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A commercial communications satellite to be launched from the Space Coast of Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to broadcast broadband and television signals in the Asia-Pacific region will remain on Earth until at least 24 hours later than planned.
The Telstar 18 VANTAGE satellite, also known as APSTAR 5C, was supposed to launch a new Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday night. The high-powered telecommunications equipment, built by SSL in Palo Alto, California, weighs approximately 15,064 kg (7,060 kg) and is expected to begin a 15-year mission for Telesat and APT Satellite, based in Canada and Canada respectively. in Hong Kong.
But officials have decided to delay the launch, according to Gerald Nagler, a spokesman for Telesat. Nagler did not provide a new launch date, but the website of Patrick Air Base, home of 45th Air Force Wing, was updated on Thursday to show that the mission was to be rising Sunday, September 9th.
The four-hour launch window would open at 11:28 pm EDT Sunday (0328 GMT Monday).
A spokesman for SpaceX Thursday would not confirm a reason for postponement of the launch – or even if the mission was delayed – in response to questions from Spaceflight Now. SpaceX tweeted Wednesday to confirm that the flight should, at that time, take off on Saturday.
Sea tracking websites showed Thursday that the SpaceX landing platform was continuing towards the recovery area of the first Falcon 9 accelerator in the Atlantic Ocean, east of Cape Canaveral. SpaceX plans to recover the first step to reuse it in a future mission.
The launch of the Telstar 18 VANTAGE / APSTAR 5C satellite will be SpaceX's 16th SpaceX mission of the year – including launches from Florida and California – and the 16th Cap Canaveral launch in 2018.
SpaceX on Wednesday tested the Falcon 9's first-stage engines on the launch pad of the Cape Canaveral Complex, then lowered the rocket back to a nearby hangar, where technicians planned to secure the Telstar 18 VANTAGE / APSTAR 5C satellite. to the launcher.
The satellite will provide C-band and Ku-band communications services throughout the Asia-Pacific region from a roost in geostationary orbit approximately 22,300 miles (35,800 km) above the equator.
The new satellite will be launched on an elliptical transfer orbit aboard the Falcon 9, then use its onboard propeller to climb into a circular orbit, where its orbital velocity will correspond to the Earth's rotational speed at 138 degrees east longitude.
Once Telstar 18 VANTAGE arrives at its operational position, it will transmit broadband signals to serve the direct-to-home, video distribution, marine and other telecommunications markets. Combining large regional beams and high-bandwidth spot beams, the satellite coverage area will extend from India and Pakistan west to Hawaii in the east.
The Hong Kong APT satellite – also called APSTAR – paid 57.5% of the cost of the mission in exchange for using the same percentage of the satellite's communications capacity.
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
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