“You pay extra when it’s expendable,” Froeliger said in a previous interview with Spaceflight Now. And in order for us to achieve a good orbital lifetime, meaning greater than 15 years, we had to go to a Falcon 9 expendable, and there’s a premium to be paid.” This is the first time Maxar launches a stack of two 1300s together. “The expendable launch vehicle was needed for this mission due to the characteristics of the Maxar satellites. “SpaceX is not going to be able to reuse the the first stage, so you have to pay a premium for an expendable launch vehicle,” Froeliger said in a press conference Monday previewing the Galaxy 31/32 launch. The Galaxy 31 and 32 satellites will use their own propellants to move from the elliptical transfer orbit achieved by the Falcon 9 rocket into a circular geostationary orbit directly over the equator, consuming fuel that otherwise could be used for stationkeeping throughout their missions. The dual-satellite stack weighs about 14,500 pounds, or 6.6 metric tons, fully fueled for launch, according to Froeliger. The two new Intelsat satellites are based on Maxar’s 1300-series satellite design, and it’s the first time two large Maxar-built communications have launched on the same rocket in a stacked configuration. Most recently, the Falcon 9 booster launched July 17 on a Starlink mission. Later in its career, the booster launched SiriusXM’s SXM 7 radio broadcasting satellite, and flew on 10 missions carrying SpaceX’s own Starlink internet satellites. It launched again in June 2019 with Canada’s Radarsat Constellation Mission. The booster debuted March 2, 2019, with the first unpiloted test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, a precursor to SpaceX’s later astronaut missions. The reusable first stage booster, designated B1051, made its 14th and final flight. SpaceX typically reserves some of the booster’s propellant for landing maneuvers, but on this mission, all of the rocket’s fuel was burned during the climb into space. Intelsat decided to pay SpaceX extra money to get all of the Falcon 9’s lift capability, reducing the amount of fuel the Galaxy 31 and 32 satellites need to burn to reach their final operating positions in geostationary orbit. Five minutes later, Galaxy 31 separated from the Falcon 9’s upper stage. Galaxy 32 deployed from the upper position on the rocket first at T+plus 33 minutes, 31 seconds. The Galaxy 31 and 32 satellites were stacked one on top of the other for launch. The elliptical transfer orbit was expected to range between a few hundred miles above Earth up to near 37,000 miles (60,000 kilometers) in altitude, according to Jean-Luc Froeliger, senior vice president of space systems at Intelsat.Ī member of SpaceX’s launch control team confirmed after the mission that the rocket achieved the expected orbit. The company has three more new C-band broadcasting satellites under construction for launches on Falcon 9 and Ariane 5 rockets in the coming months.įor Saturday’s mission, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral and headed east over the Atlantic Ocean, targeting a “supersynchronous” transfer orbit for deployment of the Galaxy 31 and 32 satellites. 8, the first two of seven new C-band satellites that are part of the transition program. Intelsat launched the Galaxy 33 and 34 satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket Oct. The Galaxy 31 and 32 satellites were built by Maxar, and are part of Intelsat’s program to replace older communications satellites as the Federal Communications Commission transitions a segment of C-band spectrum for use by 5G cellular network services. The two Intelsat communications satellites on top of the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket are heading into geosynchronous orbit to begin missions expected to last more than 18 years providing video broadcasting services over North America. EST (1606 GMT) Saturday after a four-day delay caused by Hurricane Nicole. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 11:06 a.m. Intelsat says it paid SpaceX an additional fee for the expendable mission. SpaceX launched one of its reusable Falcon 9 rocket boosters for the last time Saturday on a rare expendable mission for Intelsat, devoting all of the launcher’s propellant toward placing a pair of television broadcasting satellites into orbit.
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