SpaceX called for a planned launch of the Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral on Friday, and halted the countdown a minute before the lift before F to allow time for an additional ground system checkout before the next launch opportunity of the mission earlier than Sunday.
The Falcon 9 rocket was set to launch at 12:55 pm on Friday with the SpaceX SerieSMM SXM7 radio broadcasting satellite, less than 17 hours after the launch of rival launch company United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4-heavy rocket. Pads near Cape Canaveral.
The Delta 4-Heavy successfully launched a U.S. government spy satellite into orbit on Thursday night, and the SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will be shortly between space launches at Cape Canaveral after Friday 1967. This difference will have to wait a second time.
The SXM7 satellite was scheduled to explode at 11:21 a.m. EST (1621 GMT) at the opening of the nearly two-hour launch window, but SpaceX postponed the launch time as officials observed high wind conditions over Cape Canaveral.
SpaceX engineers allowed the Falcon 9 rocket to start filling with propellant at 12:20 a.m. EST (1720 GMT), and the countdown continued to grow until the Falcon 9 launch director was called to hold T-minus 30 seconds.
In a tweet, SpaceX said the company was “down from today’s projection of an additional ground system checkout.”
SpaceX said it was “working towards no earlier than Sunday” in an effort to launch the next SXM7 mission. If SpaceX moves forward with a launch attempt on Sunday, the nearly two-hour window is expected to open around 11:22 a.m. EST (1622 GMT).
The mission will mark SpaceX’s 25th Falcon 9 launch of the year and the 102nd flight of the Falcon 9 rocket since the first workhorse mission in 2010. The reusable booster is making its seventh trip to space with the SXM7-numbered B1051.
Half of the rocket’s CXM-like payload protection protects the SXM7 spacecraft, which is being re-used for the mission after recovering from the launch of South Korea’s Anasis 2 military communications satellite earlier this year, SpaceX says.
The first phase booster and payload fairing upgrades will be downgraded again in the Atlantic Ocean after the Falcon 9 takes off with the SXM7 satellite.
The second phase of the Falcon 9 will fire twice to place the SXM7 spacecraft in the parking lot, then adjust the radio broadcasting payload in an elliptical or egg-shaped “sub-synchronous” transfer orbit in T + plus 31 minutes, 39 seconds.
About 15,000-pounds, or about 7-metric tons, the spacecraft is maneuvering to propel itself towards the final perch in a geostationary orbit over 22,000 miles (about 36,000 kilometers). In that orbit, the spacecraft will orbit the planet at the same rate as it orbits the Earth, giving SXM7 a view of America 24 hours a day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“SiriusXM, SXM7, the leading audio Dio entertainment company in the United States, will be used to ensure the continuous and reliable delivery of SiriusXM’s entertainment and data services to millions of North American subscribers,” Maxer said in a statement. “The SXM7 will deliver a high power density on the power orbit of any commercial satellite, send more than 8,000 watts of content across the continents of the US, Canada, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, increasing signal quality for SiriusXM customers.”
Once in orbit, the SXM7 satellite – based on Maxer’s 1300-series spacecraft design – will inflate a large S-band antenna reflector to transmit radio signals to receivers on moving vehicles.
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