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A SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy rocket vents propellant following an abort late in the countdown. SpaceX was to have launched the Jupiter 3/Echostar 24 communications satellite for the Hughes Network System from Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Wednesday. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 26 (UPI) — A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket set to launch JUPITER 3, a school bus-sized Hughes communications satellite, Wednesday night from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center was aborted as the countdown ticked toward liftoff.
The mission was scrubbed with 1 minute, 5 seconds left in the countdown. No reason was made public. A backup opportunity has been scheduled for Thursday night during the same launch window.
Built by Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, Calif., the $90 million JUPITER 3 satellite is the largest commercial communications satellite ever constructed, said Hughes’ vice president of corporate communications, Sharyn Nerenberg.
Once deployed, it will have the wingspan of a commercial airliner. It weighs more than 20 tons, Maxar said.
Liftoff was planned for 11:04 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A, with a launch window that extended for 99 minutes. The weather was expected to be 85% favorable, according to U.S. Space Force forecasters.
Ronnie Foreman, commercial sales manager with SpaceX and host of the launch’s live broadcast, said with a little more than six minutes in the countdown that the vehicle and payload are “healthy.”
“There are a thousand ways that a launch can go wrong and only one that it can go right,” she said, echoing previous SpaceX hosts who have had to announce scrubbed missions during live broadcasts.
“So, given that, we are overly cautious on the ground and if the team or the vehicle sees anything that just looks even slightly off, they’ll stop the countdown.”
Once launched and on its final flight path, the $90 million JUPITER 3 spacecraft will separate from the rocket, eventually reaching a station-keeping slot at which it will start working as a relay station.
Also called EchoStar XXIV, JUPITER 3 will provide a 500-gigabit-per-second transmission capacity throughout the Americas.
Transmitting in Ka band, “the satellite is provided with an ultra-high density system engineered to provide a faster, more responsive Internet experience and a lot more capacity,” Nerenberg said.
“Deploying very small, densely concentrated spot beams allows us to target capacity in the specific areas where our customers need it most,” Nerenberg said.
The satellite is intended to serve customers in North American and South America — from regular consumers to small businesses to government.
“It is through its 300 beacons focusing on the service area that the satellite will achieve the advertised ultra high-high density service capacity,” Nerenberg said.
At 200 gigabytes per second, its predecessor, JUPITER 2 is the next best. And Jupiter 1 comes in third, at 120 Gb/s, she said.
Besides providing more capacity and higher connection speeds, applications will support Wi-Fi for commercial airlines, maritime interests, enterprise networking and cellular telephone service — expanding its resources to areas particularly lacking fiber optics and cable services.
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket is one of the world’s most powerful launch vehicles in service and is required to lift JUPITER 3 into orbit over the Equator.
The rocket consists of three standard Falcon 9 rockets side by side. It is the second stage, sitting atop the core rocket that sends the satellite to its final orbit perch.
The two rockets on the sides are single-stage boosters, which, along with the core stage, generate the thrust JUPITER 3 needs to lift off and start climbing to geostationary orbit.
After separating from the second stage, the first stage and both boosters will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. The twin boosters will return to landing pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is adjacent to Kennedy Space Center.
The Falcon Heavy rocket, at 230 feet high and 40 feet in diameter, will be fueled with a blend of five refined hydrocarbons, commonly referred to as kerosene, along with liquid oxygen.
It is composed of three reusable Falcon 9 nine-engine cores, whose 27 Merlin engines have a combined thrust is 5.1 million pounds, equivalent to what 18 Jumbo 747 airliners generate, according to SpaceX.
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