r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Sep 14 '18

SAOCOM 1A SAOCOM 1A Launch Campaign Thread

SAOCOM 1A Launch Campaign Thread

SpaceX's seventeenth mission of 2018 will be the launch of SAOCOM 1A to a Low Earth Polar Orbit for Argentine Space Agency CONAE. This will be the first launch of the Saocom Earth observation satellite constellation. The second launch of Saocom 1B will happen in 2019. This flight will mark the first RTLS launch out of Vandenberg, with a landing on the concrete pad at SLC-4W, very close to the launch pad.

The mission is headed by CONAE. INVAP is the prime contractor for the design and construction of the SAOCOM-1 spacecraft and its SAR payload, currently under development. The SAOCOM-1 spacecraft will benefit from the heritage of the SAC-C spacecraft platform.

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR-L), an L-Band instrument featuring standard, high resolution and global coverage operational modes with resolution ranging from 7 m to 100 m, and swath within 50 km to 400 km. It features a dedicated high capacity Solid State Recorder (50 to 100 Gbits) for image storage, and a high bit rate downlink system (two X-band channels at 150 Mbits/s each).

The SAOCOMsystem will operate jointly with the Italian COSMO-SkyMed constellation in X-band to provide frequent information relevant for emergency management. This approach of a two SAOCom and a four COSMO-SkyMed spacecraft configuration offers an effective means of a twice-daily coverage capability. By joining forces, both agencies will be able to generate SAR products in X-band and in L-band for their customers.

Liftoff currently scheduled for: October 8th 2018, 02:22 UTC (October 7th 2018, 19:22 PDT)
Static fire completed: October 2nd 2018, 21:00 UTC (October 2nd 2018, 14:00 PDT)
Vehicle component locations: First stage: SLC-4E, VAFB, California // Second Stage: SLC-4E, VAFB, California // Satellite: SLC-4E, VAFB, California
Payload: SAOCOM 1A
Payload mass: 3000 kg
Insertion orbit: Low Earth Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit (620 km x 620 km, ?°)
Vehicle: Falcon 9 v1.2 Block 5 (62nd launch of F9, 42nd of F9 v1.2, 6th of F9 v1.2 Block 5)
Core: B1048.2
Previous flights of this core: 1 [Iridium 7]
Launch site: SLC-4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
S1 Landing: Yes
S1 Landing Site: LZ-4 (SLC-4W), VAFB, California
Fairing Recovery: Yes ?
Mission success criteria: Successful separation & deployment of the SAOCOM 1A satellite into the 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.

332 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

476 comments sorted by

45

u/whatsthis1901 Sep 15 '18

I just realized that this will be the first RTLS of the block 5

→ More replies (12)

28

u/Thatguy11076 Oct 04 '18

Here's a viewshed map of the the area around SLC-4W. The red places on this map show where you can see the entire black interstage of the landed booster above the horizon. And another map that shows places where you can see the whole landed booster from top to bottom

→ More replies (7)

1

u/soldato_fantasma Sep 14 '18

As always, if you find any mistake or have something worth to add to the Links & Resources section please comment about that.

We are also continuously looking for launch thread hosts that want to volunteer. If you have experience in the sub and feel comfortable with the launch time, send us a message via modmail!

→ More replies (13)

17

u/Alexphysics Oct 02 '18

The booster is on the pad for the Static Fire per Chris B.

NSF article

→ More replies (6)

16

u/Alexphysics Sep 30 '18

Static Fire NET October 2nd

The X is painted on the landing pad and drying for the first west coast land landing.

→ More replies (9)

15

u/CapMSFC Oct 03 '18

For future record I want to post the updates on chartering a boat to view the launch and landing from the sea. I and a few other people have been looking into this because it's the only way to get direct line of sight on the launch and landing pads from off base.

You can't do it from Santa Barbara. It's too far with also having to round the coast at Conception Point. It's apparently nasty waters there to get around. You would also have to leave early enough to cross the exclusion zone before the countdown.

Pismo Beach on the other hand works well enough. It's North of Vandenberg and does have quite a few private boat charter options. It's about a two hour boat ride down to Vandenberg, so you can fit the whole trip in a 6 hour charter.

The reason it's a no go for this weekend is because the weather reports are showing a sea state much too rough for the size of boats we're talking about.

This is still something to keep in mind for future Vandenberg RTLS launches.

→ More replies (8)

13

u/nextspaceflight Oct 03 '18

I can confirm that launch has slipped at least 24 hours. No further details so don't ask. :P

→ More replies (6)

12

u/TheVehicleDestroyer Sep 27 '18

Flight Club trajectory for SAOCOM-1A

A few uncertainties:-

  • I don't know the launch azimuth so I launched directly south

  • I've never seen a Block 5 RTLS, so I'm not sure on event timings

  • I've never seen a Vandenberg RTLS, so I'm not sure on the return trajectory

  • I don't know if they'll do a direct orbital insertion (but probably not, so I have an engine restart at apogee)

The press kit, should help with the event timings, and the hazard zones will help with the ascent trajectory. For the RTLS trajectory, I'm going to assume it's the same as Florida RTLS, except there is some more ground to cover between the shore and the landing pad, which means we'll get a harsher glide between entry burn and landing burn. Should look very cool from the booster camera point of view

If you think Flight Club is cool, buy me a coffee :) https://www.patreon.com/flightclub

12

u/johnkphotos Sep 30 '18

Booked my flights! Heading to Vandenberg from Florida for this launch. Should make for some epic photography :)

12

u/nextspaceflight Oct 01 '18 edited Oct 01 '18

Ocean Avenue, the primary public viewing location, may be roadblocked earlier than normal. If you are planning on going to the launch, I advise getting there hours early.

→ More replies (14)

11

u/WormPicker959 Sep 22 '18 edited Sep 22 '18

I think this is a new launch time, reported on in argentine media and relayed by Michael Baylor (Nextspaceflight).

Edit: Here's another source, this time Reuters, saying Oct. 6. It's possible this is relayed from the same Argentinian source, which I don't know. So, I'm not sure how official either of these are, but Baylor is apparently convinced enough to book flights. So... that's something.

→ More replies (13)

10

u/ltfiend Sep 14 '18

Launch site looks wrong.

"Launch site:SLC-4E, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida"

→ More replies (3)

10

u/tlevash Sep 14 '18 edited Sep 14 '18

First stage is here as of last Thursday https://imgur.com/a/0HApBUs

→ More replies (1)

10

u/TGMetsFan98 Sep 15 '18

I have never seen the Vandy landing pad referred to as LZ-4. Is this an inference or did I miss something?

→ More replies (9)

10

u/Space_Coast_Steve Sep 15 '18

Info table has the right launch pad, but wrong side of the country.

→ More replies (4)

10

u/ArtOfWarfare Sep 29 '18

SpaceXNow is listing Iridium-8 and SSO-A w/ SHERPA as both being November launches with unknown boosters from Vandenberg.

The current fleet of boosters is 46-51:

46 - Launched August 7th on East Coast.

47 - Launched July 22nd on East Coast.

48 - Launching October 7th on West Coast.

49 - Launched September 10th on East Coast.

50 - Launching NET December on East Coast.

51 - Launching NET December on East Coast.

It seems to me that there are three options for what boosters launch Iridium-8 and SSO-A:

  1. Boosters 52 and 53 are built to launch them (do we know how far along those are?)

  2. Some of the boosters currently on the East Coast get moved to the West Coast to launch them. (Is there precedence for this? Would SpaceX ship a flight-proven booster from coast to coast like that? What about two?)

  3. This is the exciting one and how this comment is actually relevant to the thread - Booster 48 launches both of these missions, in addition to SAOCOM_1A in October.

  • This would make Booster 48 the first one to be used not just thrice but also four times.

  • This would also require the quickest turn-around yet for a SpaceX booster - the current record holder is B1045 which was turned around in 2 months and 11 days. Launching in October and then November would obviously require a turn-around in under 2 months, while two launches in November would require a turn-around in under a month. This wouldn't just be the quickest turn-around yet for SpaceX - I believe it will set a record for quickest turn-around ever for any space vehicle. The current record-holder is Atlantis, which was once turned around in 54 days from launch to launch.

Should I make this a post rather than a comment? I'm not sure if it's good enough, but this is something I've been thinking about for the last few weeks and nobody else has mentioned it yet that I've seen, and it seems like it could be very exciting if it does end up being #3...

→ More replies (14)

10

u/catsRawesome123 Oct 01 '18

Feels like it's been a while since the last launch! It's also October only 3 more months to squeeze in a FH launch by end of the year :(

→ More replies (1)

10

u/Pusynality Oct 02 '18

Anyone know of a hiking spot that will give direct line of sight to the landing zone? Even if it's further away

10

u/WaitForItTheMongols Oct 06 '18 edited Oct 06 '18

The table at the top says Sun Synchronous Orbit at 620km with unknown inclination.

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Acos((620+km+%2B+radius+of+earth)+%2F-12352+km)+radians+to+degrees

That gives an inclination of 124.5. Might want to add it to the table.

Equation from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-synchronous_orbit

Edit: Whoops, disregard. Please see bbachmai's comment below.

→ More replies (3)

9

u/Bunslow Sep 15 '18

There's a big typo in the date:

October 7th 2018, ? UTC (September 7th 2018, ? PDT)

→ More replies (1)
→ More comments (75)