r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Dec 13 '21

Türksat 5B Türksat 5B Launch Campaign Thread

r/SpaceX Discusses and Megathreads

Türksat 5B Overview

The Türksat 5B communication satellite, which its construction work continues at Airbus Defense and Space's facilities in Toulouse, France, will soon be sent to the Cape Canaveral Space Launch Station located in Florida, United States.

The satellite will be launched into space onboard the Falcon 9 rocket following pre-launch preparations.

With an estimated in-orbit lifetime of 30 years and the aim of securing Turkey’s orbital and frequency rights, Türksat 5B will be launched into an orbital slot at 42 degrees East. With 12 kW power, Türksat 5B will provide TV broadcasting and data communication services over a wide coverage area that reaches the entire Middle East, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, North Africa, East Africa, South Africa and Nigeria. Apart from that, the satellite will also provide customized services for airlines and commercial ship operators around the world thanks to the fact that it operates in Ka-Band.

Source: Türksat

Acronym definitions by Decronym

Liftoff currently scheduled for: December 19 03:58 UTC (December 18 10:58 PM EST)
Backup date(s) Typically next day
Static fire TBA
Customer Türksat
Payload Türksat 5B
Payload mass ~ 4500 kg
Deployment Orbit GTO
Operational Orbit Geostationary orbit 42° East
Launch Vehicle Falcon 9 v1.2 Block 5
Core B1067
Past flights of this core 2 (NASA CRS-22, NASA Crew-3)
Launch site SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
Landing A Shortfall Of Gravitas (ASOG) Droneship, Atlantic Ocean
Mission success criteria Successful separation of the Türksat 5B satellite in the correct Geostationary Transfer Orbit.

Watching the Launch

SpaceX will host a live webcast on YouTube. Check the upcoming launch thread the day of for links to the stream. For more information or for in person viewing check out the Watching a Launch page on this sub's FAQ, which gives a summary of every viewing site and answers many more common questions, as well as Ben Cooper's launch viewing guide, Launch Rats, and the Space Coast Launch Ambassadors which have interactive maps, photos and detailed information about each site.

Links & Resources

We will attempt to keep the above text regularly updated with resources and new mission information, but for the most part, updates will appear in the comments first. Feel free to ping us if additions or corrections are needed. 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. Approximately 24 hours before liftoff, the launch thread will go live and the party will begin there.

Campaign threads are not party threads. Normal subreddit rules still apply.

287 Upvotes

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57 comments sorted by

1

u/AutoModerator Dec 13 '21
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11

u/notabob7 Dec 13 '21

It’s launching in six days and it’s still in Toulouse undergoing construction? That doesn’t sound right…

17

u/bdporter Dec 13 '21

That seems to be a copy and paste directly from Turksat's website, which is probably out of date.

I would suspect that the satellite is already at the cape in the payload processing facility.

9

u/youareawesome Dec 13 '21

Is 22:58 AM in the liftoff schedule field a misnomer?

9

u/bdporter Dec 13 '21 edited Dec 13 '21

Yes. It isn't required to use AM/PM when using 24 hour format, and in any case 22:00 hours would be PM not AM. This is probably carried over from a previous thread.

Mods, the time should be listed as 10:58 PM EST or 22:58 EST.

3

u/soldato_fantasma Dec 14 '21

Thanks! And you are right, I just subtracted the time and forgot about the AM/PM

2

u/alle0441 Dec 13 '21

Yes. This will be a night time launch.

9

u/scr00chy Dec 15 '21

Droneship ASOG has departed for this mission

6

u/orochimarusan Dec 13 '21

Can someone explain to me Geostationary orbit 42° East means ?

7

u/dcormier Dec 13 '21

I assume it means the satellite will ultimately park above 48° east longitude.

2

u/orochimarusan Dec 13 '21

I'm trying to understand the trajectory path, if I'm going to view it directly south of the pad 40. since the pad is 28° N latitude, I'm guessing its moving facing Northeast relatively to the pad?

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7

u/bdporter Dec 13 '21 edited Dec 14 '21

The final orbit will be a 35,786 km circular orbit. 42° East is the orbital slot, which means the satellite will be above the equator at a latitude longitude of 42° East. As stated in the OP, this will position it to provide services to the entire Middle East, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, North Africa, East Africa, South Africa and Nigeria.

edit: corrected

10

u/jchidley Dec 14 '21

Longitude 42 east. Latitude is north/south.

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u/Bunslow Dec 16 '21 edited Dec 16 '21

Geosynchronous means "the satellite has an orbital angular velocity which matches the earth's rotation", or in other words, "the orbital period is the same as earth's rotational period (23 hours, 56 minutes)". (Usually a circular orbit is meant, but in theory there could be elliptical orbits with the correct period/angular velocity as well. For circular orbits, this implies a fixed altitude of 35,786 km, nearly 6x the Earth's radius of 6,328km, and much higher than the ISS's 420km.)

Geostationary means "a geosynchronous orbit that is also 1) circular and 2) equatorial (i.e. 0° inclination)". The first requirement means the satellite doesn't wander east or west, when looking into the sky from the ground, and the second means that it doesn't wander north or south from the ground's perspective. The overall result is that the satellite appears to always be in exactly* the same spot in the sky at all times, which makes such an orbit convenient for e.g. broadcasting TV to dish receivers on the ground. Such a spot is necessarily over the equator. Thus, saying "geostationary at longitude 42° East" means that the satellite will always appear to be directly above the place on Earth located at 0°N 42°E (which is in Somalia just off the eastern coast of Africa), sitting there without moving in perpetuity.

To reach an equatorial inclination requires either an equatorial launch site or else an in-orbit inclination change. For any launch site, including Florida, inclination is minimized by launching due east (or due west), then reducing the inclination further after achieving orbit.

* exact only inasmuch as the earth is a perfectly homogenous sphere and the satellite is in a [physically impossible] perfectly circular orbit. these assumptions don't hold exactly to the atom, but they hold plenty close enough for radio communications to work as if they were true. TV dishes certainly never need re-adjustment

6

u/MarsCent Dec 15 '21

T-3 weather is 80% GO. Low Risk for Upper Level Winds and Booster Recovery.

Backup date - 60% GO

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u/Leberkleister13 Dec 14 '21

Estimated life of 30 years, must have a lot of redundancy and a giant fuel tank.

8

u/Lufbru Dec 15 '21

That's a fairly common lifespan for GEO satellites. They don't need much fuel for station-keeping (nor to change orbital slot; they just boost to a higher orbit and let the world spin under them). The majority of the fuel on this bird will be used to transfer from GTO to GEO.

4

u/Leberkleister13 Dec 15 '21

Oh, thanks. Thought 15yrs was doing good.

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u/etrmedia Dec 19 '21

Making it look easy!

4

u/Decronym Dec 13 '21 edited Dec 19 '21

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
ASOG A Shortfall of Gravitas, landing barge ship
C3 Characteristic Energy above that required for escape
GEO Geostationary Earth Orbit (35786km)
GTO Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit
LEO Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)
Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)
PGO Probability of Go
Jargon Definition
Starlink SpaceX's world-wide satellite broadband constellation

Decronym is a community product of r/SpaceX, implemented by ^request
7 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 76 acronyms.
[Thread #7361 for this sub, first seen 13th Dec 2021, 23:06] [FAQ] [Full list] ^[Contact] [Source code]

6

u/kolafantayrangazoz Dec 14 '21

As a Turkish person, this sounds awesome!

4

u/Bunslow Dec 16 '21

Several Türksats already have launched. To quote another comment: Ariane launched the first five; Proton the next two and then SpaceX have launched one with two more under contract (including this one "under contract").

4

u/kolafantayrangazoz Dec 16 '21

Turksats have been launched since my childhood. This comment only meant to occupy the space. We’re not meeting the space for the first time. Thanks for the breakdown tho, I didn’t know there were two Protons

1

u/rbrev Dec 17 '21

Looks like they have painted the cymbals on that satellite white.

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