Live countdown coverage and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Mission Transporter 5 will launch 59 small payloads from customers around the world. Follow us on Twitter.
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Fifty-nine small satellites and hosted experiments are awaiting launch Wednesday at 14:35 EDT (1835 GMT) from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The reusable Falcon propeller will return to the Florida space shore. to land about eight and a half minutes later. The mission is the fifth in SpaceX’s small transporter transporter program for small satellites.
There is an 80% chance that weather conditions will be favorable for launch on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Meteorological Squadron.
The Falcon 9 rocket will head southeast from Cape Canaveral, then south along the east coast of Florida to put the 59 payloads of the mission into polar orbit. The first stage will start its new Merlin engines for 2 minutes and 16 seconds, then separate from the upper stage Falcon to begin its return to Florida.
The first stage will propel the cold gas nitrogen propellants to turn around and fly with the tail first, then turn on three of the Merlin engines for a recoil burn on the edge of space to reverse course and return to the Cape Canaveral space force station.
The booster will extend the fins of the titanium grille to help steer the rocket back through the atmosphere, and then fire three of its engines back for a re-entry burn. After slowing down to a lower speed than the sound, the rocket will start its central engine for a final braking maneuver just before a four-legged vertical landing in Landing Zone 1, less than 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the launch pad.
The first stage of Wednesday’s mission, queue number B1061, is making its eighth launch and landing. It debuted in November 2020 on a NASA crew mission carrying four astronauts into space, then launched four other astronauts on a crew flight in April 2021.
SpaceX relaunched reinforcements last June with a broadcast satellite for SiriusXM, last August with a Dragon cargo capsule heading to the International Space Station, and in December with a satellite of SiriusXM. NASA X-ray Astronomy Reinforcement has been launched twice this year: on February 3 with 49 Starlink Internet satellites and on April 1 with the Transporter 4 mission, SpaceX’s latest small-scale car-sharing.
As the propeller returns to Cape Canaveral after Wednesday’s takeoff, the Falcon 9’s second-stage engine will burn for about six minutes to reach a preliminary parking orbit.
After the engine has stopped, an autonomous payload of Nanoracks inside a box mounted on the top stage will begin a 10-minute experiment to demonstrate the metal cut in orbit. The Outpost Mars Demo-1 experiment includes three small corrosion-resistant steel coupons, which a robotic arm will attempt to cut using friction milling technology.
Nanoracks says the experiment is a first step in demonstrating orbiting metalwork, which could lead to advances in space manufacturing and rescue, including the conversion of the upper stages of used launch vehicles into orbit. orbiting habitats and research platforms.
The metal-cutting experiment will be completed about 20 minutes after launch, then link data and images to scientists via terrestrial receiving stations.
The work of the upper stage will not be completed, with another engine running scheduled for 55 minutes after the flight to place its payloads of satellite in an almost circular orbit at an altitude of about 326 miles (525). kilometers) and an inclination of 97.5 degrees at the equator.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on platform 40 in Cape Canaveral early Wednesday, hours before the launch of the Transporter 5 mission. Credit: SpaceX
The Falcon 9 will then begin releasing the rest of its commercial and government payloads.
Passengers on the Transporter 5 mission include the first Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle built by a startup called Momentus Space, which will demonstrate a new water-based propulsion system.
There is also a Sherpa transfer vehicle from Spaceflight, a company that specializes in space travel intermediation for small satellites, with its own payload list. Another orbital transfer vehicle from the Italian company D-Orbit will also be separated from the upper stage Falcon 9 to perform orbital maneuvers before releasing multiple small commercial saturations.
Other payloads for the Transporter 5 mission include five commercial ICEYE radar observation satellites, each about 200 pounds (100 kilograms) in mass. There are four small optical Earth imaging satellites of the Argentine company Satellogic, which grow their constellation to 26 operational spacecraft. The Transporter 5 mission will launch three microsats from the Canadian company GHGSat, which is deploying a fleet of small satellites to control global greenhouse gas emissions.
There are also three spacecraft flying in formation at the launch of Transporter 5 for HawkEye 360, an American company building a constellation of satellites to detect and locate the source of terrestrial radio signals. HawkEye 360 said earlier this year that its RF monitoring satellites detected GPS interference in Ukraine when Russian military forces invaded the country.
Umbra, a Santa Barbara, California-based startup, is launching its third radar remote sensing satellite on the Transporter 5 mission. Another California-based company, GeoOptics, will also launch two small satellites for the its commercial weather monitoring constellation.
There are five Lemur 2 CubeSats aboard Spire Global to track weather, aviation, and maritime activity from space, support data streaming services, and host an optical payload and test technology radio frequency detection for the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense.
The U.S. Army Missile Defense Agency has two small technology demonstration spacecraft on the Transporter 5 mission to test satellite communications links.
NASA has two CubeSat missions launched on the Transporter 5 mission.
One of the CubeSats is called PTD 3, developed at NASA’s Ames Research Center to host a laser communication experiment at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. The Terabyte Infrared Delivery, or TBIRD experiment, will test laser data links between a small satellite and a ground station, helping to demonstrate the technology that could allow satellite networks to transmit large volumes of data much faster. than through conventional radio systems.
NASA’s other payload on the launch of the Transporter 5 is the CubeSat Proximity Demonstration Demonstration, which will show the encounter, proximity operations, and docking using two shoe-sized CubeSats.
One of the CubeSats of the Transporter 5 mission transports the burned remains of 47 people, part of a commercial memorial service provided by Celestis.
Read our story about the Nanoracks metal cutting experiment at the launch of Transporter 5.
COET: Falcon 9 (B1061.8)
USEFUL LOAD: 59 microsatellites, CubeSats, orbital transfer vehicles and hosted payloads
LAUNCH PLACE: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
RELEASE DATE: May 25, 2022
ENTRANCE TIME: 2:35:00 pm EDT (1835: 00 GMT)
LAUNCH WINDOW: 57 minutes
WEATHER FORECAST: 80% probability of acceptable weather
BOOSTER RECOVERY: Landing area 1 at the Cap Cañaveral space force station
AZIMUTH LAUNCH: South-southeast, then south
TARGET ORBIT: Approximately 326 miles (525 kilometers), inclination 97.5 degrees
LAUNCH CHRONOLOGY:
- T + 00: 00: takeoff
- T + 01: 12: maximum aerodynamic pressure (Max-Q)
- T + 02: 16: cut of the main engine of the first stage (MECO)
- T + 02: 19: Separation of scenarios
- T + 02: 27: Ignition of the engine of the second stage
- T + 02: 32: Combustion ignition of the first stage (three engines)
- T + 03: 19: The burning of the first stage ends
- T + 03: 47: expulsion of the fairing
- T + 06: 43: Burning ignition in the first stage (three engines)
- T + 07: 08: the burning of the entrance of the first stage ends
- T + 08: 00: First stage of ignition landing (an engine)
- T + 08: 25: cut of the engine of the second stage (SECO 1)
- T + 08: 33: Landing of the first stage
- T + 08: 35: Initiation of demonstration experiment 1 of Nanoracks Outpost Mars
- T + 55: 27: Restart of the engine of the second stage
- T + 55: 59: cut of the engine of the second stage (SECO 2)
- T + 59: 00: GeoOptics CICERO 2 Vehicle 2 separation
- T + 59:09: SharedSat_2141 separation
- T + 59: 17: Separation of Spire’s Lemur-2 Karen_B
- T + 59: 18: Separation of NASA Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator 3
- T + 59: 37: Separation of Urdaneta
- T + 59: 46: GeoOptics CICERO 2 Vehicle 1 separation
- T + 59:56: Separation of Spire’s Lemur 2 Vandendries
- T + 1: 00: 05: Separation Omnispace Spark-2
- T + 1: 00: 24: Separation of Spire’s Lemur 2 Tennysonlily
- T + 1: 00: 47: GHGSat-C4 Penny separation
- T + 1: 01: 00: Separation of Planetum 1 and SPiN 1
- T + 1: 01: 09: Separation of Spire’s Lemur 2 Hancom-1
- T + 1: 01: 21: GHGSat-C3 Luca separation
- T + 1: 01: 38: Demonstration Separation from NASA CubeSat Proximity Operations
- T + 1: 01: 50: separation Connects T1.1
- T + 1: 01: 59: Separation of Spire’s Lemur 2 Mimi1307
- T + 1: 02: 13: GHGSat-C5 Separation Diako
- T + 1: 03: 18: Separation of bow sail-1
- T + 1: 03: 49: Fleet Space Centauri-5 Separation
- T + 1: 04: 04: Separation of CNCE V4 and CNCE V5 from MDA
- T + 1: 04: 20: Separation of Newsat 28 from Satellogic
- T + 1: 04: 42: Separation of Sherpa-AC1 transfer vehicle from space flight
- T + 1: 05: 28: Variety-1C separation
- T + 1: 05: 43: AMS separation
- T + 1: 06: 07: BroncoSat-1 separation
- T + 1: 06: 35: Separation of Satellogic’s Newsat 29
- T + 1: 08: 19: Separation of Satellogic Newsat 30
- T + 1: 08: 40: First separation by ICEYE satellite
- T + 1: 09: 00: Separation of Newsat 31 from Satellogic
- T + 1: 09: 22: separation of the ION SCV 006 transfer vehicle from D-Orbit
- T + 1: 09: 44: Umbra separation
- T + 1: 10: 05: HawkEye 360 separation from HawkEye 360
- T + 1: 10: 26: HawkEye 360 separation from HawkEye 360
- T + 1: 10:48: HawkEye 360 separation from HawkEye 360
- T + 1: 11: 17: Separation of the Vigoride de Momentus transfer vehicle
- T + 1: 11: 56: Second ICEYE satellite separation
- T + 1: 12: 29: Third ICEYE satellite separation
- T + 1: 12: 51: Fourth separation of the ICEYE satellite
- T + 1: 15: 22: Fifth separation of the ICEYE satellite
MISSION STATISTICS:
- 156th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010
- 164th launch of the Falcon rocket family since 2006
- 8th release of …