Quote:
Originally Posted by Donger
And there's a FH launch scheduled next week:
EchoStar 24 (Jupiter 3)
Launch Time
Wed Jul 26, 2023 9:04 PM MDT
EchoStar 24 (Jupiter 3) will be the heaviest geostationary satellite ever launched, at just over 9 metric tons.
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Hopefully EchoStar's payload doesn't prove to be a waste of hundreds of millions of dollars, as ViaSat's was after their own recent Falcon Heavy Launch.
Northrup Grumman effed up big time on that ViaSat-3 satellite reflector:
Insurers brace for ViaSat-3 claim
Quote:
A rendering of a ViaSat-3 satellite, the first of which launched April 30, 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy and suffered an "unexpected event" post launch that has prevented the deployment of the broadband satellite's large reflector antenna. Credit: Viasat
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ViaSat and EchoStar relying on SpaceX to launch their previous gen alternatives to Starlink is pretty funny though. Cost for a Falcon Heavy launch is about $100MM. ViaSat-3 was a fully expendable Falcon Heavy launch, while the upcoming EchoStar 24/Jupiter-3 launch will expend the booster only (the side boosters are set to be reused).