Dec 202015
 

If all goes well, SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 later today (between 6:30 and 7 PM, Mountain standard time) sending 11 Orbcomm satellites into orbit… and the fist stage will return to the launch site for a land-landing. If all goes well.

UPDATE: put off till tomorrow.

The launch will be webcast here:

http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

ORBCOMM? Damn. My first Real Job out of college was a distressingly short stint at Orbital Sciences. Got hired to design the thrust structure for the X-34B… which was cancelled the week after I got there. I was cancelled shortly after that… last in, first out. In the three or so weeks of panic between the cancellations, when everyone who knew the system better than me  was running around finding new jobs within the company, I attempted to get onboard the ORBCOMM project. Odd to see satellites I kinda-sorta worked on (but not really) very nearly 20 years ago are just now being launched.

 Posted by at 2:20 pm