SES-8
SES-8 is a geostationary Communications satellite operated by SES S.A. SES-8 was successfully launched on SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 on 3 December 2013, 22:41:00 UTC. It was the first flight of any SpaceX launch vehicle to a supersynchronous transfer orbit, an orbit with a somewhat larger apogee than the more usual geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) typically utilised for communication satellites. Satellite description. The SES-8 satellite is built on the STAR-2.4 satellite bus by Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC). It is the sixth satellite of that model to be built for SES. The communications satellite is initially co-located at 95 ° East with NSS-6 in order to provide communications bandwidth growth capacity in the Asia-Pacific region, specifically aimed at high-growth markets in South Asia and Indo-China, "as well as provide expansion capacity for satellite television (direct-to-home - DTH), Very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) and government applications". Launch vehicle. The launch of "SES-8" was the seventh launch of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, and the second launch of the Falcon 9 v1.1. SES paid a discounted price — "well under US$60 million" — for the launch since it was the inaugural geostationary launch on the Falcon 9. When  originally contracted, in 2011 the putative launch date was early 2013. The launch was the second launch of the Falcon 9 v1.1 version of the rocket, a longer rocket with 60% more thrust than the Falcon 9 v1.0 vehicle, and the first launch of the larger v1.1 rocket using the rebuilt erector structure at SpaceX' Cape Canaveral SLC-40. As a result, a number of systems on the launch vehicle was flown for only the second time, while several parts of the ground infrastructure at Cape Canaveral were used in a launch for the first time. These include: In order to  maximize the propellant available for the launch of SES-8 into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), SpaceX did not attempt a controlled descent test of the first-stage booster as they did on the previous Falcon 9 v1.1 flight in September 2013. Second-stage reignition. In the previous launch of the Falcon 9 v1.1 — the first launch of the much larger version of the rocket with new Merlin 1D engines — on 29 September 2013, SpaceX was unsuccessful in reigniting the second stage Merlin 1D vacuum engine once the rocket had deployed its primary payload (CASSIOPE) and all of its nanosat secondary payloads . The restart failure was determined to be frozen igniter fluid lines in the second-stage Merlin 1D engine. A minor redesign was done to address the problem by adding additional insulation to the lines. A second burn of the upper stage was required, and was completed successfully, during the SES-8 mission in order to place the SES-8 telecommunications satellite into the highly elliptical supersynchronous orbit for satellite operator SES to effect a plane change and orbit circularisation. The Falcon 9 upper stage used to launch SES-8 was in a decaying elliptical low Earth orbit which, by September 2014, had decayed  and re-entered the atmosphere of Earth. Prelaunch. Both stages of the Falcon 9 arrived at Cape Canaveral for processing before 2 October 2013, after both had trouble-free test firings at the SpaceX Rocket Development and Test Facility at McGregor, Texas. A launch attempt on 25 November 2013, with a planned liftoff at 22:37:00 UTC was scrubbed following a reported off-nominal condition in the liquid oxygen tank and supply lines of the first-stage booster that could not be resolved within the approximately one-hour launch window. A launch date of 28 November 2013 was announced, three days  later, being the next opportunity for the launch site on Earth to be in alignment to achieve the target orbit.