
Intelsat 35e Mission Press Kit - janober
http://www.spacex.com/news/2017/07/02/intelsat-35e-mission-press-kit
======
fishnchips
> SpaceX will not attempt to land Falcon 9’s first stage after launch due to
> mission requirements.

Could anyone knowledgeable about the topic care to explain the rationale here?

~~~
lxchase
For this launch, the rocket will need to launch a very heavy satellite (up to
the rockets performance limit) to a higher altitude. Thus requiring all of its
fuel. There won't be enough fuel left to land the rocket since they need to
bring velocity back to 0. Weight matters a lot too (even the coat of paint on
the rocket adds up) so having no legs would increase the performance of the
rocket.

~~~
chowyuncat
How common is a payload of this weight?

~~~
mikeyouse
They're not uncommon but SpaceX doesnt see most, there are other higher-
performance launcher platforms that can easily put these into orbit. SpaceX's
next rocket (Falcoln Heavy) will roughly quadruple the capability of their
platform. The other SpaceX limitation is their fairing size. They designed
their rockets to fit under bridges on American highways which limits the size
of the payload they can deliver.

