Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Starlink 4-34 mission will launch SpaceX’s next batch of 54 Starlink broadband satellites. Follow us on Twitter.
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The next launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is now scheduled for 8:18 pm EDT Sunday (0018 GMT Monday) to deliver 54 more Starlink Internet satellites into orbit. The mission has been delayed five days due to storms around the launch pad.
The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket is ready to launch SpaceX’s Starlink 4-34 mission. The weather forecast for Sunday night calls for a 40% chance of acceptable conditions for takeoff.
The SpaceX launch team called off Tuesday night’s Falcon 9 countdown just before it began loading propellants onto the Falcon 9 rocket. Lightning lit up the sky over Florida’s Space Coast throughout the evening. Similar weather conditions Wednesday night forced officials to call another scrub before launch, and SpaceX stopped the countdown at about 30 T-minus seconds Thursday night as the weather remained “no there have been” for the release.
It was a similar story Friday night when SpaceX loaded propellants into the Falcon 9, but stopped the countdown just inside the 60-second T-minus. The teams initially targeted another launch attempt on Saturday, but SpaceX announced late Saturday that the mission would be delayed until Sunday night.
This flight will mark SpaceX’s 42nd Falcon 9 launch through 2022. It will be the 40th overall space launch attempt from Florida’s Space Coast this year, including launches by SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and Astra.
When lifted off, the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket will release the satellites over the North Atlantic Ocean about 15 minutes after liftoff. The 54 Starlink satellites will have a total of about 36,800 pounds, or 16.7 metric tons, of payload.
The Starlink 4-34 mission will be the third of up to five Falcon 9 missions on SpaceX’s schedule this month. Tom Ochinero, SpaceX’s vice president of commercial sales, said Tuesday at the World Satellite Business Week conference in Paris that the company aims to complete more than 60 launches this year, with a goal of 100 rocket missions by 2023, continuing a dramatic upswing in SpaceX’s growth. release rate
The higher launch rate has been helped by shorter turnarounds between missions at launch pads in Florida and California, and SpaceX’s reuse of Falcon 9 payload boosters and fairings. Launches that carry satellites ·lits for SpaceX’s Starlink Internet network, such as Friday night’s mission, have accounted for about two-thirds of the company’s Falcon 9 flights so far this year.
SpaceX began flying 54 Starlink satellites on dedicated Falcon 9 flights last month, one more spacecraft than the company used to launch on previous missions. SpaceX has experimented with different engine throttle configurations and other minor changes to stretch the Falcon 9’s performance.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands on Pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station prior to liftoff for the Starlink 4-34 mission. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
SpaceX tested the Falcon 9 booster for the Starlink 4-34 mission on the launch pad on September 11. A static fire attempt on September 10 was aborted when a strong storm swept through the Cape Canaveral spaceport.
The booster is designated B1067 in SpaceX’s reusable rocket inventory and will make its sixth space flight Sunday night. The booster previously launched two astronaut missions to the International Space Station, plus two resupply flights to the station. It also launched Turkey’s Turksat 5B communications satellite.
With Sunday night’s Starlink 4-34 mission, SpaceX will have launched 3,347 Starlink Internet satellites, including prototypes and test units that are no longer in service. Saturday’s launch will be the 61st SpaceX mission dedicated primarily to bringing the Starlink Internet satellites into orbit.
Stationed inside a launch control center south of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, SpaceX’s launch team will begin loading supercooled liquid oxygen and densified kerosene propellants into 229’s Falcon 9 vehicle feet high (70 meters) at T-minus. 35 minutes
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 guidance and range safety system will also be configured for launch.
After liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket will push 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 “Just read the instructions” drone ship about 400 miles (650 kilometers) away about eight and a half minutes after liftoff.
Credit: Spaceflight Now
Falcon 9’s reusable payload fairing will be launched during the second stage burn. A recovery ship is also on station in the Atlantic to recover the two halves of the nose cone after splashing under the parachutes.
The landing of the mission’s first stage on Sunday will come moments after the Falcon 9’s second stage engine shuts down to put the Starlink satellites into orbit. Separation of the Starlink 54 spacecraft, built by SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, from the Falcon 9 rocket is expected at T+ plus 15 minutes and 21 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 54 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’s guidance computer aimed to deploy the satellites into an elliptical orbit with an inclination of 53.2 degrees 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.
ROCKET: Falcon 9 (B1067.6)
PAYLOAD: 54 Starlink satellites (Starlink 4-34)
LAUNCH SITE: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: September 18, 2022
LAUNCH TIME: 8:18 PM EDT (0018 GMT September 19)
WEATHER FORECAST: 40% chance of acceptable weather; Low risk of upper level winds; Low risk of unfavorable conditions for reinforcement recovery
BOOSTER RECOVERY: ‘Just Read the Instructions’ drone boat east of Charleston, South Carolina
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: Northeast
TARGET ORBIT: 144 miles by 208 miles (232 kilometers by 336 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+02:31: Separation of scenarios
- T+02:36: Ignition of the second stage engine
- T+02:42: fairing ejection
- T+06:48: First stage burn ignition (three engines)
- T+07:07: burn cut in the first stage
- T+08:26: First ignition landing stage (one engine)
- T+08:40: engine cut of the second stage (SECO 1)
- T+08:47: Landing of the first stage
- T+15:21: Separation of the Starlink satellite
MISSION STATISTICS:
- 176th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010
- 184th launch of the Falcon family of rockets since 2006
- 6th Falcon 9 B1067 booster launch
- 151st Falcon 9 launch from Florida’s Space Coast
- 97th Falcon 9 launch from pad 40
- 152nd pitch overall from the 40 pad
- 118th flight of a reused Falcon 9 thruster
- 61st dedicated Falcon 9 launch with Starlink satellites
- 42nd Falcon 9 launch in 2022
- 42nd SpaceX launch in 2022
- 40th orbital launch attempt based at Cape Canaveral in 2022
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.