SpaceX has planned a launch of another Falcon 9 rocket for Thursday afternoon.
The 42-minute launch window opens on Thursday, August 24 at 11:51 a.m. PDT, or 18:51 UTC. The satellite will be
deployed approximately 11 minutes after launch.
The rocket will be carrying FORMOSAT-5, an Earth observation satellite for Taiwan’s National Space Organization (NSPO), to a low-Earth orbit (LEO). SpaceX is targeting launch of FORMOSAT-5 from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will attempt to land on the “Just Read the Instructions”
drone ship that will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
FORMOSAT-5 will operate in a sun synchronous orbit at an altitude of 720-km with a 98.28-degree inclination angle. As with the FORMOSAT-2 satellite, the primary payload on FORMOSAT-5 is an optical Remote Sensing Instrument (RSI), which provides 2-meter resolution panchromatic (black & white) and 4-meter resolution multi-spectral (color) images. FORMOSAT-5 also hosts a secondary scientific payload, an Advanced Ionospheric Probe (AIP), developed by Taiwan’s National Central University.
