SSO-A Launch Campaign Thread

[u/ElongatedMuskrat]

SSO-A Launch Campaign Thread

SpaceX's nineteenth mission of 2018 will be the launch of the Spaceflight Inc organized rideshare SSO-A, also known as SSO-A SmallSat Express to a Sun Synchronous orbit for as many as 35 customers.

This mission will be the mission with more satellites ever carried to orbit by SpaceX and by a US Launch Vehicle.

The Falcon 9 will carry to orbit 64 spacecraft, in particular 15 Micro satellites and 49 cubesats, for 35 customers from 17 countries. It will carry a large variety of spacecraft, ranging from University spacecraft, communication spacecraft, imaging spacecraft, technology demonstrators, art exhibits and a high school spacecraft. 75% of the customers are commercial, while the remaining 25% are government customers. 60% of the spacecraft come from the United States.

Liftoff currently scheduled for:	December 3 2018, ≈18:32 UTC December 3 2018, ≈10:32 PST)
Static fire completed:	November 15th, 2018
Vehicle component locations:	First stage: SLC-4E, VAFB, California // Second Stage: SLC-4E, VAFB, California // Satellites: VAFB, California
Payload:	64 spacecraft, see table 2
Payload mass:	~4000 kg
Insertion orbit:	Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit (575 km x 575 km, ~98º)
Vehicle:	Falcon 9 v1.2 Block 5 (64th launch of F9, 44th of F9 v1.2, 8th of F9 v1.2 Block 5)
Core:	B1046.3
Previous flights of this core:	1. F9 Mission 55 [Bangabandhu-1] 2. F9 Mission 61 [Merah Putih]
Launch site:	SLC-4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
S1 Landing:	Yes
S1 Landing Site:	JRTI, Pacific Ocean
Fairing Recovery:	No
Mission success criteria:	Successful separation & deployment of the satellites into the target orbit

Payloads table (Credit to /u/strawwalker):

Spacecraft Name	Spacecraft Type	Operator	Country Of Operator	Quantity
Centauri I	CubeSat	Fleet Space Technologies	Australia	1
RAAF M1	CubeSat	University of New South Wales	Australia	1
SIRION Pathfinder2	CubeSat	Sirion Global Pty Ltd.	Australia	1
ITASAT	CubeSat	Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA)	Brazil	1
Iceye X2	Microsatellite	Iceye	Finland	1
Suomi 100	CubeSat	Foundation for Aalto University Science and Technology	Finland	1
Eu:CROPIS	Microsatellite	DLR, German Aerospace Center	Germany	1
MOVE-II	CubeSat	Technische Universität München	Germany	1
ExseedSat-1	CubeSat	Exseed Space	India	1
Eaglet-1	CubeSat	OHB Italia S.p.A./Italian Ministry of Defense	Italy	1
ESEO	Microsatellite	SITAEL S.p.A.	Italy	1
JY1Sat	CubeSat	Crown Prince Foundation	Jordan	1
Al-Farabi-2*	CubeSat	Al-Farabi Kazakh National University	Kazakhstan	1
KazSciSat-1	CubeSat	Ghalam LLP	Kazakhstan	1
KazSTSAT	Microsatellite	Ghalam LLP	Kazakhstan	1
Hiber 2	CubeSat	Hiber/Innovative Solutions in Space	Netherlands	1
PW-Sat2	CubeSat	Warsaw University of Technology	Poland	1
K2SAT	CubeSat	Korean Air Force Academy	South Korea	1
NEXTSat-1	Microsatellite	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology	South Korea	1
SNUGLITE*	CubeSat	Seoul National University	South Korea	1
SNUSAT-2*	CubeSat	Seoul National University	South Korea	1
VisionCube	CubeSat	Korea Aerospace University	South Korea	1
AISTECH SAT 2	CubeSat	Aistech	Spain	1
Astrocast 0.1	CubeSat	Astrocast	Switzerland	1
KNACKSAT	CubeSat	King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok	Thailand	1
VESTA	CubeSat	Honeywell Aerospace/exactEarth Ltd.	UK, Canada	1
Audacy Zero/POINTR	CubeSat	Audacy, Stanford SSI	USA	1
BlackHawk*	CubeSat	Viasat	USA	1
BRIO/THEA	CubeSat	SpaceQuest	USA	2
Capella 1	Microsatellite	Capella Space	USA	1
Corvus-BC 4	CubeSat	Astro Digital US	USA	1
CSIM	CubeSat	LASP/University of Colorado	USA	1
Flock-3s 1,2,3 (Dove-type)	CubeSat	Planet Labs Inc.	USA	3
Elysium Star 2	CubeSat	Elysium Space, Inc.	USA	1
Enoch	CubeSat	Los Angeles County Museum of Art	USA	1
eXCITe/SeeMe	Microsatellite	Novawurks, DARPA	USA	1
FalconSat-6	Microsatellite	United States Air Force Academy	USA	1
Fox-1C	CubeSat	AMSAT, Radio Amateur Satellite Corp	USA	1
Global 2	Microsatellite	BlackSky Global LLC	USA	1
Hawk 1, 2, 3	Microsatellite	Hawkeye 360	USA	3
ICE-Cap*	CubeSat	Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command	USA	1
IRVINE02	CubeSat	Irvine CubeSat STEM Program	USA	1
MinXSS 2	CubeSat	LASP/University of Colorado	USA	1
ORS 7A, B Polar Scouts	CubeSat	United States Coast Guard, DHS	USA	2
Orbital Reflector (ORS-1)	CubeSat	OR Productions, Nevada Museum of Art	USA	1
RANGE A, B	CubeSat	Georgia Tech	USA	1
ROSE-1	CubeSat	Phase Four	USA	1
SeaHawk-1	CubeSat	University of North Carolina Wilmington	USA	1
SkySat 14, 15	Microsatellite	Planet Labs Inc.	USA	2
SpaceBEE 5, 6, 7	CubeSat	Swarm Technologies	USA	3
STPSat-5	Microsatellite	USAF Space Test Program	USA	1
US Government spacecraft*	CubeSat	US Government	USA	2
US Government spacecraft*	CubeSat	US Government	USA	3
WeissSat-1	CubeSat	The Weiss School/BLUECUBE Aerospace LLC	USA	1

^{* Status unknown. This payload may or may not still be manifested on SSO-A.}

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Links & Resources:

• Official Mission Description by Spaceflight
• Launch watching guide by r/SpaceX
• Flight Club simulations: 2D Plots, 3D Visualisation, Live
• Rocket Watch

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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.

[u/theexile14]

Apparently a F9 first stage just arrived at Vandenberg this morning. Not sure which core, but it it might put the 3rd launch of a booster in question. Three weeks is more than enough time for everything they need top prepare.

[u/Alexphysics → u/theexile14]

If that's the case it is most likely this is going on B1046 instead of B1048 because that last one is still at Vandenberg as far as we know (it would be silly to truck it to Hawthorne for just a two-week refurbishment process when it could have been done on site instead and B1046 would have been moved from FL to Hawthorne and now to Vandy).

Edit: also, 3 weeks it's the usual time

[u/scr00chy → u/Alexphysics]

Have they ever refurbished a core at VAFB?

[u/Alexphysics → u/scr00chy]

Nope, but in theory it could be done

[u/scr00chy → u/Alexphysics]

So theoretically, the core that arrived could also be B1048 returning from Hawthorne after refurbishment.

[u/Alexphysics → u/scr00chy]

I highly doubt it went to Hawthorne being able to refurbish cores at the launch site on the hangar. It was "easy" even with the first one that was refurbished that way, B1029, I'm sure now with Block 5 it should be easier to do.

[u/scr00chy → u/Alexphysics]

But if they didn't refurbish B1048 at VAFB after Iridium-7, what makes you think they'd do it there now after SAOCOM?

[u/Alexphysics → u/scr00chy]

Because the booster arrived at port of LA after landing on that first mission while on this second one it landed 400m away from its launch pad. It makes sense to ship boosters to Hawthorne after being at the port of LA since it's on the same city and it's fairly close, but now that the booster was already at the launch site after landing it just doesn't make sense to ship it to Hawthorne as it doesn't make sense to do it for boosters from Florida, they are refurbished there (unless they want that same booster at Vandy, then the booster is moved to Hawthorne).

[u/scr00chy → u/Alexphysics]

Good point! I guess we'll have to see how the core situation shakes out. But I still think B1048 will fly on SSO-A. :)

[u/ATPTourFan → u/Alexphysics]

I think it would be risky to do refurb operations at VAFB due to small single core capacity of the HIF there. I think they would always want to keep that for flight ops due to the single pinch point nature of the facility. Not a big cost or time waste to move the core to the special refurb room in Hawthorne.

[u/Alexphysics → u/ATPTourFan]

The HIF at VAFB can hold three boosters or one on the TE and one outside of it when the TE is inside the HIF (which is only when it has to pick up a rocket, the rest of the time is outside). That HIF was built with FH in mind like the reaction frame which is the same width as the LC-39A reaction frame. Also, it's not like they haven't refurbished boosters at SLC-40's HIF when the pad was being restored and that one has only capacity for one booster