SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 - SXM-7 - Launching December 13, 2020
Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of the launch of SXM-7
Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 - SXM-7
Written: August 3, 2021
Listen to that funky music Man
Successful launch December 13, 2020 at 12:30 EST - 17:30 UTC on a Falcon 9 using booster 1051-7 from SLC-40 to Geostationary Transfer Orbit.
SpaceX will be launching the SXM-7 satellite to a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). SXM-7 will launch on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket, which will mark the second heaviest non-classified payload SpaceX launched into GTO. The Falcon 9 will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40, at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in Florida.
For this mission, Maxar delivered SXM-7 to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station — as it was called at the time — in October 2020. The facility was renamed on Wednesday, 9 December to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This marked Falcon 9’s and SpaceX’s first flight from the newly renamed spaceport, with the location’s debut launch under the new name coming one day later when United Launch Alliance used their Delta IV Heavy to launch the classified NROL-44 mission.
Soon after delivery at the center, SXM-7 was taken to the payload integration facility and loaded with propellant before technicians integrated it onto the Falcon 9’s payload adaptor. Soon after, the satellite was encapsulated by the Falcon 9’s 5.2 meter (17 feet) diameter payload fairing. One of the payload fairings has already been used on the ANASIS-II mission back in July 2020. This will be the first time a used payload fairing is reused on a non-Starlink mission. The active fairing with the logo is the new one.
Amos-17 being encapsulated in fairings - Note the steel plate used for atmospheric penetration during ascent - It gets red glowing hot just like the titanium “Bear Claw” grid fins - Credit SpaceX
B1051 first flew the first Crew Dragon for SpaceX’s uncrewed DM-1 mission on March 2, 2019. This booster B1051 is being launched for the fifth time within a year. B1051 seventh flight with SXM-7 will change its flight number to B1051-7.
Before the satellite was attached to the Falcon 9, a final static fire test needed to be completed. The fully stacked Falcon 9, without the payload, was rolled out to SLC-40 on December 8, raised vertical and tested for seven seconds at 13:21 EST.
Normally, B1051 has usually — and coincidentally — launched from the historic Launch Complex LC-39A and landed on the droneship ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ - OCISLY, but having launched five times from LC-39A and landed on OCISLY six times. This mission saw the booster launch from SLC-40 a second time and land for the first time on ‘Just Read The Instruction’ - JRTI. It’s hard to keep score with boosters nowadays.
SpaceX recovery fleet have hardly finished with one retrieval, then on to the next one SXM-7
The Payload
SXM-7 is a high power broadcasting satellite. The Sirius XM satellite constellation currently consists of 5 satellites in geostationary orbit. SXM-7 is one of two upcoming satellites, the other being SXM-8 which is launching in early 2021, aiming to replace the XM-3 and XM-4 satellites.
SXM-7 was built by Maxar Technologies and is based on their SSL-1300 satellite bus; a satellite bus is simply a set of core components that all satellites need (such as avionics, power, communication…) that customers can add to suit their needs.
The satellite contains two large solar arrays and batteries for on-orbit storage. SXM-7 will operate in the S-band spectrum, between 2.32 GHz and 2.345 GHz. Each satellite has an operational lifetime of 15 years, after which the satellite is moved into a graveyard orbit.
The Sirius XM satellite constellation was formed in 2008 when Sirius and XM merged into Sirius XM. The constellation provides satellite radio and online radio services to a significant portion of the world.
Sirius XM’s latest satellite SXM-7 built by Maxar, launched by SpaceX, suffers “failures” during in-orbit testing, the company noted in a securities filing on Wednesday, although it did not disclose the cause of the malfunction.
Maxar didn’t repair a design flaw on SXM-7 properly, before handing the satellite over to Sirius XM, who then asked SpaceX to launch SXM-7, which they did flawlessly. During insertion toward geostationary orbit SXM-7 underwent a series of tests, where a fatal flaw was found, and now it’s an insurance battle and a blame game.
However, failures like this underscore something that is not entirely obvious to those unfamiliar with modern GSO, GeoStationary Orbit satellites, these birds fold up nice and compact for launch but they unfold like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis in space.
GSO is another piece of American alphabet soup best left untouched.
There are truly enormous PV arrays and a complicated array of high-gain TTC antennas; uplink receiver antennas; and re-transmission antennas and RF waveguides, all the internal connections between the above; as well as internal thermal control systems to keep the electronics operable, which typically include radiators.
There's a lot going on during orbit-raising and then on-station checkouts. It's entirely conceivable that something deployable on the bird got stuck and didn't deploy properly, or that some system failed during checkouts because of a pre-existing flaw that the manufacturer thought (and hoped!) it had addressed prior to launch. It's doubtful anyone not on the Boards of Directors or executive committees of the companies involved, and their insurers, will know the details any time soon.
Even something small like a burnt out bearing on a gyroscope can bring a satellite into a heap of trouble. The Hubble Telescope had this problem repaired several times.
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