Upgraded SpaceX Falcon 9 blasts off with Thaicom-8 communications satellite on May 27, 2016 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL. 1st stage booster landed safely at sea minutes later. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
Only three months after the catastrophic launch pad explosion of their commercial Falcon 9 rocket in Florida, SpaceX has set Dec. 16 as the date for the boosters 'Return to Flight' launch from California with the first batch of Iridium's next-generation communications satellites.
Iridium Communications announced on Thursday that the first launch of a slew of its next-generation global satellite constellation, dubbed Iridium NEXT, will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on December 16, 2016 at 12:36 p.m. PST from SpaceX's west coast launch pad on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
However the launch is dependent on achieving FAA approval for the Falcon 9 launch.
All SpaceX Falcon 9 launches immediately ground to a halt following the catastrophic Falcon 9 launch pad explosion that suddenly destroyed the rocket and its $200 million Israeli Amos-6 commercial payload on Sept. 1 during a routine fueling and planned static fire engine test at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
"This launch is contingent upon the FAA's approval of SpaceX's return to flight following the anomaly that occurred on September 1, 2016 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida," said Iridium said in a statement.
SpaceX quickly started an investigation to determine the cause of the anomaly that destroyed the rocket and its payload and significantly damaged the infrastructure at launch pad 40.
"The investigation has been conducted with FAA oversight. Iridium expects to be SpaceX's first return to flight launch customer."
The goal of the privately contracted mission is to deliver the first 10 Iridium NEXT satellites into low-earth orbit to inaugurate what will be a new constellation of satellites dedicated to mobile voice and data communications.
Iridium eventually plans to launch have a constellation of 81 Iridium NEXT satellites into low-earth orbit.
"At least 70 of which will be launched by SpaceX," per Iridium's contract with SpaceX.
"We're excited to launch the first batch of our new satellite constellation. We have remained confident in SpaceX's ability as a launch partner throughout the Falcon 9 investigation," said Matt Desch, chief executive officer at Iridium, in a statement.
"We are grateful for their transparency and hard work to plan for their return to flight. We are looking forward to the inaugural launch of Iridium NEXT, and what will begin a new chapter in our history."
Pad 40 is out of action until extensive repairs and testing are completed.
The Sept. 1 calamity was the second Falcon 9 failure within 15 months time and called into question the rockets overall reliability.
The first Falcon 9 failure involved a catastrophic mid air explosion about two and a half minutes after liftoff, during the Dragon CRS-9 cargo resupply launch for NASA to the International Space Station on June 28, 2015 - and witnessed by this author.
Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news.
Ken Kremer
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