SpaceX Falcon 9 - AsiaSat 6

  SpaceX Falcon 9 V1.1 - AsiaSat 6 - Launching September 7, 2014

Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of the launch of AsiaSat 6

Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 V1.1 - AsiaSat 6

Written: February 3, 2021

Lift Off Time	September 7, 2014 - 05:00:00 UTC - 01:00:00 EDT
Mission Name	AsiaSat 6
Launch Provider	SpaceX
Customer	Thaicom AsiaSat
Rocket	Falcon 9 V1.1 serial number B1011
Launch Location	Space Launch Complex 40 - SLC-40 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Payload	LS-1300LL shared Communication Satellite
Payload mass	4 428 kg ~ 9 762 pounds
Where did the satellite go?	Geostationary Transfer Orbit with an initial orbit of 154 km x 35 752 km x 25.39°
Will they be attempting to recover the first stage?	No. One way ticket flying “bareback” with no grid fins or landing legs + hydraulic tanks, pumps...
Where will the first stage land?	In the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida
Will they be attempting to recover the fairings?	No - Not expected to survive reentry or water impact
Are these fairings new?	Yes - Two Type 1 boat hull sized fairings - 34 x 17 feet with 10 evenly spaced ventilation ports in a circle
This will be the:	– 12th flight of all Falcon 9 rockets – 7th flight of Falcon 9 V1.1 rocket – 11th SpaceX launch from SLC-40 – 12th crash landing. Soft, hard, deliberate, ups... – 5th mission for SpaceX in 2014
Where to watch Where to read more	SpaceX link Want to know or learn more link visit Tim Dodd

Launch debriefing (This is what happend)

T-00:17:51 T-00:15:11 Host: T-00:08:05 T 00:00:00 T+00:01:26 T+00:02:56 T+00:03:08 T+00:03:58 - - - T+00:08:45 - T+00:26:00 - T+00:32:00

Infomercial about AsiaSat 6 - Thaicom 7 SpaceX live feed at 02:39 Voice of John Insprucker live from Hawthorne HQ Several Lightning seen in the distance at 9:45 Liftoff at 17:52 - Clocks and timers out of sync MaxQ at 19:16 MECO at 20:50, stage separation at 20:52 SES-1 at 21:00 Faring separation at 21:50 Stage 1 now in free parabolic fall from max. 116 km Stage 1 re-enters earth's atmosphere and disintegrates due to aerodynamic forces and the bow shock SECO at 26:36 and coasting SpaceX ends its live feed SES-2 - SECO-2 in “60” seconds gave a velocity boost from 26 477 km/h to 36 136 km/h ish… Burn out? SpaceX doesn't show deployment

AsiaSat 8	AsiaSat 6	CRS-4	CRS-5	DISCOVR
ABS-3A Eutelsat 115 B	CRS-6	TürkmenÄlem 52°E  MonacoSAT	CRS-7	ORBCOMM OG2-2

Didn’t We already split the Bill?

SpaceX was contracted to launch AsiaSat 6 / Thaicom 7 using a Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle. The launch took place from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on 7 September 2014 at 01:00 EDT - 05:00 UTC.

SpaceX is launching the AsiaSat 6 / Thaicom 7 satellite to a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. A second burn at the Equator will transfer AsiaSat 6 / Thaicom 7 towards its geosynchrounous orbit and the onboard rocket engine will complete its journey.

The Payload

AsiaSat 6 / Thaicom 7 is a geostationary communications satellite which is operated by the Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company (AsiaSat) and was launched into orbit on 7 September 2014.

What big ears you have? “grandma” AsiaSat 6 - The technicians posing prior to radiation testing

The satellite project was developed in cooperation between satellite operators AsiaSat and Thaicom. AsiaSat owns half of the satellite's 28 transponders which are named AsiaSat 6. The other half of the satellite is owned by Thaicom and is marketed as Thaicom 7.

AsiaSat's part of the satellite is operated under license of the People's Republic of China (PRC), whereas Thaicom's part is operated under license of Thailand.

Screenshot of AsiaSat 6 as computer rendering but placed far too close to Earth in transfer orbit

AsiaSat 6 / Thaicom 7 was built by Space Systems/Loral based on the LS-1300LL satellite bus. The satellite carries 28 C band transponders and is positioned at a longitude of 120 degrees East, providing shared TV coverage over south Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Where the 2nd Stage fell

After giving it all with a total burn out and having no fuel reserves left in its tanks. The 2nd stage was unable to perform its third deorbit burn after deploying Asiasat 6 / Thaicom 7 and the 2nd stage was stranded in the transfer orbit. The cause might be a lack of power, TEA-TEB fluids, RP-1, LOX, Nitrogen CRS gas or the pipes/vents just froze shut.

The Falcon 9 second stage used to launch AsiaSat 6 / Thaicom 7 was derelict in a 112 day long decaying elliptical low-Earth orbit from September to December 2014. Initially, on 9 September 2014, it orbited with a perigee of 165 km (103 mi) and an apogee of 35,723 km (22,197 mi).

One month later, the orbit decayed to an altitude of 153 km (95 mi)at its closest approach to Earth, and by November it had decayed to a 125 km (78 mi) perigee. The derelict second stage finally re-entered the atmosphere on 28 December 2014.

The trouble with an uncontrolled deorbiting is an unknown reentry time and landing place. It might hit somebody or something important.

Author William Graham link link

Coauthor/Text Retriever Johnny Nielsen link to launch list