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Falcon 9 rolling out on 15 January 2015.

Falcon 9 Flight 21 (also known as Jason 3) is a Falcon 9 space launch currently scheduled to occur no earlier than 17 January 2016 from SpaceX' leased California launch facility at Vandenberg AFB.[1][2][3] It will carry to orbit the Jason-3 Earth-observation satellite for NOAA/NASA/CNES.

The launch will be only the second SpaceX launch following the catastrophic failure of a Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle's second stage on Falcon 9 Flight 19 in June 2015, which resulted in the total loss of the mission on that launch. It will also be the final launch of a Block 2 Falcon 9—the Falcon 9 v1.1—although some parts of the rocket body have been reworked following conclusion of the failure investigation.[4]

Launch schedule history

The Jason-3 mission appeared on the SpaceX manifest as early as July 2013, with a no earlier than launch year of 2015.[5]

A 7-second static fire test of the rocket was completed on 11 January 2016.[6] The test was successful, and the Launch Readiness Review was successfully completed with all parties on 15 January 2015.

Payload

Main article: Jason-3

The payload on Flight 21 is an Earth observation satellite named Jason-3, a follow-on to the Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM) (Jason-2). The initial OSTM satellite, Jason-1, was launched in 2001.

Jason-3 is the result of a four-agency international partnership consisting of NOAA, NASA, the French Space Agency CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales), and EUMETSAT (the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites). Thales Alenia Space built the spacecraft.

Jason-3 will mass 525 kilograms (1,157 lb) at launch.[7]

Post-mission landing test

Main article: SpaceX reusable launch system development program

Following paperwork filed with US regulatory authorities in 2015,[8] SpaceX confirmed in January that they will attempt a vertical landing controlled-descent flight test of the first stage on the west coast floating landing platform.[9]

In the event, the controlled-descent was successful, and the rocket reached the drone ship at its location roughly 200 miles out in the Pacific Ocean, but the rocket landed hard, a landing leg broke, and the stage recovery attempt was not successful.

This follows the successful eighth test, and first successful landing and booster recovery, on the previous launch in December 2015.[10][11] The controlled-descent through the atmosphere and landing attempt for each booster is an arrangement that is not used on other orbital launch vehicles.[12]

Approximately 9 minutes into the flight, the live video feed from the autonomous drone ship "Just Read the Instructions" went down due to the ship losing its lock on the uplink satellite. Elon Musk later reported that the first stage did successfully soft-land on the ship, but a lockout on one of the landing legs failed to latch and it fell over.[13][14][15]

See also

References

  1. ^ Bergin, Chris (7 September 2015). "SpaceX conducts additional Falcon 9 improvements ahead of busy schedule". NASASpaceflight.com. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
  2. ^ "CRS-7 Investigation Update". SpaceX. 20 July 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015. Our investigation is ongoing until we exonerate all other aspects of the vehicle, but at this time, we expect to return to flight this fall and fly all the customers we intended to fly in 2015 by end of year.
  3. ^ "Jason-3 satellite". National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service. NOAA. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  4. ^ [1], NASASpaceFlight.com, 8 January 2016, accessed 9 January 2016.
  5. ^ "Launch Manifest - SpaceX". SpaceX. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
  6. ^ Falcon 9 Static Fire Complete for Jason-3, NASA, 11 January 2016, accessed 12 January 2016.
  7. ^ "Science AMA Series: We're NOAA and NASA scientists on the Jason-3 satellite mission set to launch January 17, used to observe global sea surface height, AMA! work=Reddit AMA, Reddit Journal of Science". 5 January 2016. doi:10.15200/winn.145199.97405. Retrieved 9 January 2016. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Missing pipe in: |title= (help)
  8. ^ FAA regulatory application for early 2016 landing
  9. ^ SpaceX Plans Drone Ship Rocket Landing for Jan. 17 Launch, NBC News, 7 January 2016, accessed 8 January 2016.
  10. ^ "SpaceX ORBCOMM-2 Mission" (PDF). press kit. SpaceX. 21 December 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2015. This mission also marks SpaceX's return-to-flight as well as its first attempt to land a first stage on land. The landing of the first stage is a secondary test objective.
  11. ^ Gebhardt, Chris (31 December 2015). "Year In Review, Part 4: SpaceX and Orbital ATK recover and succeed in 2015". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
  12. ^ "SpaceX wants to land next booster at Cape Canaveral". Florida Today. 1 December 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  13. ^ Jason-3 Hosted Webcast. SpaceX. 17 January 2016. Event occurs at 1:06:30 (25:20 after lift-off). Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  14. ^ tweet from SpaceX official twitter account after announcement on livestream
  15. ^ https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/688816554306191360
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