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[…] complex unused for a launch since the Ares I-X test flight back in October 2009—Artemis I marked the initial voyage of the 322-foot-tall (98-meter) Space Launch System (SLS), which has now decisively surpassed the Saturn V as the most powerful rocket ever successfully […]
[…] the mud having barely settled from its final flight of 2022, SpaceX is gearing up for a heavy plate of missions in 2023, as a record-tying Falcon 9 stands […]
[…] the dust having barely settled from its final flight of 2022, SpaceX is gearing up for a heavy plate of missions in 2023, as a record-tying Falcon 9 stands […]
@SpaceX aims to kick off an ambitious 2023 manifest as early as Tuesday, with the 114-strong Transporter-6 payload haul.
The post SpaceX’s First 2023 Mission Includes 114-Strong Payload Haul first appeared on AmericaSpace.
And that's a wrap. @SpaceX closed out a record-setting 2022 overnight Thursday/Friday, with its 61st launch of the year and its 7th mission in a single calendar month.
The post SpaceX Wraps Up Banner 2022, With Year-End Launch of Israeli Spy Satellite first appeared on AmericaSpace.
[…] Sixty-one missions almost doubles SpaceX’s previous personal-best of 31 launches, achieved at the close of last year. And that raft of flights has been achieved using only 17 Falcon 9 cores, one of which flew no less than eight times. […]
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with the EROS C3 Earth observation satellite for ImageSat International. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
[…] 2022, nearly doubling its earlier personal-best of 31 launches, achieved on the shut of final yr. The veteran B1062 core—flying a record-breaking eighth time in a single calendar yr—took flight from storied Space […]
[…] almost doubling its previous personal-best of 31 launches, achieved at the close of last year. The veteran B1062 core—flying a record-breaking eighth time in a single calendar year—took flight from storied Space […]
@SpaceX has wrapped up its 60th launch of 2022, virtually doubling its achievement last year. Next up: a secretive Israeli spy satellite, due to launch from Vandenberg on Friday.
The post SpaceX Launches Year’s 60th Mission, Looks Ahead to Busy 2023 first appeared on AmericaSpace.
[…] to alight on solid ground at Landing Zone (LZ)-4. If accomplished successfully, this will mark the second “land” landing of a Falcon 9 at Vandenberg this month and the fourth of December […]
SpaceX is scheduled to launch a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Wednesday with 54 more Starlink internet satellites, a mission that will begin populating a new orbital shell authorized by federal regulators earlier this month for the company’s Starlink Gen2 network.
Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on SpaceX’s Starlink 5-1 mission is set for 4:40 a.m. EST (0940 GMT) Wednesday. The mission will be SpaceX’s 60th launch of the year, with one more Falcon 9 flight set to blast off later this week from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, with an Israeli Earth-imaging satellite.
There’s a greater than 90% chance of favorable weather for launch Wednesday, according to the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral.
The 54 satellites launching Wednesday will be the first spacecraft deployed into a new segment of the Starlink constellation. The Falcon 9 rocket will aim to release the 54 satellites at an orbital altitude and inclination set aside for use by SpaceX’s second-generation Starlink network, which the company eventually intends to launch on the new Starship mega-rocket.
SpaceX is developing a much larger, higher-power Starlink satellite platform capable transmitting signals directly to cell phones. But with the Starship’s first orbital test flight still on hold, SpaceX officials have signaled they will start launching the Gen2 satellites on Falcon 9 rockets. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, suggested in August that the company could develop a miniature version of the Gen2 satellites to fit on the Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX has revealed little information about the Starlink 5-1 mission set to take off Wednesday. It’s unclear whether SpaceX will use the satellites to test out new hardware or software to be used on the Gen2 network.
But the circumstances of the flight suggest the Starlink satellites on-board the Falcon 9 rocket are similar in size to SpaceX’s existing Starlink spacecraft, and not the larger Gen2 satellites destined to fly on the huge new Starship rocket, or even the mini Gen2 satellites Musk mentioned earlier this year. There are 54 satellites on the Falcon 9 launcher set to fly Wednesday, the same number SpaceX has launched on many recent Starlink missions.
The Federal Communications Commission granted SpaceX approval Dec. 1 to launch up to 7,500 of its planned 29,988-spacecraft Starlink Gen2 constellation. The regulatory agency deferred a decision on the remaining satellites SpaceX proposed for Gen2.
The FCC previously authorized SpaceX to launch and operate up to 12,000 Starlink satellites, including roughly 4,400 first-generation Ka-band and Ku-band Starlink spacecraft that SpaceX has been launching since 2019. SpaceX also received regulatory approval to launch more than 7,500 Starlink satellites operating in a different V-band frequency.
SpaceX told the FCC earlier this year it planned to consolidate the V-band Starlink fleet into the larger Gen2 constellation.
The Gen2 satellites could improve Starlink coverage over lower latitude regions, and help alleviate pressure on the network from growing consumer uptake. SpaceX said earlier this month the network now has more than 1 million active subscribers. The Starlink spacecraft beam broadband internet signals to consumers around the world, connectivity that is now available on all seven continents with testing underway at a research station in Antarctica.
“Our action will allow SpaceX to begin deployment of Gen2 Starlink, which will bring next generation satellite broadband to Americans nationwide, including those living and working in areas traditionally unserved or underserved by terrestrial systems,” the FCC wrote in its Dec. 1 order partially approving the Starlink Gen2 constellation. “Our action also will enable worldwide satellite broadband service, helping to close the digital divide on a global scale.
“At the same time, this limited grant and associated conditions will protect other satellite and terrestrial operators from harmful interference and maintain a safe space environment, promoting competition and protecting spectrum and orbital resources for future use,” the FCC wrote. “We defer action on the remainder of SpaceX’s application at this time.”
Specifically, the FCC granted SpaceX authority to launch the initial block of 7,500 Starlink Gen2 satellites into orbits at 525, 530, and 535 kilometers, with inclinations of 53, 43, and 33 degrees, respectively, using Ku-band and Ka-band frequencies. The FCC deferred a decision on SpaceX’s request to operate Starlink Gen2 satellites in higher and lower orbits.
The Starlink 5-1 mission set to fly Wednesday will target the 530-kilometer-high (329-mile) orbit at an inclination of 43 degrees to the equator.
Going into Wednesday’s mission, SpaceX has launched 3,612 Starlink satellites on more than 60 Falcon 9 rocket missions, including prototypes and failed spacecraft. The company currently has more than 3,200 functioning Starlink satellites in space, with about 3,000 operational and nearly 200 moving into their operational orbits, according to a tabulation by Jonathan McDowell, an expert tracker of spaceflight activity and an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The first-generation Starlink network architecture includes satellites flying a few hundred miles up, orbiting at inclinations of 97.6 degrees, 70 degrees, 53.2 degrees, and 53.0 degrees to the equator. Most of SpaceX’s recent Starlink launches have released satellites into Shell 4, at an inclination of 53.2 degrees, after the company largely completed launches into the first 53-degree inclination shell last year.
Shell 5 of the Starlink network was widely believed to be one of the polar-orbiting layers of the constellation, at 97.6 degrees inclination. But the name of Wednesday’s mission — Starlink 5-1 — might suggest SpaceX has changed the naming scheme for the Starlink shells.
SpaceX’s launch team will be stationed inside a launch control center just south of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for Wednesday’s predawn countdown. SpaceX will team will begin loading super-chilled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the Falcon 9 vehicle at T-minus 35 minutes.
Helium pressurant will also flow into the rocket in the last half-hour of the countdown. In the final seven minutes before liftoff, the Falcon 9’s Merlin main engines will be thermally conditioned for flight through a procedure known as “chilldown.” The Falcon 9’s guidance and range safety systems will also be also configured for launch.
After liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket will vector its 1.7 million pounds of thrust — produced by nine Merlin engines — to steer southeast over the Atlantic Ocean. The launch marks the resumption of Starlink missions from Cape Canaveral using the southeasterly launch corridor, as SpaceX did last winter to take advantage of better sea conditions for landing of the Falcon 9’s first stage booster.
Throughout the summer and fall, SpaceX launched Starlink missions on paths toward the northeast from Florida’s Space Coast.
The Falcon 9 rocket will exceed the speed of sound in about one 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 from cold gas control thrusters and extended titanium grid fins to help steer the vehicle back into the atmosphere.
Two braking burns will slow the rocket for landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” around 410 miles (660 kilometers) downrange approximately nine minutes after liftoff.
The Falcon 9’s reusable payload fairing will jettison during the second stage burn. A recovery ship is also on station in the Atlantic to retrieve the two halves of the nose cone after they splash down under parachutes.
Landing of the first stage on Saturday’s mission will occur moments after the Falcon 9’s second stage engine cuts off to deliver the Starlink satellites into orbit. Separation of the 54 Starlink spacecraft, built by SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, from the Falcon 9 rocket is expected around 15 minutes after liftoff.
The Falcon 9’s guidance computer aims to deploy the satellites into an elliptical orbit at an inclination of 43 degrees to the equator, with an altitude ranging between 131 miles and 210 miles (212-by-338 kilometers). After separating from the rocket, the 54 Starlink spacecraft will unfurl solar arrays and run through automated activation steps, then use ion engines to maneuver into their operational orbit.
ROCKET: Falcon 9 (B1062.11)
PAYLOAD: 54 Starlink satellites (Starlink 5-1)
LAUNCH SITE: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: Dec. 28, 2022
LAUNCH TIME: 4:40:10 a.m. EST (0940:10 GMT)
WEATHER FORECAST: Greater than 90% chance of acceptable weather; Low risk of upper level winds; Moderate risk of unfavorable conditions for booster recovery
BOOSTER RECOVERY: “A Shortfall of Gravitas” drone ship northeast of the Bahamas
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: Southeast
TARGET ORBIT: 131 miles by 210 miles (212 kilometers by 338 kilometers), 43.0 degrees inclination
LAUNCH TIMELINE:
MISSION STATS:
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[…] Most recently flown on 20 October, B1062 has now lifted to orbit eight people, two Block III GPS payloads, over 260 Starlinks and Egypt’s powerful Nilesat-301 geostationary communications satellite. Her ten missions ended with ten on-point touchdowns on the deck of the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS), 5 aboard the latest addition to the SpaceX fleet, “A Shortfall of Gravitas” (ASOG). […]
[…] d’appontage (LZ)-4. Si ceci est fable en même temps que best-seller, ce sera un annonce Le deuxième atterrissage “terrestre” du Falcon 9 à Vandenberg ce mois-ci Et le 4 décembre au […]
[…] Dernier vol le 20 octobreB1062 a présentement mis en rotation huit gens, quelques offices utiles GPS Block III et avec de 260 Starlinks. Et le satellite égyptien Nilesat 301 pour les communications géostationnaires. Ses dix missions se sont terminées par dix passages directs sur le appontement du bateau Autonomous Unmanned Space Livraison (ASDS) et cinq à berge du benjamin de la escadre de SpaceX, “Lack of Gravitas” (ASOG). […]
[…] And ASOG will again be put into service to support tomorrow’s scheduled launch, having put to sea out of Port Canaveral on Christmas Eve, targeting a recovery spot in the Atlantic Ocean. First used in August 2021, ASOG has supported 25 landings by eight boosters, most recently earlier this month. […]
[…] Most recently flown on 20 October, B1062 has now lifted to orbit eight humans, two Block III GPS payloads, over 260 Starlinks and Egypt’s powerful Nilesat-301 geostationary communications satellite. Her ten missions ended with ten on-point touchdowns on the deck of the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS), five aboard the newest addition to the SpaceX fleet, “A Shortfall of Gravitas” (ASOG). […]
After a banner year of achievements, @SpaceX zeroes-in on its 60th launch of 2022, targeted for NET 9:40 a.m. EST tomorrow.
The post SpaceX Heads for 60th Launch of 2022; East and West Coast Missions Planned Before New Year’s Eve first appeared on AmericaSpace.
Another roll-out solar array will be installed and deployed by astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada outside the International Space Station on Thursday. The two NASA astronauts began a spacewalk at 8:19 a.m. EST (1319 GMT), a day later than previously planned after the space station needed to dodge a piece of space junk Wednesday.
Rubio and Cassada will continue a multi-year upgrade to the space station’s electrical system, adding the fourth of six planned roll-out solar arrays to the station’s power truss.
The first two roll-out solar arrays were installed in June 2021 after delivery on a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship. Another SpaceX resupply mission carried the next pair of roll-out solar arrays to the station last month, and Rubio and Cassada installed and unfurled the first of those two units on a spacewalk Dec. 3.
The spacewalk Thursday was originally scheduled for Monday, but space station managers delayed the excursion after a Russian Soyuz crew ferry ship sprung a coolant leak Dec. 14. Instead of using the space station’s robotic arm to support the spacewalk Monday, mission control extended the arm to inspect the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft to aid the investigation into the cause of the leak.
NASA rescheduled the spacewalk for Wednesday, but officials called it off as Rubio and Cassada were preparing for the excursion to allow the space station to steer out of danger from a fragment of a Russian Fregat rocket stage. A Russian Progress cargo freighter docked at the station fired its thrusters for 10 minutes and 21 seconds at 8:42 a.m. EST (1342 GMT) Wednesday to “provide the complex an extra measure of distance away from the predicted track of the debris,” NASA said in a statement.
Without the maneuver, engineers estimated the space debris could have passed less than a quarter-mile from the station, according to NASA.
Rubio and Cassada resumed their spacewalk preps Thursday, put on their self-contained pressure suits, and exited the Quest airlock to start their work with the roll-out solar array.
The astronauts will head to the starboard, or right, side of the lab’s solar power truss, where the station’s robotic arm placed two new ISS Roll-Out Solar Array, or iROSA, units after extracting them from the trunk of SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule. The Dragon spacecraft delivered the solar arrays to the space station Nov. 27, along with several tons of supplies and experiments.
Rubio and Cassada transferred the first iROSA unit to the space station’s starboard 4, or S4, right-side truss segment during a Dec. 3 spacewalk. On Thursday, the spacewalker will complete similar tasks to move the other iROSA unit to the opposite side of the power truss, which stretches as long as a football field.
The new solar arrays are wrapped around spools for launch and then unroll like a yoga mat once installed onto their mounting brackets on the space station.
After releasing bolts and launch restraints on the solar array spool, one of the astronauts will take position on a foot restraint on the end of the Canadian-built robotic arm and carry the 750-pound (340-kilogram) iROSA unit to the port 4, or P4, truss segment.
Rubio and Cassada will position the spool onto a mounting bracket put in place on the P4 truss during a spacewalk last year. They will unfold the iROSA unit on its hinge, then install bolts to secure it into place and mate electrical connectors to link the new iROSA unit to the space station’s electrical system. Then the astronauts will put in a Y cable to route power generated by both the new roll-out solar array and the original P4 solar panel into the lab’s power grid.
The mounting bracket plugs the new arrays into the station’s power channels and rotary joints, which keep the solar wings pointed at the sun as the spacecraft races around Earth at more than 17,000 mph.
Once the new iROSA unit is mechanically and electrically integrated onto the station’s S4 truss, the astronauts will release clamps keeping the roll-out solar array spooled in its launch configuration. That will allow the blankets to gradually unroll using strain energy in the composite booms supporting the solar blanket. The design of the deployment mechanism eliminates the need for motors to drive out the solar array.
The carbon fiber support booms were rolled back against their natural shape for storage during launch.
It will take about 10 minutes for the solar array to unroll to its fully extended configuration, stretching about 63 feet long and 20 feet wide (19-by-6 meters), about half the length and half the width of the station’s original solar panels. The solar array blanket will be canted at an angle relative to the original solar panel on the P4 truss, allowing sunlight to illuminate the new and old arrays.
Despite their smaller size, each of the new arrays generate about the same amount of electricity as each of the station’s existing solar panels.
Once the blanket unfurled, the astronauts will adjust tensioning bolts to secure the iROSA blanket in place.
The International Space Station has eight power channels, each fed with electrical power generated from one solar array wing extending from the station’s truss backbone. The new solar array to be deployed Thursday will produce electricity for the space station’s 4A power channel.
The original solar panels launched on four space shuttle missions from 2000 to 2009. As expected, the efficiency of the station’s original solar arrays has degraded over time. NASA is upgrading the space station’s power system with the new roll-out solar arrays — at a cost of $103 million — which will partially cover six of the station’s eight original solar panels.
When all six iROSA units are deployed on the station, the power system will be capable of generating 215 kilowatts of electricity to support at least another decade of science operations. That’s a 30% increase in power generation capability. The enhancement will also accommodate new commercial modules planned to launch to the space station.
The first pair of new roll-out solar arrays launched to the space station last year, and were installed over the station’s oldest set of original solar panels on the P6 truss section, located on the far left end of the outpost’s power truss. Two more iROSA units are slated to launch on a SpaceX resupply mission next year.
The new solar arrays were supplied to NASA by Boeing, Redwire, and a team of subcontractors.
Once Rubio and Cassada finish their work, they will head back to the Quest module and repressurize the airlock compartment to wrap up the spacewalk. NASA expects the excursion to last about seven hours.
The spacewalk Thursday is the second in the careers of Cassada and Rubio, and the 257th spacewalk since 1998 in support of International Space Station assembly and maintenance.
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Dust-laden solar panels and darker Martian skies have finally sealed the fate of NASA’s InSight mission, the agency announced Wednesday, after the intrepid lander delivered its final message from Mars at the end of its history-making mission to reveal the secrets of the Red Planet’s interior.
Shared on the NASA InSight Twitter account on Monday, the message, read: “My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send. Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’ll be signing off here soon. Thanks for staying with me.”
The transmission from the planet’s surface was accompanied by what was one of the final wide-angle photos taken by InSight, showing scientific instruments resting on the surface of Mars.
NASA reported Sunday that InSight had not responded to communications from Earth and its last contact with the lander had been three days earlier. NASA formally declared the InSight mission over Wednesday, after InSight missed another communications opportunity with Earth.
The robotic geologist, armed with a mechanical hammer and seismic quake monitor, first touched down on the barren expanse of Elysium Planitia in November 2018. Its landing site, on a volcanic plain near the equator, was chosen for its flat, featureless landscape, allowing for more accurate seismic measurements to be taken directly from the surface.
InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy & Heat Transport) launched on May 5, 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and, after a six-month cruise, landed on Mars on November 26 where it immediately began surface operations with science data collection starting 10 weeks later.
Over almost four years, InSight has yielded data about Mars’ interior layers, its liquid core, the surprisingly variable remnants beneath the surface of its mostly extinct magnetic field, weather in the vicinity of its location on Mars, and lots of quake activity.
InSight’s seismometer, provided by France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), has detected more than 1,300 marsquakes, the largest measuring a magnitude 5. It has also recorded quakes from multiple meteoroid impacts and more than 10,000 dust devils.
Observing how the seismic waves from those quakes change as they travel through the planet offers an invaluable glimpse into Mars’ interior but also provides a better understanding of how all rocky worlds, including Earth and its Moon, may form.
Seismic data analysed to date has revealed the Martian crust is drier and more broken up from asteroid impacts than scientists originally thought and has at least two sublayers, wrapped around a large liquid core.
Since a planet’s full history is encoded in its interior layers, InSight’s findings will help researchers revisit scientific models of how rocky planets form and, ultimately, inform the study of worlds beyond our solar system that could host life.
“Finally, we can see Mars as a planet with layers, with different thicknesses, compositions,” said mission principal investigator Bruce Banerdt, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. “We’re starting to really tease out the details. Now it’s not just this enigma; it’s actually a living, breathing planet.”
James Green, NASA senior advisor, told Spaceflight Now: “The InSight mission answered many important questions that we just needed to know about as scientists but also in support of future human exploration.
“What is the size of the crust, mantle, and core of Mars? Is Mars a dead world or still an active, living planet? How intense are Mars quakes and will they pose a hazard to human exploration?
“To me one of the biggest surprises was finding out that Mars still have a liquid outer core. Now us scientists have to figure out why?”
Indications that InSight’s mission was finally drawing to a close came when the solar powered lander issued an update in November, reminiscing on its time in space. “I’ve been lucky enough to live on two planets. Four years ago, I arrived safely at the second one, to the delight of my family back on the first. Thanks to my team for sending me on this journey of discovery. Hope I’ve done you proud,” it said.
NASA declared the mission over Wednesday when InSight has missed two consecutive communication sessions with the spacecraft orbiting Mars – part of the Mars Relay Network – but only if the cause of the missed communication is the lander itself. NASA’s Deep Space Network is expected to listen for a while longer, just in case.
Managers at JPL have said there will be no heroic measures to re-establish contact with InSight, but haven’t completely ruled out a mission-saving event such as a strong gust of wind that blows dust off the solar panels, though that is considered unlikely.
A vital final step for the InSight mission is storing its trove of data and making it accessible to researchers around the world. Seismometer readings will join the only other sets of extraterrestrial seismic data, from the Apollo lunar missions and the Viking Mars missions, in NASA’s Planetary Data System.
InSight was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space Systems with most of its scientific instruments supplied by European agencies. The spacecraft was originally planned for launch in March 2016 but a last minute repair to an instrument problem pushed it beyond the launch window for that year to the next opportunity in 2018 and increased the mission cost from US$675 million to US$830 million.
The final two spacecraft in Airbus’s four-satellite, 600 million-euro commercial Pléiades Neo Earth observation fleet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after launch Tuesday night, falling victim to a failure of a European Vega C rocket shortly after liftoff from French Guiana.
The Vega C rocket’s launch operator, Arianespace, confirmed the mission failed to place the two Pléiades Neo optical imaging satellites into orbit. The preliminary focus of the failure investigation centered on the Vega C rocket’s second stage.
The 114-foot-tall (34.8-meter) rocket lifted off from the Guiana Space Center at 8:47:31 p.m. EST Tuesday (0147:31 GMT Wednesday) with the Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 Earth-imaging satellites for Airbus Defense and Space. The target was a polar sun-synchronous orbit.
The Vega C’s powerful solid-fueled P120C first stage booster burned nearly two-and-a-half minutes, producing a million pounds of thrust to accelerate the rocket into the upper atmosphere. Heading north from the South American coastline, the rocket shed its spent first stage motor casing and fired a second stage Zefiro 40 motor to continue the climb into space.
Liftoff of Europe’s Vega C rocket on its first operational mission from the Guiana Space Center, carrying two sharp-eyed Pléiades Neo optical Earth-imaging satellites into polar orbit for Airbus. https://t.co/rUACF3jhhj pic.twitter.com/X1NZwlb8mh
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 21, 2022
But Arianespace said in a press release that the rocket ran into trouble about 2 minutes and 27 seconds after liftoff, near the start of the Zefiro 40 motor firing.
“After the liftoff and the nominal ignition of P120C, which is the first stage of the Vega, an underpressure has been observed on the Zefiro 40, which is the second stage of the Vega,” said Stéphane Israël, Arianespace’s CEO. “And after this underpressure, we have observed a deviation of the trajectory and a very strong anomaly. Unfortunately, we can say that the mission is lost.”
Telemetry from the rocket showed the vehicle losing velocity about three-and-a-half minutes into the flight, when the Zefiro 40 motor should have been propelling the Vega C to faster speeds. The rocket appeared to reach a peak altitude of about 360,000 feet, or 110 kilometers. Tracking data indicated the rocket re-entered the atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean, with the final measurement showing the Vega C about 570 miles (917 kilometers) north of the spaceport before it likely disintegrated from heating and aerodynamic forces.
“I want to deeply apologize to our customer, Pléiades Neo and Airbus Defense and Space, for this failure tonight,” Israël said. “And we will now have to work with all our partners to better understand why the Zefiro 40 has not worked properly tonight, triggering the failure of the mission.”
The Zefiro 40 second stage, like the Vega C’s other solid-fueled booster stages, is produced by the rocket’s prime contractor, the Italian aerospace company Avio. The second stage motor is designed to burn its supply of 40 tons (36 metric tons) of pre-packed solid propellant in about 90 seconds.
The launch Tuesday night was the first commercial flight of Europe’s upgraded Vega C rocket, following the Vega C’s flawless inaugural test flight July 13.
The Vega C rocket replaces the old Vega rocket’s solid-fueled first and second stages with wider, heavier motor casings. The third stage motor is unchanged, and the restartable liquid-fueled fourth stage has the same type of engine but carries more propellant. The upgraded Vega C is taller than the original Vega rocket configuration, and has a larger payload fairing provided by the Swiss company Beyond Gravity, formerly known as RUAG Space.
The wider Zefiro 40 second stage on the Vega C rocket replaces the Zefiro 23 motor on the basic model of the Vega rocket, adding 50% more solid propellant and generating 293,000 pounds of thrust.
Here's the statement from Stéphane Israël, Arianespace's CEO, confirming an "underpressure" was detected on the Vega C rocket's second stage Zefiro 40 motor, causing the failure of tonight's launch with Airbus's Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 satellites. https://t.co/rUACF3jhhj pic.twitter.com/9gGdpJs9OV
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 21, 2022
Europe’s Vega rocket family has now suffered three failures in 22 flights. The three failures have occurred on the Vega rocket’s last eight launches, following 14 straight successful flights since the Vega launcher entered service in 2012.
Investigators blamed a 2019 launch mishap on a “thermo-structural failure” on the Vega rocket’s Zefiro 23 second stage. A 2020 launch failure was traced to misplaced cables on the Vega rocket’s liquid-fueled upper stage, called the Attitude and Vernier Upper Module.
The Vega rocket had amassed four straight successful launches, including the debut of the Vega C, before Tuesday night’s doomed mission.
The satellites lost on the Vega C rocket were the third and fourth spacecraft in a quartet of Airbus-built and -owned Earth observation satellites. The first two Pléiades Neo satellites launched in 2021 on separate Vega rockets, but Airbus put the third and fourth spacecraft of the constellation on the same mission to take advantage of the Vega C rocket’s heavier carrying capacity.
The Pléiades Neo satellites feature improvements over Airbus’s two first-generation Pléiades Earth observation satellites launched in 2011 and 2012. Airbus says it entirely funded the development of the Pléiades Neo satellites, with intentions to sell the imagery commercially to private companies and government users. The company announced the Pléiades Neo program in 2016, and Airbus assembled the Pléiades Neo spacecraft at its facility in Toulouse, France.
The four-satellite program was expected to cost Airbus about 600 million euros, or roughly $700 million.
The Pléiades Neo satellites can produce optical imagery of Earth’s surface with a resolution of 11.8 inches, or 30 centimeters, according to Airbus. That’s good enough to resolve features such as vehicles and road markings. The first two Pléiades satellites launched more than a decade ago have 19.6-inch, or 50-centimeter, resolution.
Airbus has released imagery from the first two Pléiades Neo satellites showcasing their capabilities, picturing lava flows from volcanic eruptions, large-scale music and sports events, and views of aircraft and rockets at airports and spaceports.
The imaging resolution of Airbus’s four Pléiades Neo satellites is comparable to the resolution provided by Maxar’s six-satellite WorldView Legion surveillance satellites due to begin launching next year. The companies are competitors, providing the highest-resolution Earth observation imagery on the global commercial market.
With the help of laser inter-satellite communications links, the Pléiades Neo satellites will be able to respond rapidly to tasking requests within a half-hour, according to Airbus.
A single Pléiades Neo satellite, using a new agile pointing capability enabled by control moment gyroscopes, can turn side-to-side to observe the same location every two days. Once all four satellites are in orbit, the constellation will be able to image any location on Earth twice a day.
Each Pléiades Neo spacecraft is designed to operate for at least 10 years. One Pléiades Neo satellite can collect images covering an area of nearly 200,000 square miles (500,000 square kilometers) every day, Airbus says.
The applications for Pléiades Neo imagery include urban planning and city management, climate change assessments, and determining the impacts of pollution. The satellites can also be tasked to assess the damage from natural disasters, and the imagery also has military applications.
The Vega C rocket aimed to deploy the Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 satellites into a polar, or north-south, orbit about 385 miles (620 kilometers) above Earth.
Europe’s Vega rocket family is designed to carry small to medium-size satellites into orbit. Developed in partnership between Avio and the European Space Agency, the upgraded Vega C rocket is capable of hauling up to 5,070 pounds (2.3 metric tons) of payload mass to a 435-mile-high (700-kilometer) polar orbit, an increase over the 3,300-pound (1.5-metric ton) capacity of the basic model of the Vega rocket.
ESA and the European Commission reached an agreement with Arianespace last month to launch five satellites for Europe’s Copernicus Earth observing system on Vega C rockets. The new deal increased Arianespace’s backlog to 15 Vega missions, including 13 Vega C missions and two more launches with the original Vega rocket configuration.
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Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Vega C rocket with the Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 commercial Earth observation satellites for Airbus. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.
Arianespace’s live video webcast begins at approximately 0120 GMT (8:20 p.m. EST), and will be available on this page.
Two Pléiades Neo Earth observation satellites are set to join Airbus’s constellation of high-resolution optical imagers with a launch Tuesday night from French Guiana on the first commercial flight of Europe’s Vega C rocket, a mission delayed from November to change out suspect hardware on the launcher’s payload fairing.
Liftoff is set for 9:47 p.m. EST Tuesday (0147 GMT Wednesday) from the Guiana Space Center in South America, marking the 22nd flight of Europe’s solid-fueled Vega rocket family, and the second in the uprated Vega C configuration.
The 114-foot-tall (34.8-meter) Vega C rocket will propel itself north from the European-run spaceport in French Guiana, heading for a polar orbit with the two Pléiades Neo Earth-imaging satellites for Airbus. The satellites each weigh about a ton at liftoff, and are stacked one on top of the other inside the Vega C’s payload shroud.
The mission Tuesday night, designated VV22, will be the first commercial flight of the new Vega C rocket configuration, following the Vega C’s inaugural test flight July 13 sponsored by the European Space Agency. Arianespace, the Vega rocket’s commercial operator, is in charge of the launch of Airbus’s Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 satellites.
The launch was delayed from Nov. 24 to replace faulty hardware in the pyrotechnic system responsible for jettisoning the Vega C rocket’s payload fairing a few minutes after liftoff. The aerodynamic fairing encloses the Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 satellites during the rocket’s climb through the atmosphere.
The Vega C rocket replaces the old Vega rocket’s solid-fueled first and second stages with wider, heavier motor casings. The third stage motor is unchanged, and the restartable liquid-fueled fourth stage has the same type of engine but carries more propellant. The Vega C’s prime contract, the Italian aerospace company Avio, says the upgraded rocket is capable of hauling up to 5,070 pounds (2.3 metric tons) of payload mass to a 435-mile-high (700-kilometer) polar orbit, an increase over the 3,300-pound (1.5-metric ton) capacity of the basic model of the Vega rocket.
The upgraded Vega C is also taller than the older Vega rocket configuration, and has a larger payload fairing provided by the Swiss company Beyond Gravity, formerly known as RUAG Space.
The higher-performing Vega C can carry two of Airbus’s Pléiades Neo Earth observation satellites on a single mission. The first two satellites in the four-satellite Pléiades Neo constellation launched on separate Vega rockets in 2021.
The Pléiades Neo satellites feature improvements over Airbus’s first-generation Pléiades Earth observation satellites launched in 2011 and 2012. Airbus says it entirely funded the development of the Pléiades Neo satellites, with intentions to sell the imagery commercially to private companies and government users. The company announced the Pléiades Neo program in 2016, and Airbus assembled the Pléiades Neo spacecraft at its facility in Toulouse, France.
The four-satellite program is costing Airbus about 600 million euros, or roughly $700 million.
The Pléiades Neo satellites can produce optical imagery of Earth’s surface with a resolution of 11.8 inches, or 30 centimeters, according to Airbus. That’s good enough to resolve features such as vehicles and road markings. The first two Pléiades satellites launched more than a decade ago have 19.6-inch, or 50-centimeter, resolution.
Airbus has released imagery from the first two Pléiades Neo satellites showcasing their capabilities, picturing lava flows from volcanic eruptions, large-scale music and sports events, and views of aircraft and rockets at airports and spaceports.
The imaging resolution of Airbus’s four Pléiades Neo satellites is comparable to the resolution provided by Maxar’s six-satellite WorldView Legion surveillance satellites due to begin launching next year. The companies are competitors, providing the highest-resolution Earth observation imagery on the global commercial market.
With the help of laser inter-satellite communications links, the Pléiades Neo satellites will be able to respond rapidly to tasking requests within 30 to 40 minutes, according to Airbus.
A single Pléiades Neo satellite, using a new agile pointing capability enabled by control moment gyroscopes, can turn side-to-side to observe the same location every two days. Once all four satellites are in orbit, the constellation will be able to image any location on Earth twice a day.
Each Pléiades Neo spacecraft is designed to operate for at least 10 years. One Pléiades Neo satellite can collect images covering an area of nearly 200,000 square miles (500,000 square kilometers) every day, Airbus says.
“We are just one step away from completing this pioneering constellation, which already covers one million square kilometers per day and delivers images at 30 centimeter native resolution,” said François Lombard, head of intelligence at Airbus Defense and Space. “With this upcoming launch, we will double our capacity and be able to respond to our customers’ needs even faster, providing the best quality in the market for a wide range of military and commercial applications.”
The applications for Pléiades Neo imagery include urban planning and city management, climate change assessments, and determining the impacts of pollution. The satellites can also be tasked to assess the damage from natural disasters.
It will take about 1 hour and 44 minutes for the Vega C rocket to deploy the Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 satellites into a polar, or north-south, orbit about 385 miles (620 kilometers) above Earth.
The first stage of the Vega-C is named the P120C, an enlarged, higher-thrust, longer-burning rocket motor than the P80 first stage flown on the previous version of Vega. The P120C motor, also slated for use as a strap-on booster for Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket, will fire for about 2 minutes and 26 seconds, generating a million pounds of thrust.
The Vega-C’s second stage, the Zefiro 40, will ignite its solid rocket motor for a two-minute firing. The Zefiro 40 produces about 293,000 pounds of thrust.
The Zefiro 9 third stage motor will ignite will 70,000 pounds of thrust, and will burn out nearly seven minutes after liftoff. The Vega C’s 10.8-foot-wide (3.3-meter) payload fairing, wider than shroud flown on past Vega rockets, will jettison during the third stage burn. The larger fairing allows larger satellites, or more small payloads, to fit into the rocket’s upper compartment.
The Vega C’s upper stage, called the AVUM+, will take over the mission to place the Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 satellites into orbit. The AVUM+ upper stage, with a Ukrainian-made liquid-fueled engine, will fire two times before deploying the Pléiades Neo 5 satellite into orbit about 56 minutes into the mission. Another burn by the upper stage main engine will position the rocket for separation of the Pléiades Neo 6 spacecraft in a slightly different orbit 1 hour and 44 minutes after liftoff.
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Russian managers are assessing whether a damaged Soyuz spacecraft docked at the International Space Station can safely carry its three-man crew back to Earth in late March as planned or whether a replacement must be launched to take its place, officials said Monday.
“I believe that at the end of December, specialists … will decide on how we will resolve this situation,” Yuri Borisov, director of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said in an interview with the daily Izvestia.
The Soyuz MS-22/68S crew ferry ship presumably was hit last Wednesday by a small piece of space debris or a micrometeoroid that ruptured a coolant line, resulting in an hours-long spray of icy particles that spewed away into space. Cameras on the station have since located a small puncture indicating an impact.
With most, if not all, its coolant gone, temperatures in the dormant spacecraft have stabilized at around 86 degrees. The Russians say that’s within “acceptable limits,” but it’s not clear how that might change when the ship is powered up for re-entry and landing.
If the engineers conclude the vehicle is still flight worthy, cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, along with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, could use it as planned to return to Earth in late March to wrap up a 187-day stay in space.
If the investigators determine the lack of coolant precludes a safe re-entry, a Soyuz already being prepared for the next crew rotation mission could be launched ahead of schedule with no one on board. That Soyuz, like all Russian crew ships, is designed for autonomous dockings with the space station.
Under that scenario, the damaged Soyuz MS-22/68S vehicle could be jettisoned ahead of time and Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio could come home in the replacement ship. Whether they would come home early, on time or after an extended stay is not yet known.
In the meantime, “there is no hurry,” Borisov told Izvestia.
“If the situation is under control and we are fully confident in the spaceship’s working capacity, it will be used for the crew’s standard descent as was planned in March,” he said. “If the situation develops under a different scenario, we, of course, have backup options.”
He was referring to the Soyuz MS-23/69S spacecraft already at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan undergoing normal pre-flight testing for launch on March 16, carrying cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara to the space station. They will replace Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio in a normal crew rotation sequence.
A Russian Soyuz crew ferry ship docked to the International Space Station is spewing particles of an unknown substance, presumably coolant fluid, into space, forcing two cosmonauts to call off a planned spacewalk tonight. Watch live: https://t.co/2lnIsF9yec pic.twitter.com/PeVYnYldon
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 15, 2022
If the damaged MS-22 spacecraft can’t be used to bring Prokopyev and his crewmates home as planned on March 28, the MS-23 spacecraft could be launched without a crew to take its place.
In that case, Kononenko, Chub and O’Hara would have to wait for a downstream flight, but how the always complex crew rotation schedule would play out under that scenario is not yet known.
The coolant leak developed last Wednesday as Prokopyev and Petelin were preparing to float outside the station for an already planned spacewalk. Russian flight controllers noticed a sudden drop in pressure in a Soyuz coolant line. Cameras aboard the lab spotted a thick jet of icy particles streaming away into space, indicating a massive leak of some sort.
The leak lasted for several hours, draining most, if not all, of the coolant in a radiator loop.
Flight controllers studied telemetry and carried out tests of the vehicle’s propulsion system Saturday and found no other problems. The only issue appears to be the loss of coolant.
Overnight Sunday, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston used the station’s Canadian-built robot arm to carry out a close-range photo survey. The arm’s camera spotted what sources said appeared to be a small puncture. Borisov was quoted by Izvestia saying the hole was “tiny.”
[…] house explorersYou’re right here: by Ben Evans November 7, 2022, 1:21 pm 5 Comments Laden with 8,200 kilos (3,700 kilograms) of payloads and provides for the seven-person Expedition […]
[…] 17 boosters, one of which has flown seven times. Twelve flights have been staged out of Vandenberg, doubling SpaceX’s previous annual record of six missions, accomplished back in […]
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. The Electron rocket will carry three radio frequency monitoring microsatellites into orbit for HawkEye 360. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.
Rocket Lab’s live video webcast begins approximately 40 minutes prior to launch, and will be available on this page.
Rocket Lab said Saturday that the company received final approval from NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration to launch their first mission from the United States on Sunday, clearing final regulatory and technical hurdles with a new autonomous range safety destruct unit that delayed the launch more than two years.
There is a two-hour launch window Sunday, opening at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT), for liftoff of Rocket Lab’s Electron booster from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. Forecasters at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility predict a 90% chance of favorable weather for launch Sunday, with only a slight concern for thick clouds.
Rocket Lab and NASA range teams will monitor high-altitude winds during Sunday’s countdown to ensure conditions in the upper atmosphere will permit the Electron rocket to safely climb into space with three small satellites for HawkEye 360, a U.S. company building a satellite constellation to detect and locate the source of terrestrial radio signals.
Rocket Lab has its corporate headquarters in Southern California, and operates two rocket factories in California and in New Zealand. The company’s Electron rocket has flown 32 times from a privately-owned spaceport on the North Island of New Zealand, delivering 152 satellites to orbit on 29 successful missions.
“The final licensing paperwork for launch is complete and we are 100% go for launch tomorrow,” tweeted Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s founder and CEO, on Saturday evening. “Huge thanks to NASA Wallops and the FAA. Time to fly, this time from the northern hemisphere.”
Rocket Lab says the Electron launcher and its three commercial satellite payloads are ready for blastoff. The launch was delayed from Friday to wait for final certification of the rocket’s autonomous flight termination system software. The Rocket Lab mission from Virginia will be the first space launch to use a NASA-developed customizable flight safety system designed to provide autonomous flight termination capability to a range of different commercial launch vehicles.
Other companies, like SpaceX, have developed proprietary autonomous flight termination systems for use on their own rockets. The NASA Autonomous Flight Termination Unit, or NAFTU, can be adopted by multiple launch service providers.
But software problems with the NAFTU system delayed the debut of Rocket Lab in Virginia more than two years.
“I have to say it feels great to be at this point,” Beck said Dec. 14 in a pre-launch press briefing. “Obviously, it’s been a long road. We built the launch site around about three years ago. It was a super-quick build, but … there have been lots of challenges along the way with AFTS (Autonomous Flight Termination System) and COVID, and all the rest of it, but I’m very pleased to say that today we’re all done, which is great. The rocket is ready, it’s on the pad. The team is ready, and it’s time to fly.
“This flight just doesn’t just symbolize another launch pad for Rocket Lab,” Beck said.” It’s the standing up a new capability for the nation. It’s a new AFTS system being brought online for the industry, and it’s a new rocket to Virginia and to the Wallops Flight Facility.”
NASA developed the NAFTU system in partnership with the U.S. military and the FAA. It’s designed to help streamline rocket operations from Wallops and other launch ranges around the country.
David Pierce, director of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, said the rocket-agnostic autonomous flight termination system will help enable “responsible launch capability for the United States.”
“It’s been nothing short of a herculean effort to get us to this point, which I view as a turning in launch range operations, not just at Wallops but across the United States,” Pierce said. Eighteen companies have requested access to the NAFTU software code to merge it with their launch vehicles.
Rocket Lab uses the NAFTU software in a flight termination system system it calls Pegasus. Pierce said NASA has verified Rocket Lab meets all of the agency’s range safety criteria to launch from Wallops, located on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
NASA hoped to have the NAFTU software ready for Rocket Lab to launch its first mission from Virginia in mid-2020. But Pierce said engineers “discovered of a number of errors in the software code” during validation testing. NASA partnered with the Space Force and FAA to fix the software.
“The certification process painfully took well over a year to develop the test procedures and all of the script that you would need to go with that software to ensure that it was safe to operate,” Pierce said. “In 2022, we were in a process where we began independent certification testing.”
Engineers finished independent testing of the NAFTU software over the summer, then completed independent certification of the system in October, according to Pierce. That allowed NASA to hand over the software code to Rocket Lab, which modified it for integration onto the Electron launch vehicle.
According to Pierce, the FAA asked NASA to complete a risk assessment report before giving final approval for the launch. “NASA is fully confident in Rocket Lab’s and NASA’s safety plans,” Pierce said.
A flight termination system is a standard part of all space launches from U.S. spaceports, ensuring that a rocket can be destroyed if it veers off course and threatens populated areas after liftoff. With autonomous flight termination systems, range safety teams no longer need to be on standby to send a manual destruct command to the rocket.
Pierce said the automated system lowers the cost of launch operations. Range teams at Cape Canaveral have said the introduction of autonomous flight termination systems by SpaceX allows for rapid turnaround between launches, reducing the previous two-day stand-down between rocket missions to less than an hour. The Space Force range team in Florida was ready to support two back-to-back launches of Falcon 9 rockets Friday just 33 minutes apart, but SpaceX delayed one of the missions to prioritize the other.
The NAFTU works by tracking the rocket’s location using GPS signals, and then issuing a destruct command if it determines the rocket is outside of a predetermined safety corridor. Rocket Lab has used a similar automated flight termination system for most of its launches from New Zealand.
“The NAFTU system is going to enable launch companies, venture class smaller launch companies, to come at Wallops and be able to launch at an increased cadence, but also enable lower cost launch operations,” Pierce said. “We estimate that this could reduce launch range costs by as much as 30% at our range.”
The Space Force is requiring all rockets launching from military ranges in Florida and California to use autonomous flight termination systems beginning in 2025. United Launch Alliance still uses human-in-the-loop destruct systems, but will transition to automated flight safety technology on the company’s new Vulcan rocket.
Rocket Lab’s launch pad in Virginia, called Launch Complex 2, will give the company three active launch pads, including two facilities at Rocket Lab’s New Zealand spaceport and one at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.
The new Electron launch pad in Virginia is designed to support up to 12 launches per year, including “rapid call-up” missions, giving the military a quick-response launch option, Rocket Lab said when construction was completed at the new launch complex in 2019.
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport is run by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, or Virginia Space, an organization created by the Virginia legislature to promote commercial space activity within the commonwealth. The spaceport on Wallops Island now has three orbital-class launch facilities, one for Rocket Lab, one for Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket, and another used to launch solid-fueled Minotaur boosters.
Rocket Lab’s pad sits next to the Antares launch site on Wallops Island.
Beck said the next Rocket Lab mission from Wallops is scheduled for early 2023. The rocket for that flight is scheduled for delivery to the launch site by the end of this year.
Rocket Lab’s hangar at Wallops is designed to accommodate up to three Electron rockets at a time. With its new Virginia launch site online, Rocket Lab says it will have flexibility to move missions between different launch ranges. And some U.S. government customers prefer to launch their payloads from the United States.
With the two-and-a-half year delay in beginning launches from Virginia, Rocket Lab had to move the launch of the U.S. military payload originally slated for the first Electron flight from Wallops to the company’s New Zealand spaceport.
Three microsatellites for HawkEye 360, based in Northern Virginia, will instead ride into orbit on Rocket Lab’s Virginia launch debut.
“We’re proud to be a Virginia-based company, with Virginia-developed technology, launching out of the Virginia spaceport,” said John Serafini, HawkEye 360’s CEO, in a press release. “We selected Rocket Lab because of the flexibility it enables for us to place the satellites into an orbit tailored to benefit our customers. Deploying our satellites on Rocket Lab’s inaugural launch is a giant leap in Virginia’s flourishing space economy.”
The mission will mark the sixth launch of HawkEye 360 satellites, and is the first of three dedicated Rocket Lab missions contracted by HawkEye 360. All of HawkEye 360’s satellites so far have launched on rideshare missions aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.
HawkEye 360 has launched 12 operational satellites since early 2021, helping detect, characterize, and locate the source of radio transmissions. Such data are useful in government intelligence-gathering operations, combating illegal fishing and poaching, and securing national borders, according to HawkEye 360.
The satellites launching on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket will be deployed into a 341-mile-high (550-kilometer) orbit at an inclination of 40.5 degrees to the equator.
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[…] with 59 launches completed between January and at the moment, utilizing solely 17 boosters, one of which has flown seven times. Twelve flights have been staged out of Vandenberg, doubling SpaceX’s previous annual record of […]
[…] impressive, with 59 launches accomplished between January and today, using only 17 boosters, one of which has flown seven times. Twelve flights have been staged out of Vandenberg, doubling SpaceX’s previous annual record of […]
A remarkable 2022 draws to a close, as @SpaceX's life-leading B1058 booster logs a record-breaking 15th launch and sets a new 3-launch record.
The post Bob & Doug’s Falcon 9 Makes 15th Launch, Sets New Records first appeared on AmericaSpace.
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Starlink 4-37 mission will launch SpaceX’s next batch of 54 Starlink broadband satellites. Follow us on Twitter.
SpaceX plans to launch 54 more Starlink internet satellites Saturday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, using a Falcon 9 booster making its 15th flight to space, a record for the company’s reusable rocket fleet.
Liftoff of the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 is set for 4:32 p.m. EST (2132 GMT) Saturday from Launch Complex 39A. SpaceX is going for its third Falcon 9 launch in less than 34 hours, following missions Friday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station — just a few miles from pad 39A — and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Those flights deployed the U.S.-French SWOT satellite, designed to survey Earth’s surface water resources, and two commercial broadband satellites for SES’s O3b mPOWER constellation.
SpaceX delayed the Starlink launch, designated Starlink 4-37, from Friday to focus on the O3b mPOWER mission for SES, one of SpaceX’s oldest customers.
There’s a 60% chance of favorable weather for the launch Saturday, with isolated rain showers and broken cloud layers predicted over Florida’s Space Coast, according to the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron. SpaceX has a backup launch opportunity available at 4:52 p.m., 20 minutes after the first launch time.
The Falcon 9 will arc northeast from Florida’s Space Coast, aiming for a low Earth orbit inclined 53.2 degrees to the equator. The rocket’s upper stage will release the 54 flat-packed Starlink satellites about 15 minutes into the mission.
The satellites on-board the Falcon 9 will add to SpaceX’s consumer-grade, high-speed, low-latency internet network. Subscribers can currently connect to the Starlink network in more than 40 countries and territories.
The first stage booster on the Starlink 4-37 mission will set a record for SpaceX’s reusable rockets. The booster stage, tail number B1058, debuted May 30, 2020, with the historic launch of NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on SpaceX’s first human spaceflight mission.
It’s flown 14 times so far, helping deliver 723 satellites into orbit. That tally will increase to 777 spacecraft with the launch of 54 more Starlink internet satellites Saturday.
The missions flown by B1058 have included the launch of a South Korean military communications satellite, a space station cargo mission, two Transporter small satellite rideshare missions, and nine flights with Starlink satellites.
The launch Saturday will be SpaceX’s first Starlink mission since Oct. 27. Since then, SpaceX has launched nine consecutive missions for commercial and U.S. government customers.
After Saturday’s mission, SpaceX will have launched 3,612 Starlink satellites into orbit, including prototypes and failed spacecraft. The company currently has more than 3,200 functioning Starlink satellites in space, with about 3,000 operational and nearly 200 moving into their operational orbits, according to a tabulation by Jonathan McDowell, an expert tracker of spaceflight activity and an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The 53 new Starlink satellites will launch into one of five orbital “shells” in SpaceX’s internet constellation.
SpaceX will Shell 4 with Saturday’s mission. The network architecture includes satellites flying a few hundred miles up, orbiting at inclinations of 97.6 degrees, 70 degrees, 53.2 degrees, and 53.0 degrees to the equator. The spacecraft beam broadband internet signals to consumers around the world, connectivity that is now available on all seven continents with testing underway at a research station in Antarctica.
SpaceX is more than halfway complete with deploying the initial fleet of 4,400 Starlink internet satellites. The company has approval from the Federal Communications Commission to eventually launch and operate up to 12,000 Starlink spacecraft, and SpaceX has signaled it could aim to fly as many as 42,000 Starlink satellites in orbit.
SpaceX is developing an upgraded, much larger Starlink satellite design sized to launch on the company’s huge next-generation Starship rocket. But the Starship has not yet attempted a launch into low Earth orbit, and delays in developing and testing the new rocket will likely force SpaceX to start launching a smaller version of the new Starlink satellite design on Falcon 9 rockets.
The Starlink network was conceived as a venture to help draw in revenue to fund SpaceX’s ambition to build a base on Mars. The Starship rocket itself, designed to be fully reusable with relatively low operating costs, is central to Elon Musk’s Mars dream.
The launch Saturday will be SpaceX’s 59th launch so far in 2022. Two more Falcon 9 rockets are scheduled to fly before the end of the year, one from Florida and one from California.
The higher launch rate has been aided by shorter turnarounds between missions at launch pads in Florida and California, and SpaceX’s reuse of Falcon 9 boosters and payload fairings. Launches carrying satellites for SpaceX’s own Starlink internet network, like the mission Saturday, have accounted for more than half of the company’s Falcon 9 flights so far this year.
Stationed inside a launch control center just south of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for Saturday’s countdown, SpaceX’s launch team will begin loading super-chilled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the Falcon 9 vehicle at T-minus 35 minutes.
Helium pressurant will also flow into the rocket in the last half-hour of the countdown. In the final seven minutes before liftoff, the Falcon 9’s Merlin main engines will be thermally conditioned for flight through a procedure known as “chilldown.” The Falcon 9’s guidance and range safety systems will also be configured for launch.
After liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket will vector its 1.7 million pounds of thrust — produced by nine Merlin engines — to steer northeast over the Atlantic Ocean.
The rocket will exceed the speed of sound in about one 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 from cold gas control thrusters and extend titanium grid fins to help steer the vehicle back into the atmosphere.
Two braking burns will slow the rocket for landing on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” around 400 miles (650 kilometers) downrange approximately nine minutes after liftoff.
The Falcon 9’s reusable payload fairing will jettison during the second stage burn. A recovery ship is also on station in the Atlantic to retrieve the two halves of the nose cone after they splash down under parachutes.
Landing of the first stage on Saturday’s mission will occur moments after the Falcon 9’s second stage engine cuts off to deliver the Starlink satellites into orbit. Separation of the 54 Starlink spacecraft, built by SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, from the Falcon 9 rocket was confirmed at T+plus 15 minutes, 22 seconds.
Retention rods will release from the Starlink payload stack, allowing the flat-packed satellites to fly free from the Falcon 9’s upper stage in orbit. The 54 spacecraft will unfurl solar arrays and run through automated activation steps, then use krypton-fueled ion engines to maneuver into their operational orbit.
The Falcon 9’s guidance computer aims deploy the satellites into an elliptical orbit at an inclination of 53.2 degrees to the equator. The satellites will use on-board propulsion to do the rest of the work to reach a circular orbit 335 miles (540 kilometers) above Earth.
After reaching their operational orbit, the satellites will enter commercial service and begin beaming broadband signals to consumers, who can purchase Starlink service and connect to the network with a SpaceX-supplied ground terminal.
ROCKET: Falcon 9 (B1058.15)
PAYLOAD: 54 Starlink satellites (Starlink 4-37)
LAUNCH SITE: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: Dec. 17, 2022
LAUNCH TIME: 4:32:30 p.m. EST (2132:30 GMT)
WEATHER FORECAST: 60% chance of acceptable weather; Low risk of upper level winds; Low-moderate risk of unfavorable conditions for booster recovery
BOOSTER RECOVERY: “Just Read the Instructions” drone ship east of Charleston, South Carolina
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: Northeast
TARGET ORBIT: 144 miles by 208 miles (232 kilometers by 335 kilometers), 53.2 degrees inclination
LAUNCH TIMELINE:
MISSION STATS:
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