posted 07-14-2014 12:15 PM               

Orbcomm Announces the Successful Launch of its First Six OG2 Satellites

Advances global satellite network to a higher level of performance, coverage and efficiency

ORBCOMM Inc., a global provider of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) solutions, today announced that it has successfully launched six next generation OG2 satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida at 11:15 am EDT. The OG2 satellites were successfully separated from the Falcon 9 launch vehicle into the proper insertion orbit.

"The successful launch of the first OG2 mission is a testament to the entire OG2 team at ORBCOMM, SpaceX, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Boeing, and Moog, and I'd like to thank them for their hard work and dedication," said Marc Eisenberg, ORBCOMM's Chief Executive Officer. "OG2 will enable our customers to send and receive more data, with greater speed, more efficiently than ever before."

After an initial health check, the satellites will undergo extensive In-Orbit Testing (IOT) to verify that all subsystems are properly functioning. The satellites are expected to be providing full commercial M2M messaging and AIS services within the next 60 days.

ORBCOMM's OG2 satellites are more advanced than its current OG1 satellites and will provide existing customers with significant enhancements, such as faster message delivery, larger message sizes and better coverage at higher latitudes, while significantly increasing network capacity. In addition, the OG2 satellites are equipped with an Automatic Identification System (AIS) payload to receive and report transmissions from AIS-equipped vessels for ship tracking and other maritime navigational and safety efforts, increasing asset visibility and the probability of detection for ORBCOMM's AIS customers.

ORBCOMM anticipates launching the remaining eleven OG2 satellites and enhanced OG2 services as early as the end of the fourth quarter of 2014 to complete its next generation constellation.

posted 07-14-2014 12:19 PM               

Flight 10 of Falcon 9 was good. All six ORBCOMM satellites deployed on target.

Rocket booster reentry, landing burn and leg deploy were good, but lost hull integrity right after splashdown (aka kaboom).

Detailed review of rocket telemetry needed to tell if due to initial splashdown or subsequent tip over and body slam.

posted 07-22-2014 02:36 PM               

SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage

Following last week's successful launch of six ORBCOMM satellites, the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage reentered Earth’s atmosphere and soft landed in the Atlantic Ocean. This test confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able consistently to reenter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near zero velocity.

After landing, the vehicle tipped sideways as planned to its final water safing state in a nearly horizontal position. The water impact caused loss of hull integrity, but we received all the necessary data to achieve a successful landing on a future flight. Going forward, we are taking steps to minimize the build up of ice and spots on the camera housing in order to gather improved video on future launches.

At this point, we are highly confident of being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or back at the launch site and refly the rocket with no required refurbishment. However, our next couple launches are for very high velocity geostationary satellite missions, which don’t allow enough residual propellant for landing. In the longer term, missions like that will fly on Falcon Heavy, but until then Falcon 9 will need to fly in expendable mode.

We will attempt our next water landing on flight 13 of Falcon 9, but with a low probability of success. Flights 14 and 15 will attempt to land on a solid surface with an improved probability of success.

posted 07-22-2014 05:21 PM            

The water impact caused loss of hull integrity...

posted 08-14-2014 07:08 PM               

Falcon 9 First Stage Reentry Footage from Plane

Following the successful launch of six ORBCOMM satellites, the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage reentered Earth’s atmosphere and soft landed in the Atlantic Ocean. This footage is from a chase plane filming the decent of the first stage back to earth.

Towards the end of the video, the camera operator attempted to zoom in and unfortunately lost sight of the stage and was unable to capture the tip over into the water.