Jason-3

Mission

Jason 3

• Type: Earth Science
• Orbit: Low Earth Orbit
• Launch Cost: $61,200,000

Jason 3 is a scientific Earth observation satellite designed to monitor and precisely measure the world’s oceans. The final flight of Falcon 9 v1.1.

Location

Space Launch Complex 4E

Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Find the best place to watch the launch from Vandenberg

Space Launch Complex 4E has witnessed the launch of 196 rockets, including 196 orbital launch attempts. While Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA, has been the site for 810 rocket launches.

Vandenberg Space Force Base is a United States Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Established in 1941, Vandenberg Space Force Base is a space launch base, launching spacecraft from the Western Range, and also performs missile testing. The United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 30 serves as the host delta for the base, equivalent to an Air Force air base wing. In addition to its military space launch mission, Vandenberg Space Force Base also hosts space launches for civil and commercial space entities, such as NASA and SpaceX.

Rocket

SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1

Falcon 9 v1.1 is a significantly redesigned version of the its predecessor, including a higher payload capacity. This version arranges the engines in a structural form SpaceX calls an Octaweb.

Learn more about the Falcon 9 v1.1

Core B1017

The first stage attempted a landing however one of its landing legs did not 'lock-in' so upon touching down the leg collapsed, causing the stage to tip. Booster B1017 last launched 01/17/2016 and has seen 0 successful launches and landings. Destroyed after drone ship landing due to landing leg failure

Just Read the Instructions - JRTI

Third (Marmac 303) ASDS barge, Just Read the Instructions (JRTI) is currently used to recover Falcon 9 and Heavy boosters in the Altantic Ocean.

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.