SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 - Türksat 5A - Launching January 7/8, 2021
Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of the launch of Türksat 5A
Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 B5 - Türksat 5A
Written: August 4, 2021
New Year's Eve hangover on the 7th
Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket occurred from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida during a 4-hour launch window with liftoff on Thursday evening at 21:25 EST on January 7 - 02:15 UTC on January 8. The first stage successfully landed on Just Read the Instructions marking the 71st booster landing, the Türksat 5A satellite was successfully deployed into a Super Synchronous Geostationary Transfer Orbit.
Türksat 5A satellite will now spend several months raising its perigee and adjusting its apogee to get into the 35,786 km circular geosynchronous orbit. Unlike a geostationary orbit, once the satellite is in its final orbit it will not appear stationary to an observer in the sky, and will instead trace a figure 8 pattern.
B1060 first flew on the GPS III SV03 mission, which launched on June 30, 2020. With Türksat 5A as the boosters 4th flight, its designation changed to B1060-4.
Following stage separation, the Falcon 9 conducted 2 burns. These burns softly touched down the booster on Just Read the Instructions.
SpaceX is the first entity ever that recovers and reflies its fairings. The recovery vessels, Go Ms. Tree and Go Ms. Chief, attempted to recover the fairing halves. After being jettisoned, the two fairing halves will use cold gas thrusters to orientate themselves as they descend through the atmosphere. Once at a lower altitude, they will deploy parafoils to help them glide down to a soft landing for recovery.
Fairing type 2.2 a stainless steel tip thermal protection and lowered square protrusion. Second reflight for active fairing half - Anasis-II. Second reflight for passive fairing half - GPS III SV03. Damaged active fairing half by unsuccessful catch attempt by GO Ms.Chief. Intact passive fairing half recovered from the water by GO Ms.Tree.
The Payload
Türksat signed a contract with Airbus Defence and Space to build the satellite — as well as its companion, Türksat 5B — at the same time they signed a launch contract with SpaceX to bring the crafts into their initial geostationary transfer orbits.
The satellite, which is operated by Türksat, will provide direct TV broadcasting services and telecommunication services to Turkey, Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia and Africa. Türksat 5A operates in Geosynchronous Orbit (GSO) at 31° East inclination.
The military use of past Türksat satellites has caused concern among Armenians, who protested the launch outside SpaceX headquarters in October 2020 to voice concerns that the satellite could be used against Armenia — as Türksat 4B previously has.
The protests were unusual for the space industry, especially given the number of military or joint civilian/military use satellites launched globally each year that have encountered no such protests. It’s a sign of things to come. Progress is not always a good thing, just watch the Science Fiction movie series about a fictitious company called “Skysat”.
Türksat 5A is based on the Eurostar-3000 EOR satellite bus. The bus is equipped with two deployable solar arrays which in combination with batteries provide the satellite with over 12 kW of power. This will make Türksat 5A the most powerful satellite in Türksat’s fleet. In fact, the satellite is fully electric and uses ion propulsion. Türksat 5A is equipped with 42 Ku band transponders and has a lifespan of 15 years.
Artist’s rendering of Türksat 5A - Tucked in like a caterpillar in the fairings, spreading its wings like a butterfly afterwards in orbit (Credit: Airbus)
It took Türksat 5A four months to reach its operational station as a Geosynchronous satellite using its Hall Effect thrusters since SpaceX launched it on January 7-8. TLEs confirms that Türksat 5A has reached the GEO belt at 31.0° East longitude.
When Türksat 5A is put into service, it will cover Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Midwest and South Africa as well as the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black seas.
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