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SpaceX tested a Falcon 9 rocket Monday night at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, paving the way for a launch on Thursday with the Qatar Es'hail 2 communications satellite, the first takeoff of the Space Coast in Florida in more than six months.
The nine engines on the first stage of the Merlin 1D rocket started at 20:30. Monday (EST), Monday (01:30 GMT), the Falcon 9's failed on pad 39A, the former historical starting point of many space shuttle launches and several lunar towers of Saturn 5.
SpaceX has recovered after a seemingly canceled hot-fire attempt on Monday morning, reloaded kerosene and liquid oxygen boosters into the launcher and managed the static fire after dark. on Monday.
The two-stage rocket will explode with an overflight of the first leg previously retrieved from the SpaceX drone in the Atlantic Ocean following the launch of the Telstar 19 VANTAGE communications satellite on 22 July.
The rocket will be brought back into the hangar, connected to its commercial satellite payload, and then returned to platform 39A in time for a launch window opening at 3:46 pm. EST (20:46 GMT) Thursday.
SpaceX is expected to attempt another landing of the rocket after takeoff on Thursday afternoon, again aboard the drone "Sure, I still love you", a few hundred kilometers east of Cape Canaveral.
The payload for Thursday's launch is Es'hail 2, built in Japan by Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and owned by Qatar's satellite communications company Es'hailSat. Equipped with Ku-band and Ka-band transponders, Es'hail 2 will provide TV broadcasts, broadband connectivity and government services to Qatar and neighboring regions in the Middle East, North Africa and the Middle East. Europe.
The spacecraft also carries the first two amateur radio antennas to fly in a geostationary orbit, connecting the amateurs on one third of the Earth's surface in a single bound, as far west as Brazil and also to the is that India.
In a statement released earlier this year, Es'hailSat announced that the new satellite would include "sophisticated anti-jamming capabilities" to limit interference and significantly broaden the offerings currently offered by Es'hail 1, launched in 2013 at edge of an Ariane 5 rocket.
The launch on Thursday will mark the 63rd flight of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the 18th SpaceX mission of the year.
It will also end a series of nighttime launches at Cape Canaveral that date back to May 11, when a Falcon 9 rocket took off for the last time from platform 39A. A series of Cape Canaveral launches by SpaceX and United Launch Alliance during the summer and fall all took place during the night.
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
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