SES-9 Technical Webcast: Experimental Landing |
Falcon 9 Flight 22 is a Falcon 9 space launch by SpaceX that occurred on 4 March 2016 at 23:25 UTC from the company's leased launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida. The payload was the SES-9 communications satellite which was inserted into a geosynchronous transfer orbit by Falcon 9. Spacecraft owner SES S.A. controls the spacecraft, and will use spacecraft propulsion to circularize the trajectory to a geostationary orbit.
The flight was only the second launch of the third model of Falcon 9, the Falcon 9 Full Thrust, following the maiden flight of the upgraded rocket on Falcon 9 Flight 20 in December 2015.
The launch was initially planned for 2015 but incurred an approximately six month delay following the loss of another SpaceX launch vehicle in June 2015. In the event, SES-9 endured four launch attempts that were scrubbed in late February and early March 2016 before successfully launching on 4 March 2016.
In addition to the earlier SES-8 mission ordered in 2011 and launched in 2013, SES contracted SpaceX for three additional launches starting with SES-9, originally planned for 2015. The deal was announced on 12 September 2012. In early 2015, SES announced that it would provide the payload on the first launch of the revised-design SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle: the Falcon 9 v1.1 Full Thrust (also called Falcon 9 v1.2,and later, just Falcon 9 Full Thrust). At the time, SES expected its SES-9 geostationary communications satellite would launch by September 2015. By September 2015, SES held to the decision to be the first payload on the new model of the rocket despite the loss of the launch vehicle and payload of another SpaceX mission in June 2015, but postponed the launch until late 2015.