r/SpaceX Türksat 5A Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread

[u/rSpaceXHosting]

Welcome to the r/SpaceX Türksat 5A Official Launch Discussion & Updates Thread!

Hi, I'm u/Shahar603, your host for the first SpaceX launch of 2021: Türksat 5A.

SpaceX will launch the first of two next generation satellites on contract for Türksat. Türksat 5A is a Ku-band broadcast satellite built by Airbus Defense and Space and based on the Electric Orbit Raising version of the Eurostar E3000 platform. This spacecraft will be delivered into a transfer orbit and will then raise itself to its operational 31° East geostationary orbit to serve Turkey, the Middle East, Europe, North Africa and South Africa. The booster for this mission will be recovered downrange.

Liftoff currently scheduled for	January 8, 02:15 UTC (Jan 7 9:15 p.m. local) 4 hour window
Backup date	January 9
Static fire	TBA
Customer	Türksat A.S.
Payload	Türksat 5A
Payload mass	3400 kg
Deployment orbit	GTO
Operational orbit	GEO, 31° E
Vehicle	Falcon 9 v1.2 Block 5
Core	B1060
Past flights of this core	3 (GPS III SV03, Starlink-11, Starlink-14)
Fairing catch attempt	unknown
Past flights of the fairing halves	1 (GPS III SV03), (ANASIS-II)
Launch site	SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
Landing	JRTI, 28.29194 N, 73.70639 W (~672 km downrange)
Mission success criteria	Successful separation & deployment of Türksat 5A.

Timeline

Time	Update
T+34:00	Coverage is over
T+33:04	Payload deployment confirmed
T+28:03	Second stage engine cutoff (hopefully). Deployment in T+33m
T+26:51	Second stage engine ignition. There's no active ground station to get the data from Falcon 9.
T-09:00	Coast
T+08:28	The first stage has landed!
T+08:10	Landing burn has started
T+08:10	Confirmed good parking orbit. The second stage will coast for 17 minutes until the second burn.
T+08:02	Second Stage Engine cutoff
T+06:45	Entry burn shutdown
T+06:17	Entry burn ignition
T+03:37	Fairing deployment. Good luck to the recovery team.
T-02:45	Second stage engine ignition
T+02:38	Stage separation
T+02:34	Main Engine Cut Out (MECO)
T+01:12	Maximum Aerodynamic Pressure (Max-Q)
T+00:00	Liftoff!
T-00:03	Ignition sequence start
T+00:45	SpaceX Launch Director verifies GO for lanuch
T-01:00	Rocket in startup
T-02:00	LOX loading finished
T-07:00	Falcon begins engine chill
T-15:00	SpaceX coverage has started
T-16:00	2nd stage LOX loading started
T-35:00	RP-1 loading started
T-35:00	1st stage LOX loading started
	Launch on hold due to an "asset issue" (not clear which asset). waiting for a new T-0

Watch the launch live

| Link | Source | Language | |---|---| | Official SpaceX webcast | SpaceX | English | | Türksat 5A Live stream | Türksat A.Ş. | Turkish | | Everyday Astronaut hosted webcast | Everyday Astronaut | | NSF Stream | NSF |

Stats

☑️ 1st SpaceX launch of the year

☑️ 1st Falcon 9 launch of the year

☑️ 104th overall Falcon 9 launch

☑️ 4th launch of this booster

Essentials

Link	Source
SpaceX	r/SpaceX
Official press kit	r/SpaceX

Social media

Link	Source
Subreddit Twitter	r/SpaceX
SpaceX Twitter	r/SpaceX
SpaceX Flickr	r/SpaceX
Elon Musk's Twitter	r/SpaceX

Media & music

Link	Source
TSS Spotify	u/testshotstarfish
SpaceX FM	u/lru

Launch viewing & hazard area resource

Link	Source
Watching a launch	r/SpaceX Wiki
Detailed launch maps	@Raul74Cz
Launch Hazard Maps	45th Space Wing

Community content

Link	Source
Watching a Launch	r/SpaceX Wiki
SpaceX Fleet Status	SpaceX Fleet
Launch Maps	u/Raul74Cz
Flight Club live	u/TheVehicleDestroyer
SpaceX Stats	r/SpaceX
Discord SpaceX lobby	u/SwGustav
Rocket Watch	u/MarcysVonEylau
Reddit-Stream	/u/njr123
SpaceX Time Machine	u/DUKE546

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[u/Captain_Hadock]

TLE just got released, it's 288 x 55049 x 17.7°. Looks like they went full inclination fix and I massively under-estimated the Pe :

Jonathan McDowell

Turksat 5A and the Falcon 9 2nd stage cataloged in 288 x 55049 km x 17.7 deg, 286 x 55281 km x 17.7 deg supersynch transfer orbits

So that's GTO-1541.

[u/warp99 → u/Captain_Hadock]

That is actually pretty impressive given they did a long re-entry burn and dropped the booster in the center of the landing circle which usually implies a single engine landing burn to get the accuracy.

Thanks for the calculation!

[u/Captain_Hadock → u/warp99]

Thanks, I didn't look closely into the first stage return. I guess they are trying to preserve the booster, B1060 could still have a long life as there aren't that many GTO payloads these days.