Live countdown coverage and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Starlink 4-19 mission launched SpaceX’s next batch of 53 Starlink broadband satellites. Follow us on Twitter.
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SpaceX on Friday launched a reusable Falcon 9 impeller to break a record for the 13th time from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying 53 more Starlink Internet satellites into orbit. Platform 39A took off at 12:09 pm EDT (1609 GMT).
Falcon 9 will head northeast from Kennedy to deliver broadband relay stations to an orbit ranging in altitude from 144 miles to 209 miles (232 by 337 kilometers). The 53 folded satellites of the upper stage of the Falcon 9 are expected to be deployed about 15 minutes after takeoff.
The launch will begin a busy weekend for SpaceX, with two more Falcon 9 flights available Saturday and Sunday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, then from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a few a few miles south of the Kennedy Space Center.
With Friday’s mission, SpaceX will have launched 2,706 Internet Starlink satellites, including prototypes and test units that are no longer in service, almost an order of magnitude more spacecraft than any other spacecraft fleet. The launch on Friday will mark the 48th SpaceX mission dedicated primarily to bringing Starlink Internet satellites into orbit.
Parked inside a firing room at Kennedy’s launch control center, the SpaceX launch team will begin loading super-cooled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the 229-foot (709-foot) Falcon 9 vehicle. meters) to T-menus 35 minutes Friday.
The helium pressur will also flow to the rocket in the last half hour of the countdown. In the last seven minutes before takeoff, the Falcon 9’s main Merlin engines will be thermally conditioned for flight by a procedure known as “cooling.” Falcon 9 range guidance and security systems will also be set up for launch at 12:08:50.
Following takeoff, the 229-foot (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket will carry its 1.7 million pounds of thrust, produced by nine Merlin engines, to head northeast on the Atlantic Ocean.
The rocket will exceed the speed of sound in about a minute, then shut down its nine main engines two and a half minutes after takeoff. The booster will be released from the top stage of the Falcon 9, then fire pulses from the cold gas control thrusters and extend the fins of the titanium grille to help steer the vehicle into the atmosphere.
Two braking burns will slow the rocket to land on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” about 400 miles (650 kilometers) away about eight and a half minutes after takeoff.
Credit: Spaceflight Now
The reinforcement stage flying on Friday – queue number B1060 – will set a new record for becoming the most flown member of SpaceX’s reusable rocket fleet. It debuted on June 30, 2020 with the launch of a GPS navigation satellite for the U.S. military, then flew again in September and October 2020 on Starlink missions.
It was launched six times in 2021 with the Türksat 5A geostationary communications satellite, four Starlink missions, and SpaceX’s small satellite transporter Transporter 2. Friday’s launch will be the fourth booster flight of 2022, all dedicated to the Starlink network.
SpaceX has rated Falcon 9 thrusters for at least 15 missions, more than the previous design life of 10 flights for each first stage of the Falcon 9.
The landing of the first stage of Friday’s mission will take place moments before the Falcon 9’s second stage engine shuts down to put Starlink satellites into orbit. The separation of spacecraft 53, built by SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, is scheduled at T + plus 15 minutes and 26 seconds.
The retaining bars will be released from the Starlink payload battery, allowing the folded satellites to fly free from the upper stage of the orbiting Falcon 9. The 53 spacecraft will deploy solar arrays and go through automated activation steps, and then use krypton-powered ion engines to maneuver into their operational orbit.
The Falcon 9’s guidance computer aimed to deploy the satellites in an elliptical orbit between 144 and 209 miles in altitude, with an orbital inclination of 53.2 degrees from the equator. The satellites will use on-board propulsion to do the rest of the work to reach a circular orbit 335 miles (540 kilometers) above Earth.
Friday’s launch will be the first to place Starlink satellites in a lower-altitude elliptical transfer orbit since February, when the aerodynamic drag produced by a solar storm caused nearly 40 satellites. Starlink re-entered the atmosphere shortly after launch. Since then, all of SpaceX’s Starlink launches have included two burns by the upper-stage engine to ascend to a higher orbit for the spacecraft’s deployment.
Friday’s mission Starlink satellites will fly in one of five orbital “shells” used on SpaceX’s global Internet network. After reaching operational orbit, the satellites will enter commercial service and begin transmitting broadband signals to consumers, who can purchase the Starlink service and connect to the network with a terrestrial terminal provided by SpaceX.
COET: Falcon 9 (B1060.13)
LOADING: 53 Starlink satellites (Starlink 4-19)
LAUNCH PLACE: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
RELEASE DATE: June 17, 2022
ENTRY TIME: 12:09:20 pm EDT (1609: 20 GMT)
WEATHER FORECAST: 90% chance of acceptable weather; Low risk of higher level winds; Low risk of unfavorable conditions for recovery of reinforcement
BOOSTER RECOVERY: “A Shortfall of Gravitas” drone ship east of Charleston, South Carolina
AZIMUTH LAUNCH: Northeast
TARGET ORBIT: 144 miles by 209 miles (232 kilometers by 337 kilometers), inclination of 53.2 degrees
LAUNCH CHRONOLOGY:
- T + 00: 00: takeoff
- T + 01: 12: maximum aerodynamic pressure (Max-Q)
- T + 02: 27: cut of the main engine of the first stage (MECO)
- T + 02: 30: Separation of scenarios
- T + 02: 37: Ignition of the engine of the second stage
- T + 02: 42: expulsion of the fairing
- T + 06: 47: Burning ignition in the first stage (three engines)
- T + 07: 07: cut of burns in the first stage
- T + 08: 24: First stage of ignition landing (an engine)
- T + 08: 35: Landing of the first stage
- T + 08: 45: cut of the engine of the second stage (SECO 1)
- T + 15: 26: Separation of the Starlink satellite
MISSION STATISTICS:
- 158th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010
- 166th launch of the Falcon rocket family since 2006
- 13th launch of the Falcon 9 booster B1060
- 138th launch of Falcon 9 from the Florida space coast
- 50th launch of SpaceX from platform 39A
- 144th overall launch from pad 39A
- Flight 100 of a reused Falcon 9 engine
- 48th dedicated launch of Falcon 9 with Starlink satellites
- 24th launch of Falcon 9 in 2022
- 24th launch of SpaceX in 2022
- 25th orbital launch attempt based at Cape Canaveral in 2022
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