Fall 2017 - a busy and exciting time for SpaceX

Sprinkled into the SpaceX launch manifest for this fall, and the first quarter of 2018, are two big milestones: the Falcon Heavy and Crew Dragon demos.

Also this month, SpaceX will once again have two back to back missing with the
SES 11/EchoStar 105 mission launching from Kennedy Space Center on the 7th, and the Iridium Next 21-30 mission launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the 9th.

Falcon 9 -SES 11/EchoStar 105
October 7, 2017 at 6:53 PM. EDT (2 hour window)
LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Falcon 9 - Iridium Next 21-30
October 9th, 2017 at 8:37 AM EDT (5:37 AM PDT)
SLC-4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

SpaceX has 58 missions listed on its launch manifest. Of these 58, the following - which include 3 Falcon Heavy flights and the Crew Dragon Demo - have been announced:
Falcon 9 - Koreasat 5A
October 30, 2017 at 3:34 PM. EDT (window extends to 5:58 PM)
Cape Canaveral, Florida

Falcon 9 - Hispasat 30W-6
4th Quarter 2017
Cape Canaveral, Florida

Falcon Heavy Demo Flight
November 2017
LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Falcon 9 - Iridium Next 31-40
Late November 2017
SLC-4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

Falcon 9 - SpaceX CRS 13
November 28 (launch time TBD)
Cape Canaveral, Florida

Falcon 9 - Bangabandhu 1
December 2017
Cape Canaveral, Florida

Falcon 9 - SES 16/GovSat 1
Late December 2017
Cape Canaveral, Florida

Falcon 9 - Iridium Next 41-50
January 2018
SLC-4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

Falcon 9 - SpaceX CRS 14
February 9 (launch time TBD)
Cape Canaveral, Florida

Falcon Heavy - Arabsat 6A
Early 2018
LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Falcon 9 - TESS
Sometime after March 20, 2018
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

Falcon 9 - Crew Dragon Demo 1
April, 2018
LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Falcon Heavy - STP-2
Sometime after April 30, 2018
LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

SpaceX has a very busy launch schedule - 8 possible launches before year end

SpaceX appears fully recovered from it's single mission failure last year. They have managed several landings - first at it's new landing site at Cape Canaveral and then at sea - a much more difficult task, but an important one as not all missions are able to send the rocket all the way back to the cape. Landing the Falcon 9 rocket has always been a secondary mission objective - but a very important one in support of SpaceX's reusable rocket goal.

Rocket reusability is not only important for its cost savings, but also for the ability to shorting the time between launches. Even now the company is turning out missions faster than has ever been done before. And with the current schedule it will be launching multiple rockets in a single month. Here is the current launch schedule (with a lot of the exact launch dates still TBD):

Sept. 3	Amos 6
Sept. 19	Iridium Next 1-10
October	SES 10
October	EchoStar 23
October	Fermosat 5 and Sherpa
November	SES 11 (EchoStar 105)
November	Falcon Heavy Demo Flight
Nov. 11	CRS 10 (SPX 10)

Even with the their track record of quick turn arounds, this schedule would not be possible if all of the launches were from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral. But with some flights out of Vandenberg AFB, and Falcon Heavy launching from the reconfigured SLC-39A at Kennedy Space Center, it could just happen.

Speaking of Falcon Heavy, with several rockets having been successfully landed now, it is what I'm looking forward to next (and I'm sure I'm not alone). Falcon Heavy has been anticipated for some time now. And had the big rocket just made a successful flight and ended up as the foundation of a new reef in the Atlantic, I would have been thrilled. But with the current landing success rate - and the presence of the landing complex - the possibility of the three Falcon 9 rockets separating and each landing itself autonomously is a real possibility. Would that be a sight to see!

Then what? We still have the manned Dragon 2 as well as the new Raptor engine (with greater power and re-useablity) to look forward to. And with these the company truly will be on course toward its big, red goal.

Falcon Heavy

SpaceX Jason-3 Mission is set to launch from Vandenberg AFB at 1:42pm EST (10:42am local time)

The Jason-3 Mission launch is targeted for a 10:42am PT launch from Space Launch Complex 4E at the Vandenberg AFB in California. This mission will use the last of the "pre-upgrade" SpaceX Falcon 9.1 rockets.

The mission is to deliver the Jason-3 satellite to LEO. Jason-3 is a combined effort of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration ), CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales - the French space agency), and EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites).

The usual secondary objective pf landing the Falcon 9 first stage will be attempted, with the target being the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions”. Following SpaceX's first successful landing last month at their new, solid-ground landing site, the chances for success seem high. However, the challenge of landing on a floating platform, coupled with the fact that last month's mission used an upgraded version of the Falcon 9, means that the likelihood of success is lower than it will be for upcoming missions.

SpaceX mission to launch the NOAA Jason-3 satellite scheduled to launch January 17th from Vandenberg

SpaceX has scheduled the NOAA Jason-3 satellite launch for January 17th at 10:42:18 a.m. PST from   SLC-4E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.  Initially scheduled for March 31, 2015 the mission also missed a tentative launch date of July 22nd, and NOAA had then hoped it would make it into space on August 8.  Failure of the CRS-7 rocket scrubbed that target date, as well as a December fall back date.

The Jason-3 satellite will help NOAA monitor ocean levels, and provide data to help with hurricane intensity forecasting, surface wave forecasting for offshore operators, forecasting tides and currents for commercial shipping and ship routing, coastal forecasting for response to environmental problems like oil spills and harmful algal blooms, coastal modeling crucial for marine mammal and coral reef research, and El Niño and La Niña forecasting.

This will be the last Falcon 9.1 configuration flight, with all future missions (as well as the ORBCOMM OG2 mission this scheduled for this Sunday) using the upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, which  seems to only be called the "full thrust" Falcon 9 for now.   I would imagine a new designation, 9.2 or 9.1a or something completely different, will be announced in the near future.  

SpaceX "coming attractions" - what's next? [Updated]

The next mission kicks off in just 10 days, followed by a packed launch manifest for the remainder of the year and beyond.  Here is the schedule as it stands now.

April 27th [Updated]

TürkmenÄlem, the first telecommunications satellite for Turkmenistan

May TBD

Dragon V2 (manned spacecraft) pad abort test - while not actually a "flight" is worth noting (NASA)

June TBD

Second launch of Orbcomm satellites to complete the OG2 constellation

June 19

ISS resupply mission CRS-7 (NASA)

July TBD

SES-9 geo-transfer orbit (GTO) mission, with the SES-9 spacecraft joining the previously launched SES-8 in geosynchronous orbit

July 22

Jason 3 Earth observation satellite for monitoring and measuring the world’s oceans (NOAA)

Sept 2

ISS resupply mission CRS-8, Bigelow Aerospace's Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) - an expandable (as in inflatable) compartment (NASA)

Sept TBD

The second dual-GTO mission for the Eutelsat 117W B and ABS-2A satellites

Dec 9

ISS resupply mission CRS-9 (NASA)

Mar TBD (2016)

Falcon Heavy Test Flight!

TBD

AMOS-6 satellite
JCSat 14 satellite
SAOCOM 1A and 1B Earth observation satellites (separate launches).

SpaceX launches new rocket from a new launch facility

SpaceX successfully launched its new 1.1 version of the Falcon 9 rocket yesterday under a beautiful blue California sky.

The 1.1 version of the rocket is longer (for more fuel) and features the new, more powerful, Merlin 1D engines.  It also flew with a larger cargo faring that provides both more protection and more cargo volume.  There are other minor differences in the 1.1 version as well, such as updated flight avionics, and the rearrangement of the booster's engines in a circular arrangement as opposed to the 3x3 grid of the previous rocket.

This is also the first launch from the new Vandenberg Air Force Base launch site.  This is the site that should soon see the first test of the Falcon Heavy rocket.  While I haven't heard much about the Falcon Heavy lately - its still on the launch manifest for 2014.  Additionally, the Vandenberg site provided the chance to try a controlled decent of the booster - an important capability that the Grasshopper project is working towards.  The first part of the controlled decent went well, but the second burn put the booster into a spin, so controlled decent didn't happen - but it really wasn't expected to.  Since this launch provided an opportunity give it a try, an attempt couldn't be passed up, and I'm sure it yielded valuable data.  The next two launches will not afford another attempt as they will require all of the rocket's available fuel to get its payloads into geosynchronous orbit.  So, although SpaceX is still firmly committed to booster reusability, full flight testing will have to wait a while.

And those next launches will be another first for SpaceX, as all of its launches to date have been to LEO (low earth orbit).  In case you aren't intimately familiar with the different Earth orbits, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is generally between 160 kilometers (99 mi) and 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles).  Geosynchronous orbit however is approximately 35,786 km (22,236 mi) -  nearly 20 times higher!

Additionally, after deploying the payload, an attempt to reignite the second stage Merlin 1D in order to demonstrate its ability to restart in space, was unsuccessful.  During the restart the engine detected a problem and aborted the burn.

But the primary missions of demonstrating the Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket, and of placing its six payloads into stable orbit were complete successes.  The primary payload was the Cascade Smallsat and Ionospheric Polar Explorer (CASSIOPE) satellite.  The secondary payloads included the Polar Orbiting Passive Atmospheric Calibration Spheres (POPACS) CubeSat, the Drag & Atmospheric Neutral Density Explorer (DANDE) spherical spacecraft, and the CUSat technology demonstrator satellite.

Read more about these payloads, and all of the mission's details in the press kit, and be sure to check out these hi-res photos and videos.

Important Upcoming SpaceX Launch

The upcoming commercial SpaceX launch of the MDA/Canadian Space Agency Cassiope satellite is important for several reasons:

1. It will be the first launch from the new SpaceX launch site at Vandenburg Air Force Base, clearing the way for the Falcon Heavy launch from that site late 2013 or early 2014
2. It will be the first flight of the Falcon 9 version 1.1, which uses the new Merlin 1D engines, has longer fuel tanks, and a longer payload fairing
3. Unlike the recent (and successful)  NASA CRS flights, this launch will support moving SpaceX's commercial flight manifest forward, building confidence in its ability to deliver on its aggressive manifest schedule 

Of course, SpaceX continues to juggle a lot of initiatives: Falcon Heavy, Grasshopper, Human Rated Dragon, and so forth.  I certainly hope all goes well, and their momentum accelerates - as I'm sure Elon Musk does, as he contemplates a public stock offering.