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<\/p>\nSpaceX launched their sixth mission for telecommunications giants SES. The launch, using a flight-proven Falcon 9 rocket to deploy the SES-12 satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit, occurred at 00:45 Eastern on Monday, departing from SLC-40 at Florida\u2019s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.\n<\/p>\n
The launch of SES-12, SpaceX\u2019s eleventh mission of the year, continues a partnership with Luxembourg-based SES, who was the first customer to launch a communications satellite on Falcon 9 back in 2013. SES was also the customer for SpaceX\u2019s first mission with a previously-flown \u2013 or flight-proven \u2013 first stage last March.<\/p>\n
SES-12 also launched aboard a reused Falcon 9, whose first stage was previously part of the rocket that deployed one of the US Air Force\u2019s X-37B spaceplanes last September.<\/p>\n
The payload \u2013 SES-12 \u2013 is a 5,400-kilogram (11,900 lb) communications satellite carrying a total of seventy-six Ka- and Ku-band transponders. Constructed by Airbus Defence and Space the satellite is built around a Eurostar E3000e platform \u2013 a variant of Airbus\u2019 Eurostar 3000 product line that relies solely on electric propulsion for orbit-raising maneuver.<\/p>\n
Now Falcon has deployed it into geostationary transfer orbit, SES-12 will use its SPT-140D thrusters \u2013 manufactured by Russia\u2019s OKB Fakel \u2013 to raise itself to geostationary orbit. This process is expected to last six months. The satellite is expected to operate for at least fifteen years.<\/p>\n
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SES-12 on orbit<\/p>\n
SES commissioned the SES-12 satellite from Airbus in mid-2014. A replacement for the fifteen-year-old NSS-6 satellite, SES-12 will be stationed in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 95 degrees East \u2013 from where it will provide direct-to-home broadcasting and high-throughput satellite services to Asia, the Middle East and Australia, as well as parts of Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and East Africa.<\/p>\n
The NSS-6 satellite, which SES-12 will replace, was launched on the penultimate flight of Europe\u2019s Ariane 4 rocket in December 2002. NSS-6, which was built by Lockheed Martin, was designed for a fifteen-year service life which it passed at the end of last year. The spacecraft was originally built for Dutch firm New Skies Satellites (NSS), which was acquired by SES in late 2005. New Skies Satellites became SES New Skies shortly afterward and was merged with SES Americom in 2009, with the resulting subsidiary being named SES World Skies. SES amalgamated World Skies and its other subsidiary, SES Astra, back into the parent company two years later.<\/p>\n
SES-12 is more powerful than NSS-6: carrying sixty-eight Ku-band transponders \u2013 including both spot beams and wide beams \u2013 to its predecessor\u2019s fifty. It is also equipped with eight Ka-band transponders. SES-12 will be co-located with SES-8, a smaller direct-to-home broadcasting satellite that was launched in December 2013.<\/p>\n
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SES-12 KU Coverage<\/p>\n
SES-8 was the payload for SpaceX\u2019s first geostationary launch, and the first communications satellite to fly aboard Falcon 9. Since then, SpaceX also launched the SES-9 satellite in 2016, SES-10 last March via the first flight-proven Falcon 9, SES-11 in October and GovSat-1 \u2013 also known as SES-16 \u2013 this January.<\/p>\n
SES-12 had originally been slated to launch aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, with SES-14 flying aboard Falcon 9 instead. Last year SES opted to swap the two launches around in order to get SES-14 on-orbit sooner. SES-14 was launched in January. However, the Ariane 5 went off course and placed it into a more highly-inclined orbit than had been planned. Like SES-12, SES-14 uses electric propulsion and is still in the process of maneuvering into its final geostationary orbit.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The launch was SpaceX\u2019s eleventh of 2018 \u2013 a total that includes ten flights of the single-core Falcon 9 and February\u2019s test flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket. A two-stage liquid-fuelled rocket, Falcon 9 was designed to fulfill SpaceX\u2019s ambition of developing a reusable rocket.<\/p>\n
The company has achieved success with recovering and reusing the first stage of the Falcon 9, while efforts to make the vehicle\u2019s payload fairing reusable are underway. The second stage is not currently recovered \u2013 however SpaceX is hopeful that this can also be returned to Earth and reflown in the future.<\/p>\n
The SES-12 mission used Core 1040, a previously-flown or \u201cflight-proven\u201d first stage that first flew last September. Core 1040 was the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket that launched the X-37B OTV-5 mission for the US Air Force last September.<\/p>\n
After separating from the vehicle during September\u2019s launch the first stage executed three planned burns to return to its launch site, touching down in a powered landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station\u2019s Landing Zone 1 \u2013 a Falcon 9 landing pad built on the site of the former Launch Complex 13.<\/p>\n
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Falcon 9 first stage core 1040 landing at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX<\/p>\n
With SES-12, Core 1040 was making its second flight. As it is a Block 4 booster, a previous generation of Falcon 9 hardware that was superseded by the new Block 5 version of the rocket that debuted last month, it was only qualified to make two launches. Because of this, SpaceX did not attempt to recover the booster again following its role in the launch.<\/p>\n
Although Falcon\u2019s first stage was not recovered, SpaceX continued to take steps towards recovering the rocket\u2019s fairing. The fairing \u2013 the nose cone of Falcon 9 that protects the satellite while the rocket climbs out of Earth\u2019s atmosphere \u2013 costs about six million dollars per launch and separates into two parts once the rocket reaches space. During recent missions from Vandenberg Air Force Base, SpaceX has attempted to catch the two halves of the fairing in a giant net as it descends under parachute.<\/p>\n
While they have not yet managed to catch a fairing using the net \u2013 which is mounted aboard the boat, Mr. Steven \u2013 SpaceX has demonstrated that the structure can survive reentry and deploy parachutes. During the recent Iridium and GRACE launch, SpaceX recovered both parts of the fairing intact from the water, after they missed the recovery ship. Catching the fairing before it hits the water will help to protect it from contamination.<\/p>\n
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Mr. Steven and the new net.<\/p>\n
SpaceX does not currently have a ship on the East coast equipped with a net-like Mr Steven\u2019s. However, their recovery ship GO Pursuit departed Port Canaveral on Monday. The ship will likely attempt to pick up one or both parts of the rocket\u2019s fairing from the water \u2013 allowing SpaceX to gather more data as it descends.<\/p>\n
The SES-12 launch took place from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This is one of two launch pads SpaceX use on Florida\u2019s Space Coast \u2013 the other being Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the nearby Kennedy Space Center. SLC-40 was originally built as Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) \u2013 part of the Titan III Integrate-Transfer-Launch (ITL) Complex \u2013 in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
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SLC-40 \u2013 Photo by Brady Kenniston for NSF\/L2<\/p>\n
Along with its sister pad LC-41, LC-40 initially supported Titan IIIC rockets. LC-40 was later used by Titan III(34)D and Titan IV rockets \u2013 becoming the Cape\u2019s last active Titan pad after Complex 41 began conversion for the Atlas V rocket in 1999. The last Titan launch from SLC-40 was made in April 2005, after which the complex became inactive.<\/p>\n
SpaceX leased Complex 40 from the US Air Force in 2007, demolishing the Titan launch towers in favor of a clean-pad approach. Falcon 9 is integrated horizontally in a hangar close to the launch pad, before being transported to the pad atop a strongback structure shortly before launch.<\/p>\n
SLC-40 was heavily damaged in September 2016 when a Falcon 9 exploded during fuelling ahead of a static fire test. The pad remained out of action for over a year while refurbishment was conducted, returning to duty last December.<\/p>\n
The launch was to occur two days after the Eastern Range had been due to enter a planned period of downtime for maintenance. Such periods are scheduled to allow the US Air Force to catch up with work that is difficult to schedule while launches are taking place.<\/p>\n
The outage was due to extend from 29 May to 8 June. However, neither SpaceX nor the US Air Force has confirmed whether this has been rescheduled, or whether enough assets have been left online to support the Falcon launch. Falcon 9 requires fewer range assets than other rockets, in large part due to its autonomous flight termination system (AFTS), which allows the rocket to monitor its own flight and issue a self-destruct command if necessary instead of relying on tracking and a command from the ground.<\/p>\n
Regardless of this issue, the launch was moved to June 4 due to work relating to the rocket.<\/p>\n