TESLARATI By Eric Ralph 1/29/2018
Set to be the nightcap of relatively slow January for SpaceX, the rocket company is nearing the end of preparations for the launch of a communications satellite co-owned by SES and the government of Luxembourg, known as GovSat-1/SES-16. Scheduled to lift off no earlier than 4:25PM on Tuesday, January 30, the launch will continue SES’ tradition of flying aboard reused SpaceX rockets, with the ~4000 kg communication satellite expected to be carried into orbit by Falcon 9 B1032 (Booster #32), a booster that first flew during the May 2017 launch of the National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) classified NROL-76 spacecraft.
Following an incredible six flight-proven Falcon 9 launches in 2017, the very first year SpaceX began flying reused rockets, GovSat-1 will mark the first of many, many additional flight-proven launches to come in 2018. Even before the inaugural flights of the purpose-built, highly reusable Block 5 of Falcon 9, currently slated for sometime in the next several months, SpaceX is expected to conduct a flurry of flight-proven launches as it wears down its stock of soon-to-be-outdated rockets of the Block 3 and 4 varieties. Educated estimates place the number of reused launches at around five between February and April 2018, six if Falcon Heavy is included (both side boosters are flight-proven). A minimum of six more reused Falcon 9s are then expected to fly between May and the end of 2018, and this almost certainly does not account for the imminent introduction of Block 5.
More:
https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-ses-mission-expendable-rocket/SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch, set for Feb. 6.
