Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: SpaceX postpones rocket launch from KSC

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: August 27, 2014 8:59:31 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: SpaceX postpones rocket launch from KSC

SpaceX postpones rocket launch at Cape
By Steven Ford, Orlando Sentinel
12:08 a.m. EDT, August 27, 2014
If you looked eastward for the planned launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket early this morning, you probably were disappointed.
The private space transport company delayed the planned 12:50 a.m. launch of a commercial satellite for AsiaSat from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch facilities.
After a test flight involving another SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket failed dramatically last week in Texas, the company pushed back the current launch at the Cape by a day. In the Texas test failure last Friday, a booster automatically self-detonated after a problem was detected while the rocket was in flight.
At the time, SpaceX noted that the three-engine rocket in Texas was a different version of the two-stage Falcon 9 on the pad here in Florida, and that the problem with the errant rocket probably was not something that would be experienced by the Falcon 9 used for the current mission.
But late Tuesday night, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the failure last week pointed to a need for more quality-control testing with SpaceX's overall launch capabilities.
"SpaceX has decided to postpone tomorrow's flight of AsiaSat 6," Musk stated in an email to news media. "We are not aware of any issue with Falcon 9, nor the interfaces with the spacecraft, but have decided to review all potential failure modes and contingencies again. We expect to complete this process in one to two weeks.
"The natural question is whether this is related to the test vehicle malfunction at our development facility in Texas last week," he said.
There was no immediate word on when the current satellite mission would be reinstated.
This morning's launch was to be the second launch for AsiaSat by SpaceX after it put an AsiaSat 8 mission in orbit earlier this month. That satellite and the one on the pad now are being used by Hong Kong-based AsiaSat Telecommunications Co. Ltd. for its broadcasting and broadband efforts in the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere.
The Falcon 9 rocket has been used successfully nine times.
sford@tribune.com
Copyright © 2014, Orlando Sentinel

SpaceX delays AsiaSat 6 launch for additional troubleshooting
08/26/2014 11:25 PM
By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the AsiaSat 6 communications satellite is on hold pending additional work to make sure the booster is not susceptible to even extremely unlikely malfunctions in the wake of a failure that destroyed an experimental rocket last Friday at the company's McGregor, Texas, facility, company officials said Tuesday.

The failure involved a modified Falcon 9 first stage powered by 3 Merlin 1D engines and equipped with landing legs, a vehicle used to test techniques for recovering and reusing spent rocket stages.
Launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the AsiaSat 6 communications satellite is on hold pending additional analysis of unlikely failure scenarios after an experimental test rocket was destroyed last week. The rocket shown here carried a sister satellite into orbit earlier this month. (Credit: SpaceX)

Operational versions of the Falcon 9 rocket utilize the same engine -- nine in the first stage and one in the second -- and while company engineers believe an operational Falcon 9 would be immune to the problem that destroyed the test rocket, they want to make sure some other, more subtle issue, had not escaped detection.

"We are not aware of any issue with Falcon 9, nor the interfaces with the (AsiaSat 6 satellite payload), but have decided to review all potential failure modes and contingencies again," Elon Musk, SpaceX founder and chief designer, said in a statement late Tuesday. "We expect to complete this process in one to two weeks.

"The natural question is whether this is related to the test vehicle malfunction at our development facility in Texas last week. After a thorough review, we are confident that there is no direct link. Had the same blocked sensor port problem occurred with an operational Falcon 9, it would have been outvoted by several other sensors. That voting system was not present on the test vehicle."

But Musk said company engineers wanted to "triple-check" whether "even highly improbable" scenarios would be safely dealt with by the rocket's fault detection system and flight control software.

"This has already been reviewed by SpaceX and multiple outside agencies, so the most likely outcome is no change," Musk said.

If any modifications are required, he added, the company will provide an update.

The AsiaSat 6 flight originally was planned for early Tuesday, but the flight was delayed 24 hours, to Wednesday at 1:50 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), to give engineers time to evaluate the test launch mishap. Tuesday afternoon, company officials confirmed a more lengthy delay, this time with no estimate of when a launch attempt might be made.

The AsiaSat 6 launch is the second in a row for SpaceX and the Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. following the successful Aug. 5 launch of the AsiaSat 8 relay station. SpaceX hopes to continue its rapid pace with launch of a space station resupply mission, the company's fourth under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA, Sept. 19.

But that flight would come just six days before the higher-priority launch of a Russian Soyuz ferry craft carrying three fresh crew members bound for the lab complex. If the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship is not off the ground by Sept. 21, the flight likely will slip to the other side of the Soyuz launching, delaying arrival of critical spacesuit batteries and other gear.

As of this writing, the resupply flight remains targeted for launch Sept. 19, but those plans could change depending on when the AsiaSat 6 flight gets off the ground.

© 2014 William Harwood/CBS News

SpaceX delays launch after test rocket explosion
By Irene Koltz

CAPE CANAVERAL Fla (Reuters) - Space Exploration Technologies will delay the launch of its next Falcon 9 rocket by up to two weeks following Friday's explosion of a related prototype vehicle during a flight test, officials said on Tuesday.
The privately owned company, also known as SpaceX, had planned to launch a communications satellite owned by Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Ltd early Tuesday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
On Sunday, SpaceX announced it would delay the launch of the AsiaSat 6 spacecraft for one day to review data collected during the botched test flight of a Falcon rocket demonstration vehicle that on Friday.
The Falcon 9 Reusable development vehicle, known as Falcon 9R, was outfitted with three engines and a prototype landing system the company had been developing to fly its rockets back to the launch site for refurbishment and reuse.
The Falcon 9R exploded about 17 seconds after liftoff from SpaceX's McGregor, Texas, rocket development and testing facility, video posted on YouTube by spectators showed.
After an initial review, SpaceX cleared its nine-engine operational Falcon rocket for the AsiaSat mission, but the firm owned and operated by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk apparently had second thoughts.
The launch had been slated for 12:50 a.m. EDT/0450 GMT on Wednesday.
"We are not aware of any issue with Falcon 9, nor the interfaces with the spacecraft, but have decided to review all potential failure modes and contingencies again. We expect to complete this process in one to two weeks," the company said in a statement released late Tuesday.
SpaceX has flown its Falcon 9 rocket 11 times, most recently on Aug. 5 to deliver the first of two AsiaSat communication satellites into orbit.
In addition to flying commercial missions, SpaceX Falcon rockets launch Dragon cargo ships to the International Space Station for NASA. The company's next cargo run had been targeted for Sept. 19. There was no immediate word about whether the delay to the AsiaSat launch would postpone NASA's mission as well.
(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Copyright © 2014 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

SpaceX Delays Commercial Satellite Launch Over Reusable Rocket Mishap
By Mike Wall, Senior Writer | August 27, 2014 07:00am ET

The AsiaSat 6 satellite is encapsulated ahead of its launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Credit: AsiaSat View full size image
SpaceX called off the planned early-morning liftoff of a commercial telecommunications satellite Wednesday (Aug. 27) to perform a thorough check of its launch systems in the wake of a test-flight mishap last week involving a prototype rocket.
The private spaceflight company had intended to launch the AsiaSat 6 satellite to orbit atop its Falcon 9 rocket at 12:50 a.m. EDT (0450 GMT) Wednesday from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. But the company called off the attempt Tuesday afternoon (Aug. 26).
"We are not aware of any issue with Falcon 9, nor the interfaces with the spacecraft, but have decided to review all potential failure modes and contingencies again," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said in a statement. "We expect to complete this process in one to two weeks." [SpaceX Destroys Reusable Rocket in Test (Video)]
The scrub comes just four days after SpaceX's prototype rocket self-destructed shortly after launching from the company's test site in McGregor, Texas. But the Friday (Aug. 22) mishap Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) likely has little bearing on the performance of an operational Falcon 9 rocket, Musk said.
"Had the same blocked sensor port problem occurred with an operational Falcon 9, it would have been outvoted by several other sensors. That voting system was not present on the test vehicle," Musk said in the statement.
"What we do want to triple-check is whether even highly improbable corner case scenarios have the optimal fault detection and recovery logic," he added. "This has already been reviewed by SpaceX and multiple outside agencies, so the most likely outcome is no change. If any changes are made, we will provide as much detail as is allowed under U.S. law."
Friday's anomaly had initially caused SpaceX to push the AsiaSat 6 launch back by 24 hours, from early Tuesday to early Wednesday.
AsiaSat 6 is designed to distribute video and broadband service to customers throughout the Asia-Pacific region. It will be operated by Hong Kong-based firm Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat).
SpaceX launched the AsiaSat 8 satellite earlier this month. Both spacecraft were built for AsiaSat by California-based firm Space Systems/Loral.
Developing reusable rockets is a priority for SpaceX. Musk has said that a fully and rapidly reusable launch system could cut the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100, opening up the heavens to exploration.
So SpaceX has conducted numerous test flights of reusable rocket prototypes lately, including the F9R and Grasshopper vehicles. The company has also successfully brought the first stage of a Falcon 9 back to Earth for a soft ocean splashdown during satellite launches twice this year.

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