{"id":19286,"date":"2016-08-13T18:43:49","date_gmt":"2016-08-13T10:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-launches-jcsat-16-satellite-then-lands-falcon-9-rocket-at-sea\/"},"modified":"2016-08-13T18:43:49","modified_gmt":"2016-08-13T10:43:49","slug":"spacex-launches-jcsat-16-satellite-then-lands-falcon-9-rocket-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-launches-jcsat-16-satellite-then-lands-falcon-9-rocket-at-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches JCSAT-16 satellite, then lands Falcon 9 rocket at sea"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_267621\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-267621\" style=\"width: 627px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-267621\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160813-spacex-jcsat16-landing.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceX Falcon 9 landing\" width=\"627\" height=\"458\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-267621\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A webcast view shows SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket on the oceangoing drone ship known as \u201cOf Course I Still Love You.\u201d (Credit: SpaceX)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket launched a satellite for a Japanese communication company tonight, and then made a bull\u2019s-eye landing&nbsp;on a&nbsp;floating platform&nbsp;in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>The two-stage Falcon 9 carried the JCSAT-16 satellite into the night sky&nbsp;from&nbsp;Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 1:26 a.m. ET Sunday (10:26 p.m. PT Saturday).<\/p>\n<p>After stage separation, the Falcon 9\u2019s first-stage booster relit&nbsp;its engines and went through a series of maneuvers to land&nbsp;on an oceangoing platform christened \u201cOf Course I Still Love You.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX\u2019s&nbsp;webcast missed the precise moment of touchdown but showed the booster standing upright on the deck of the drone ship moments afterward \u2013 almost exactly on top of the stylized \u201cX\u201d that served as a target.<\/p>\n<p>A little more than a half-hour after launch, SpaceX announced that JCSAT-16 had been deployed into its intended geostationary transfer orbit, reaching a high point of 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers).<\/p>\n<p>As commentator-engineer Kate Tice wrapped up the webcast, she said tonight\u2019s coverage was dedicated to Kenny Baker, the diminutive actor who played the role of the robot R2-D2 in the original \u201cStar Wars\u201d movies. Baker died today at the age of 81.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"SpaceX Launches Japanese Satellite into Orbit\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gk2ZGEDXLV8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The JCSAT-16 launch was executed a little more than three months after the California-based company put JCSAT-14 into orbit for SKY Perfect JSAT, which is one of the Asia-Pacific region\u2019s leading satellite operators. JCSAT-16 will serve as an in-orbit backup for SKY Perfect JSAT\u2019s fleet, which provides video distribution and other data services in Asia, Russia, Oceania, the Middle East and North America.<\/p>\n<p>Tonight\u2019s touchdown marked the fourth successful at-sea landing for a Falcon 9 booster \u2013&nbsp;a tally that also includes May\u2019s touchdown after the JCSAT-14 launch.<\/p>\n<p>Success isn\u2019t easy, particularly for the high-energy launch that\u2019s required to put satellites like the 5-ton JCSAT spacecraft into a geostationary transfer orbit. The booster from the JCSAT-14 launch may have been too damaged to&nbsp;send&nbsp;into space again, according to Elon Musk, SpaceX\u2019s billionaire founder. It\u2019s currently being used in ground tests.<\/p>\n<p>Five other at-sea landing attempts have been unsuccessful.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_267630\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-267630\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-267630\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160813-spacex-launch2-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceX Falcon 9 launch\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160813-spacex-launch2-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160813-spacex-launch2.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-267630\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket rises from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (Credit: SpaceX)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In addition to the four&nbsp;successful at-sea landings, two Falcon 9 first stages&nbsp;have been brought back for touchdowns in SpaceX\u2019s landing zone in Florida. The decision to bring the rocket back to land vs. sea depends on the rocket trajectory required for a given&nbsp;payload.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX wants to recover and reuse its boosters to drive down the cost of access to space.&nbsp;So far, SpaceX hasn\u2019t reflown any of its recovered boosters, but the company hopes to do so starting later this year.<\/p>\n<p>If SpaceX can perfect rocket reusability, that would mark a huge advance toward Musk\u2019s vision of sending thousands of settlers to Mars starting in&nbsp;the 2020s. Musk is to elaborate on that vision next month in Mexico during the International Astronautical Congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A webcast view shows SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket on the oceangoing drone ship known as \u201cOf Course I Still Love You.\u201d (Credit: SpaceX) SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket launched a satellite for a Japanese communication company tonight, and then made a bull\u2019s-eye landing&nbsp;on a&nbsp;floating platform&nbsp;in the Atlantic Ocean. The two-stage Falcon 9 carried the JCSAT-16 satellite [&hellip;]<\/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":[291,1045,4434,316],"class_list":["post-19286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-elon-musk","tag-falcon-launch","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19286"}],"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=19286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}