SpaceX First Deep-space Launch - DSCOVR - A Success!

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AndyH

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Edit 3
Next launch attempt: 6:03pm EST 11 Feb

Today's launch scrubbed due to out of limit winds aloft (in excess of 100 kts)
/edit 3

edit 2
SpaceX, NOAA, NASA, and the Air Force are now targeted to launch the DSCOVR satellite aboard Falcon 9 on Tuesday 2/10 at 6:05pm ET, with a backup launch opportunity on Wednesday 2/11 at 6:03pm ET. This re-schedule is due to loss of USAF range radar capability. SpaceX live-stream begins at 5:45pm ET.
/edit 2

edit...launch scrubbed for 8 Feb 15. Countdown stopped at T-2:29 due to a 1st stage transponder fault and a problem with the USAF's range radar. Next instantaneous launch window will open on 9 Feb 15 at 18:07:49 Eastern time/2:07pm Pacific.
/edit

NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite, DSCOVR, is launching for L1 (Lagrange point 1, ~930,000 miles from Earth) on 8 Feb 15 at 17:12:12 US Central, 18:12:12 Eastern.

The launch vehicle is a Falcon 9 with landing legs. This will be SpaceX's second attempt to recover the first stage booster and land it on a floating barge in the Atlantic ocean.

The pre-launch broadcast is in progress now on NASA TV, and will be carried by SpaceX as well.

DSCOVR will monitor solar winds and provide about one hour advanced warnings of damaging solar events that would harm satellites in orbit or our power grids. It will also monitor Earth and track our planetary energy balance.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#
http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/DSCOVR/
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/dscovr-mission-moves-forward-to-2015-launch/

B8jASILCMAAIssg.jpg
 
This is very exciting and possibly "history making". I'm glad someone brought it up! It has been on my calendar since the first very (very) near miss about a month ago...

I have two questions (to start) that I'd be thrilled if someone could answer:

  1. How high will the Falcon 9 (second stage) actually transport the satellite? i.e., will it go the full 930,000-mile distance, or does it let it go at some point and let it navigate itself* to L1? And then,
  2. Does anyone know what the following orbital description (found on http://www.spacex.com/webcast" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) means?
    SpaceX said:
    In this flight, the Falcon 9 rocket will deliver the DSCOVR satellite to a 187 x 1,241,000 km orbit at 37 degrees.
    Click to expand...
    • (a.) What does 187 refer to? and
      (b.) 37 degrees: of what wrt what?

Thanks in advance (hopefully)!

* It must have propulsive force of some kind onboard, since it is my understanding the L1 is an unstable orbit "point", which requires occasional repositioning of the satellite.
 
The origin of the mission - "GoreSat"

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...rs-after-its-inception-goresat-set-for-launch

Then-Vice President Gore was fascinated by the Apollo views of Earth from space and thought that having a camera pointed at our planet might cause us to look at it a bit differently.

So, Gore proposed a satellite that would focus a camera back on the Earth from L1, or Lagrangian Point No. 1. L1 is about 930,000 miles away, where the gravitational forces of the Earth and Sun are in equipoise. A spacecraft parked there will remain on station indefinitely. (If you're a fan of the mathematics behind orbital mechanics, here you go).

But, as NPR's Joe Palca reported on Friday: "then Gore lost an election to George W. Bush. The new Republican president and the Republicans in Congress weren't interested in Democrat Gore's pet project. They mockingly called it 'GoreSat.'"
Click to expand...
 
mbender said:
This is very exciting and possible "history making". I'm glad someone brought it up! It has been on my calendar since the first very (very) near miss about a month ago...

I have two questions (to start) that I'd be thrilled if someone could answer:

  1. How high will the Falcon 9 (second stage) actually transport the satellite? i.e., will it go the full 930,000-mile distance, or does it let it go at some point and let it navigate itself* to L1? And then,
  2. Does anyone know what the following orbital description (found on http://www.spacex.com/webcast" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) means?
    SpaceX said:
    In this flight, the Falcon 9 rocket will deliver the DSCOVR satellite to a 187 x 1,241,000 km orbit at 37 degrees.
    Click to expand...
    • (a.) What does 187 refer to? and
      (b.) 37 degrees: of what wrt what?

Thanks in advance (hopefully)!

* It must have propulsive force of some kind onboard, since it is my understanding the L1 is an unstable orbit "point", which requires occasional repositioning of the satellite.
Click to expand...
I'm not an astrophysicist and don't play one on TV...but I'll give this a shot in hopes of getting refined answers in follow-up. ;)

- I haven't yet seen a full mission profile so don't know exactly when the 2nd stage will release DSCOVR. SpaceX has launched a number of satellites to geostationary parking orbits where the 2nd stage releases well before the final orbit is achieved so that the 2nd stage doesn't become 'space junk' and damage other satellites in the area. I think that if possible, the 2nd stage will be released while it's on an orbit that'll bring it back into the atmosphere, but don't know for sure.

- It appears the initial orbit will be very elliptical. 187 km closest approach to Earth (perigee); 1241K km farthest (apogee), inclined 37° from Earth's equator. I may be off here, but it appears to be a set-up for something like a Hohmann transfer orbit, where the satellite would essentially perform a 'de-orbit' burn near L1 as if the L1 'bubble' was a planetary body.

This post brought to you mostly via the Kerbal Space Program, Orbiter, my son's questions about orbital dynamics, and the letter 'S'! :lol:

Andy
 
Ah, thanks. If that's right, then I'd guess that 37 degrees is the angle of the (highly-elliptical initial) orbit wrt the ecliptic. T-minus 32 minutes... gotta go!

Edit:
    • How sure are you that 37 refers to earth's equator and not the ecliptic?
      (Didn't read that part of your answer the first time.)
 
mbender said:
Ah, thanks. If that's right, then I'd guess that 37 degrees is the angle of the (highly-elliptical initial) orbit wrt the ecliptic. T-minus 32 minutes... gotta go!

Edit:
    • How sure are you that 37 refers to earth's equator and not the ecliptic?
      (Didn't read that part of your answer the first time.)
Click to expand...
My guess is that the initial orbit is relative to the equator.

It appears there are three vehicles in L1 now, including SOHO. I have no idea how their orbits are inclined relative to the ecliptic. I'd like to know but haven't found such details yet.

These might be fun:
http://solar-center.stanford.edu/FAQ/QL1.html
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/OrbitsCatalog/

NASA has a video that shows their solar observation ships' orbits but I haven't yet found it. This gives at least a partial idea of the variety of orbits a bit closer to home:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB2-l4DGObs[/youtube]
 
SpaceX said:
Today’s launch of the DSCOVR mission is scrubbed due to loss of the Air Force’s Eastern Range radar, which is required for launch. Earliest next opportunity is tomorrow, Monday, Feb. 9th at 6:07pm ET.
Click to expand...
Apparently, they've run into this problem before. It went out last March as well, forcing ULA and SpaceX to postpone two of their spring 2014 launches.

What's up with that?!
 
Apparently, the L1 point is between the Earth and the Sun, and so an object located there will orbit the Sun just like we do, right along with us. The smaller orbit should cause it to "get ahead" of us (it would have a shorter year), but I'm guessing that part of the trick is that the Earth's gravity keeps it from doing that. I also read that an object can orbit around the L1 point, and they have those satellites doing just that, for various practical reasons. That would account for its distance away from us changing periodically.

As far as orbital inclination (the 37 degrees), in my experience it is relative to the earth. After all, the rocket is launched from the earth. If you launch due East from the Equator, you get an orbit with zero inclination. You also get the most momentum from the spinning Earth. This is ideal for geostationary satellites, that you want to "stay put". If you are not on the Equator, for example, you launch from Guiana at 5 degrees North, your orbit is inclined by 5 degrees and from the ground appears to alternate between 5 N and -5 N during each orbit. Canaveral is farther north with a steeper result; and Baikonur (Kazakhstan) steeper still. If you want a different inclination than a "lazy" launch gives, you have to burn a lot more fuel in order to, well, change the direction you are going. Some satellites are in a Polar orbit (90 degrees), passing over the poles during each orbit. This last example is how you get a satellite to be seen from everywhere on the Earth, at least part time. So, second reason inclination is measured relative to the Earth (and not the stars) is: that's what it's orbiting.
 
mbender - it looks like SpaceX' 2nd stage will conduct two burns and will release from the DSCOVR about 30 minutes after launch.

(NASA TV is re-playing the pre-launch press conference now. ;) Yet another launch attempt broadcast begins in about an hour and a half.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq-ylPYwaA4[/youtube]

http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/#
 
No-go for launch today - winds aloft too strong. Maybe tomorrow... 6:03pm EST 11 Feb is the next launch attempt.

"Time to spare? Go by air!" :lol:

At least we still have the Dragon splash-down in a bit... 6:44pm Central / 16:44 Pacific

edit...fixed the time...gah...
 
AndyH said:
At least we still have the Dragon splash-down in a bit... 6:44pm Central / 14:44 Pacific
Click to expand...
I take it you mean 4:44pm Pacific, right? Yeah, I know, that military time stuff can be tricky... ;-)

(2.) Arrrgh again on the scrub. Hopefully third time (not counting yesterday) will be the charm.

(3.) I think I heard a little about the satellite's journey in the press conference. Someone said it will be assisted (my word) into orbit for the first couple hundred miles and then do the rest (930,000+ miles) on its own, over the course of 110 days. That translates to an average of just under 6 miles per minute, assuming constant speed and a direct line to L1.

(4.) Also from the press conference, I just barely caught the term Lissajous Orbit (I think they all try to kept the tech terms to a minimum), which led me to the term station keeping. :) Interesting that the satellites at L1 orbit a point in space without a "body"(!) And in brief reference to gbarry's reply, this satellite will be orbiting the sun much more so than the earth. Nevertheless, I now believe that you are (both) quite right that the given inclination is relative to earth's equator. I should (already) know this stuff!
 
mbender said:
AndyH said:
At least we still have the Dragon splash-down in a bit... 6:44pm Central / 14:44 Pacific
Click to expand...
I take it you mean 4:44pm Pacific, right? Yeah, I know, that military time stuff can be tricky... ;-)
Click to expand...
gah...fixed, thanks. Typed that while monitoring NASA TV and the SpaceX channels... Should have taken my shoes off, I guess. :lol:

mbender said:
(2.) Arrrgh again on the scrub. Hopefully third time (not counting yesterday) will be the charm.

(3.) I think I heard a little about the satellite's journey in the press conference. Someone said it will be assisted (my word) into orbit for the first couple hundred miles and then do the rest (930,000+ miles) on its own, over the course of 110 days. That translates to an average of just under 6 miles per minute, assuming constant speed and a direct line to L1.

(4.) Also from the press conference, I just barely caught the term Lissajous Orbit (I think they all try to kept the tech terms to a minimum), which led me to the term station keeping. :) Interesting that the satellites at L1 orbit a point in space without a "body"(!) And in brief reference to gbarry's reply, this satellite will be orbiting the sun much more so than the earth. Nevertheless, I now believe that you are (both) quite right that the given inclination is relative to earth's equator. I should (already) know this stuff!
Click to expand...

LOL there are no 'shoulds' here - you're among friends. :)

I'm looking forward to seeing that first image of our "good Earth" come July-ish.
 
mbender said:
...
(2.) Arrrgh again on the scrub. Hopefully third time (not counting yesterday) will be the charm.
...
Click to expand...
I had an instrument on a Delta that took 14 scrubs to get into orbit. Similar reason as this scrub, upper atmospheric winds. Lot's of great food, treats and swag on the first night. By the time it launched we were lucky to have a port-a-pottie.

Splashdown of Dragon was cool today though.
 
sparky said:
mbender said:
...
(2.) Arrrgh again on the scrub. Hopefully third time (not counting yesterday) will be the charm.
...
Click to expand...
I had an instrument on a Delta that took 14 scrubs to get into orbit. Similar reason as this scrub, upper atmospheric winds. Lot's of great food, treats and swag on the first night. By the time it launched we were lucky to have a port-a-pottie.

Splashdown of Dragon was cool today though.
Click to expand...
How does the team respond after all the scrubs, sparky? I'm thinking after the 4th attempt my fingernails would be gone, I'd have coffee shakes, would be hoarding rubber bands and sketching a really big trebuchet. ;)
 
Yeah, I just saw this tweet:
Elon Musk said:
Mega storm preventing droneship from remaining on station, so rocket will try to land on water. Survival probability <1%.
Click to expand...
I'm sure they have their reasons, but wouldn't the Pacific have made for a better place for the drone than the Atlantic in winter? I seem to remember a movie... what was it called again? :) Oh well, at least DSCOVR is en route.

(Yes, awesome launch.)

Edit: I guess they always launch eastward, which would effectively rule out the Pacific for Cape Canaveral launches. I guess I'm so "jazzed" up that I'm posting without thinking right now. ;-)
 

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