Transit Day 21 - ACS Arrival Home Port

Today we arrived at Home Port and completed the ACS Voyage to Mission Success. Our fellow teammates and sister ship still have a few more days to go before their voyage is complete but Captain Knutsen will bring her in around the 20^th of December in time for the Christmas holidays.

Captain Atle Knutsen on board the Launch Platform

So for the last post with respect to this voyage, I thought it would be interesting to post a few fun facts:

• 5,764 nautical miles sailed this mission from Home Port to the launch site and back
• 4,755,097 gallons of seawater taken on board the LP for ballasting down at the launch site

• 10,567 gallons of seawater used for the launch pad fire-fighting test on L-3 day

• 197,000 gallons of freshwater produced on board the ACS out of seawater
• 5 seconds is all takes for the ILV main engine to reach 1.6 million pounds of thrust
• It takes 150 seconds for the ILV to climb from sea level to 70 km (43.5 miles)
• PLU Radio Frequency (RF) team conducts 10,000 hrs of testing and verifications to support one launch attempt
• This mission Spacecraft Radio Frequency Support System (SCRFS) availability rate was 99.995%!
• Boeings SCRFS system is used as a direct interface between the customers electrical ground support equipment and the satellite at 6.5 kilometers away.
• PLU RF SBand and SCRFS systems recorded 75.55 Gigabits of data prior to and during the launch for use in post flight analysis
• On one launch our photo-optics team uses over 6,000 feet of film in 11 cameras, more than 240,000 frames in about 40 seconds.
• The weather radar did more than 92,000 scans to assist our launch weather specialist, Mike Patnoe, with preparation of 30 weather forecasts during the voyage.
•  16,300 kilograms is the weight of the LP hangar roof

• The temperature of the rocket plume affecting the launch deck at lift off is 1500°C

• 562 people total transferred between the ACS and LP at the launch site in support of pre-launch and post-launch operations

 

•  4008 liters of Jet-A helicopter fuel used for 74 helicopter flights performed at sea

• It took Bosun and the Carpenter 40 hrs to create the Eutelsat 70B Mission Buoy

• 15,731 meals served on board the ACS during the voyage

• 75 bottles of champagne consumed as part of the champagne toast following our successful launch
• 8400 eggs consumed on board the ACS during our 3 week voyage
• 2,150 lbs of laundry detergent and dish soap used on board the ACS by the catering department

• This mission our FAA auditor Ed Springer ran 97.3 miles on the treadmill and covered 400 miles on the stationary bike while training for his upcoming Ironman race!

• 237 people are looking forward to walking on land for the first time in 21 days!