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SpaceX F9 - 1st Block 5 - Bangabandhu-1 - LC-39A

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Grendal

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Launch Date: May 11, Friday
Launch Window: 2014-2224 GMT (4:14-6:24 p.m. EDT)
Launch site: LC-39A
Booster Recovery: ASDS on OCISLY
Booster Type: B1046 - Block 5
Orbit: GTO 3,500 kg (7,700 lb)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Bangabandhu 1 communications satellite for the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission. The spacecraft will provide broadcasting and telecommunication services to rural areas and introduce direct-to-home television programming across Bangladesh and neighboring countries. The Bangabandhu 1 satellite was built by Thales Alenia Space. This will be the first launch of the upgraded Block 5 version of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
Bangabandhu-1 - Wikipedia
Bangabandhu 1 (BD 1)
Bangabandhu is a fairly light GTO launch. SpaceX may push the envelope and give the satellite an extra boost to GEO as it has done to some GEO satellites in the past. That or just the fact it's a GTO forced an ASDS landing. We also learned with TESS that just killing velocity and dropping onto an ASDS reduces wear on a booster.
 
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First Block 5 launch! I’m excited. :D Curious as to how the new “retractable” landing legs will work. My understanding is that they won’t need to be removed for transport after landing, but will they be able to retract back into place on their own or will the ground crew have to do that? I assume the latter.
 
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First Block 5 launch! I’m excited. :D Curious as to how the new “retractable” landing legs will work. My understanding is that they won’t need to be removed for transport after landing, but will they be able to retract back into place on their own or will the ground crew have to do that? I assume the latter.

I'm not exactly sure. We'll certainly find out when it happens. I think the big gain is the fact that they don't have to remove them for transport. They still have to lift the booster with a crane to get it on to a transport. So having the extra weight of the equipment needed to retract the legs already with the booster seems counter productive when you can do the retraction after the booster is off the ground from the crane. There you can unlock the legs and get them retracted using ground support equipment on hand.

I'm just guessing. So it will be interesting to see what strategy SpaceX uses to improve the process. Whatever they do, you know it is all part of the quick 24 hour turnaround concept.
 
@Grendal posted in this thread SpaceX v1.2 (FT) Core Discussion - Block 3, 4, and 5 a photo that Elon posted to Instragram showing the rocket on its way to the pad for static fire (I assume).

The new black landing lags and new black interstage look pretty awesome!

EE89B4D3-293F-46F1-9EC5-DFC91BAC8DBD.jpeg
 
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Static Fire is set for tomorrow. I'll just update this post (unless someone else beats me to it :)) when it happens.

Update #1: Weather is 70% for Monday and 80% for the backup day of Tuesday.

Static fire went off at the end of the time frame. Waiting on SpaceX....

A slightly different response from SpaceX:
Falcon 9 Block 5 static fire test complete ahead of next week’s launch of Bangladesh’s first geostationary communications satellite. Vehicle is healthy. Data review will take a few days—will confirm a target launch date once that review is complete.
 
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“Vehicle is healthy. Data review will take a few days...”? That seems a bit unusual. I wonder what that means.
I think it's either that they saw something minor or that they are just quadruple checking the new design. It could be that their programming and data sets are calibrated for Block 3 and Block 4 so they are receiving anomalous readings that are fine for Block 5.

We'll see whether they push out the date in the next couple days. I give it 80% that it stays on Monday and 20% for a push to Tuesday.
 
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No confirmation from SpaceX but the launch has been pushed to Thursday with Friday as a backup. The first post will be updated.

The weather report for the launch from the 45th Space Wing, which is part of the confirmation, puts the launch at 80% go for Thursday and 70% on Friday.

And finally confirmation for Thursday:
SpaceX on Twitter
 
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