SpaceX Falcon 9 Full Thrust - THAICOM 8 - Launching May 27, 2016
Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of the launch of THAICOM 8
Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 FT - Thaicom 8
Written: January 31, 2021
An der schönen blauen Donau
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will deliver THAICOM 8, a commercial communications satellite for Thaicom, to a supersynchronous transfer orbit. Thaicom is one of Asia’s leading Asian satellite operators, influencing and innovating communications on a global scale. Other news sources.
SpaceX is targeting the launch of THAICOM 8 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on May 27. The approximately two-hour launch window opens on May 27 at 05:40 EDT, 09:40 UTC. The satellite will be deployed about 32 minutes after liftoff.
The Payload
THAICOM 8 (Thai: ไทยคม 8) is a Thai satellite of the THAICOM series, operated by Thaicom Public Limited Company, a subsidiary of INTOUCH, and is considered to be the 8th THAICOM satellite headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand.
Manufactured by Orbital ATK, the 3,100-kilogram (6,800 lb) THAICOM 8 communications satellite will serve Thailand, India, and Africa from the 78.5° East geostationary location. It is equipped with 24 active Ku-band transponders for sending high-definition television signals through the satellite to residential dwellings.
Designed for fifteen years of service, the spacecraft is powered by twin four-panel solar arrays consisting of ultra-triple-junction cells. Propulsion is provided by a BT-4 engine constructed by Japan’s IHI Corporation, with smaller monopropellant thrusters for maneuvering and – alongside reaction wheels – for attitude control.
In addition to Thaicom 5 and 6, Thaicom 8 joins a fleet that includes the eleven-year-old Thaicom 4 satellite at 119.5 degrees East and Thaicom 7 – That has leased transponders aboard the AsiaSat-6 satellite at 120 degrees East.
The satellite will be stationed at a longitude of 76.5 degrees East, alongside Thaicom 5 – which has been in orbit since its launch on an Ariane 5 in May 2006 – and Thaicom 6. Thaicom 5 has four years remaining of its fourteen-year design life, while Thaicom 6 is expected to remain in service until 2029.
What a spoiler is this
At T-09:41 or 11:48 in the SpaceX video there is a short clip of a fairing tumbling down after fairing separation, which means their engineers are studying the ballistic properties of the fairing's return profile falling back through the atmosphere.
Screenshot of tumbling fairing from a previous launch. 2nd stage just by the fairing edge i a haze
A technical camera was found on a piece of fairing debris on the beach. It recorded the fall of the fairing through the reentry plasma burns and the hard ocean impact. It didn’t sink but floated around until it washed ashore on a Bahama beach. It would be interesting to know which flight this footage was from, and how many cameras were launched until this one was found relatively intact on the beach.
The fairing is made of a honey coned aluminium layer sandwiched between two carbon fiber shells - an inner and an outer layer creating a solid fairing half about two inches thick by the looks of it. The interstage tube section are constructed in a similar way. The found debris piece is from a “male” fairing half which the pusher rod on the edge indicates.
There are also barnacles growing on the camera housing which tells me that it must have floated around for at least a year before being found. So for how long and from which previous mission did this fairing and other fairings have cameras installed.
The next step for SpaceX rocket engineers is gaining control over fairing flight position, aerodynamic balancing to prevent stalling, angle of flight profile and lastly landings wet or hopefully dry in the ocean with parachutes and giant nets.
