Falcon 9 launch timeline with Telstar 18 VANTAGE

[Elderberry]

Spaceflight Now September 9, 2018 Stephen Clark

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Monday, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the Telstar 18 VANTAGE communications satellite into orbit around 32 minutes later.

The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is poised for launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 11:28 p.m. EDT Sunday (0328 GMT Monday) at the opening of a four-hour launch window.

Perched atop the rocket is the Telstar 18 VANTAGE communications satellite, a spacecraft manufactured by SSL — formerly known as Space Systems/Loral — and owned by Ottawa-based Telesat in partnership with APT Satellite of Hong Kong.

Telstar 18 VANTAGE weighs 15,564 pounds (7,060 kilograms) with its propellant tanks fully loaded, making it one of the heaviest commercial communications satellites ever launched, just shy of a record set in July with the launch of the Telstar 19 VANTAGE spacecraft on a previous Falcon 9 rocket.

More: https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/09/09/falcon-9-launch-timeline-with-telstar-18-vantage/

https://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2018/09/09/live-watch-spacex-launch-heavy-satellite-cape-canaveral-air-force-station-florida-telstar-18-v/1253035002/

[Elderberry]

Launch was successful with a nominal orbit. First stage landing was successful. Successful Telstar deployment.