CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX will launch its first full stack of Starlink broadband satellites since May tonight (Sept. 13) and you may watch the motion reside on-line.
The personal spaceflight firm will launch a full stack of 60 Starlink satellites on one among its fleet leaders, a veteran Falcon 9 dubbed B1049. The frequent flier is scheduled to blast off from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Space Force Station in California at 11:55 p.m. EDT (8:55 p.m. PDT or 0355 GMT on Sept. 14).
You can watch the launch live here and on the Space.com homepage, courtesy of SpaceX, starting about quarter-hour earlier than liftoff. You may also watch the launch directly via SpaceX and on YouTube.
Related: SpaceX’s Starlink satellite megaconstellation launches in photos
Monday’s flight is the twenty second Falcon 9 mission for SpaceX up to now in 2021. In addition, the flight marks the primary Starlink launch since May; SpaceX paused launches for about 4 months with a purpose to equip the satellites with laser crosslinks that enable Starlink satellites to speak with one another, lowering the constellation’s reliance on Earth, in line with SpaceX.
The mission, referred to as Starlink 29, is the corporate’s first operational Starlink flight from its West Coast launch facility and can carry the total variety of SpaceX broadband satellites launched as much as 1,797.
SpaceX created its Starlink program in hopes of offering high-speed web entry to customers around the globe, and as a way to assist fund its deep-space ambitions. The service is focused to customers in rural or distant areas which have little to no connectivity, though anybody can subscribe to it.
The rocket doing the lifting is among the oldest members of SpaceX’s fleet, a booster designated B1049. Poised to make its tenth flight, the rocket’s earlier payloads have included seven different Starlink stacks, a Canadian communications satellite and a stack of 10 Iridium NEXT telecommunications satellites.
Following its second cross-country trek from SpaceX’s Florida launch pad to its California outpost, the booster is now able to loft its tenth payload: a full stack of Starlink satellites. This flight will mark the second time one among SpaceX’s first stage boosters have reached 10 flights. The first rocket to succeed in that milestone was booster B1051, when it carried a special stack of Starlink satellites into orbit on May 9. That flight was one for the historical past books as 10 flights with one booster was at all times a reusability goal for SpaceX.
The present model of Falcon 9 flying at this time (referred to as Block 5) first debuted in 2018, and helped SpaceX usher in an period of speedy reusability. Block 5 boasts a collection of upgrades, together with a extra strong thermal protections system, titanium grid fins and a extra sturdy interstage (the a part of the rocket that connects the primary stage to the second stage).
When Block 5 debuted, SpaceX introduced that every one could be able to flying at the least 10 instances, with few refurbishments in between. As the corporate recovered extra rockets and refined its post-flight processing, the corporate realized that 10 flights was extra a suggestion than a tough restrict and {that a} sizeable variety of boosters can surpass that milestone.
By flying a second rocket 10 instances, SpaceX can have much more information on Falcon 9 and the way it holds up over a number of flights to higher refine booster restoration efforts.
Related: SpaceX’s most-flown Falcon 9 rocket is a sooty veteran after 10 launches and landings (photos)
To be certain that B1049 is prepared for its milestone flight this night, SpaceX rolled the rocket out to the pad on Sept. 2 and fired up the Falcon’s 9 Merlin 1D engines as a part of a pre-launch take a look at. The rocket was held down on the pad whereas its engines briefly fired up, permitting engineers to make sure the booster was working correctly.
The static fireplace take a look at is a typical a part of SpaceX’s prelaunch procedures; nonetheless, the corporate has skipped this step for greater than half of the Falcon 9 rockets launched up to now this 12 months. That could possibly be as a result of a lot of the rockets flown up to now this 12 months have flown many instances. It is also as a result of SpaceX is making an attempt to maintain up a speedy launch tempo, and having to do a static fireplace take a look at earlier than every one slows down the schedule.
But with an enormous milestone on the horizon, SpaceX wished to ensure that B1049’s methods had been all so as.
Monday’s launch marks the 128th flight for SpaceX’s 229-foot-tall (70 meters) Falcon 9 booster, and if all goes as deliberate, it is going to even be the 91st restoration of a Falcon 9 first stage booster because the firm landed its first one in December 2015.
SpaceX plans to land B1049 on the deck of one among its large drone ships, named “Of Course I Still Love You,” which the corporate moved to the West Coast this summer. The ship was beforehand stationed in Florida, the place it caught the vast majority of SpaceX’s returning boosters.
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