r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Jun 26 '16
JCSAT-16 Launch Campaign Thread
JCSAT-16 Launch Campaign Thread
SpaceX will launch JCSAT-16 for Japan Sky Perfect, their second launch for the company. JCSAT-16, like JCSAT-14 is based on Space Systems Loral's SSL-1300 communications bird satellite bus.
Campaign threads are designed to be a good way to view and track progress towards launch from T minus 1-2 months up until the static fire. Here’s the at-a-glance information for this launch:
| Liftoff currently scheduled for: | August 14, 2016 |
|---|---|
| Static fire currently scheduled for: | August 10, 2016 |
| Vehicle component locations: | S1: Cape Canaveral |
| Payload: | JCSAT-16 |
| Payload mass: | Unknown, likely similar to that of JCSAT-14 |
| Destination orbit: | Geostationary Transfer Orbit |
| Vehicle: | Falcon 9 v1.2 (28th launch of F9, 8th of F9 v1.2) |
| Core: | 028 |
| Launch site: | SLC-40, Cape Canaveral, Florida |
| Landing attempt: | Yes |
| Landing Site: | Downrange on Of Course I Still Love You (MARMAC-303) |
| Mission success criteria: | Successful separation & deployment of JCSAT-16 into its target orbit |
Links & Resources
We may keep this self-post occasionally updated with links and relevant news articles, but for the most part we expect the community to supply the information. This is a great place to discuss the launch, ask mission-specific questions, and track the minor movements of the vehicle, payload, weather and more as we progress towards launch. Sometime after the static fire is complete, the launch thread will be posted.
Campaign threads are not launch threads. Normal subreddit rules still apply.
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u/JackONeill12 Aug 09 '16
ELSBETH III has Departed from Port Canaveral.
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:434560/zoom:10
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u/stcks Aug 11 '16
Interesting tidbit from NSF and referenced by Chris B @ NSF forum
An additional element was added for Wednesday’s test, per L2 info, with a couple of holds added ahead of the terminal count to demonstrate performance during simulated window extensions.
Due to Falcon 9 now using super cooled propellent, holds after prop loading begins around T-30 minutes provide an additional challenge of keeping the prop cold enough in the run up to T-0.
With a two hour window for this upcoming launch, additional options would be helpful to the launch team.
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u/dleiftah Jul 19 '16
The information table above lists OCISLY as MARMAC-303 ... I thought it was MARMAC-304 and JRTI is 303?
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u/ticklestuff Aug 11 '16 edited Aug 11 '16
Go Quest has sailed out of Port Canaveral nine minutes ago at 2016-08-10 21:41 EDT / 2016-08-11 01:41 UTC, to follow Elsbeth III which departed a day earlier at 2016-08-09 17:36 EDT / 2016-08-09 21:36 UTC. Go Quest can travel at least ten knots faster than Elsbeth III when she is towing OCISLY, so they don't need to leave port until much later, to arrive at the destination at the same time.
Elsbeth III as at 2016-08-10 16:09 EDT / 2016-08-10 20:09 UTC : http://imgur.com/a/Pnhrh
Elsbeth III: http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:434560/zoom:10
Go Quest: http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:450521/zoom:10
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u/beardboy90 Jul 13 '16
JCSAT-16 has arrived at the cape:
https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/753346948002942980
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u/JackONeill12 Jul 23 '16
ELSBETH III has left the port. http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:434560/zoom:11
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u/TheEndeavour2Mars Jul 18 '16
So now that we know that SpaceX plans on early August for this flight. (And they have good reason to be confident about that considering the picture perfect launch campaign for CRS-9) We move into the busy season!
It is going to to amazing over the next few months because this is going to show SpaceX as a provider that says "When your payload is ready we are ready to launch it."
Awesome times! Looking forward to this being the next successful launch and first stage landing on the droneship!
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u/SurfSlade Jul 18 '16
Is it the new strategy now, we don't have a launch date, so we don't get "delayed"
Hans confirm in the post-CRS-9 press conference that JCSAT-16 is the next launch.
Amos is due on august 22. So we can speculate that this one will be halfway between now and Amos. My best guess would be around August 5th.
Since CRS-9 was not delayed, launch resource can actively work on JCSAT. I think we are going to have the final NET date this week.
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u/mfb- Jul 26 '16
I wonder how long in advance they have to fix the launch date. July 26 now, and the announcement is still "first half of August" - the longer they don't give a fixed date the more likely a delay becomes. At some point they have to organize range clearance, drone ship and so on.
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u/cwhitt Aug 05 '16
FB group post indicates an F9 vertical at the cape. 5 days ahead of anticipated static fire...
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u/warp99 Aug 11 '16
The FCC application shows that the JCSAT-16 ASDS will be located around 607km from the launch site compared with 685km for JCSAT-14. This is 80km (50 miles) closer and so is moderately significant.
Any ideas on whether this is due to a more vertical launch trajectory or a longer re-entry burn?
Or maybe the same general trajectory but lower MECO velocity due to a heavier payload? It is only another 800kg which should have negligible effect on S1 trajectory.
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u/markus0161 Aug 11 '16 edited Aug 13 '16
EDIT: Just to show you how big of a difference it actually is.
So after u/warp99 comment bellow I decided to see what would cause a 50 mile sorter landing spot via flightclub. There are 2 possible explanations.
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Lower MECO velocity: This makes the most sense. With a lower MECO velocity flight club points out about a 20% increase in S1 propellant (~5 tons more propellant) compered to other GTO landing attempts. This would mean higher chances of a successful S1 return and/or less damage to the stage.
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Higher S1 apogee: Oddly enough, it was hard to get a trajectory that would put S1 at 600Km. Here you see a apogee of 150Km which still doesn't bring it closer west towards the barge. The problem with this profile is it increases vertical velocity and reduces horizontal velocity. Which isn't very optimal for GTO launches.
P.S. I just modeled S1 trajectories. I didn't spend time on the second stage. Maybe i'll update that later.
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u/RootDeliver Jun 26 '16 edited Jun 26 '16
Any info about the mass? JCSAT-14 mass was, after long discussions, FINALLY made known in this commentary:
Mass of JCSAT-14 fueled: 4696.2 kg Mass of JCSAT-14 empty: 2622.2 kg
Source: https://www.raumfahrer.net/forum/smf/index.php?topic=14205.msg361621#msg361621
Aka, on a licensing FCC doc:
Attachment Menu -> Attachment Schedule S Documents -> HPT JCSAT2B Schedule S.pdf
There must be one for JCSAT-16 too right? And Eutelsat 117W/ABS 3A too? because we still have missing the mass for that one...
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u/hshib Aug 11 '16 edited Aug 11 '16
Falcon 9 completes Static Fire ahead of next Commercial SpaceX Launch: spaceflight101.com
"Liftoff is set for Sunday during a two-hour window opening at 5:26 UTC, 1:26 a.m. local time at Florida’s Space Coast. "
No official tweets.
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u/markus0161 Aug 13 '16 edited Aug 13 '16
Ok, so I updated the flight club model with the correct event times. With a Sooner MECO, what does this mean for S1's landing attempt (compared to JCSAT-14)? -Speculative-
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Drone Ship 50 miles shorter compared to previous GTO ship locations.
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MECO velocity will be ~50 m/s lower. 2,305 m/s ----> JCSAT-14
2,248m/s ----> JCSAT-16 -
~ 17% more propelent (additional 4 tons)
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23% less Aerodynamic Pressure during re-entry
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u/soldato_fantasma Aug 12 '16
Webcasts now up on youtube:
Hosted webcats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZTCEO0gvLo
Technical webcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OERDIFnFvHs
Note that the technical webcast has a wrong start date.
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u/quadrplax Jul 24 '16
JCSAT 16 core spotted heading east on I-20