SES Just Bought A Used Rocket Ride
SES-10 Launching to Orbit on SpaceX’s Flight-Proven Falcon 9 Rocket
“SES and SpaceX announced today they have reached an agreement to launch SES-10 on a flight-proven Falcon 9 orbital rocket booster. The satellite, which will be in a geostationary orbit and expand SES’s capabilities across Latin America, is scheduled for launch in Q4 2016. SES-10 will be the first-ever satellite to launch on a SpaceX flight-proven rocket booster.”
Hey, you heard it here first, folks…
Yale Simkin MBB 4 months ago
I suspect that SpaceX has not yet test fired the engines from the barge recovery. The stage was hangered at Pad 39a just 2 weeks ago on April 20. AFAIK, the engine tests are to be at pad 40. There is a roughly 6 week period centered in August where the pad is open. Also, at the end of that period, SES-10 is scheduled for flight, and they have said (for the right price) they would be willing to do the first re-used mission.
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Yale Simkin MBB 4 months ago
…Sept 2016 – Falcon 9 — SES 10 (my guess for a re-used F9)
Discussion on SpaceNews 195 comments
Yale Simkin 4 months ago
I’m betting on SES-10
Yes, it seems everything came together at the right time for SES and SpaceX.
We all knew all that back then. Heck, I seem to recall that their man said it on camera during SpaceX’s hosted webcast.
This announcement is the actual signing of the agreement to use a used booster for that already contracted launch.
Who knows, maybe they even got pushed up the calendar a bit for it too.
AFAIK, only SES’s interest, not the actual flight. I don’t watch the hosted launches. They annoy me immensely. I like the tech broadcasts, nice and quiet and they fill the whole screen.
What is interesting to me is that SpX has been talking about using a LEO flight to host the first mission. I just couldn’t find one that fit (NASA cargo flights would not be the first one), so my choice of SES 10 was reluctant
Live, I watch the hosted…watching a rocket sitting on the pad steaming for 20 minutes bores me to tears. Then I watch the tech broadcast after…when I can fast forward. 😉
I think I heard them say somewhere that the ISS resupply launches would all be new rockets and that the CC landings would all be splashdowns (even though you know they’ll look for a chance to land a capsule as soon as someone lets them).
Very interesting. I wonder if SES is going to self-insure, work out a risk-sharing deal with SpaceX, or something else.
The insurers are on board. LA Times,
http://www.latimes.com/busi…
“There also was no material change in the insurance rate compared to using a new Falcon 9 rocket, indicating insurers confidence in the launch vehicle, Halliwell said.”
Take that, Status-quo.
Maybe someday it’ll be the in-flight tested units that get the higher rates. 😉