Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Starlink 4-25 mission will launch SpaceX’s next batch of 53 Starlink broadband satellites. Follow us on Twitter.
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SpaceX plans to send another cluster of 53 Starlink Internet satellites into orbit Sunday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, the company’s 33rd mission of the year and the sixth launch of July. Liftoff from Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled for 9:38 a.m. EDT (1:38 p.m. GMT).
The Falcon 9 thruster will land on SpaceX’s drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Cape Canaveral.
The rocket will head northeast from Kennedy Space Center, aiming to deliver broadband relay stations to an orbit ranging from 144 miles to 210 miles in altitude (232 by 338 kilometers). Deployment of the 53 satellites folded from the Falcon 9’s upper stage occurred about 15 minutes after liftoff.
With Sunday’s mission, designated Starlink 4-25, SpaceX will have launched 2,957 Starlink Internet satellites, including prototypes and test units that are no longer in service. Sunday’s launch will mark the 53rd SpaceX mission dedicated primarily to bringing the Starlink Internet satellites into orbit.
Set inside a firing room at a launch control center at Kennedy, SpaceX’s launch team will begin loading supercooled, densified liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants into the 229-foot Falcon 9 vehicle. height (70 meters) less than 35 minutes T. .
Helium pressure will also flow into the rocket in the last half hour of the countdown. In the last seven minutes before liftoff, Falcon 9’s Merlin main engines will be thermally conditioned for flight through a procedure known as “cooling down.” The Falcon 9’s range and guidance safety systems will also be configured for launch.
After liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket will vector its 1.7 million pounds of thrust, produced by nine Merlin engines, to head northeast over 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 liftoff. The booster stage will release from the Falcon 9’s upper stage, then fire pulses of cold gas thrusters and extend its titanium grid fins to help guide the vehicle into the atmosphere.
Two brake 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 liftoff.
Credit: Spaceflight Now
The booster flying on the Starlink 4-25 mission, known as B1062, will launch on its eighth trip into space. It debuted with the launch of a US military GPS navigation satellite in November 2020 and launched the private crewed missions Inspiration4 and Axiom-1 in September 2021 and April this year.
Most recently, the booster flew on June 8 with Egypt’s Nilesat 301 geostationary communications satellite.
The landing of the mission’s first stage on Sunday will come moments after the Falcon 9’s second stage engine cut off to put the Starlink satellites into orbit. Spacecraft 53, built by SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, will separate from the Falcon 9 rocket at T+plus 15 minutes and 24 seconds.
The restraint rods will release from the Starlink payload stack, allowing the folded satellites to fly free from the Falcon 9’s upper stage in orbit. The 53 spacecraft will deploy solar arrays and go through automated activation steps, then use krypton-fueled ion engines to maneuver into their operational orbit.
The Falcon 9 guidance computer aims to deploy the satellites into an elliptical orbit with an orbital inclination of 53.2 degrees relative to the equator. The satellites will use onboard propulsion to do the rest of the work to reach a circular orbit 540 kilometers (335 miles) above Earth.
The Starlink satellites will fly in one of five orbital “shells” at different inclinations for SpaceX’s global Internet network. After reaching their operational orbit, the satellites will enter commercial service and begin transmitting broadband signals to consumers, who can purchase Starlink service and connect to the network with a ground terminal provided by SpaceX.
If Starlink missions 4-25 lift off as planned Sunday, SpaceX will have launched six Falcon 9 rockets in just 17 days this month, deploying 251 Starlink Internet satellites in five flights while sending a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station.
ROCKET: Falcon 9 (B1062.8)
PAYLOAD: 53 Starlink satellites (Starlink 4-25)
LAUNCH SITE: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: July 24, 2022
ENTRY TIME: 9:38:20 AM EDT (1338:20 GMT)
WEATHER FORECAST: 80% chance of acceptable weather; Low risk of upper level winds; Low risk of unfavorable conditions for reinforcement recovery
BOOSTER RECOVERY: Drone boat “A Shortfall of Gravitas” east of Charleston, South Carolina
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: Northeast
TARGET ORBIT: 144 miles by 210 miles (232 kilometers by 338 kilometers), inclination 53.2 degrees
LAUNCH TIMELINE:
- T+00:00: take off
- T+01:12: maximum aerodynamic pressure (Max-Q)
- T+02:27: first stage main engine cut (MECO)
- T+02:30: Separation of scenarios
- T+02:37: Ignition of the second stage engine
- T+02:42: fairing ejection
- T+06:48: First stage burn ignition (three engines)
- T+07:08: burn cutting in the first stage
- T+08:25: First ignition landing stage (one engine)
- T+08:43: Second stage engine cut (SECO 1)
- T+08:46: Landing of the first stage
- T+15:24: Separation of the Starlink satellite
MISSION STATISTICS:
- 167th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010
- 175th launch of the Falcon family of rockets since 2006
- 8th Falcon 9 B1062 booster launch
- 144th Falcon 9 launch from Florida’s Space Coast
- SpaceX’s 52nd launch from Pad 39A
- 146th pitch overall from pad 39A
- 109th flight of a reused Falcon 9 thruster
- 53rd dedicated Falcon 9 launch with Starlink satellites
- 33rd Falcon 9 launch of 2022
- 33rd SpaceX launch in 2022
- 32nd orbital launch attempt based at Cape Canaveral in 2022
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