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Streak Shot! Beefed Up SpaceX Falcon 9 blazes trail to
geostationary orbit carrying massive Telstar 19 VANTAGE telecom satellite
after launch at 1:50 a.m. EDT, July 22,
2018 from Space Launch Complex-40 on Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station, FL – seen in this
long duration exposure photo taken as the rocket soars over the Max Brewer Bridge in Titusville, Fl. Credit: Ken
Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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Ken Kremer
-- SpaceUpClose.com -- 22 July 2018
CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL
– After drenching rain storms and strong
bolts of lightning repeatedly pelted the Florida Space Coast throughout the day
and early evening Saturday, a beefed up SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blazed a beautiful
trail to orbit with a middle-of-the-night Sunday morning (July 22) blastoff of the
hefty Telstar 19v telecomsat for the Americas - squeezing in between a break in
the violent weather afflicting central Florida
all week.
The magnificent post-midnight liftoff of the massive 7.8 ton Telstar 19 VANTAGE (or Telstar 19v) Canadian commercial telecommunications satellite atop the upgraded Falcon 9 took place right at the opening of the lengthy launch window at 1:50 a.m. EDT (0550 GMT) Sunday, July 22 from seaside Space launch Complex-40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL.
Telstar 19 VANTAGE is reportedly the largest and heaviest commercial communications satellite ever launched to geostationary orbit some 22,000 miles (35,000 km) over the equator – weighing in at 7,080 kilograms (15,600 lb).
The magnificent post-midnight liftoff of the massive 7.8 ton Telstar 19 VANTAGE (or Telstar 19v) Canadian commercial telecommunications satellite atop the upgraded Falcon 9 took place right at the opening of the lengthy launch window at 1:50 a.m. EDT (0550 GMT) Sunday, July 22 from seaside Space launch Complex-40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL.
Telstar 19 VANTAGE is reportedly the largest and heaviest commercial communications satellite ever launched to geostationary orbit some 22,000 miles (35,000 km) over the equator – weighing in at 7,080 kilograms (15,600 lb).
The
Telstar-owned satellite will deliver new high throughput Ku and Ka-band capacity
across the Americas and Atlantic.
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SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of Telstar 19v telecomsat from Space Launch Complex 40
at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 1:50 a.m. EDT, July 22, 2018 –
in this remote camera view from pad40.
Credit: Ken
Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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Propellant loading began at T- Minus 35 minutes after
verification from the SpaceX Launch Director.
The liquid oxygen (LOX)/RP-1 fueled Falcon 9 first stage ignited with 1.8 million pounds of liftoff thrust powered by nine Merlin 1D engine mounted in an octoweb arrangement.
The first and second stages separated 2 minutes and 33 seconds after liftoff.
The second stage ignited for the first time at 2 minutes 24 seconds followed by payload fairing deployment at 3 minutes 40 seconds.
Just minutes later, the Falcon 9’s first stage booster made a successful touchdown on the ocean going "Of Course I Still Love You" drone ship platform at sea - prepositioned some 400 miles (640 km) off shore in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Telstar 19v craft successfully separated from the Falcon 9 upper stage as planned for deployment 33 minutes after liftoff.
All the mission action was broadcast live on a SpaceX hosted webcast.
The liquid oxygen (LOX)/RP-1 fueled Falcon 9 first stage ignited with 1.8 million pounds of liftoff thrust powered by nine Merlin 1D engine mounted in an octoweb arrangement.
The first and second stages separated 2 minutes and 33 seconds after liftoff.
The second stage ignited for the first time at 2 minutes 24 seconds followed by payload fairing deployment at 3 minutes 40 seconds.
Just minutes later, the Falcon 9’s first stage booster made a successful touchdown on the ocean going "Of Course I Still Love You" drone ship platform at sea - prepositioned some 400 miles (640 km) off shore in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Telstar 19v craft successfully separated from the Falcon 9 upper stage as planned for deployment 33 minutes after liftoff.
All the mission action was broadcast live on a SpaceX hosted webcast.
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Launch
of SpaceX Falcon 9 with Telstar 19v on July 22, 2018 from Cape Canaveral, FL.
Credit: Julian Leek
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The Telstar launch put on a spectacular sky show for hordes of
space enthusiasts who traveled from near and far to witness the tremendous
sight - and packed area hotels.
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SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of Telstar 19v telecomsat from Space Launch Complex 40
at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 1:50 a.m. EDT, July 22, 2018 –
in this remote camera view from pad40.
Credit: Ken
Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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Check out my long duration steak shots (above and below) of the Falcon 9 with
Telstar 19v as
the rocket blazed a picturesque trail over the Max Brewer Bridge.
The newly built two stage 229-foot tall (70-meter) SpaceX Falcon
9 rocket successfully delivered the Telstar 19 VANTAGE comsat to a
geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) for Telesat, one of the world’s leading commercial
satellite operators.
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Streak Shot! Beefed Up SpaceX Falcon 9 blazes trail to
geostationary orbit carrying massive Telstar 19 VANTAGE telecom satellite
after launch at 1:50 a.m.
EDT, July 22, 2018 from Space Launch
Complex-40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL – seen in this long duration exposure photo taken as the
rocket soars over the Max Brewer Bridge in Titusville,
Fl. Credit: Ken
Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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The Falcon 9 rocket was rolled out Saturday
afternoon to pad 40 and raised vertical with Telstar 19 encapsulated inside the payload fairing and then inundated
with heavy rain squalls.
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Beautiful sunset view of
raised Falcon 9 upgraded Block 5 rocket at Space Launch Complex-40 for SpaceX middle
of the night 1:50 AM ET launch of massive Telstar 19 VANTAGE
comsat from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station targeted for July 22, 2018. Credit: Ken
Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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This was only the second production unit of SpaceX’s significantly
upgraded Block 5 version of their workhorse Falcon 9 rocket.
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Upright upgraded Block 5 Falcon 9 rocket at Space Launch Complex-40 for
SpaceX 1:50 AM ET overnight launch of 7.8 ton Telstar 19 VANTAGE comsat from Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station targeted for July 22, 2018. Credit: Ken
Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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The first Block 5 launched on May 11 from the Kennedy Space Center
Launch Complex-39A with the Bangabandhu-1 comsat for the nation of Bangladesh.
Telstar 19 VANTAGE is a Canadian owned commercial communications
satellite, designed as an advanced high
throughput satellite (HTS) providing broadband services.
It is equipped with both Ku-band and Ka-band antennas to provide services
covering both North and South America and
the Atlantic region.
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Up
Close view of nose cone encapsulating Telstar
19 VANTAGE comsat bolted atop SpaceX upgraded Falcon 9 rocket at Space Launch Complex-40 slated for launch
from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on July 22, 2018. Credit: Ken
Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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The huge American-built satellite was manufactured by SSL (formerly Space Systems/Loral) in
Palo Alto, California, for Telesat, one of the world’s leading
satellite operators.
Telstar 19v will operate at Telesat’s prime orbital location of 63
degrees West, the same as Telstars highly utilized 14R satellite.
It will serve customers throughout the Americas and the Atlantic.
Telstar 19v has a 15 year design lifetime. It is expected to enter service this summer after completing orbit
raising boosts and in-orbit testing and checkout of spacecraft systems.
In fact this is the first of two SpaceX launches planned for Telesat
over a time span only about a month apart at the Cape. Telstar 18 VANTAGE is due to liftoff in the second half of August
from pad 40.
“Telesat has worked closely with SSL and the Maxar family of
companies for many years and we are pleased to have collaborated with them on
our newest Telstar VANTAGE high throughput satellites,” said Dan Goldberg,
President and CEO of Telesat, in a prelaunch statement.
“These state-of-the-art
spacecraft are going to provide important competitive advantages for our
customers across the Americas and Asia. It’s great news that Telstar 19 VANTAGE
is now at the launch base and that Telstar 18 VANTAGE is nearly finished and in
the queue to ship.”
The Block 5 Falcon 9 will be cheaper to produce and much
easier to turnaround with minimal maintenance, says SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. His
goal is to relaunch a recovered Block 5 a second time within 24 hours by
sometime next year.
SpaceX successfully recovered this new Block 5 version of
the Falcon 9 booster which replaces the older, now discontinued Block 4.
The last Block 4 launched in late June for NASA on the
Dragon CRS-15 resupply mission to the ISS.
This
was SpaceX’s 13th launch of the year.
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Prelaunch
sunset view of SpaceX Falcon 9 with Telstar 19v at pad 40 on Cape Canaveral, FL.
Credit: Julian Leek
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The
next launch is set for Vandenberg AFB, CA at 7:39
a.m. EDT, 4:39 a.m. PDT (1139 GMT)
Wednesday, July 25 with 10 Iridium NEXT voice and data relay satellites.
The
next SpaceX launch from the Cape is set for August 2 at
1:19 a.m. EDT (0519 GMT) with the Merah Putih communications satellite for Telkom
Indonesia and also built by SSL.
Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA,
Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK and more space and mission reports direct
from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and
Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.
Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com
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Artist’s concept of the Telstar 19
VANTAGE communications satellite. Credit: SSL
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Beautiful sunset view of
raised Falcon 9 upgraded Block 5 rocket at Space Launch Complex-40 for SpaceX middle
of the night 1:50 AM ET launch of massive Telstar 19 VANTAGE
comsat from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station targeted for July 22, 2018. Credit: Ken
Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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