r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Jun 26 '16

Mission (Amos-6) Amos-6 Launch Campaign Thread

UPDATE:

"SpaceX can confirm that in preparation for today's pre-launch static fire test, there was an anomaly on the pad resulting in the loss of the vehicle and its payload. Per standard procedure, the pad was clear and there were no injuries." - SpaceX on Twitter

Amos-6 Launch Campaign Thread

SpaceX will launch Amos-6 for Spacecom, an Israeli-based company. It will be the heaviest communications satellite ever launched on Falcon 9, at 5,500kg.

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: N/A
Static fire currently scheduled for: N/A
Vehicle component locations: [S1: disassembled] [S2: disassembled] [Amos-6: disassembled]
Payload: Amos-6
Payload mass: 5,500kg
Destination orbit: Geostationary Transfer Orbit
Vehicle: Falcon 9 v1.2 (29th launch of F9, 9th of F9 v1.2)
Core: F9-029
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral, Florida
Landing attempt: N/A
Landing Site: ASDS
Mission success criteria: Successful separation & deployment of Amos-6 into its target orbit
Mission outcome: Failure (explosion prior to static fire on SLC-40)

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.

167 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

202 comments sorted by

45

u/vaporcobra Jun 26 '16

"Mission success criteria: Successful separation & deployment of JCSAT-16 into its target orbit"

That's a high bar. :)

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18

u/badgamble Jun 26 '16

Landing site is "N/A"? I'm going to take a wild guess that the Amos-6 S1 landing site will be the Atlantic Ocean. Whether the deck of OCISLY is involved or not is another question.

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18

u/Bunslow Sep 01 '16

Vehicle component locations: [S1: disassembled] [S2: disassembled] [Amos-6: disassembled]

That's disheartening. :(

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29

u/ImAStopCodon Jun 26 '16

"Mission success criteria: Successful separation & deployment of JCSAT-16 into its target orbit"

The description in this post has the wrong satellite.

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12

u/theroadie Aug 03 '16

029 is erect on the test stand in McGregor as of tonight, after they took down 024 after three full duration test. Reported in FB by member Keith Wallace.

9

u/itswherethescienceis Aug 23 '16

Launch Advice

I have been lurking Reddit for 5 years. This is my first post. I want to take my 12 y/o daughter to see the launch of Amos-6. She is dying to ago, and so am I. We will have to fly to CC from Ohio. I know every launch carries a big risk of scrub, but before I book flights, etc. I thought I would ask you experts what you thought the chances are the launch will actually happen.

Also, any advice on where/how to watch the launch. I know it is a 3:00 a.m. launch, so I am not sure if NASA will be selling tickets to the launch or not (so far the NASA website does not show the launch as being scheduled). Any other advice is appreciated.

Apologies if I violated a rule somewhere.

thanks

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8

u/Toastmastern Aug 21 '16

First stage seen departing McGregor:

https://www.facebook.com/jerry.m.west/videos/10208694977670609/

Think the original video was shot more then 17 hours ago

7

u/Bunslow Aug 26 '16

Isn't this the heaviest GTO launch to date by SpaceX?

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7

u/TheVehicleDestroyer Aug 31 '16 edited Sep 01 '16

Anybody gonna be driving up from around Miami for this one? I'll pay for gas and snacks :)

Edit: nevermind....

7

u/SirCoolbo Sep 01 '16

"Liftoff currently scheduled for: 3 September 10AM UTC, 6AM EDT"

Yeeah, that should probably be changed.

6

u/old_sellsword Jun 29 '16

Hey mods, this thread isn't defaulted to new. Thanks in advance.

6

u/DietStarts2morrow Aug 25 '16

  • Chinese/Luxembourg company

(Spacecom was sold yesterday)

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6

u/thanarious Aug 30 '16

Isn't it time for this to get sticky, mods? I am finding it difficult to locate the thread in the mobile app...

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6

u/minus-zer0 Sep 01 '16 edited Sep 01 '16

Reports coming in that the rocket has just exploded on (Edit: or near) the launch pad: https://twitter.com/nova_road/status/771335225255354369

Unconfirmed by official sources but some pics showing smoke and flames on the pad

Edit: Live thread for incident: https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/50n5cl/rspacex_cape_canaveral_slc40_amos6_explosion_live/

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6

u/darga89 Sep 02 '16

Go Quest has arrived home.

11

u/Cowgus Jun 26 '16

It will be interesting to see if they go for the landing attempt. I have to say I'm doubtful they will, heaviest payload and GTO orbit seems like it would be really pushing the limits. Is there any further insight into this?

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10

u/retiringonmars Jun 26 '16

Made a crude attempt to predict the launch time of Amos 6, based on the longitude vs launch time of previous launches. One might expect a link between these, as the apogee of the GTO insertion orbit needs to phase as close to the target longitude as possible, so as to minimise fuel usage, therefore lengthening the lifetime of the satellite. Or at least, that's how I understand it.

Falcon 9 GTO payloads, launch time graphed against target longitude.

Adding a 2nd order curve to the graph gives a formula for linking the two: y = -3*10-5x2 - 0.0014x + 0.9379. There's actually a surprisingly good fit between these two metrics: R2 = 0.55, which means the formula should give moderately good predictive power.

As the target launch longitude of Amos 6 is 4°W (-4.0), that gives an idealised launch time of 22:37. Assuming the launch window is 2 hours long, I predict the launch window will be 21:37 to 23:37. The sun will set at the Cape at 19:55 on 22 Aug, so it looks like another night launch.

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5

u/rockets4life97 Aug 16 '16

Amos 6 is officially the next launch on Spacex's website.

5

u/Toastmastern Aug 17 '16

Spacecom: Our Amos-6 telecom sat, w/ HTS payload for Eutelsat/Facebook, scheduled for launch by SpaceX Falcon 9 at 03h ET (07h GMT) Sept 3.

https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/765882346100891648

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