“When you think about what it takes to support a 500-gigabit throughput satellite, in terms of the power and the solar arrays, and so forth, that’s what drives its size, scale, and scope," Wymer told Ars in an interview before the launch. The Jupiter 3 satellite, sometimes called EchoStar 24, will provide up to 500 gigabits per second of total capacity, beaming Internet signals to rural homes, businesses, airplane passengers, and government and military users. What drives a lot of the size and scale of that is we know that there’s this huge hunger for data, and we knew that we had to put a good bit of bandwidth up in the sky.” Advertisement "The satellite from tip to tip is about 10 stories, so it’s a monster. It’s weighing in right around 9 (metric) tons, which is why we need the SpaceX Falcon Heavy to get it up into space. “It is large," said Mark Wymer, a senior vice president at Hughes Network Systems. The spacecraft is also the most massive payload ever lofted by a Falcon Heavy, still the world's most powerful commercial launch vehicle in operational service. It's at least a couple of tons heavier than any satellite of its kind that has launched before. Jupiter 3 takes the crown as the heavyweight champion of commercial communications satellites. A few moments later, the Falcon Heavy climbed away from its launch pad and headed downrange toward the east from the Kennedy Space Center, darting through a thin cloud layer on the way to space.ĮchoStar's subsidiary Hughes Network Systems will put the satellite, named Jupiter 3, into service to provide Internet across the Americas, from Canada to Argentina. EDT (03:04 UTC) with the ignition of the Falcon Heavy's 27 main engines on Launch Complex 39A. Teams in Florida swapped out the valve, but decided to forego a launch opportunity Thursday night and target Friday night for the next launch attempt. SpaceX scrubbed the launch attempt Wednesday night with about a minute left in the countdown due to a stuck valve on one of the Falcon Heavy's first stage boosters. SpaceX's Falcon Heavy propelled the spacecraft on its way toward an operating position in geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator. This satellite, owned by EchoStar and built by Maxar, tipped the scales at about 9.2 metric tons, or more than 20,000 pounds. The heaviest commercial communications satellite ever built lifted off on top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket Friday night from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. EDT Thursday update: SpaceX has scrubbed the Falcon Heavy rocket's first launch attempt and will try again Thursday night. EDT Thursday update: The launch of SpaceX's next Falcon Heavy rocket has been pushed back again until Friday night, following a scrub Wednesday night with about a minute left in the countdown.ġ2:30 a.m. EDT Saturday update: SpaceX's Falcon Heavy has successfully launched the Jupiter 3 communications satellite.ĥ:30 p.m. Trevor Mahlmann/Ars Technica reader comments 316 withĢ:45 a.m.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |