Preparations for the next flight the rocket company SpaceX Falcon 9. Start with the American-European satellite for observing the oceans and seas as early as next Sunday. Falcon 9 is expected to be in orbit unmanned transport for the crew of the International Space Station. The success of this mission marks a new stage in the conquest of space.
In the normal course of preparation company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to start Falcon 9 rocket test firing was conducted preceded by a refueling fuel engines and cooling the entire ground infrastructure. The next start will take place from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The test firing of the nine Merlin 1D engines on the first stage was carried out on Wednesday, hours 2:35 Polish time. The motors were fired for seven seconds, during which the collected valuable data about the job performance of all systems of the rocket. Information will be carefully analyzed in the next hours to detect any irregularities.
The cargo mission – to conduct research satellite called Jason oceanographic 3 – is already locked in aerodynamic cover and waiting for the integration of the second stage of the rocket. The satellite with a mass of 510 kg will be launched into orbit with an altitude of about 1355 km. Originally starting with the shipment had come in August last year, but disaster Falcon 9 pushed the start of this mission for 2016.
This will be the last Falcon 9 rocket launch configuration v1.1, which is replaced by the able to lift about 30 percent. more mass into orbit. The first start of the flagship rocket company SpaceX (v1.2 configuration) took place in December last year, when the low Earth orbit successfully brought out 11 small satellites in the constellation Orbcomm.
During the next starting again will attempt to recover first member of the Falcon 9 rocket after the planned work. Recall that last month went to this art for the first time leased by SpaceX landing pad at Cape Canaveral. This time, however, attempted landing will be taken again at a special sea platform.
Two previous attempts to land the first degree on offshore platform in the Atlantic resulted in the loss of control and destruction of missiles, so this time you can expect big emotions. SpaceX plans to grinding this technique due to the fact that in the future the first stages of rockets ranging heavier loads (or just loads of having to hit the higher orbit) due to lower fuel resources will have to land in faster access areas.
SpaceX organized a second offshore platform called Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship, which will of course be expected on the first stage rocket Falcon 300 kilometers south of Vandenberg, on the Pacific Ocean.
Draft satellite Jason 3 is implemented jointly by American meteorological agency NOAA, Eumetsat and the European Agency for the French space agency CNES. The satellite will replace the unit of Jason 2, which went into space in June 2008. Start time is scheduled for 19:42 Polish time next Sunday (17.01). The launch window will be 30 seconds.
Jason 3 has radar to measure changes in the height of water bodies, which will support the development of tropical storms prediction and research of scientists studying climate change have. The cost of the mission is $ 365 million, and was borne jointly by all the above mentioned entities and the European Commission.
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