[ad_1]
A Turkish-owned communications satellite is expected to enter orbit Thursday evening from Cape Canaveral to open SpaceX’s 2021 launch schedule.
The Turksat 5A spacecraft, built by Airbus and owned by Turkish company Turksat, is ready to take off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket during a four-hour window that opens at 8:28 p.m. EST Thursday (0128 GMT Friday ).
The 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Station 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Station to launch a loaded program of more than 40 missions planned for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles this year in Florida . Space Coast and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
SpaceX completed 26 Falcon 9 missions in 2020, a record pace of launch activity for the commercial space company.
Thursday night’s launch is also the first of at least 40 rocket flights planned this year from Cape Canaveral and the nearby Kennedy Space Center, including missions from SpaceX and United Launch Alliance.
Forecasters from the US Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predict a 70% chance of good conditions during the four-hour window Thursday night. The main weather threat Thursday is expected to be thick clouds and cumulus clouds associated with a cold front approaching central Florida.
There is also a moderate risk of upper wind shear that could exceed the structural limits of the Falcon 9, forecasters said.
The weather team is forecasting mostly cloudy skies, southerly winds of 17 to 22 mph and a temperature of about 68 degrees Fahrenheit at launch on Thursday.
SpaceX is expected to lift the Falcon 9 rocket vertically onto Pad 40 early Thursday for final preparations for launch, culminating in a 35-minute automated countdown sequence. The computers will oversee the loading of the densified and supercooled kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the two-stage rocket.
Nine 1D Merlin engines on the Falcon 9’s reused first stage booster will propel the rocket off the ground. The launcher will travel due east of Cape Canaveral on a course for Turksat 5A to finally maneuver into a geostationary orbit near the equator more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) above Earth.
Following a standard climb profile, the Falcon 9’s first stage will separate from the rocket’s top stage approximately two and a half minutes after the start of flight before beginning its descent to a SpaceX drone stationed about 650 kilometers away. is on course. Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean.
As the first-stage thruster targets a vertical landing on the floating drone, two SpaceX spacecraft are also en route to downstream waters to retrieve the two-part payload shroud from the Falcon 9.
The single-use upper stage of the Falcon 9, meanwhile, will perform two engine burns before releasing the Turksat 5A spacecraft into an elliptical geostationary transfer orbit about half an hour after takeoff.
Turksat 5A, with a launch weight of around 7,500 pounds (3,400 kilograms) will deploy its power generation solar panels and expand articulated pods containing plasma thrusters, which will slowly increase the satellite’s orbit to geostationary altitude. over 22,000 miles above the equator. At this altitude, Turksat 5A will revolve around the Earth at the same speed as the planet revolves.
The orbit elevation phase of the mission will last approximately four months. Electric thrusters are more fuel efficient than conventional liquid fuel rocket engines, but produce less thrust.
The satellite will enter service along the equator at 31 degrees east longitude, where its 42 Ku-band transponders will reach Turksat customers across Turkey, the Middle East, Europe, large swathes of Africa, the Mediterranean, the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. , says the company.
Turksat 5A will become the most powerful satellite in Turksat’s fleet, according to Hasan Huseyin Ertok, deputy general manager of the company. It will also help secure Turkish frequency rights at the 31 degrees East slot, where a Turkish-owned satellite has not been operated since 2010.
Turksat awarded contracts to Airbus and SpaceX to build and launch the Turksat 5A and Turksat 5B satellites in November 2017, following a meeting between SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The Turksat 5B satellite, which will host a Ka-band communications payload, is expected to launch from Cape Canaveral in the second half of this year.
“Our main focus is Turkey, so it’s focused on Turkey but all over Europe, most of North Africa, and we’re going all the way to Kazakhstan heading east. and in the African region we have most of sub Saharan Africa and also South Africa, ”Ertok said of Turksat 5A’s coverage area.
“We can provide satellite service to anyone in that coverage area,” he said. “It can be a data service, which means bringing data from one point to another, or it can be a broadcast television service.”
While Turksat sells services to commercial clients, the Turkish government is one of the company’s main clients. Turksat satellites have supported a series of Turkish civil and military operations.
Ertok said Turksat 5A will provide “better service at a better price to our customers, to our government”.
“So it will be an important satellite for us and for our future,” he said.
Email the author.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
[ad_2]
Source link