SpaceX Falcon Heavy FH 2 - ARABSAT-6A - Launching April 11, 2019
Screenshot of Tim Dodd’s Youtube video about Falcon Heavy Arabsat-6A - Photo of FH-1
Mission Rundown: Falcon Heavy - ARABSAT-6A
Written: January 8, 2021
Sorry no ARABSAT-6A mission view available from Geoff Barrett. STP-2 still is though
What do you mean, Infidel? Fly a cheaper Falcon 9?
SpaceX will be launching its second Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the Arabsat-6A communications satellite to orbit. This Falcon Heavy is brand new, composed of two block 5 side boosters (B15052 & B1053) and a single reinforced block 5 core booster (B1055).
The launch window for this mission opens at 22:36 UTC on April 11, 2019 and is just about 2 hours in duration. The Falcon Heavy will be lifting off from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
After burning for about 2 and a half minutes, the side boosters will separate from the core booster and boost back to the launch site for a landing at Landing Zones 1 & 2 (LZ-1 & LZ-2). The core booster will continue burning for another minute, before shutting down and separating from the second stage.
The core booster will be landing approximately 967 km (601 miles) downrange on the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship, Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY).
Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of ARABSAT 6A deployment
Unfortunately the core booster B1055 could not be secured to the Drone Ship by the Octa grabber, so it was lost at sea. The engine bay’s refitting as a center core and that made it hard to grab and hold down. Strong winds were blowing and the waves were too rough according to twitter, so the center core tumbled over the railing.
Likewise it wasn’t possible to transfer crew members aboard OCISLY safely so they could manually secure the core booster with heavy duty chains and support tripods. The weather was too rough and the risk of losing crew members washing overboard or getting hurt by loose equipment was too great.
Working on a chain gang. B1031-2 “I’ll be back” is back in Port Canaveral. Photo: John Krauss.
This picture of a ‘chain gang’ bringing a Falcon 9 booster home to port will tell you why. Its 4-5 meters up to those gray chain latches covering the ‘hold down’ clamps used during lift off to prevent Falcon 9 from taking off prematurely.
It takes two men to lift it and bolt it to that ‘hold down’ clamp, two chains had to be bolted on as well and attached/welded to the deck, while a hydraulic piston from a tripod lifts the entire Falcon 9 booster and stabilizes it vertically. Finally the chains are tightened so the booster is secure from lateral movement.
Now repeat this three more times in heavy seas and high winds. Good luck with that.
The Payload
Arabsat-6A is a geostationary communications satellite operated by Arabsat. The satellite was built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems on a modernized A2100 bus. Arabsat 6A is based on an updated version of the A2100 bus and is considered among the most advanced communications satellites built. The spacecraft utilizes fixed and steerable Ku-band and Ka-band transponders to provide TV and radio services to the Middle East and North Africa from its station at 30.5°East.
I’m getting the feeling that Arabsat-6A is flying Falcon Heavy for prestige reasons only.
Falcon Heavy Block 5
Falcon Heavy is a partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured by SpaceX. It is derived from the Falcon 9 vehicle and consists of a strengthened Falcon 9 first stage as the center core with two additional Falcon 9-like first stages as strap-on boosters. Falcon Heavy has the highest payload capacity of any currently operational launch vehicle, and the third-highest capacity of any rocket ever to reach orbit, trailing the Saturn V and Energia.
The combined thrust of the Falcon Heavy 27 Merlin 1D# is 2/3 of the first stage thrust of the five F1 engines on the Saturn V rocket that lifted mankind through the atmosphere on its way to the Moon. This means that Falcon Heavy is almost capable of a Lunar mission like the Apollo Saturn V was. Two launches of Falcon Heavy should be able to do it.
Falcon Heavy consists of a structurally strengthened and therefore heavier Falcon 9 as the "core" component, with two additional Falcon 9 first stages without interstages but with nose cone acting as liquid fuel strap-on boosters, which is conceptually similar to Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Delta IV Heavy launcher.
The rocket was designed to meet or exceed all current requirements of human rating. The structural safety margins are 40% above flight loads, higher than the 25% margins of other rockets. The Falcon 9 tank walls and domes are made from Aluminium–lithium alloy. SpaceX uses an all-friction stir welded tank. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and it would restore the possibility of flying crewed missions to the Moon or Mars.
The interstage, which connects the upper and lower stage for Falcon 9, is a carbon fiber aluminum core composite structure. Stage separation occurs via reusable separation collets and a pneumatic pusher system. The second stage tank of Falcon 9 is simply a shorter version of the first stage tank and uses most of the same tooling, material, and manufacturing techniques. This approach reduces overall costs during production.
The Falcon Heavy includes first-stage recovery systems, to allow SpaceX to return the first stage boosters to the launch site as well as recover the first stage core following landing at an Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship barge after completion of primary mission requirements. These systems include four deployable landing legs, which are locked against each first-stage tank core during ascent. Excess propellant reserved for Falcon Heavy first-stage recovery operations will be diverted for use on the primary mission objective, if required, ensuring sufficient performance margins for successful missions.
The nominal payload capacity to a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is 8,000 kg (18,000 lb) with recovery of all three first-stage cores versus 26,700 kg (58,900 lb) in fully expendable mode. The Falcon Heavy can also inject a 16,000 kg (35,000 lb) payload into GTO if only the two boosters are recovered.
In 2011, NASA Ames Research Center proposed a Mars mission called Red Dragon that would use a Falcon Heavy as the launch vehicle and trans-Martian injection vehicle, and a variant of the Dragon capsule to enter the Martian atmosphere.
The proposed science objectives were to detect biosignatures and to drill 1 m (3 ft 3 in) or so underground, in an effort to sample reservoirs of water ice known to exist under the surface. SpaceX 2015 estimation was 2,000–4,000 kg (4,400–8,800 lb) to the surface of Mars, with a soft retro propulsive landing following a limited atmospheric deceleration using a parachute and heat shield.
Beyond the Red Dragon concept, SpaceX was seeing potential for Falcon Heavy and Dragon 2 to carry science payloads across much of the Solar System, particularly to Jupiter's moon Europa. SpaceX announced in 2017 that propulsive landing for Dragon 2 would not be developed further, and that the capsule would not receive landing legs.
Consequently, the Red Dragon missions to Mars were canceled in favor of Starship, a larger vehicle using a different landing technology.
Just venting: Rare sights to behold
At 47:28 please pay attention to the large Oxygen ice crystal bouncing around during engine chill. It’s being blown loose by the increased Oxygen venting from LOX tank, like when a freezer venting a “hot” gas will remove heat from the LOX tank, and it’s used on its way out to chill the Turbopump. Fun fact of rocket mechanics.
And watch it being blasted by the Merlin 1D# vacuum engine at SES-2.
Another fun fact is that the flame trench below Falcon Heavy hasn't seen this kind of exhaust plumes since Space Shuttle and Saturn V. This can be seen on this screenshot where the very black smoke is evidence of the flame trench being blasted clean.
Who said the flame trench had been cleaned since April 2011? Don't you think he lied?
My fault for not remembering FH-1. It must have blasted that flame trench clean that day.
If it had rained recently then dirty rain water would have been in the flame trench, and the sod from all the previous 16 Falcon 9 launches and ignition test would have murked the rain water. If a drain pipe was clogged that too would have added to the exhaust smoke.
The Watertower must be working overtime to pump all that fire suppressant deluge water on the launchpad. The drop from the tower tank by itself could do it without pumps, but I don’t know for sure, if there isn't a pump or two available.
By the way, let's strap some booster to that Water Tower and see what happens.
