This Saturday, southern California should be experiencing a break from the storms that have savaged the state for weeks. The forecast is calling for high temperatures in the mid-60s. Best case, the only cloud in the sky will be a trail of condensed vapor coming out the backside of a rocket headed for orbit.
The rocket, should it launch, will be a SpaceX Falcon 9. Saturday is the company's first attempt to send anything to space since last September, when one of their rockets---carrying a $200 million satellite---blew up on a Florida launchpad. This launch was initially slated for last Sunday, but California's insane storms combined with scheduling conflicts at Vandenberg Air Force Base pushed the operation until 9:54am PT on January 14.
Packed into the Falcon 9's nosecone are 10 small communications satellites, the first batch in a planned constellation of 66 operated by telecom giant Iridium. The company signed a $468 million contract with SpaceX for seven total launches, with ten satellites each (it will put four backups into orbit), for complete global coverage.
The launches are pretty crucial for Iridium. The company had expected to have its Iridium NEXT fleet fully operational by 2018. However, SpaceX's investigation of last September's mishap pushed back that timeline. Now, Iridium is looking at 2019 being its first year with NEXT service, a delay that is costing the company tens of millions in annual revenue. As a result, last October, Iridium began renegotiating with the lenders who financed its NEXT project---which include the French government---for more flexible loan conditions.
Iridium isn't the only company with its bottom line on the line this Saturday. SpaceX had a year of superlatives in 2016, successfully landing four of its rockets on a droneship, and two more on terrestrial launchpads before the September 1 "fast fire" delayed the year's remaining launches---and derailed the company's plans to launch its much-anticipated Falcon Heavy, and relaunch one of its previously landed Falcon 9s.
SpaceX still has plenty of launches on its manifest---enough to keep it busy for a few years. So if this one doesn't go as planned, the biggest immediate damage will be to the company's reputation. But hopefully, the only explosion anyone will see on Saturday is the carefully engineered one coming out the business end of a Falcon 9, sending it safely into orbit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WimRhydggo
