SpaceX Falcon 9 - BulgariaSat-1

  SpaceX Falcon 9 Full Thrust - BulgariaSat-1 - Launching June 23, 2017

Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast

Mission Rundown: SpaceX FT - BulgariaSat-1 

Written: January 27, 2021

Lift Off Time	June 23, 2017 - 19:10 UTC - 15:10 EDT
Mission Name	BulgariaSat-1
Launch Provider	SpaceX
Customer	Bulgaria Sat.
Rocket	Falcon 9 Full Thrust serial number B1029-2
Launch Location	Kennedy Launch Complex 39A - LC-39A Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Payload	SSL-1300 Communication Satellite
Payload mass	3 669 kg ~ 8 089 pounds
Where did the satellite go?	Super Synchronous Geostationary Transfer Orbit initially 212 km x 65 512 km later fixed at 35 780 km altitude
Will they be attempting to recover the first stage?	Yes - A drone ship have been towed downrange
Where will the first stage land?	OCISLY - Stationed 679 km downrange
Will they be attempting to recover the fairings?	No - Engineers have landed at least two fairings so far
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:	– 36th flight of all Falcon 9 rockets – 16th flight of Falcon 9 Full Trust “V1.2” booster  – 2nd re-flight of a Falcon 9 FT booster – 7th SpaceX launch from LC-39A – 12th booster landing overall – 8th mission for SpaceX in 2017 – 1st use of Octograbber to secure boosters
Where to watch Where to read more	SpaceX link If you want to learn more look up Tim Dodd

Launch debriefing (This is what happend)

T-00:15:58 Host: T  00:00:00 T+00:01:20 T+00:02:39 T+00:02:46 T+00:03:37 T+00:06:30 T+00:08:18 - T+00:08:38 T+00:24:57 T+00:27:10 - T+00:34:58 -

SpaceX live feed at 00:32 John Federspiel is first man to bat Liftoff at 16:30 - Flight telemetry broke at T+7:14 MaxQ at 17:50 MECO 19:08, stage separation 19:11 SES-1 at 19:16 Faring separation at 20:07 Entry burn 23:00 by 3 Merlin 1D+ for 17 seconds Landing burn 24:47 by 3 Merlin 1D+ for 21 seconds Hard brake burn over water, then sliding sideways SECO at 25:08 and coasting. Wasn't shown SpaceX resumes live feed at 41:26 SES-2 43:40 and SECO-2 in 66 seconds gave a velocity boost from 26 477 km/h to 36 136 km/h SpaceX shows deployment at 51:28 SpaceX raps up from 52:00

CRS-11	BulgariaSat-1	Iridium-2 Next	Intelsat 35E	CRS-12
Formosat 5	OTV-5	Iridium-3 Next	Echostar 105 SES-11	KoreaSat 5A

Slamming the booster down hard

SpaceX is targeting the launch of BulgariaSat-1 from Launch Complex 39A - LC-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. BulgariaSat-1 is the first geostationary communications satellite in Bulgaria’s history. It got delayed to Friday June 23 launching at 19:10 UTC - 15:10 EDT.

Falcon 9’s first stage B1029 for the BulgariaSat-1 mission previously supported the Iridium-1 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in January of this year. Following stage separation, from a successful west coast landing Falcon 9’s first stage will now attempt a landing on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast.

The Payload

Screenshot of BulgariaSat-1 from SpaceX webcast

BulgariaSat-1 is based on an intermediate-power variant of the SSL 1300 satellite bus with a 15+ year design life. Coupled with the boost provided by its Falcon 9 launch vehicle, it carries enough fuel for more than 18 years of service. Power is supplied by two three-panel solar arrays delivering 10 kilowatts, while propulsion is provided by an R-4D-11 hypergolic rocket engine supplemented by an array of attitude control thrusters.

The spacecraft is equipped with 30 Ku-band broadcasting-satellite service (BSS) transponders and 3 Ku-band fixed-satellite service (FSS) transponders. It will be parked in a geostationary orbit at 1.9° East.

BulgariaSat-1 is the first Bulgarian satellite to operate in geostationary orbit, and is the nation's second spacecraft after Bulgaria 1300 in 1981.

SSL (formerly Space Systems/Loral) was announced in September 2014 to be the selected manufacturer of BulgariaSat-1. In addition, the company has partnered with Bulgaria Sat to secure financing, insurance, and the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The Export–Import Bank of the United States has provided US$151 million in export credit financing to Bulgaria Sat. The CEO of Bulgaria Sat, Maxim Zayakov, stated that the total cost of the BulgariaSat-1 project was US$ 235 million.

At the time of SSL's contract award, BulgariaSat-1 was scheduled to launch by the end of 2016. Delays within SpaceX, including the loss of two Falcon 9 rockets CRS-7 and Amos-6, pushed the launch back to 15 June 2017; additional delays resulting from pressure within SpaceX's launch schedule and the need to replace a valve in the Falcon 9 launch fairing pushed the launch to 23 June.

The “Helicopter” Landing

The Falcon 9 first stage landed with a one - three - one engine landing burn on OCISLY during the BulgariaSat-1 launch. This was the second successful launch and landing of a previously flown orbital booster. This was also the first booster to have landed on both active drone ships. While the landing was considered a success, the booster was "slammed sideways" and suffered a six degree tilted 'hard landing' which resulted in 'most of the emergency crush core being used'. Fast replay here.

This style of landings is similar to helicopter landings on warships. They hover to one side and then move sideways for the landing. It’s done for safety reasons in Navyes world wide, but SpaceX doesn't want a sizable hole in the Drone Ship deck, and rocket landings go extremely fast with last millisecond corrections.

A Falcon 9 crash landing at speed next to the Drone Ship is like dropping a depth charge in the water. That is not healthy for the hull and thrusters. It has happened before.

The leaning tower of Pisa is getting “competitors” from SpaceX these days.

Author Unknown SpaceX employe link

Coauthor/Text Retriever Johnny Nielsen link to launch list