Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Hold-down firing completed ahead of Sunday’s Falcon 9 launch

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: January 12, 2016 at 11:00:30 AM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Hold-down firing completed ahead of Sunday's Falcon 9 launch

Hold-down firing completed ahead of Sunday's Falcon 9 launch
January 12, 2016 by Stephen Clark
Nine Merlin engines on the Falcon 9's first stage fired up Monday for a static fire test at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX's launch team ran through a traditional preflight test Monday, putting a Falcon 9 rocket through a mock countdown, loading it with a supply of liquid propellant and briefly firing its engines on a launch pad in California ahead of this weekend's liftoff with a U.S.-European oceanography satellite.
The first stage booster's nine Merlin 1D engines ignited at 8:35 p.m. EST Monday (0135 GMT Tuesday) while hold-down devices kept the rocket firmly on the ground at Vandenberg Air Force Base on California's Central Coast.
The engines fired for approximately seven seconds, according to NASA, which is managing the launch of the Jason 3 ocean research satellite.
"The initial review of the data appears to show a satisfactory test, but will be followed by a more thorough data review on Tuesday," NASA said in a statement.
SpaceX ground crews planned to return the Falcon 9 rocket to its hangar near the launch pad for final flight preparations.
The Jason 3 spacecraft is already enclosed inside the Falcon 9 rocket's payload fairing and will be attached to the launcher's second stage as soon as Tuesday, according to NASA.
A launch readiness review is scheduled for Friday to give the final formal go-ahead to start the Falcon 9 countdown leading toward liftoff at 1:42:18 p.m. EST Sunday (10:42:18 a.m. PST; 1842:18 GMT).
The Falcon 9's second stage will deliver the 1,124-pound (510-kilogram) Jason 3 satellite into an orbit about 840 miles (1,354 kilometers) above Earth, and the rocket's first stage will aim for a vertical rocket-assisted touchdown on a landing barge positioned in the Pacific Ocean south of Vandenberg.
Jason 3's launch was scheduled for August, but the failure of a Falcon 9 rocket in June 2015 grounded the mission until January.
The flight will be the final launch of the Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket configuration, which SpaceX is replacing with an upgraded model capable of hauling 30 percent more mass into orbit. The first launch of the new version of the Falcon 9, which features chilled, densified propellants, higher-thrust engines and larger fuel tanks, successfully put 11 small satellites into low Earth orbit after a launch from Cape Canaveral on Dec. 21.
The Jason 3 mission is a joint project between NOAA, the European weather satellite agency Eumetsat, and the French space agency CNES. It replaces the Jason 2 satellite launched in June 2008.
Jason 3 carries a radar altimeter to measure the height of ocean waves and global sea level changes, supplying data to aid forecasters predicting the development of tropical cyclones and research scientists studying climate change.
The mission costs about $365 million at current economic conditions, divided between NOAA, Eumetsat, the European Commission and CNES.
© 2016 Spaceflight Now Inc.

Static Fire Test Sets Stage for Next Falcon 9 Launch and Landing Attempt
by Jeff Foust — January 12, 2016

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket performs a static fire test on the pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on Jan. 11. Credit: SpaceX
WASHINGTON — SpaceX performed a successful static fire test of its Falcon 9 rocket late Jan. 11, clearing the way for the launch of an ocean science satellite, and another first stage landing attempt, this weekend.
SpaceX carried out the static fire test, a standard part of the company's pre-launch preparations, at 8:35 p.m. Eastern at Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Preliminary data from the seven-second test "looks good," the company said in a tweet.
A successful test will allow preparations to continue for the Jan. 17 launch of Jason-3, a joint U.S.-French mission to measure ocean surface conditions. The spacecraft, already encapsulated within its payload fairing, will be installed on the rocket as soon as Jan. 12 according to NASA, which procured the launch.
Jason-3 is the fourth in a series of such spacecraft, dating back to the TOPEX/Poseidon launched in 1992. The spacecraft carries instruments provided by the French space agency CNES and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to measure sea level, wave heights and wind speeds at sea level, as well as water vapor content in the atmosphere. Those data will be used to support both weather forecasting and climate monitoring.
SpaceX also plans to use the launch to attempt another landing of the rocket's first stage. While the company successfully landed a Falcon 9 first stage at Cape Canaveral after the Dec. 21 launch of 11 Orbcomm satellites, SpaceX plans to attempt a landing on a ship in the Pacific Ocean, similar to unsuccessful landing attempts in January and April of 2015.
The decision to land the stage on a ship, rather than on land, is driven at least in part by performance considerations. "Aiming to launch this weekend and (hopefully) land on our droneship. Ship landings needed for high velocity missions," SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted late Jan. 11, after the static fire test.
Musk, in a posting on the SpaceX website prior to the Dec. 21 launch, explained that the Falcon 9 first stage could accelerate 125 tons — the approximate mass of the second stage plus satellite payload — to 5,000 kilometers per hour for missions where the first stage returns to land, but 8,000 kilometers per hour for missions where the first stage lands at sea. The difference, which accounts for the additional propellant needed for the first stage to turn around to return to land, translates into improved payload capacity for missions where the first stage lands at sea.
SpaceX has not disclosed additional details about its Jan. 17 landing attempt. The company did file an application with the Federal Communications Commission Dec. 28 for special temporary authority to perform communications for an "experimental offshore recovery operation, following launch from Vandenberg AFB." That application listed coordinates for a boat and barge in the Pacific about 280 kilometers downrange from the launch site.
The launch will be the first for SpaceX from Vandenberg since the inaugural launch of the Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket in September 2013 carrying the Cassiope satellite. The Jason-3 launch is the last planned launch of the Falcon 9 v1.1, with future launches using an upgraded version of the vehicle first flown on the Orbcomm launch in December.

© 2016 SpaceNews, Inc. All rights reserved.

SpaceX to Attempt Another Rocket Landing Sunday
by Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | January 11, 2016 06:24pm ET

The first stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket attempts to land on an uncrewed ship in the Atlantic Ocean on April 14, 2015. The booster hit its target but ended up toppling over on the ship's deck.
Credit: SpaceX View full size image

SpaceX is planning to try another epic rocket landing during a satellite launch Sunday (Jan. 17), according to media reports.
The private spaceflight company aims to bring the first stage of its two-stage Falcon 9 rocket back for a soft touchdown on an uncrewed ship in the Pacific Ocean during Sunday's launch of the Jason-3 Earth-observation satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The news was first reported by space journalist Charles Lurio via Twitter, and subsequently confirmed by NBC News.
SpaceX has already pulled off a rocket landing; a Falcon 9 first stage touched down at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Dec. 21 during the launch of 11 spacecraft for satellite-communications company Orbcomm. The milestone marked the first time a booster had ever landed softly during an orbital liftoff. (Blue Origin, a company headed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, landed its New Shepard rocket during a suborbital test flight this past November.)
SpaceX has attemped a Falcon 9 sea landing twice before, once in January 2015 and again in April of that year. Both times, the rocket stage hit its target but came in too hard, toppling and exploding on the ship's deck.
These touchdown attempts are part of SpaceX's efforts to develop fully and rapidly reusable rockets, technology that company founder and CEO Elon Musk says could cut the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100. Such dramatic price reductions could, in turn, make Mars colonization economically feasible, Musk has said.
The Jason-3 satellite is designed to measure variations in global sea level extremely precisely, allowing researchers to a get a better understanding of the ongoing effects of climate change. The spacecraft's observations will add to a dataset that has been accruing since the 1992 launch of the TOPEX/Poseidon mission.
The Jason-3 mission is a joint effort involving the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the European climate-satellite organization EUMETSAT, the French space agency CNES and NASA.

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