SpaceX ABS/EUTELSAT-1 Launch Webcast [video] | Hacker News Reader

SpaceX ABS/EUTELSAT-1 Launch Webcast [video]

spacex.com

73 pointschazlupei23 comments

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Two and a half weeks between launches. Pretty good.

And three weeks until the next one.

Not including the Dragon 2's pad-abort test, which is ostensibly next week. That may slip, though.

Nice, that was like clockwork!

What did they show starting around T+00:09:17? Blue, stargate-like view...

That's the fuel tank of the second stage. They want to capture the transfer into zero G.

Fuel tank.

Oxidizer technically. Propellant is a good word that can be used for either fuel or oxidizer.

Specifically, Liquid Oxygen.

The Kerosene tank is below that. You can tell because that RP1 tank would have a center shaft the LOX drains through to the engine.

I found this webcast pretty boring, in the best possible way. It started, they showed a promo video, completely nominal countdown, launch, go, everything on time and as it's supposed to be. Pretty cool.

interesting, this satellite company was using Ariane before. I guess the mood in Toulouse must be a bit strange.

I cannot find what is the link with the city of Toulouse. As I'm currently living there, could you provide more details?

Probably because Airbus Defence and Space (formally known as EADS Astrium) -- the contractor which builds Ariane -- has a factory there: http://www.space-airbusds.com/en/locations/toulouse-gxq.html

basically, the Ariane rockets partially built there and are controlled from there, and the satellites are built and controlled there.

I guess the meet each other pretty often, and now, the satellite guys are going out with another rocket company.

> and now, the satellite guys are going out with another rocket company.

Looking quickly at a random handful of currently operating Eutelsat satellites, two launched by Ariane, one by Zenit (Russian/American/Norwegian/Ukranian), one by Proton (Russian), one by Atlas V (American). I think Eutelsat is already pretty familiar with the multi-vendor approach.

oops, Ok. I couldn't find the info actually.

Fun Fact #1: Satmex originally bought the launch services from SpaceX as well as the satellite bus from Boeing, before being acquired by EutelSat in 2014. EutelSat 115W B was originally called Satmex 7.

From: http://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/2x81fc/rspacex_eutel...

ESA definitely has to step up its game if it wants to keep its leading market share in satellite launches.

As a distant follower of SpaceX it's not obvious to me if the Falcon 9 will attempt a landing this time?

There's no landing gear this time. Not enough margin to make it worthwhile.

According to /r/spacex, they will not be attempting to land because they are launching into geosynchronous orbit[1].

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/2x81fc/rspacex_eutel...

Not this time. They plan on having later F9 geo launches do this, however.

Elon Musk made a related tweet. The current rocket doesn't have enough extra propellant to land after a geosynchronous mission, but upgrades are coming that will allow it:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/572257004938403840

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