Live coverage of the countdown and launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Starlink 4-26 mission will launch the next 53 Starlink SpaceX broadband satellites. Follow us Twitter.
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SpaceX is counting down the launch of its Falcon 9 rocket and 52 Starlink internet satellites on Tuesday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The commercial mission is scheduled to launch into low-Earth orbit at 22:14 EDT (0214 GMT), and the first stage of the reusable Falcon 9 will target an unmanned ship landing off the coast.
The launch team missed the launch opportunity at 18:57 EDT (2257 GMT) due to unfavorable upper level winds. There’s a 70% chance the weather is suitable for liftoff on Tuesday, according to the US Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron.
The Falcon 9 rocket will head northeast of the Kennedy Space Center, aiming to send a broadband relay station into orbit between 144 miles and 208 miles (232 x 338 kilometers). 52 flat-pack satellites will be deployed from the upper stages of the Falcon 9 approximately 15 minutes after liftoff.
With Tuesday’s mission, Starlink 4-26 commissioned, SpaceX will launch 3.09 Starlink Internet satellites, including prototypes and test units that are no longer operational. Tuesday’s launch will coincide with SpaceX’s 54th mission, primarily intended to bring the Starlink satellite into orbit.
The SpaceX launch team, stationed inside the firing chamber at the Kennedy Launch Control Center, will begin loading a very cold, viscous kerosene and liquid oxygen booster into a 229-foot (70-meter) Falcon 9 in a T-minus 35 minutes. .
Helium pressure will also flow into the rocket in the last half hour of the countdown. In the final seven minutes before takeoff, the Falcon 9 Merlin’s main engine will be thermally conditioned to fly through a procedure known as a “chilldown”. Falcon 9 guidance and field safety systems will also be configured for launch.
After liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket will direct 1.7 million pounds of thrust – generated by nine Merlin engines – to aim in the northeast Atlantic.
The missile will exceed the speed of sound in about a minute, and then shut down its nine main engines two and a half minutes after takeoff. The booster will fire from the Falcon 9’s upper stage, then release a cold gas control boost pulse and extend the titanium grille fins to help steer the vehicle back into the atmosphere.
Two brake burners would slow the missile as it landed on the “A Shortfall of Gravity” drone about 400 miles (650 kilometers) after about eight and a half minutes of takeoff.
It will launch the Starlink 4-26 mission’s flight booster, known as B1073, on its third flight into space. It debuted in May with the previous launch of Starlink, and then flew again on June 29 with the commercial broadcast television satellite SES 22.
Tuesday’s mission’s first stage landing will occur shortly after the Falcon 9’s second stage engine stops to send the Starlink satellite into orbit. The 52nd spacecraft built by SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, is scheduled to separate from the Falcon 9 rocket with a T+ duration of 15 minutes 24 seconds.
The retaining rail will be launched from the Starlink payload stack, allowing the flat-packed satellite to fly freely from the Falcon 9’s upper stage into orbit. The spacecraft 52 will launch and power the solar array through automatic activation steps, then use a krypton-fueled ion engine to maneuver it into its operational orbit.
The Falcon 9 guidance computer aims to deploy the satellite into an elliptical orbit at an orbital tilt of 53.2 degrees to the equator. The satellite will use the onboard thrust to do the rest of the work to achieve a circular orbit 335 miles (540 kilometers) above Earth.
The Starlink satellite will fly in one of five orbital “skins” in different directions from the global Internet to SpaceX. Once it reaches its operational orbit, the satellite will enter commercial service and begin transmitting broadband signals to consumers, who can purchase Starlink services and connect to the network via ground stations provided by SpaceX.
Rocket: Falcon 9 (B1073.3)
Payload: 52 satelit Starlink (Starlink 4-26)
launch site: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Lunch date: August 9, 2022
launch time: 22:14:40 EST (0214:40 GMT)
Weather forecast: 70% chance of acceptable weather; low risk of upper level winds; Reduce the risk of unfavorable conditions for better recovery
Recovery from reinforcement: Drone ship named “A Shortfall of Gravity” east of Charleston, South Carolina
AZIMUTH LAUNCH: North East
target orbit: 144 miles by 208 miles (232 kilometers by 335 kilometers), 53.2 degrees miles
Launch time:
- T+00:00: take off
- T+01: 12: maximum air pressure (Max-Q)
- T+02:26: First stage for main engine (MICU) disconnection
- T+02:30: Split stage
- T+02:36: Start the engine in the second stage
- T+02:41: Lose the calm
- T+06:45 : Combustion ignition enters first stage (three engines)
- T+07:06: First stage in-burn aborted
- T+08:19: First stage burner ignition (single engine)
- T+08:43: Second stage engine shutdown (SECO 1)
- T+08:44: First stage landing
- T+15:24: Starlink satellite disconnect
Job stats:
- 169th Falcon 9 launch since 2010
- 177th Falcon family launch since 2006
- Falcon 9 Booster B1073 3rd launch
- Falcon 9 146 launched from Space Coast in Florida
- SpaceX53 launched from platform 39A
- 147th release overall from the 39A . board
- Flight 111 of the reused Falcon 9 booster
- 54th special Falcon 9 launch with Starlink satellite
- 35th Falcon 9 launch in 2022
- 35th SpaceX launch in 2022
- 35th orbital launch attempt from Cape Canaveral in 2022
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