NASA no longer has a monopoly on US geosynchronous orbit launches
![spacex-falcon-9-rocket-launches-ses-8[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/spacex-falcon-9-rocket-launches-ses-81.jpg?quality=83)
The private spaceflight company SpaceX launched a critical commercial satellite mission from Florida Tuesday after two delays due to technical glitches.
An upgraded SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the huge SES-8 communications satellite into orbit from a pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:41 p.m. EST (2241 GMT). The mission marks SpaceX’s first Florida launch of its upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, its first major communications satellite launch and its first flight to a high geostationary transfer orbit needed for commercial satellites.
Tuesday’s launch was SpaceX’s third attempt to launch the SES-8 spacecraft for satellite communications provider SES World Skies. SpaceX aborted the two earlier launch attempts last week, first on Nov. 25 and again on Nov. 28, due to technical glitches. [Mission Photos: SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launching Landmark Satellite Flight]
Sending the 6,918-lb. SES-8 satellite into its intended orbit, which ranges from 183 miles above Earth at its nearest point and 49,709 miles at its highest point, marks the company’s entry into the commercial satellite market. The SES-8 satellite is a hybrid Ku-and Ka-band spacecraft built to provide high-definition telecommunications services to customers across the South Asia and Pacific region.
“The entry of SpaceX into the commercial market is a game-changer,” SES chief technology officer Martin Halliwell told reporters in Nov. 24 teleconference before SpaceX’s first launch attempt. “It’s going to really shake the industry to its roots.”
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[snip – sorry, I’m not going to allow you to take over another thread with your “electric Universe” rants – you are on permanent moderation now, try not to earn a ban – Anthony]
My wife and I watched this launch from our boat at its dock at the Harbortown Marina on the Canaveral Barge Canal (about 5 miles south of the launch site). Terrific sight…..rumbling sound effects, cloudless sky allowing us to see each jettisoned stage, and to watch the rocket — traveling almost directly away from us to the East — power away until they cut the jets and then disappear as it dropped into Earth’s shadow.
The con trail bright white and bright pink with the low angle Sun.
Absolutely the best launch I’ve witnessed.
sorry, I’m not going to allow you to take over another thread with your “electric Universe” rants – you are on permanent moderation now, try not to earn a ban – Anthony
Your too late Ant, after this I’m perma banned WUWT from receiving meemoe comments.
:p
Since you’ve now moved up to censoring NASA the APS and Physic Review Letters when they report hard evidence which falsify your religion about electricity only being a consequence of magnetic fields in space, you have cut yourself free of mainstream science and are now in the loony bin along with BigFoot and UFOs.
I’m off to more open minded forums, science is in a new golden age of electricity and I want to talk about it. I suggest any other EU members left here move on too.
Oh, and btw you’ve been so starstruck u won’t have wondered why a supposed top brass solar analyst has chosen to bless WUWT and solarham.com forums 24/7. It’s because most of the solar science community can’t stand him and now he’s retired they are rid of him. The old man washed up here looking for a new crowd with weak enough understanding of space science to swallow his stubborn obsession with old, obsolete ideas.
You’re a perfect match, so best of luck together.
Don’t worry if the mods snip this I’ll pm you
byebye
meems
P.S. Oh and thanks for some funny stuff on the CAGW religion over the years, you were good. Stick to what your good at I suppose.
Don’t forget about Orbital Sciences Corp. They have a 30+ year history of successful launches to orbit and beyond.
Dan Kurt
“The entry of SpaceX into the commercial market is a game-changer,” SES chief technology officer Martin Halliwell told reporters in Nov. 24 teleconference before SpaceX’s first launch attempt. “It’s going to really shake the industry to its roots.”
Kinda sounds like a short story i read before:
“The Man Who Sold The Moon” by R.Heinlein
This could be the beginning of a ‘modern’ version.
Thanks for the interesting articles and comments.
re: meemoe_uk says December 4, 2013 at 12:46 pm et al ..
Been wondering if this bloke could wire up a flashlight bulb and two batteries and get them to work, let alone propound on ‘galactic-scale’ theories …
PS. MULTIPLE TIMES in MULTIPLE PLACES it’s “you’re” (a contraction for “you are”) not ‘your’ (meaning something or some trait a person posses); I normally skip posts with those errors, thinking the poster is just over 10 (yrs old, that is) …
.
How I wish you were kidding. Unfortunately, given historical precedent, that may be all too accurate.
Evolutionary products can be a game changer just as much as revolutionary ones; they just take longer. Looking at the first automobiles most people would not have called them a “game changer” either. This is just a first step by SpaceX to make space travel more practical and affordable. Give them time – their incremental approach might just yield revolutionary results.
NASA no longer has a monopoly on US geosynchronous orbit launches
Anthony, this statement is completely incorrect. There is a global stable of launch vehicles, with the lead in the business currently being the Ariane V from Europe. Then there is the Proton, the Soyuz, both from Russia. The U.S. lags far behind in the commercial space business for GEO launches due to the high prices of the ULA Atlas V and the Delta IV. Japan has the H-IIA vehicle for its GEO launches.
The game change is that the U.S. is competitive again in the GEO Comsat launch business, with prices below that of Europe and Japan while being at least equivalent to the Russians.
This is a good thing.
REPLY: Note the key identifier “US geosynchronous orbit launches”. US based launches. – Anthony
…Note the key identifier “US geosynchronous orbit launches”. US based launches. – Anthony….
Anthony, hate to be a stickler, but NASA has not had a monopoly on U.S. GEO launches since the demise of the Space Shuttle Challenger in January of 1986.
I’m hoping for a Polywell Fusion Engine. Earth to Mars in two weeks. Interestingly enough there was a LOT of technical information coming out of the Polywell project for several years. And then the US Navy closed it off. That can mean one of several things. It doesn’t work. Or it does work and the Navy plans to build a power device (as opposed to an experimental reactor) to power one of its latest all electric aircraft carriers.
There is enough open source information available so duplication would only take 5 years or less. Tooling up for a rocket engine about 5 years more.
Skylon now has the endorsement of the UK Government in the shape of £60 millions, and some £350 millions from Private interests for building a full working engine within 3 years ; to be followed by a “boilerplate” flying test bed soon afterwards.
Present development costs are estimated at £10 billions – even if doubled , this would cost less than one quarter of the large white elephant called HS2.
ESA has only one option- to back it to the hilt without delay or expensive bureaucracy.
Failing this, the UK can and should go it alone. Possibly UKIP, if any of its members are literate , could sense an opportunity here