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For those wondering, they successfully deployed all 10 satellites, after the second SECO, into their correct orbit.

jessriedel 10y ago
They said they might have video of the deployment, but this was interupped by the loss of ground tracking. Anyone know if that video will ever be available?
- jccooper 10y ago
  SpaceX is inconsistent about what videos they provide after a flight. They'll usually pick one or two that are good from a marketing perspective. (New and/or impressive.) I wouldn't be surprised to see an edited Vine of the satellite deployments, though.
  - jpatokal 10y ago
    I actually would be pretty surprised, since Twitter axed Vine a few months back...
  - vermontdevil 10y ago
    They have released videos of RTS crashing etc. so they have been pretty up front about everything
  - vermontdevil 10y ago
    They have released videos of RTS crashing etc. so they have been pretty up front about everything
- nrjdhsbsid 10y ago
  That might not be totally true. The US govt likes to sneak secret things into comm satellites. For example gps satellites also contain hardware to detect nuclear detonations and track missile launches. Just speculation, but there could easily be earth viewing spy telescopes, wide band radio capture, or space weapons tacked on these
  - jessriedel 10y ago
    This was a private launch of commercial satellites (Iridium) whereas GPS is run by the military. In the past, missions with classified satellites do not feature any publicly available footage or telemetry at all. I guess that's impossible to rule out that this is a sophisticated plan to hide even the existence of the classified microsats, while providing detailed footage and telemetry up until the moment they are deployed, but it's far-fetched.
    - ChuckMcM 10y ago
      When Iridium went out of business the Pentagon stepped in to run it[1], just sayin' :-) [1] http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119255 http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119255
      - azernik 10y ago
        Except that they didn't. They just offered a nice fat contract to keep it afloat. TFA: "Staving off a fiery end to the 66-satellite necklace and its spares, the Pentagon on Wednesday awarded a projected two-year, $72 million communications contract to seal a new ownership deal worked out in a New York bankruptcy court." That's like claiming that NASA is "running" SpaceX, since its contracts are extremely important to SpaceX's business model.
        ChuckMcM 10y ago
        Fair enough, that said, if your biggest customer and source of 99% of your revenue said, "Hey, we want you to put a special something on your satellite the next time you fly one..." do you think they would say "No way!" ? :-) Not saying they did or they didn't but if they asked I'm sure Iridium would have accommodated any request from the customer. Edit: Iridium would have accommodated their customer.
        ChuckMcM 10y ago
        If anyone would care to share I would be interested in understanding the negative interpretation of this comment.

They said they might have video of the deployment, but this was interupped by the loss of ground tracking. Anyone know if that video will ever be available?

jccooper 10y ago
SpaceX is inconsistent about what videos they provide after a flight. They'll usually pick one or two that are good from a marketing perspective. (New and/or impressive.) I wouldn't be surprised to see an edited Vine of the satellite deployments, though.
- jpatokal 10y ago
  I actually would be pretty surprised, since Twitter axed Vine a few months back...
- vermontdevil 10y ago
  They have released videos of RTS crashing etc. so they have been pretty up front about everything
- vermontdevil 10y ago
  They have released videos of RTS crashing etc. so they have been pretty up front about everything
nrjdhsbsid 10y ago
That might not be totally true. The US govt likes to sneak secret things into comm satellites. For example gps satellites also contain hardware to detect nuclear detonations and track missile launches. Just speculation, but there could easily be earth viewing spy telescopes, wide band radio capture, or space weapons tacked on these
- jessriedel 10y ago
  This was a private launch of commercial satellites (Iridium) whereas GPS is run by the military. In the past, missions with classified satellites do not feature any publicly available footage or telemetry at all. I guess that's impossible to rule out that this is a sophisticated plan to hide even the existence of the classified microsats, while providing detailed footage and telemetry up until the moment they are deployed, but it's far-fetched.
  - ChuckMcM 10y ago
    When Iridium went out of business the Pentagon stepped in to run it[1], just sayin' :-) [1] http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119255 http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119255
    - azernik 10y ago
      Except that they didn't. They just offered a nice fat contract to keep it afloat. TFA: "Staving off a fiery end to the 66-satellite necklace and its spares, the Pentagon on Wednesday awarded a projected two-year, $72 million communications contract to seal a new ownership deal worked out in a New York bankruptcy court." That's like claiming that NASA is "running" SpaceX, since its contracts are extremely important to SpaceX's business model.
      - ChuckMcM 10y ago
        Fair enough, that said, if your biggest customer and source of 99% of your revenue said, "Hey, we want you to put a special something on your satellite the next time you fly one..." do you think they would say "No way!" ? :-) Not saying they did or they didn't but if they asked I'm sure Iridium would have accommodated any request from the customer. Edit: Iridium would have accommodated their customer.
        ChuckMcM 10y ago
        If anyone would care to share I would be interested in understanding the negative interpretation of this comment.