THE COMPONENTS OF THE AMAZON NEXUS MISSION

We will start talking about the components: 

1- AMAZON NEXUS SATELLITE (AMZ-NX)

Amazonas Nexus is an HTS-type communications satellite for Internet, television, radio and mobile communications services over North and South America, Greenland and the Atlantic Flyway. The 4,500 kg satellite has been built by Thales Alenia Space using the Spacebus-Neo-200 platform. It has deployable solar panels and batteries for a total power of 20 KW, which powers the HTS-type payload with digital transparent processing (DTP). The expected useful life is more than 15 years, and it will be the 13th satellite in the Hispasat fleet launched so far.

2- FALCON 9 BLOCK 5

The Falcon 9 Block 5 is a two-stage, partially reusable medium-type launcher. The launcher consists of a reusable first stage, disposable second stage, and two reusable fairing halves.

- First stage

The first stage of the Falcon 9 includes 9 Merlin 1D+ type engines, with RP-1 (rocket kerosene) fuel and liquid oxygen (LOx). Each engine has a thrust of 934 kN in a vacuum with an ISP of 313 seconds. The Falcon 9's engine configuration allows the mission to be completed successfully, even with the failure of one engine in the atmospheric phase, or two in the rest of the flight.

The Merlin engines can be restarted in different phases of the mission, and allow the recovery of the first stage by landing with retropropulsion on a maritime platform for reuse in subsequent flights. 3 of the 9 Merlin 1D+ engines are used for this function.

The first stage booster for the launch of Amazonas Nexus will be B1073-6, which has previously flown five times and will become B1073-7 once it successfully lands. The last time this first stage booster flew was on December 11, 2022, with the HIKUTO-R satellite.

After the separation of the second stage, the Falcon 9 will perform two ignitions to facilitate the landing of the booster on the unmanned maritime platform “Just Read the Instructions”, belonging to SpaceX,

- Second stage

The Falcon 9 second stage is non-reusable. It includes an MVacD motor with 992 kN thrust and an ISP of 348 seconds. The second stage can perform multiple burns, allowing the launch of payloads into different types of orbit.

On missions with many ignitions or long periods between ignitions, the second stage can be equipped with a mission extension package (grayish in color) for temperature control, additional pressurization tanks, and additional ignition systems (TEA- TEB).

- Fairing

The Falcon 9 fairing is made up of two reusable halves. The first half is called the “active half” and houses the pneumatic part of the separation system. The other half of the fairing is called the “passive half”, since it depends on the pneumatic system of the active half in the fairing separation process. The improved 2021 version of the Falcon 9 fairing has ventilation holes in the upper part of each half close to the line of union of both, reducing the possibility of water entering the fairing during splashdown, which increases the possibility of his recovery.

Both halves of the fairing are equipped with cold gas thrusters and a parachute for soft landing in the ocean. At Amazonas Nexus, SpaceX will try to recover the 2 halves of the fairing with the support ship Doug.