The Orbcomm mission will enable SpaceX to “further validate the second-stage relight system” for launch of much larger satellites like the SES-9 mission that has been waiting months for a Falcon 9 ride. The firm expects to submit that report to the Federal Aviation Administration early next month.
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The company’s next launch also will be the first flight of an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket, which has been redesigned for more power.
The Falcon 9 is the same type of rocket that exploded in June two minutes after lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on a NASA mission to resupply the global Space Station. That stage was not involved in causing the June 26 disaster.
Those struts have since been replaced in the upcoming fleet of Falcon 9’s – both in the first and the second stages, along with additional improvements to aid the reliability of the SpaceX workhorse.
SpaceX said it will se this launch to test its upgraded second-stage booster, to make sure everything is working properly.
SpaceX had helped Orbcomm get OG2 satellites into orbit in July 2014.
“This change does not affect the timeline for SpaceX’s return-to-flight mission which is still targeted to take place in the next 6-8 weeks”, added SpaceX. But it will be tested for the first time with the Orbcomm launch. All parties have mutually agreed that SpaceX will now fly the Orbcomm-2 mission on the return-to-flight Falcon 9 vehicle.
Luxembourg-based SES said the company was comfortable with ceding its slot to Rochelle Park, New Jersey-based Orbcomm, especially since SpaceX has said it can launch the SES-9 telecommunications satellite into geostationary orbit in late December.
The SES-9 satellite launch is a more complex GTO mission that requires two burns from the second stage, while the OG2 mission is to LEO, requiring just the one push from the second stage. After that, another launch for customer SES is scheduled for late December, which would be SpaceX’s final scheduled launch from the Space Coast in 2015.
SpaceX plans to compete against United Launch Alliance LLC, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., on an upcoming competition to launch a Global Positioning System III satellite as part of the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, or EELV, program.
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Orbcomm Inc. (Nasdaq:ORBC) is a leading global Provider of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication solutions and the only commercial satellite network dedicated to M2M.
