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SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral on Saturday night, paving the way for a delayed takeoff with Israel's Amos 17 commercial communications satellite on Tuesday, baduming SpaceX can make its way to a busy Atlas schedule. 5 scheduled for this week's launch of the fleet is from the US Air Force.
After a simulated countdown, the nine Merlin 1D first stage engines of the Falcon 9 light up for several seconds at 11:30. Saturday (0330 GMT) on the launch ramp of Cape Canaveral Complex 40, while holding clips held the rocket firmly to the ground.
SpaceX said in a tweet that his team was aiming for the launch of the Amos 17 satellite on the Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday night, "while waiting for the availability of the scope".
An Atlas 5 rocket belonging to United Launch Alliance, a rival of SpaceX on the launch market, is already reserved on the firing range operated by the Air Force for an attempt to launch Thursday morning from platform 41 nearby, about one kilometer north of SpaceX platform 40.
SpaceX had previously reserved its launch attempts Saturday and Sunday on the Eastern Range, but the company has bypbaded these launch opportunities to solve a technical problem.
The launch delay of the Falcon 9 opened the possibility of Tuesday's takeoffs from Cape Canaveral, separated by less than 36 hours. Officials from the 45th Air Force Space Wing, who oversees the launch point at Cape Canaveral, said the military unit could accommodate two missions in 24 hours, thanks to recent technological improvements.
One of the main changes allowing a rapid rotation of the launch of the range is the introduction of the autonomous flight termination system, which would destroy a rocket if it took off. Security teams have also now tracked rockets launched from Cape Canaveral using GPS satellite data, instead of using ground-based radars.
The Eastern Range consists of a network of communication, monitoring and security facilities used for each launch from Florida's Space Coast. The range generally operates on a first-come, first-served basis.
Assuming the launch attempt can be made on Tuesday, the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket with Amos 17 is scheduled for a launch window opening at 18:52. HAE (2252 GMT) and extending until 20:20. HAE (0020 GMT).
The two-hour Atlas 5 launch window on Thursday will open at 5:44 AM EDT (09:44 GMT).
The Atlas 5 rocket will equip the Air Force's fifth advanced AEHF communications satellite, which will join a fleet of space vehicles in geostationary orbit, providing secure voice, video and data links between US heads of government and military commanders. .
AEHF satellites built by Lockheed Martin each cost more than $ 1 billion and are the backbone of the Army's protected satellite communications infrastructure, which the Air Force believes resists jamming, cyberattacks and to nuclear war.
The Atlas 5 rocket, which is expected to launch the AEHF 5 satellite, is due to leave its vertical hangar on Tuesday morning at platform 41. Once the launcher is installed, the ground crews will connect the Atlas 5 to power sources. data and thruster for the start of the countdown Wednesday night.
Officials have raised the possibility of a rapid launch of Falcon 9 and Atlas 5 on the 40 and 41 platforms last year, while SpaceX was to launch a Spanish telecom satellite the same week as the previous year. A new NOAA GOES geostationary meteorological observatory was waiting for the ULA rocket to take off.
The Atlas 5 and Falcon 9 Trays in Cape Canaveral both have a "gable" design without gantry protection to provide rocket shelter after deployment for take-off.
The Air Force was initially ready to support the Atlas 5 and the launch of the Falcon 9 last year at just 16 hours and a half apart.
Although the Falcon 9 platform is more than one kilometer from the Atlas plant, ULA and NASA officials, responsible for launching the NOAA weather satellite, feared that the Atlas 5 rocket and the sensitive optics of its GOES meteorological payloads are only exposed to the Falcon 9's exhaust plume when it fired into space.
The officials also investigated the possibility that the Atlas 5 and GOES-S weather satellites could be put at risk by a potential incident when the Falcon 9 was launched.
In this case, the launch of SpaceX was finally delayed after the launch of the Atlas 5 rocket with the GOES weather satellite.
Air Force leaders from the Eastern Range Program and the AEHF satellite will make the final decision on this week's launch schedule. A review of the readiness to launch the Atlas 5 mission is scheduled for Monday morning.
The penalty shootout on Saturday was the second on the Falcon 9 rocket during the Amos 17 launch campaign after a test session on Wednesday night. SpaceX decided to replace a valve after the hot test on Wednesday night and performed a second fuel and engine test on Saturday.
Ground crews planned to remove the Falcon 9 rocket from the launch pad on Sunday and bring it back to a hangar south of platform 40 for attachment of the Amos 17 spacecraft, already encapsulated in its payload envelope.
The Amos 17 satellite built by Boeing is owned by Spacecom Ltd., an Israeli company based in Tel Aviv. The last time a satellite belonging to Spacecom was launched on a SpaceX rocket, the satellite was destroyed during an explosion a few minutes before a planned static firing test.
Since this accident, SpaceX has not placed one of its payloads on the rocket for the static firing test.
The official weather forecast suggests that the SpaceX launch team will face a storm in a possible countdown on Tuesday. There is a 60% chance that weather conditions will be unacceptable for a Tuesday night launch, according to predictions released by the US Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron.
The main weather concerns on Tuesday concern the rules of lightning and thick clouds.
"Thunderstorms will affect Space Coast most of the afternoon and early evening, which means a higher risk of meteorological infraction at the beginning of the window," forecasters wrote Sunday. "But as the sun goes down and the storms go down, we'll probably see a launch potential improve over the second half of the launch window."
The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket with Amos 17 will fly in consumable mode without any landing leg. The Amos 17 heavy truck, with around 6.5 metric tons, requires the Falcon 9's full lifting performance to outpace a geostationary transfer orbit that extends more than 36 km above sea level. equator.
This is the second time that SpaceX has launched one of its Falcon 9 rockets in the next-generation "Block 5" configuration without attempting to recover the first floor.
The launch recall with Amos 17 had already flown twice since Cape Canaveral last year to send the Telstar 19 VANTAGE and Es'hail 2 communication satellites into orbit, then was redirected to the SpaceX drone in the Atlantic Ocean to be refurbished and reused.
Amos 17 will use its own engine to circulate its orbit more than 22,000 km above the equator, where it will park at 17 degrees east longitude. In geostationary orbit, the orbital speed of Amos 17 will correspond to the Earth's rotation rate, which will give the satellite a fixed geographical coverage over sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
According to Spacecom, Amos 17 has been designed for a life of 20 years and the cost of the mission is about $ 250 million, including space shuttle, launch services and insurance.
"Spacecom has long been a pioneer in providing international satellite communications services in Israel and around the world," said David Pollack, Spacecom's President and CEO. "The launch of Amos 17 is an important and strategic step that reinforces Israel's continued presence in the space and growth of our company."
Amos 17 will replace the Amos 5 satellite at 17 degrees East, which failed in 2015. The new satellite carries C-band, Ku-band and Ka-band communications payloads to provide TV broadband and broadband Internet and other networking and data relay services.
Spacecom purchased the Amos 17 satellite in 2016 at Boeing under a $ 161 million contract.
The launch of Amos 17 will be the 10th flight of SpaceX's Falcon rocket family this year.
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
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