and landing attempt for each booster is an arrangement that is not used on other orbital launch vehicles.[27] SES CTO Martin Halliwell has indicated that SES has informed SpaceX that they would like to use the same rocket twice to power their sats to orbit.[20]

See also

References

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  11. http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2016/02/29/tug-boat-contributed-spacex-launch-scrub/81102952/
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  26. Webcast At 20min
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External links