Launch info
| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2024-07-08, 23:30 |
|---|---|
| Scheduled for (local) | 2024-07-08, 19:30 (EDT) |
| Launch site | SLC-40, Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida |
| Payload | Türksat 6A |
| Booster | 1076-15 |
| Landing site | Just Read the Instructions |
| Customer | Türksat A.Ş. |
| Mission success criteria | Successful delivery of payload to Geostationary Transfer Orbit |
Webcasts
| Stream | Link |
|---|---|
| Space Affairs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoKYdf7HJx4 |
| Spaceflight Now | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmgMDzg1eEk |
| NASASpaceflight | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu0a8byXE_4 |
| The Launch Pad | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj2BRK_hi5g |
| SpaceX | https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1810453636637712442 |
| The Space Devs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pj5xxCjBLk |
Stats
Sourced from NextSpaceflight and r/SpaceX:
☑️ 34th launch from SLC-40 this year
☑️ 5 days, 13:05:00 turnaround for this pad
☑️ 68th Falcon 9 launch this year, 354th overall
☑️ 69th SpaceX mission this year (nice!), 369th overall (excludes Starship hops)
☑️ 71st SpaceX launch this year, 382nd overall (includes Starship hops)
☑️ 86th landing on JRTI
☑️ 284th consecutive successful Falcon 9 launch (excluding Amos-6) (if successful)
☑️ 329th Falcon Family Booster landing, 339th Falcon recovery attempt
Mission and payload info
First communication geostationary satellite built in Turkey. (Some payloads are Canadian) Türksat 6A is a satellite that will provide data relay for civil and military communications to the Anatolian peninsula as well as most of the European continent, the Middle East, and the westernmost part of the Russian federation. The satellite is equipped with 16(+4) Ku-band and 2(+1) X-band transponders.
It’s interesting that we’re launching comm says that have Russia explicitly as part of their target market. I realize that the latitudes make sense, but wouldn’t there be any sort of embargo here?
Yeah, that struck me as slightly odd as well, especially as they mention “military communications” as one of the use cases. I guess the U.S. government doesn’t block the launch because it is a Turkish satellite partially servicing Russia, and not a purely Russian satellite? Would be interesting to know more.
Or maybe they’ve got a backdoor ;)