A Falcon 9 rocket takes off from platform 40 at the Cap Canaveral space force station with the Globalstar FM15 satellite. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX launched a Globalstar communications satellite in the early hours of Sunday early from Cape Canaveral, making the third flight of the Falcon 9 rocket in 36 hours, the fastest sequence of three missions of any commercial launch company in history.
A spare spacecraft built more than a decade ago for Globalstar’s messaging and satellite phone network hid inside the payload deck of the Falcon 9 rocket for takeoff from the station of the Cap Cañaveral space force at 12:27:36 am EDT (0427: 36 GMT).
The Falcon 9 came off the launch pad at Cape Canaveral with 1.7 million pounds of thrust from nine main Merlin engines. The engines vectorized their nozzles to guide the 229-foot (70-meter) rocket northeast of the Florida space coast, aligning with an orbital aircraft in Globalstar’s satellite fleet.
The rocket surpassed the speed of sound by about a minute and closed its reinforcement stage at two and a half minutes of flight. A few seconds later, the propeller went down to a SpaceX recovery platform, or drone ship, parked in the Atlantic Ocean east of Charleston, South Carolina.
The first stage of the 15-story Falcon 9 landed on the drone about 10 minutes after takeoff, adding a ninth trip into space to the propeller’s logbook.
The upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket fired its only Merlin engine three times, crossing different orbits before finally reaching an altitude of about 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) to deploy the Globalstar FM15 communications satellite for almost two hours on the mission.
SpaceX said the top stage reached the mission’s target orbit and officials celebrated the company’s successful third launch in less than two days.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crosses the night sky after taking off from Cape Canaveral at 00:27 EDT (0427 GM) on Sunday. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography
The trifle of Falcon 9 missions began on Friday at 12:09 pm EDT (1609 GMT) with the launch of 53 Starlink Internet satellites from the Kennedy Space Center. This mission set a record with the 13th flight of a reusable Falcon impeller, which returned to a landing on one of SpaceX’s drone spacecraft in the Atlantic.
SpaceX crews at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California launched another Falcon 9 rocket at 10:19 a.m. EDT (7:19 p.m. PDT; 1419 GMT) on Saturday with SARah 1 radar reconnaissance satellite. German Army. The Falcon propeller used in SARah 1 came down from Vandenberg for a ground landing.
With Sunday’s mission to Globalstar, SpaceX made three Falcon 9 flights in 36 hours and 18 minutes, the shortest period between three missions that any commercial rocket company has accomplished.
The launches marked flights number 158, 159 and 160 of a Falcon 9 rocket in general, and Falcon 9 missions number 24, 25 and 26 this year, testing the record of 26 launches that SpaceX achieved throughout the year. 2020. SpaceX is up and running. pace to surpass the mark of 31 releases, its total last year, at the end of July.
Company officials are targeting more than 50 launches of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy in 2022.
Aspects of Sunday’s launch prompted observers to ask questions about other spacecraft that may have been deployed alongside the Globalstar satellite.
SpaceX did not mention any other payload on its live webcast or on the Globalstar mission page on its website.
But the relatively light weight of the Globalstar satellite would normally leave enough propellant reserve for the Falcon 9’s propeller to return to landing. Instead, Sunday’s mission included a landing on SpaceX’s offshore recovery platform.
SpaceX’s live webcast of Sunday’s launch did not show any camera views aboard the Globalstar satellite until an hour after the mission, an unusual practice for SpaceX’s commercial launches. When live on-board camera views began broadcasting live, the Globalstar satellite was visibly mounted on a structure in the upper stage seemed designed to accommodate other payloads.
If there were additional satellites to launch on Sunday, they were already deployed from the Falcon 9 rocket when live camera views began to show on the SpaceX webcast.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 engine has landed on the unmanned spacecraft, completing the ninth space trip of this reusable vehicle.
This is the third launch and landing of a Falcon 9 rocket in just 36 hours, the shortest period between three missions in SpaceX history. pic.twitter.com/lWZ1hVXfjE
– Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) June 19, 2022
In another unusual move, Globalstar did not acknowledge any details about the launch of its spare satellite before Sunday’s mission. Globalstar released a statement in a quarterly financial report last month saying it plans to launch the security spacecraft in the “near future.” At that time, the company did not identify the replacement satellite launcher.
Sunday’s launch was the first of a Globalstar satellite since 2013 and adds capability to the company’s commercial network that provides voice and data connectivity for satellite phones, asset tracking and applications. of the Internet of Things.
Globalstar operates a fleet of dozens of low Earth orbit communications satellites. The company did not respond to several requests for details about the upcoming release.
The company launched 60 first-generation satellites, built by Space Systems / Loral, with Delta 2 and Soyuz rockets from 1998 to 2007. Globalstar added 24 second-generation satellites, manufactured by Thales Alenia Space, in four Soyuz rocket missions from 2010 to 2013..
Globalstar satellites provide data connectivity to customers between 70 degrees north and south latitude, and the company’s second-generation spacecraft are designed for an operating life of 15 years. Thales-built Globalstar satellites are trapezoidal in shape and have 16 C-band and S-band transponders and 16 L-band and C-band receivers.
SpaceX patch for Globalstar FM15 mission. Credit: SpaceX
Globalstar is a competitor in the satellite phone and data relay market with companies such as Iridium, Inmarsat and Orbcomm. Globalstar announced in February that it was buying 17 new satellites from an industry team led by MDA and Rocket Lab to extend the life of its constellation.
The company expects all 17 new satellites to be launched by the end of 2025. No launch service provider has been announced for the new satellites.
The $ 327 million contract for the 17 new satellites is funded primarily by an unnamed “potential customer” for Globalstar’s services.
Globalstar has not disclosed the organization that finances the new satellites, but the operator said last month that it had signed a terms sheet with a “large, global customer” to begin deploying S-band services to the called the “Band 53” frequency range. in the United States and other countries.
The unnamed customer also paid most of the costs associated with the launch of the Globalstar FM15 satellite, Globalstar said in its financial documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Globalstar FM15 split confirmed. A spare satellite for the commercial constellation of Globalstar voice and data relays has been deployed from the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at an altitude of 700 miles (1,126 kilometers). pic.twitter.com/xMlve1ff1R
– Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) June 19, 2022
SpaceX plans two more launches of Falcon 9 this month.
Another batch of Starlink Internet satellites is scheduled to take off from Kennedy Space Center next Saturday, June 25th. And a Falcon 9 rocket is being prepared for launch on June 28 from pad 40 at Cap Cañaveral with SES 22 satellite television.
Email the author.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.