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Mysterious SpaceX launch scheduled for November 10

Capitalism in space: SpaceX has a launch scheduled for November 10 in which nothing is known about its payload.

The mystery payload is intriguing, but the article revealed something more significant: This launch, set for November 10, will take place on launchpad 39-A, which means that the first Falcon Heavy launch cannot occur until January 10, at the earliest. According to SpaceX, they will need sixty days to reconfigure that launchpad to the Falcon Heavy after they switch launches back to launchpad 40. That reconfiguration thus cannot begin until after the November 10 launch.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

4 comments

  • pzatchok

    Could it be another X-37 launch?

  • wodun

    The code name is intriguing.

    It would be cool to have both X-37’s up.

    Because this delays the FH launch into next year, this must be a really important launch. This leads me to think it is a government launch.

    SpaceX already smashed their record for yearly launches and isn’t really hurting for revenue. But maybe a commercial launch could push out the FH if there is a lot of schedule pressure next year. Tough to say, very mysterious!

  • trent castanaveras

    According to NasaSpaceFlight.com the gap to prime 39A for FH and Crew Dragon flights has been pared down to fewer than 45 days. They have been performing what tasks they can in between launches and during the range shutdown earlier this year. It could still very well slip to 2018, but perhaps not.

    https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/10/spacex-zuma-iridium-4-aims-vandenberg-landing/

  • trent castanaveras: Interesting. Assuming the mystery launch occurs on November 10th, there will be 51 days left to 2017. That is cutting it very close, especially with the Christmas holidays looming.

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