In the first of two rapid-fire weekend launches, a Falcon 9 rocket using a previously flown first stage boosted Bulgaria’s first communications satellite into orbit Friday, clearing the way for another SpaceX flight Sunday, this one from California, to put 10 Iridium telephone relay stations into space.

The first stage launched Friday first flew in January when it helped boost another set of Iridium comsats into an orbit around Earth’s poles before flying back to a pinpoint touchdown on an off-shore droneship.

It pulled off the same feat Friday, landing on a different droneship stationed a few hundred miles east of Cape Canaveral, despite a high trajectory needed by the satellite payload and the most extreme re-entry heating and stress yet experienced by a returning booster.

In fact, SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted before launch there was a “good chance (the) rocket booster doesn’t make it back.” It did, but the booster landed hard and appeared slightly tilted to one side, using up most of the shock absorbing material in its landing legs.

“Rocket is extra toasty and hit the deck hard (used almost all of the emergency crush core), but otherwise good,” Musk tweeted.

The successful launch and recovery — the second time the California rocket builder has launched and recovered a first stage — is evidence of the growing maturity of the company’s on-going effort to reduce launch costs by recovering, refurbishing and relaunching major rocket components.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 record now stands at 36 successful launches, one in-flight failure, one on-pad failure and 12 successful first-stage recoveries in 17 attempts, including the last eight in a row.

The successful launch and landing should clear the way for SpaceX to fire off another Falcon 9 on Sunday, this one using brand new stages, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., carrying a second set of 10 Iridium NEXT satellite telephone stations.

It will be the second of seven such flights to put 70 of the compact satellites into orbit as Iridium upgrades its constellation of telephone-and-data relay stations.

For Bulsatcom, the company that paid $235 million to Space Systems/Loral to build, insure and launch BulgariaSat 1, Friday’s launching marked a major milestone. The Ku-band satellite will provide television programming across the Balkans.

“The project is of a big size for small country, and a relatively small company by world standards,” Maxim Zayakov, CEO of BulgariaSat and Bulsatcom, told Spaceflight Now. “We now have about 900,000 subscribers between Bulgaria and the adjacent country of Serbia, and that is something, but in the grand scheme of things, compared with large companies, we’re not that big.”

As such, he said, “the satellite is a huge thing. It’s a big milestone and gives us a chance for … more presence in the region, as well as throughout Europe, where we have our main coverage. And for the country, definitely, it’s the first geostationary communications satellite.”

He said SpaceX’s ability to recover and relaunch boosters will lower costs across the industry and that “really is a big deal.”

“People don’t realize that, for small countries and small companies like us, without SpaceX, there was no way we would ever be able to even think about space,” he said. “With them, it was possible. We got a project. I think, in the future, it’s going to be even more affordable because of reusability.”

The mission got underway at 3:10 p.m. EDT (GMT-4) when the Falcon 9’s nine Merlin 1D engines ignited and throttled up to full power, pushing the 1.2-million-pound rocket away from pad 39A atop 1.7 million pounds of thrust. After initially climbing straight up, the booster arced gracefully away to the east and disappeared from view over the Atlantic Ocean.

Two minutes and 40 seconds later, after pushing the 229-foot-tall vehicle out of the thick lower atmosphere, the first stage engines shut down and the stage fell away to begin its descent to the droneship “Of Course I Still Love You.” The single engine powering the Falcon 9’s second stage continued pushing BulgariaSat 1 to space.

The first stage, meanwhile, 1fired three of its engines to slow down, oriented itself tail first and fell back into the atmosphere, deploying four stabilizing “grid fins” at the top of the booster to help maintain the proper orientation.

Three engines then re-ignited as the rocket approached the droneship, four landing legs deployed and the stage settled to a landing on the “Of Course I Still Love You” eight-and-a-half minutes after launch.

The second stage engine fired for nearly six minutes in the first of two burns required to put BulgariaSat 1 into the proper elliptical orbit. A second one-minute five-second firing completed the job and 35 minutes after takeoff, the 8,100-pound spacecraft was released to fly on its own in an orbit with a high point of around 37,000 miles.

On-board thrusters will be used to put the satellite into a circular orbit 22,300 miles above the equator where it will appear to hang stationary in the sky above the Balkans. After tests and checkout, Zayakov said, the satellite should be ready to enter service in early August.

With BulgariaSat 1 safely on its way, SpaceX will turn its attention to Sunday’s launch from Vandenberg.

Liftoff from pad 4-East is targeted for 4:25 p.m. EDT. Because of the weight of the 10-satellite payload, an on-time launching is required or the flight will be delayed at least 24 hours.

As with Friday’s flight, SpaceX plans to land the Iridium first stage on another whimsically named droneship, the “Just Read The Instructions,” stationed due south of Vandenberg.

SpaceX plans to launch another Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Center in July to put an Intelsat communications satellite into orbit.

The rapid-fire launch schedule over the past two months reflects SpaceX’s drive to work off a backlog of satellites delayed by earlier problems, including a Sept. 1 launch pad explosion that destroyed a Falcon 9 and its satellite payload at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. </s> SpaceX returned to flight on Saturday after a four-and-a-half-month hiatus.

The private space exploration company — headed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk — took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 9:54 a.m. PT, aiming to take 10 satellites into space for voice and data company Iridium.

It marked the company’s first launch since a Falcon 9 rocket exploded at Cape Canaveral in September.

The launch’s success was made even sweeter by a smooth return landing for the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage booster. It safely returned from space and glided to a landing on a seafaring platform, known as a droneship.

SpaceX — along with rivals such as Blue Origin from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — has been attempting to perfect the rocket landing.

Because rockets are worth tens of millions of dollars, and they have historically been discarded after launch, mastering the landing is key to making space travel more affordable. Saturday’s launch marks the seventh time SpaceX has successfully landed a rocket.

The primary mission Saturday was to deliver 10 Iridium satellites into orbit. Iridium is using the satellites to develop a revamped voice and data communications network, dubbed NEXT.

About 80 Iridium NEXT satellites are scheduled to be deployed, and SpaceX is committed to carrying at least 70 of them. Iridium says the NEXT satellites, delivered to low Earth orbit, are designed to provide “real time connections between people, organizations and assets to and from anywhere.”

Iridium says NEXT “will replace the world’s largest commercial satellite network of low-Earth orbit satellites in what will be one of the largest ‘tech upgrades in history.'”

SpaceX’s high-anticipated launch Saturday was initially scheduled to launch on Monday, but flight plans were canceled because of high winds and rain.

In September, a rocket carrying a satellite to be used by Facebook to bring Internet access to remote areas of the world exploded while awaiting launch.

Facebook is in a partnership with French satellite firm Eutelsat Communications. The satellite, called Amos 6, was owned by Israeli company Spacecom.

Earlier this month, a probe into the cause of the blast concluded that a failed pressure vessel in a liquid oxygen tank was to blame for the failure. </s> SpaceX has successfully launched a Falcon 9 to orbit during its BulgariaSat-1 mission Friday. The launch reused a first stage booster first employed during an Iridium Communications mission in January of this year, after that Falcon 9 first stage was recovered and refurbished.

The mission on Friday was to delivery Bulgaria’s first ever geostationary communications satellite into orbit, so that it could begin operations broadcast communication networks and HDTV signals for clients on Earth in parts of Europe. The satellite was built by SSL out of Palo Alto, California.

The first stage also landed successfully on the company’s drone ship in the Atlantic ocean, “Of course I still love you,” making it the first ever to have successfully landed on both of SpaceX’s two ocean-borne drone landing vessels. That recovery was also the most challenging successful landing so far for SpaceX, because of launch conditions.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk warned on Twitter prior to the launch that the Falcon 9 used would “experience its highest ever reentry force” during today’s launch, along with record levels of heat, making it less likely that SpaceX will be able to successfully recover the rocket for reuse this time around. In fact, Musk said there’s a “good chance” they don’t get the rocket back.

The launch from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center is the second ever re-use of an orbital rocket, after SpaceX successfully completed its first reflight of recycled Falcon 9 first stage back in March.

The primary mission was also a success, with SpaceX deploying the BulgariaSat-1 satellite into geostationary transfer orbit as of around 3:45 PM EDT. Next up, SpaceX will attempt its Iridium-2 mission launch on Sunday, June 25. </s> SpaceX returned to the cosmos Saturday, launching its first mission since one of the company’s Falcon 9 rockets exploded on Sept. 1.

After the explosion, SpaceX halted its launch schedule until the company could determine its root cause. A final assessment released on Jan. 2 stated that the protective lining likely failed in a pressurized vessel for one of the rocket’s liquid oxygen fuel tanks. Helium containers within the tank, used to maintain pressure balance, buckled. The friction between the liquid oxygen and the broken container caused a spark, which blew up the Falcon 9 booster.

“There were just 93 milliseconds from the first sign of anomalous data to the loss of the second stage, followed by loss of the vehicle,” according to the mission assessment. Investigators used 3,000 sources of data to ascertain the nature of the accident, and they determined the Falcon 9 is once again go for launch.

Saturday’s launch marks SpaceX’s third attempt to deliver 10 Iridium NEXT communications satellites. Both prior attempts were scrubbed due to poor weather. Iridium runs the largest constellation of communications satellites, consisting of 66 individual spacecraft over six different orbits. Iridium’s new series of satellites, currently undergoing testing, are planned to increase data capability for satellite phones, allowing them to have faster internet access. A secondary payload on the NEXT satellites will be used to improve Air Traffic Control communications.

SpaceX is planning six more launches for this year, which will replace all satellites in the current Iridium constellation network by early 2018.

Vandenberg Air Force Base is one of three launch facilities that SpaceX uses and the only one on the West Coast. Its location is prime for the polar orbits used by communications and spy satellites. </s> New Delhi: In a mission that marked the company's second launch of a reused rocket's first stage, SpaceX successfully flagged off its Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Bulgarian communications satellite.

The BulgariaSat-1, sitting tight aboard the Falcon 9, lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on Friday, SpaceNews reported. The spacecraft separated from the Falcon 9's second stage 35 minutes after lift-off.

The first stage landed on a SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean after what SpaceX cautioned would be a "super challenging" landing attempt due to the high reentry loads for this particular flight profile.

Due to an error, the video from the drone ship cut out shortly before the landing, but was restored several seconds later, showing the stage upright, but leaning slightly, having landed slightly off-center.

"Rocket is extra toasty and hit the deck hard (used almost all of the emergency crush core), but otherwise good," SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted shortly after the landing.

He had tweeted prior to the launch that, because of the high reentry loads, there was a "good chance (the rocket booster doesn't make it back".

This launch marked the second time that SpaceX has reflown a Falcon 9 first stage, after the March launch of the SES-10 satellite.

The first stage for this launch first flew in January on a launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying 10 Iridium Next satellites into orbit before landing on a ship offshore.

BulgariaSat selected SSL to build BulgariaSat-1 in September 2014, a deal that also included the SpaceX launch.

The satellite, with an estimated mass of 4,000 kg, carries a total of 32 Ku-band transponders to provide fixed and broadcast satellite services and has a planned 15-year lifetime. </s> SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket climbed into orbit from California’s Central Coast on Saturday, resuming service after an explosive setback last year and delivering much-needed reinforcements to Iridium’s satellite constellation providing communications by land, sea and sky.

The comeback mission kicks off a busy launch manifest with more than 20 SpaceX rocket flights expected this year as the company prepares to start launching astronauts, vital national security payloads and a slate of valuable telecommunications satellites for global broadcasters and network clients.

The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) launcher fired away from Vandenberg Air Force Base, a military complex northwest Los Angeles, at 9:54:39 a.m. PST (12:54:39 p.m. EST; 1754:39 GMT) and soared into a brilliant blue sky, trailing a stream of orange-hot exhaust from nine kerosene-fueled Merlin 1D engines as the booster turned south over the Pacific Ocean.

Two-and-a-half minutes later, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket detached and flew back to the ground, steering through the rarefied upper atmosphere with aerodynamic grid fins and periodic bursts of rocket thrust, nailing a vertical propulsive landing on a barge — or “drone ship” — loitering in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California.

The recovery attempts were billed as experiments when SpaceX first tried them, but Saturday’s touchdown marked the seventh time one of the 15-story first stage boosters has landed intact. SpaceX intends to refurbish and refly the salvaged rockets, beginning as soon as late February with the launch of a communications craft for SES.

Meanwhile, the mission’s primary purpose was the deployment of 10 new-generation voice and data relay spacecraft for Iridium, a provider of global satellite phone, aircraft and ship tracking, and messaging services.

The second stage’s single Merlin engine shut off around nine minutes after blastoff, and the rocket coasted halfway around the planet, passing over Antarctica before reigniting the engine at around T+plus 52 minutes.

The brief three-second maneuver put the rocket into an on-target orbit, SpaceX said. The mission was aiming for a near-circular 388-mile-high (625-kilometer) perch in polar orbit.

Then came a sequence of 10 critical satellite deployments to release each of the 1,896-pound (860-kilogram) “Iridium Next” spacecraft.

A ground station problem prevented launch control from monitoring the separation maneuvers in real-time, a SpaceX official said, but a few minutes later the rocket flew in range of a tracking site in Svalbard, Norway, transmitting telemetry confirming all 10 satellites were away.

“It’s a clean sweep, 10 for 10,” said John Insprucker, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 product manager. “All the bridge wires show open, and that is a conclusion of the primary mission today, a great one (for the) first stage, second stage, and the customer’s satellites deployed into a good orbit.”

Engineers from Iridium and Thales Alenia Space, the satellites’ prime contractor, verified all 10 relay stations were alive and functioning after their ride to orbit.

That was the moment Iridium chief executive Matt Desch said he would breathe a sigh of relief.

“The real nerves for me is that this is the first time we have deployed our satellites and had them talk to us,” Desch told Spaceflight Now in an interview before the launch. “I know that fear will go down dramatically once we get some satellites in orbit.”

Saturday’s flight was the first of at least seven Falcon 9 flights planned to populate the Iridium fleet with modernized satellites.

The successful launch clears the way for the resumption of SpaceX missions after a rocket exploded on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral on Sept. 1, grounding the Falcon 9 four-and-a-half months.

SpaceX traced the probable cause of the accident to high-pressure helium tanks on the Falcon 9’s upper stage, which are immersed inside super-cold liquid oxygen and wrapped in carbon shell.

Engineers found that voids could form between the aluminum lining of the tanks, which hold cryogenic helium to pressurize the rocket’s propellant system for flight, and the carbon overwrap.

Liquid oxygen trapped in the buckles can ignite, investigators said, and most likely led to the sudden explosion Sept. 1 that destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket and a nearly $200 million satellite during a pre-flight test.

SpaceX said they would alter their countdown procedures on future launches, and no longer conduct such “static fire” tests with satellites on-board.

The launch company is shifting its Florida flights to launch pad 39A, a shuttle-era facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, after the Sept. 1 mishap damaged the Falcon 9’s previous pad.

Construction crews are still finishing modifications to pad 39A for Falcon 9 flights and eventual crewed launches, which are planned in partnership with NASA starting in 2018 to carry astronauts to the International Space Station.

The next Falcon 9 mission could take off as soon as Jan. 26 from pad 39A with the EchoStar 23 communications satellite. SpaceX’s next cargo delivery flight to the space station will follow around Feb. 8.

The 10 “Iridium Next” satellites orbited Saturday were designed by Thales Alenia Space in France, and then assembled and tested in an assembly line fashion in partnership with Orbital ATK in Arizona.

Sixty-six are needed to fully replace Iridium’s current constellation, and Iridium ordered 15 more as spares.

“Leading a worldwide team to manufacture, assemble, test and prepare each satellite for this moment has been incredibly exciting,” said Bertrand Maureau, executive vice president of telecommunications at Thales Alenia Space. “We are very proud to have conducted such a unique program, in terms of scale and complexity as well as to have successfully completed the end-to-end whole constellation on-ground validation. The system is fully tested, and the compatibility of Iridium Next with the Block-1 operating satellites has been perfectly demonstrated.”

“We are proud to be a part of this revolutionary satellite program,” said Frank Culbertson, president of Orbital ATK’s space systems group. “Seeing these first ten satellites launch successfully into space is the result of a unique assembly line process at our satellite manufacturing facility that represents a remarkable achievement. We look forward to seeing the innovative solutions these satellites, which are great examples of leading-edge technology and manufacturability, will enable.”

The upgraded network will offer faster broadband connections, improved functionality and 3G-equivalent cellular phone services for Iridium’s pool of nearly 850,000 subscribers, a client list that includes the U.S. military, oil and gas companies, aviation and maritime operators, and mining and construction contractors.

The upgraded satellites also carry piggyback payloads for Aireon, an affiliate of Iridium, to help air traffic controllers track airplane movements worldwide. Iridium Next satellites slated to fly on later launches will host an antenna to monitor maritime traffic for exactEarth, a Canadian company, and Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Florida.

Iridium and its contractors will spend around three months wringing out the first set of 10 Iridium Next spacecraft ahead of the launch of the next batch in April, according to Desch.

As more new satellites join the Iridium fleet, engineers will maneuver each one from its 388-mile-high drop-off orbit into the operational constellation at an altitude of 485 miles (780 kilometers) alongside the craft it is intended to replace.

“One-by-one, we’ll do this process called a slot swap, where we move the satellite 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the other satellite — right behind it — and then instantaneously swap over the inter-satellite links between the old satellite and its peers and the new satellite and its peers,” Desch said. “Then we will command the old satellite to deboost and deorbit itself.”

Desch said Iridium’s team used the launch delays for extra testing on the satellites, the ground control system and software to ensure the “slot swaps” go as planned. The ground team has also rehearsed the activity in simulations.

“That whole process is going to go one-by-one 66 times over the next 15 months or so,” Desch said. “It’s an incredibly complicated, highly-choreographed, highly-rehearsed and practiced set of maneuvers that is going to keep us incredibly busy.”

Desch said the successful launch Saturday “only starts our efforts, which, frankly, I think is one of the more complicated things going on in the aerospace industry, and (that’s) probably not well-understood. It’s never been done before on a scale like this, where one network is completely replaced in space. We’ve been using the term ‘tech refresh’ … It’s one of the largest tech refreshes in history.”

The Iridium network relies on satellites spread out in six orbital lanes, each home to 11 active spacecraft, to provide uninterrupted global coverage.

The company’s existing satellites were launched from 1997 through 2002 for missions originally scheduled to least eight years. Nevertheless, Desch said most of the satellites have outlived their design lives, and 64 of the 66 relay stations required for worldwide service remain operational.

Two satellites dropped offline last year, reducing Iridium’s service availability to around 98 percent.

“We need reinforcements to replace the network,” Desch said Friday. “We haven’t lost any other satellites, knock on wood, in at least six months or longer now. The current network is holding up fine. I would expect it will still be able to maintain that high performacne for another two or three years, at least, because the satellites are not showing signs of imminent decline.”

The last satellite to fall out of the Iridium network was running low on fuel, and other members of the fleet have succumbed to electronic failures. One satellite was destroyed in a violent in-space collision with a defunct Russian military satellite in 2009 in an incident infamous in space industry circles.

Battery health remains good across the Iridium fleet, Desch said.

“We still haven’t lost any satellites from battery failures,” he said. “But they’re getting old. Twenty years is a long time for a satellite, and maybe they can make it to 22, 23 or 24 years, but that’s really pushing it on the network.”

The first two Iridium Next launches were slated to target the holes in the network, Desch said.

Saturday’s flight was timed — to the second — to launch into Plane 6 of the constellation, where only 10 satellites remain operational.

The Iridium Next program is a $3 billion investment by Iridium. The purchase of 81 satellites represents approximately $2.2 billion of that cost, Desch said, and the company’s launch contract with SpaceX for seven Falcon 9 flights was valued at $492 million when the parties signed it in 2010.

Desch said Iridium will scale back its capital expenditures once the new-generation fleet is up and running.

“That underpins all of this,” Desch said. “It’s not just a technical marvel that we’re doing, but it’s also a financial transformation that we’re not very far away from, finally, but we’ve got to get these satellites up first.”

If you appreciate articles like this one, help us continue and expand our coverage of the space program by becoming a Spaceflight Now Member. </s> SpaceX's Falcon 9 returned to flight, launching successfully from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California today, just four and a half months after a fiery explosion destroyed Facebook's AMOS-6 satellite.

An investigation conducted by SpaceX (with assists from the Air Force, NASA, and the National Transportation Safety Board) concluded that the September 1 explosion was likely caused by a failure of a pressurized second-stage tank.

The company, which is run by billionaire Elon Musk, vowed to change the fueling procedures to prevent the incident from recurring, and the FAA granted a launch license.

The launch today delivered 10 Iridium satellites to low-earth orbit for use in mobile communications.

After separation, the rocket’s first stage landed on the droneship “Just Read the Instructions,” stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

SpaceX nailed a similar droneship landing back in April. Returning the first stage to earth enables the company to reuse the rocket, drastically reducing the cost of launch.

Musk has said his ultimate goal is to start a colony on Mars by reducing the cost of a one-way trip from $10 billion per person to just $200,000. </s> SpaceX says its first launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since a fiery September accident has successfully placed a constellation of satellites in orbit. The two-stage rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, at 9:54 a.m. Saturday to place 10 satellites into orbit for Iridium Communications Inc. SpaceX officials say they took corrective action on all possible causes of the Sept.

Start the conversation, or Read more at CBS 3 Springfield. </s> SpaceX has succeeded in launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, its first launch since a Falcon 9 rocket exploded on a launch pad in pre-flight procedures in September 2016. The launch took place at 9:54 AM PT Saturday, during an instant launch window. It’s a huge victory for SpaceX, which has had to delay its launch schedule since the explosion.

The launch also resulted in a successful recovery of the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage, which marks the seventh time SpaceX has succeed in landing this stage back for potential later re-use. SpaceX’s second-stage also successfully reached low-earth orbit, where it will begin the next stage of the mission, deploying Iridium’s 10 satellites.

This mission is the first in a series for client Iridium, that will see it deploy 70 satellites in a network for voice and data communication. It’s also a green light for SpaceX in terms of the company pursuing its aggressive launch schedule, which is something the private launch provider needs to do in order to continue locking in new contracts and working towards its goal of decreasing the cost of launches even further still.

In 2016, SpaceX completed only 8 of a planned 20 launches, due to the September 1 explosion that halted all new launches for four months. That has not been good for the company’s bottom line, resulting in a year that likely saw it exacerbate a reported $250 million loss in 2015.

SpaceX also had to push back its timelines for test launches of its Dragon crew capsule as a result of the September incident. The original target date for a Dragon test launch with people on board was 2017, but it’s now been pushed back to 2018. The company still hopes to fly a mission without crew on board by the last quarter of this year, however.

Crewed mission capabilities will help SpaceX expand its ability to serve contracts, since it can then serve the ISS for more than just supply runs. It also sets the stage for SpaceX’s future goals of providing missions to Mars, with a target initial date for those aspirations still set for 2024.

SpaceX successfully began deploying the Iridium NEXT satellites as of around 11 AM PT/2 PM ET. The company also reported that it’s not receiving telemetry from the second stage due to an issue with the ground station communications, but will know shortly if the remaining satellites deployed as intended.
SpaceX returns to flight by placing 10 Iridium NEXT satellites in orbit and successfully recovering the first stage of its Falcon 9 launcher on a droneship.