A huge radio broadcast satellite for the SiriusXM on top of the Falcon 9 rocket is set for a liftoff on Friday, marking a busy weekend for SpaceX, including the launch of a new pay-generation cargo ship for the International Space Station and a spectacular atmospheric test flight. Prototype rocket over South Texas.
A Falcon 9 rocket is on pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for a liftoff at 11:21 a.m. EST (1621 GMT) on Friday, and SiriusXM’s SXM7 Broadcasting Satellite will be orbiting the Earth’s synchronous orbit at an equatorial distance of about 36,000 km (about 22,000 km). Is. .
The launch window extends to 1:20 p.m., Friday EST (1820 GMT).
According to the 45th Weather Squadron of the US Space Force, there is a 90 percent chance of favorable weather on Friday during the nearly two-hour window.
The forecast is expected to be favorable for the initial launch window on Friday morning, with light coastal winds bringing stratocumulus and cumulus decks over the Atlantic, the meteorological team said in a statement issued on Thursday. “This activity would potentially be a minor threat to violating the cumulus cloud rule.”
The launch window of the Falcon 9 rocket opens after 15 hours and 12 minutes, after a few miles from the United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy Rocket Pad 37B to South Pad 40 on Thursday night.
It will mark a short-term migration between Cape Canaveral and two orbital launches since September 1967, when the Delta-G and Atlas-Centaur rockets took off within 10 hours of different launch pads, according to a launch log operated by Jonathan McDowell. Astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, which tracks global satellite and launch activity.
Last August, the Falcon 9 and Atlas 5 rockets were launched from Cape Canaveral in less than 35 hours. Between May 1981, there was a short interval between two orbital missions at Cape Canaveral.
Military officers from the 45th Space Wing have streamlined Eastern Range operations at Cape Canaveral to eliminate obstacles and reduce the level of range staffing for some missions, such as the SpaceX launch, which uses an automated flight safety system. The safety mechanism will terminate the launch if the rocket threatens populated areas.
The Ches Ran Space Wing says that the need for hours as long as the launch time between launches – as the Eastern Range has done in recent decades – now the Space 45th Space Wing says it will now launch the SpaceX launch and ULA. Can accommodate flights less than 24 hours.
The launch of SiriusXM’s SXM7 satellite is also in a busy week for SpaceX.
On December 6, SpaceX launched its first upgraded cargo dragon spacecraft from the Pad 39 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The Space Tomated Supply Ship – a new shape based on Sports Upgrades and SpaceX’s human-rated crew Dragon Capsule – arrived at the International Space Station on Monday, December 7 for successful docking.
Meanwhile, SouthX Texas SpaceX teams began a test flight on Wednesday of the company’s next pay-generation Starship vehicle. The 164-foot-tall (50-meter) prototype rocket flew at an airliner powered by a methane-fueled Raptor engine, then guided to the descent pad at SpaceX’s test facility in Boca Chika, Texas, near US-Mexico. Boundary.
Starship Rocket performed a dramatic flip maneuver to set up for landing, but the vehicle exploded into a fireball as it landed hard. Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, called the test flight a success.
The reusable starship could eventually carry more than 100 tons of cargo into space, and take people to the moon, Mars and other deep places.
Among other activities of the company earlier this week, SpaceX tested the Falcon 9 booster for the SXM7 mission on Monday evening, then moved the rocket back inside its hanger near Pad 40 for the spacecraft’s attachment.
The reusable Falcon 9 booster for this mission – designated B1051 – is the Pte of the previous six flights for space and back, beginning with the launch of Dragon Cargo on the space station last year. 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.
With the fully assembled rocket on the Pad 40, SpaceX technicians were reading a two-stage launcher for propellant loading on Friday morning. Kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants are scheduled to start flowing into the Falcon 9 rocket at 10:46 a.m. EST (1546 GMT).
Assuming no technical problems and good weather, the nine Merlin 1D engines will fire at 11:21 a.m. to propel the Falcon 9 rocket to the ground with a thrust of 1.7 million pounds.
The Falcon 9 will move east from Cape Canaveral to the downstream, the first phase of the rocket will decide to shut down the booster, and the flight will depart in about a minute.
The first stage aims to land on SpaceX’s drone ship, “Just Read Instructions” parked a few miles east of Cape Canaveral.
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.
“Leading United States audio dio entertainment company SiriusXM SXM7 will be used to ensure continuous and reliable delivery of SiriusXM’s entertainment and data services to millions of North American subscribers,” Max said in a statement. “The SXM-7 will deliver the highest power density of any commercial satellite in on-orbit, send more than 8,000 watts of content to continental U.S., 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 transmit a large antenna reflector to transmit radio signals to receivers on moving vehicles, which signals will also reach mobile users?
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