{"id":13609,"date":"2018-09-10T01:14:07","date_gmt":"2018-09-09T17:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/falcon-9-launch-timeline-with-telstar-18-vantage\/"},"modified":"2018-09-10T01:14:07","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T17:14:07","slug":"falcon-9-launch-timeline-with-telstar-18-vantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/falcon-9-launch-timeline-with-telstar-18-vantage\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcon 9 launch timeline with Telstar 18 VANTAGE"},"content":{"rendered":"

SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Monday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the Telstar 18 VANTAGE communications satellite into orbit around 32 minutes later.<\/p>\n

The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is poised for launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 11:28 p.m. EDT Sunday (0328 GMT Monday) at the opening of a four-hour launch window.<\/p>\n

Perched atop the rocket is the Telstar 18 VANTAGE communications satellite, a spacecraft manufactured by SSL \u2014 formerly known as Space Systems\/Loral \u2014 and owned by Ottawa-based Telesat in partnership with APT Satellite of Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

Telstar 18 VANTAGE weighs 15,564 pounds (7,060 kilograms) with its propellant tanks fully loaded, making it one of the heaviest commercial communications satellites ever launched, just shy of a record set in July with the launch of the Telstar 19 VANTAGE spacecraft on a previous Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n

After deployment from the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket in an elliptical transfer orbit, Telstar 18 VANTAGE will use its on-board hydrazine-fueled engine and electric thrusters to boost itself into a circular geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator.<\/p>\n

The U.S.-built, Canadian-owned satellite will beam C-band and Ku-band broadband services over the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n

Once Telstar 18 VANTAGE arrives at its operating post, it will beam high-throughput signals to serve direct-to-home broadcast, video distribution, maritime, and other telecom markets. Carrying a combination of broad regional beams and high-bandwidth spot beams, the satellite\u2019s coverage area will span from India and Pakistan in the west, to Hawaii in the east.<\/p>\n

APT Satellite \u2014 also known as APSTAR \u2014 paid for 57.5 percent of the mission\u2019s cost in exchange for use of the same percentage of the satellite\u2019s communications capacity.<\/p>\n

The Falcon 9 rocket launching Telstar 18 VANTAGE will fly in the upgraded \u201cBlock 5\u201d configuration, with a brand new first stage booster.<\/p>\n

The timeline below outlines the launch sequence for the Falcon 9 flight with Telstar 18 VANTAGE.<\/p>\n

Data source: SpaceX<\/strong><\/p>\n

T-0:00:00: Liftoff<\/b><\/p>\n

\"After
After the rocket\u2019s nine Merlin engines pass an automated health check, hold-down clamps will release the Falcon 9 booster for liftoff from pad 39A.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:01:00: Mach 1<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The Falcon 9 rocket reaches Mach 1, the speed of sound, as the nine Merlin 1D engines provide more than 1.7 million pounds of thrust.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:01:07: Max Q<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The Falcon 9 rocket reaches Max Q, the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:02:33: MECO<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The Falcon 9\u2019s nine Merlin 1D engines shut down.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:02:37: Stage 1 Separation<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The Falcon 9\u2019s first stage separates from the second stage moments after MECO.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:02:45: First Ignition of Second Stage<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The second stage Merlin 1D vacuum engine ignites for a six-minute burn to put the rocket and Telstar 18 VANTAGE into a preliminary parking orbit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:03:29: Fairing Jettison<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The 5.2-meter (17.1-foot) diameter payload fairing jettisons once the Falcon 9 rocket ascends through the dense lower atmosphere. The 43-foot-tall fairing is made of two clamshell-like halves composed of carbon fiber with an aluminum honeycomb core.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:06:17: Stage 1 Entry Burn<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
A subset of the first stage\u2019s Merlin 1D engines ignite for an entry burn to slow down for landing. A final landing burn will occur just before touchdown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:08:14: SECO 1<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket shuts down after reaching a preliminary low-altitude orbit. The upper stage and Telstar 18 VANTAGE begin a coast phase scheduled to last more than 18 minutes before the second stage Merlin vacuum engine reignites.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:08:32: Stage 1 Landing<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Falcon 9 rocket\u2019s first stage booster touches down on SpaceX\u2019s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:26:17: Second Ignition of Second Stage<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The Falcon 9\u2019s second stage Merlin engine restarts to propel the Telstar 18 VANTAGE communications satellite into an elliptical transfer orbit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:27:00: SECO 2<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The Merlin engine shuts down after a short burn to put the Telstar 18 VANTAGE satellite in the proper elliptical orbit for deployment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:32:01: Telstar 19 VANTAGE Separation<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The Telstar 18 VANTAGE satellite separates from the Falcon 9 rocket into an elliptical transfer orbit, on the way to a perch in geostationary orbit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Monday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the Telstar 18 VANTAGE communications satellite into orbit around 32 minutes later. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is poised for launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 11:28 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2876,2179,584,291,1736,1573,479,2877],"class_list":["post-13609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-apstar-5c","tag-apt-satellite","tag-canada","tag-commercial-space","tag-complex-40","tag-drone-ship","tag-falcon-9","tag-hong-kong"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}