JCSAT-18/KACIFIC-1
Falcon 9 Block 5
SpaceX
Weather Forecast During Launch
According to weather officials, there’s a 90% chance of favorable weather conditions at the time of the launch.
Mission
JCSAT-18/KACIFIC-1
- Type: Communications
- Launch Cost: $52,000,000
JCSAT-18/KACIFIC-1 is a joint high-throughput communications satellite for Sky Perfect JSAT Corp. of Japan and a Singapore telecommunications company Kacific Broadband Satellites. Satellite will provide mobile telephone, data and internet services throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
The JCSAT-18 payload will provide Ku-band coverage and improve mobile and broadband services for SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation customers in the Asia-Pacific region, including the far eastern part of Russia. The satellite features technologies in the power subsystem to achieve highest efficiencies, and it also features command and data handling technologies to provide a more secure spacecraft.
The KACIFIC-1 payload is designed to deliver uncontended broadband throughput via 56 Ka-band narrow beams, each having a capacity up to 1.25 Gbps, with the highest signal power ever achieved in the region. The beams are selectively tailored to cover precise pockets of demand in a geographically dispersed footprint of 20 Pacific and South East Asian nations.
Location
Space Launch Complex 40
Cape Canaveral, FL, USA
Space Launch Complex 40 has witnessed the launch of 230 rockets, including 230 orbital launch attempts, while Cape Canaveral, FL, USA, has been the site for 940 rocket launches.
Rocket
SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5
Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Block 5 variant is the fifth major interval aimed at improving upon the ability for rapid reusability.
Landing
Core B1056
Booster B1056 last launched 02/17/2020 and has seen 3 successful launches and landings. Missed the droneship and made successful water landing; apparently scuttled at sea afterward.
Of Course I Still Love You – OCISLY
The second ASDS barge, Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) services launches in the Pacific Ocean and was the site of the first landing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage during CRS-8, the launch of a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.
Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship – ASDS
An autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) is an ocean-going vessel derived from a deck barge, outfitted with station-keeping engines and a large landing platform. Construction of such ships was commissioned by aerospace company SpaceX to allow for recovery of rocket first-stages at sea for high-velocity missions which do not carry enough fuel to return to the launch site after lofting spacecraft onto an orbital trajectory.
Agency
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.
