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SpaceX experienced another quality escape


Jessica

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I've just spent 2 months doing a complete overhaul of one of our antennas at work, an 11m DBS-Band dish, in readiness for service on that satellite. Also, it is NOT Facebook's satellite! It was the AMOS-6, owned by Spacecom, Facebook had just leased some transponder capacity on it. It no more makes the satellite theirs than ours seeing as we had space reserved on it!

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I've just spent 2 months doing a complete overhaul of one of our antennas at work, an 11m DBS-Band dish, in readiness for service on that satellite. Also, it is NOT Facebook's satellite! It was the AMOS-6, owned by Spacecom, Facebook had just leased some transponder capacity on it. It no more makes the satellite theirs than ours seeing as we had space reserved on it!

Yes they said that there were no injuries. I think someone's pride has been slightly deflated with the premature loss of the satellite prior to launch. Better luck next time !

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That'd warm up your satellite a bit, wouldn't it? :owww: I guess it was the payload's thruster fuel that detonated when the nose cone fell to the ground... quite a noisy explosion/fire all told. As said already no-one was injured, and who doesn't insure their satellite? :shrug:

I'm gonna take a guess that the launch platform will be a write-off too, as it's been "a bit hot" and even if the explosion didn't bend it all out of shape, it's bound to have suffered some heat damage. Wonder how long that will take to clear up, and what the total bill will be? :hmmm:

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It's a silly way to be doing things TBH, very 1940s, I'd have expected more from Elon Musk.....As for paying for the damage, I suspect his earnings while he took his morning dump covered most of it, by the time he'd finished breakfast he was very probably back in the black! :wicked:

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The satellite was not actually a "Facebook" satellite. It was owned by an Israeli communication company. Facebook were renting some space and time on the satellite.

According to reports, the satellite was covered by two insurance policies - one for transport and work on the satellite when on the ground and the second for the launch itself.

The pad has been damaged but I would expect that it will be fully back in service within a year.

Pad 39A (the old Apollo and Shuttle pad is now leased to SpaceX and has been modified for the Falcon 9 Heavy booster. Elon Musk has confirmed that the standard Falcon 9 can be launched from this pad. The first Falcon 9 Heavy was due to be launched later this year but I expect this will now be deferred until they understand what want wrong.

Reports indicate that the explosion of the Falcon 9 was the largest "on pad" explosion ever experienced at Cape Canaveral. The Falcon 9 rocket is roughly in the same class as the old Saturn 1B - so it's pretty powerful.

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The satellite was not actually a "Facebook" satellite. It was owned by an Israeli communication company. Facebook were renting some space and time on the satellite.

According to reports, the satellite was covered by two insurance policies - one for transport and work on the satellite when on the ground and the second for the launch itself.

And the insurance only covers the loss of the satellite post launch. They are entitled to either a replacement satellite or a free launch of a satellite bought at their own expense.

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On 9/9/2016 at 1:45 PM, Mick4350 said:

And the insurance only covers the loss of the satellite post launch. They are entitled to either a replacement satellite or a free launch of a satellite bought at their own expense.

What about the pre-launch insurance policy i.e. the policy that covered the satellite up to the moment of launch?

 

I was quoting from the TMRO coverage of the launch and on of their presenters works for SpaceX.

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  • 3 weeks later...
2 hours ago, k5054nz said:

Watch the live TV coverage of the Challenger disaster, they refer to what you watched seconds before as a "major malfunction".

 

To be fair, the PAO had no idea what had just happened and had to say something.

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