Live protection of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida with the Globalstar FM15 voice and information relay satellite tv for pc. Follow us on Twitter.
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SpaceX is counting down to launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:27 a.m. EDT (0427 GMT) Sunday with the Globalstar FM15 satellite tv for pc, a spare spacecraft for Globalstar’s industrial voice and information relay constellation.
The 229-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket will head northeast from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral to place the 1,543-pound (700-kilogram) Globalstar satellite tv for pc into low Earth orbit, in accordance to airspace warning notices launched by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Falcon 9’s mission will probably be longer than traditional, with three burns by the rocket’s higher stage engine earlier than deploying the Globalstar FM15 spacecraft about an hour and 53 minutes after liftoff.
The launch wraps up a busy weekend for SpaceX, following back-to-back launches Friday and Saturday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with 53 extra Starlink web satellites and the German navy’s SARah 1 radar reconnaissance satellite tv for pc.
Stationed inside a launch management heart just a few miles south of the pad, SpaceX’s launch staff will start loading super-chilled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the Falcon 9 automobile at T-minus 35 minutes,
Helium pressurant will even circulation into the rocket within the final half-hour of the countdown. In the ultimate seven minutes earlier than liftoff, the Falcon 9’s Merlin fundamental engines will probably be thermally conditioned for flight via a process often known as “chilldown.” The Falcon 9’s steering and vary security techniques will even be configured for launch at 12:27:36 a.m.
After liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket will vector its 1.7 million kilos of thrust — produced by 9 Merlin engines — to steer northeast over the Atlantic Ocean.
The rocket will exceeded the velocity of sound in about one minute, then shut down its 9 fundamental engines two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. The booster will launch from from the Falcon 9’s higher stage, then hearth pulses from chilly fuel management thrusters and lengthen titanium grid fins to assist information the automobile again into the ambiance.
Two braking burns will gradual the rocket for touchdown on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” round 400 miles (650 kilometers) downrange roughly 10 minutes after liftoff.
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The booster stage flying early Sunday — tail quantity B1061 — will head to area for the ninth time. It debuted with the launch of two NASA crew missions to the International Space Station in November 2020 and April 2021, then launched SiriusXM’s SXM 8 radio broadcasting satellite tv for pc final June and an area station cargo missions final August.
More lately, the booster stage launched NASA’s IXPE X-ray astronomy satellite tv for pc in December, a Starlink mission in February, and SpaceX’s Transporter 4 and Transporter 5 small satellite tv for pc rideshare mission on April 1 and May 25. The rocket will probably be going for its subsequent mission 25 days after returning from Transporter 5.
Landing of the primary stage on Friday’s mission will happen about the identical time because the Falcon 9’s second stage engine cuts off to full its first orbital insertion burn. The higher stage will coast midway around the globe earlier than reigniting for about 4 seconds T+plus 64 minutes, then for round eight seconds at T+plus 107 minutes.
Deployment of the Globalstar FM15 satellite tv for pc, constructed greater than a decade in the past by Thales Alenia Space, is predicted at T+plus 1 hour, 53 minutes, or round 2:20 a.m. EDT (0620 GMT), assuming an on-time launch, in accordance to SpaceX’s mission timeline.
In an uncommon transfer for a longtime satellite tv for pc operator, Globalstar has not acknowledged any particulars concerning the launch of its spare satellite tv for pc Sunday. Globalstar launched an announcement in a quarterly monetary report final month that stated it deliberate to launch the backup spacecraft within the “near future.” At the time, the corporate didn’t establish the launcher for the spare satellite tv for pc.
The launch Sunday would be the first for a Globalstar satellite tv for pc since 2013, and provides capability for the corporate’s industrial community offering voice and information connectivity for satellite tv for pc telephones, asset monitoring, and internet-of-things purposes.
Globalstar operates a fleet of dozens of communications satellites in low Earth orbit. The firm didn’t reply to a number of requests for particulars on the upcoming launch.
The firm launched 60 first-generation satellites, constructed by Space Systems/Loral, on Delta 2 and Soyuz rockets from 1998 via 2007. Globalstar added 24 second-generation satellites, manufactured by Thales Alenia Space, on 4 Soyuz rocket missions from 2010 via 2013.
SpaceX didn’t point out any payloads that could possibly be driving to orbit with the Globalstar FM15 satellite tv for pc on Sunday’s mission. The comparatively gentle weight of the Globalstar satellite tv for pc would usually depart sufficient propellant reserve on the Falcon 9’s booster to return to touchdown, however Sunday’s mission will function a touchdown on SpaceX’s offshore restoration platform.
ROCKET: Falcon 9 (B1061.9)
PAYLOAD: Globalstar FM15
LAUNCH SITE: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: June 19, 2022
LAUNCH TIME: 12:27:36 a.m. EDT (0427:36 GMT)
WEATHER FORECAST: 70% probability of acceptable climate; Low threat of higher degree winds; Low threat of unfavorable situations for booster restoration
BOOSTER RECOVERY: “Just Read the Instructions” drone ship east of Charleston, South Carolina
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: Northeast
TARGET ORBIT: Approximately 870 miles (1,400 kilometers)
LAUNCH TIMELINE:
- T+00:00:00: Liftoff
- T+00:01:12: Maximum aerodynamic strain (Max-Q)
- T+00:02:31: First stage fundamental engine cutoff (MECO)
- T+00:02:35: Stage separation
- T+00:02:43: Second stage engine ignition (SES 1)
- T+00:02:54: Fairing jettison
- T+00:08:10: First stage entry burn ignition (three engines)
- T+00:08:36: First stage entry burn cutoff
- T+00:09:36: First stage touchdown burn ignition (one engine)
- T+00:09:58: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 1)
- T+00:10:00: First stage touchdown
- T+01:04:32: Second stage engine ignition (SES 2)
- T+01:04:36: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 2)
- T+01:47:12: Second stage engine ignition (SES 3)
- T+01:47:20: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 3)
- T+01:53:21: Globalstar FM15 separation
MISSION STATS:
- one hundred and sixtieth launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010
- 168th launch of Falcon rocket household since 2006
- ninth launch of Falcon 9 booster B1061
- 139th Falcon 9 launch from Florida’s Space Coast
- 89th Falcon 9 launch from pad 40
- 144th launch general from pad 40
- 102nd flight of a reused Falcon 9 booster
- 1st SpaceX launch for Globalstar
- 82nd Thales Alenia Space-built satellite tv for pc launched by SpaceX
- twenty sixth Falcon 9 launch of 2022
- twenty sixth launch by SpaceX in 2022
- twenty sixth orbital launch try primarily based out of Cape Canaveral in 2022
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.