SpaceX Falcon 9 - Es'Hail-2

  SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 - Es'Hail-2 - Launching November 15, 2018

Screenshot from Tim Dodd webcast of SpaceX Falcon 9 with Es'Hail-2

Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 - Es’Hail 2

Written: January 11, 2021

Lift Off Time	November 15, 2018 - 20:46 UTC - 15:46 EST
Mission Name	Es’Hail 2
Launch Provider	SpaceX
Customer	Es’HailSat - Qatar Satellite Communication Company
Rocket	Falcon 9 Block 5 serial number B1047-2
Launch Location	Historic Launch Complex 39A - LC-39A Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral in Florida
Payload	DS2000 Bus Communication Satellite
Payload mass	5 300 kg ~ 11 700 pounds
Where did the satellite go?	Geostationary Transfer Orbit - Station at 26° East Initial orbit - 194 km x 37 539 km x 24.99° inclination
Will they be attempting to recover the first stage?	Yes - OCISLY has been towed downrange due east
Where will the first stage land?	Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship - Of course I still love you - located 658 km downrange
Will they be attempting to recover the fairings?	No - Type 1 fairings are usually not equipped with parachutes and Mr Steven is on the west coast
Are these fairings new? Fairing types described in last chapter	Yes - Type 1.2 boat hull sized fairings - 34 x 17 feet with 10 evenly spaced ventilation ports in a circle
This will be the:	– 63rd flight of all Falcon 9 rockets – 17th re-flight of all Falcon 9 boosters – 7th flight of Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket – 3rd re-flight of Falcon 9 Block 5 booster – 15th SpaceX launch from LC-39A – 31st booster landing overall – 18th mission for SpaceX in 2018
Where to watch Where to read more	SpaceX link Other Tim Dodd Nov 15, 2018

Launch debriefing (This is what happend)

- T-00:14:27 Hosts: T 00:00:00 T+00:01:25 T+00:02:39 T+00:02:49 T+00:03:42 T+00:06:20 T+00:08:10 T+00:08:14 - T+00:25:33 T+00:26:35 - - T+00:32:34 - -

Pre Launch Run Down from 3:15 then Q&A SpaceX live feed at 18:30 Brian Mahlstedt and Siva Bharadvaj Liftoff at 32:59 MaxQ at 34:24 MECO 35:38, stage separation 35:40 SES-1 at 35:48 Faring separation at 36:41 Entry burn 39:18 by 3 Merlin 1D# for 20 seconds Landing burn 41:08 by 1 Merlin 1D# for 24 seconds SECO at 41:12 and coasting Q&A with explanations and playback from 41:30 SpaceX resumes live feed at 58:33 SES-2 - SECO-2 in 58 seconds gave a velocity boost from 26 595 km/h to 35 457 km/h at 59:37 Q&A with tweeting until 1:02:59 SpaceX show deployment at 1:05:34 Q&A, explanations from 1:06:40 Rap up from Tim Dodd at 1:25:30

Iridium-7 Next	Merah Putih (Telkom-4)	Telstar 18V Apstar-5C	SAOCOM 1A	Es’hail-2
Spaceflight SSO-A	CRS-16	GPS III SV01	Iridium-8 Next	Nusantara Satu Beresheet

Screenshot: SpaceX mission view for Es’Hail 2 by Geoff Barret

Seven flights on four boosters

Es’Hail 2 is a communication satellite built by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. It has Ka and Ku Band transceivers and will be used for television, broadband, telecom and government communications for Qatar. Additionally it will be used by the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) to provide geostationary communication capability for the first time, demonstrating and validating their DVB standard and connecting users in one single hop and in real time.

SpaceX is being contracted by Es’HailSat, Qatar’s national satellite communication company, to send the Es’Hail 2 satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. SpaceX will be launching the satellite on one of their Falcon 9 rockets. This will be the second flight for this Block 5 booster; it previously launched the Telstar 19V satellite on July 22, 2018.

Telstar 19 Vantage	July 21, 2018	Es’hail-2	November 15, 2018

The Falcon 9 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida. The booster will then land 600 km downrange aboard SpaceX’s autonomous spaceport drone ship ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’

Screenshot of Es’Hail 2

The fairings were going to be salvaged over 700 km downrange. The attempt to catch or salvage a fairing half is canceled. There are not mounted parachutes on the type 1 fairings, and because Mr Steven is not available for recovery service on the east coast.

The Payload

Es'hail 2 is a Qatari satellite, launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on November 15, 2018. Es'hail 2 was built by Japan's Mitsubishi Electric company, and will operate at 26° East longitude along a geostationary orbit to provide direct-to-home television services in the Middle East and North Africa region. The satellite will feature 24 Ku-band and 11 Ka-band transponders to provide direct broadcasting services for television, government and commercial content distribution.

In addition to regular commercial services, the payload of Es'hail 2 includes a linear transponder with a bandwidth of 250 kHz and 8MHz for the amateur radio satellite service, with uplink on 2.4 GHz (S band) and downlink on 10.45 GHz (X band). Well over 130+ amateur radio operators have used the amateur radio transponder in the first few weeks of operation. It assumes 50 simultaneous 2-way carriers to serve 100 Users.

Author: John Rumpf IT professional and Spaceflight enthusiast link

Coauthor/Text Retriever: Johnny Nielsen link to launch list