SpaceX F9 - CRS-18 - SLC-40

[Grendal]

Launch Date: July 25, Wednesday
Launch Window: 2001 GMT (6:01 p.m. EDT)
Launch site: SLC-40 Cape Canaveral
Booster Recovery: RTLS
Booster Type: B1056.2 (CRS-17 booster)
Orbit: ISS in LEO
Dragon Return - TBD

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the 20th Dragon spacecraft mission on its 18th operational cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station. The flight is being conducted under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.

This will be the ninth launch of the year for SpaceX.

SpaceX CRS-18 - Wikipedia

 

[Nikxice]

Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight
Static Fire test latest target is NET Friday morning.

Could happen within the next hour or two. This is at least the second delay of the Static Fire test, originally planned for the 16th. CRS-18 launch is now expected to occur no earlier than Monday, 7/22/19. Along with the SpaceX webcast, NASA-TV will also be broadcasting the launch. NASA's tracking cameras usually capture some great video.

 

[Grendal]

Article on this mission:
Falcon 9 still waiting for Static Fire test ahead of CRS-18 mission – NASASpaceFlight.com

 

[Grendal]

Falcon 9 static fire test complete — targeting July 24 launch from Pad 40 in Florida for Dragon’s eighteenth resupply mission to the Space Station

SpaceX on Twitter

 

[e-FTW]

Slime! SpaceX will launch Nickelodeon slime and an Adidas soccer ball into space — CNN

 

[Grendal]

webcast:

 

[Cosmacelf]

So, launch time is six minutes before the start of Tesla quarterly conference call? That should make it interesting...

 

[Nikxice]

Thunderstorms will be drifting west to east across the Florida peninsula today. The current launch probability is estimated to be 30%. A similar forecast for Thursday and Friday, the weekend is looking much better.
If CRS-18 does launch this evening it would be fun watch Elon demonstrate his multitasking abilities. Maybe nailing the booster landing at LZ-1 could be choreographed with frying a few TSLA shorts.

 

[Cosmacelf]

I wonder if anyone's done an audit of these weather launch probabilities. Out of all the times that the launch window has been around a 30% probability, do we really get launches one out of three tries?

 

[808?]

The webcast is rolling.

 

[Nikxice]

NASA TV will be starting their mission broadcast on the hour, just a few minutes ahead of the SpaceX webcast.
| NASA

 

[wart]

Scrub due to weather. Not a surprise, but a disappointment.

 

[doug]

Webcast for today's attempt:

 

[dhanson865]

I wonder if anyone's done an audit of these weather launch probabilities. Out of all the times that the launch window has been around a 30% probability, do we really get launches one out of three tries?

Dunno about an audit but it's pretty well defined how to do weather predictions for a fixed location. It's not like the weatherman on TV doing a prediction for hundreds of square miles and simultaneously for a 24 hour period.

The launch was at a single spot on earth at a single time reference. So the forecast model is going to be dead accurate on a time frame of 15 minutes before launch and pretty close to that accuracy if you are looking at it a few hours ahead (as long as a sunrise or sunset isn't during your prediction window).

 

[HVM]

Can you spot The Saturn V and a new dress code

 

[SMAlset]

Another great landing of Stage 1. I watched it on a NASA YT feed and have to say I miss our SpaceX commentary crew. Glad the Stage 1 landing was passed off to them. Going to have to rewatch the launch on the SpaceX feed.

I noticed that Gwen wasn't there today at SpaceX but Elon was front and center. Looked pretty relaxed watching the progress.

 

[Electroman]

CRS launches I guess are some of the easiest ones for SpaceX. Payload is light and orbit is LEO, except that launch has to be instantaneous.

 

[Grendal]

Nice one. Straightforward and getting it done.

44th successful first stage landing.

 

[SMAlset]

@Grendal, just wanted to say thanks for starting all these launch threads and keeping them updated. I always know I can come to this forum area and find the current scheduled launch. Been super helpful.

 

[e-FTW]

Third flight for that Dragon!