The Starliner crew module for Boeing’s Crew Flight Test was lifted for attachment to the spacecraft’s service module earlier this year inside the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credit: Boeing/John Grant
The first piloted flight of Boeing’s Starliner astronaut ferry ship is slipping from late April to at least July 21, officials said Wednesday, to allow more time to close out paperwork and to carry out an additional test of the spacecraft’s parachute deploy system.
Already years behind schedule, the Crew Flight Test, or CFT, mission will carry two veteran astronauts – Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams – to the International Space Station to verify its readiness to begin regular service ferrying crews to and from the lab complex.
Commercial Crew program manager Steve Stich said there’s nothing wrong with Starliner’s parachute system and “when we look across the vehicle, the Starliner spacecraft is in really good shape. … The Atlas Launch vehicle is ready for flight.”
But reviewing the paperwork needed to officially clear the spacecraft for flight, along with the addition of another ground test and fitting the flight into a busy East Coast launch schedule, combined to push the long-awaited mission from spring to the mid-summer timeframe.
“When we look at all the different pieces, most of the work will complete in April for the flight,” Stich said. “But there’s one area that’s extending out into the May time frame. And this really has to do with the certification products for the parachute system.
“And so, when we were looking at where to head with the (launch) date, trying to thread the needle at the (Space Force) Eastern Range and then the manifest considerations for ISS, we’ve decided that the best launch attempt is no earlier than July 21.”
Boeing and SpaceX were awarded contracts in 2014 to build commercial crew ships that could carry NASA and partner-agency astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceX, under an initial $2.6 billion contract, designed a crewed version of its Dragon cargo ship that would ride into orbit atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket.
Boeing designed its own capsule — Starliner — under a $4.2 billion contract, relying on United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets for the trip to orbit.
After a successful unpiloted test flight, SpaceX launched a two-man crew to the space station in May 2020. The company has now launched nine piloted Crew Dragon missions, seven for NASA and two privately funded flights.
Boeing had hoped to launch its first crew in 2020 as well, but the company ran into major software problems during an unpiloted test flight in December 2019. After resolving unexpected trouble with corroded propulsion system valves, another test flight was launched in May 2022.
This time around, the Starliner completed its major objectives, robotically docking with the space station as planned. At that point, NASA was aiming for a piloted launch later that year.
But additional analysis and reviews pushed the flight into 2023 and after several more slips it’s now moved out to July, assuming the necessary work can be completed in time and planners resolve a launch date conflict with another Atlas 5 mission.
As for the Starliner’s parachute system, Stich said “there are really no issues or concerns. Those parachutes are installed in the vehicle, they’re in good shape, it’s just a matter of going through all that data and making sure we’re really ready to go fly safely.”
The additional ground test was added to make sure a protective heat shield at the top of the spacecraft will deploy properly under high-stress abort conditions to enable release of the parachutes needed to slow the vehicle during its descent to landing.
“We’re going to do a test at the highest possible (stress) regime that they could see in an abort,” Stich said. “And so we’ll do that test on the ground, just to make sure that system can deploy properly.”
Assuming the Crew Flight Test goes well and the Starliner wins NASA certification, the agency plans to launch two commercial crew flights to the space station each year, one using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and the other Boeing’s Starliner.
With two operational crew ferry ships available, NASA astronauts will have assured access to the space station even if problems ground one of the two spacecraft.
“Getting a second crew transportation capability for the space station is hugely important to us,” Stich said. “And so we’ve been working really hard on that.”
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Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with 10 satellites for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 0 missile tracking and data relay network. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
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This artist’s concept illustrates how the Space Development Agency’s mesh network will detect and track missiles, relay data, and perform navigation and tech demo missions. Credit: Space Development Agency
The U.S. military’s Space Development Agency, established in 2019 to fast-track new national security capabilities in orbit, plans to launch the first 10 satellites for a constellation of hundreds of missile tracking and data relay spacecraft Thursday on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California.
SDA’s fleet of satellites, each smaller and cheaper than the military’s existing satellite, will improve the Pentagon’s ability to detect and track emerging threats like attacks with hypersonic missiles, then deliver the tracking data directly to ground, air, or naval forces using existing tactical radio networks. U.S. and allied forces could then shoot down the enemy missile.
“This is a pretty exciting time,” said Derek Tournear, SDA’s director, in a conference call with reporters Wednesday. “Space Development Agency was established just over four years ago, this month, and tomorrow will be the first launch of our Tranche 0 Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.”
SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture will consist of 28 satellites scheduled for launch this year as a proof of concept for the missile tracking and data relay network, followed by more than 150 additional satellites launching in 2024 and 2025 to provide an initial operational capability.
Combining conventional tactical radio links, laser inter-satellite communications, and wide-view infrared sensors, hundreds more SDA spacecraft could launch later in the 2020s as the Pentagon ramps up efforts to counter new threats from China and Russia.
The first 10 prototype satellites, eight data relay spacecraft built by York Space Systems and two missile tracking platforms manufactured by SpaceX, will head into a 620-mile-high (1,000-kilometer) orbit after liftoff on the Falcon 9 rocket Thursday.
Launch time is set for 7:29 a.m. PDT (10:29 a.m. EDT; 1429 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg, a military spaceport about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles. The Falcon 9 will head south from its launch pad, arcing toward a near-polar orbit inclined 80 degrees to the equator.
SpaceX plans to land the reusable first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket back at Vandenberg less than eight minutes after liftoff, while the upper stage continues into orbit with the 10 SDA satellites.
At the request of the military, SpaceX is not expected to provide live video coverage of the upper stage burn and deployment of the SDA satellites into orbit. The company’s live webcast of the launch will focus on the return of the booster to Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg.
Tournear, who has led SDA since 2019, said the agency was set up to “demonstrate a completely new way to field space capabilities and to operate them.”
SDA, now part of the Space Force, plans to launch satellites in successive generations, or tranches, each introducing new technology. Military officials say SDA’s constellation will be more resilient to attack than the Pentagon’s conventional space assets, which often cost hundreds of millions or billions of dollars apiece and employ a few satellites to fulfill critical national security functions like missile warning, navigation, and communications.
A network relying on numerous smaller satellites could better withstand the loss of a few spacecraft.
“We essentially have developed an architecture based on two pillars,” Tournear said. “Pillar No.1 is proliferation, hundreds and hundreds of satellites. Pillar No. 2 is spiral development. That means that we’re going to launch our spirals, or tranches, essentially every other year.”
The first 28 satellites are known as Tranche 0, with 10 spacecraft awaiting launch Thursday on a Falcon 9 rocket, and 18 more satellites planned for launch on another Falcon 9 mission in June.
“We call it our warfighter immersion tranche,” Tournear said.
Later this year, military units at Eglin Air Force Base will begin receiving data from the Tranche 0 satellites for evaluation. Tournear said U.S. Marine Corps units will also incorporate the Tranche 0 satellites during exercises in the Indo-Pacific region.
Then, sometime in early 2024, the Tranche 0 satellites will undergo perhaps their most critical test when the U.S. military checks their ability to detect and track a hypersonic missile. The military’s current fleet of early warning satellites — the Space Based Infrared System, or SBIRS, constellation — is best suited to sensing the bright thermal flash from the plume of a large ballistic missile, not the comparatively dim infrared signature of a hypersonic missile, which can glide and maneuver through the atmosphere to reach its target.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands vertical on its launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base, awaiting liftoff with the first 10 satellites for the U.S. military’s Space Development Agency. Credit: SpaceX
The Tranche 0 phase of SDA’s satellite constellation is budgeted for $980 million, including the 28 spacecraft, two launches with SpaceX, ground systems, and operations, according to Tournear.
“The satellites that we have up there, the intent there is to get them in the warfighters hands so they can start developing their techniques to be able to use them, to give them the timeline to go through their training, and to allow them to start thinking about how they would use the larger constellation once we have it on orbit,” said Mike Eppolito, SDA’s Tranche 0 program director.
“So our’s is intended to be the demonstration tranche that allows them to sort of get their feet wet and start using the capabilities that we’re putting on orbit,” Eppolito said.
“Tranche 0 is made up of 28 total satellites, 20 satellites doing a tactical communication mission to show low-latency communication directly to the warfighter, and then eight satellites that we call our tracking satellites to do advanced missile detection and tracking,” Tournear said.
SDA awarded contracts for the Tranche 0 satellites in 2020, ordering 10 so-called Transport Layer data relay satellites from York Space Systems and Lockheed Martin, and eight Tracking Layer missile detection satellites from SpaceX and L3Harris.
Five of the eight York-built satellites on the first Tranche 0 launch Thursday will each have two laser communications terminals for inter-satellite links, plus a radio frequency communications payload. The other three satellites will have the same hardware, with an added tactical link for data transmission to military forces on Earth. The SpaceX-built tracking satellites each have a wide field of view infrared sensor produced by Leidos, along with two laser communication terminals.
The second Tranche 0 launch in June will carry the Lockheed Martin and L3Harris satellites into orbit, along with the remaining York and SpaceX spacecraft.
“We’re right at two and a half years from order to orbit,” Tournear said. “So we’re pretty excited to show that the model actually does work … to get the capabilities to the warfighter at speed.”
Each Tranche 0 Transport Layer data relay satellite from York and Lockheed Martin cost about $15 million, while the Tracking Layer satellites from SpaceX and L3Harris have an average cost of around $40 million. SDA has not released information about the size or mass of each satellite, or released any photos of the spacecraft during manufacturing and testing.
SDA purchased two dedicated Tranche 0 launches on Falcon 9 rockets from SpaceX in 2020 for $150 million. The agency partnered with the Naval Research Laboratory on ground systems and software development for Tranche 0.
Artist’s concept of the SDA’s next-generation Tranche 1 Tracking constellation, consisting of satellites built by Northrop Grumman and L3Harris. Credit: Northrop Grumman
Tournear said SDA’s emphasis on development speed, tactical needs, and a “proliferated” architecture with hundreds of satellites differentiates the agency from the work of other military space programs. Working with the Missile Defense Agency, which fields a network of sensors on the ground and in space, SDA’s objective is to get actionable missile tracking data in the hands of military forces anywhere in the world
“The warfighter is the the actual one that would be responsible for for releasing weapons in theater,” Tournear said. “Those could be the people on an Aegis ship that are releasing weapons to do an intercept on a missile. Those are the the ultimate customers. Everything we have is focused on the shooter and then working backwards from that.”
After detecting a threatening missile, the tracking satellites will transmit data on the projectile’s location and track to the Transport Layer satellites using laser communications links. Then the data relay satellites will beam the information to the ground using an existing tactical radio network.
“So the tracking satellites would be able to send data down via the transport layer, and get that fused together into a fire control solution with other data inputs,” Tournear said.
“The whole idea of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture is to provide the real-time tactical data dominance for not only advanced missile threats, but any and all threats, so that the warfighter can can have complete situational awareness,” Tournear said.
The launch of the first Tranche 0 satellites was delayed from late 2022 until March due to a power supply problem discovered on the eight York-built spacecraft.
The two-and-a-half year turnaround from contract award to launch is quick by the standards of military satellite procurements. Eppolito, the Tranche 0 program director, said he hopes future generations of SDA satellites will be built and launched even faster.
“First and foremost, a global pandemic wasn’t incredibly helpful for our timeline,” Eppolito said. “I think the other thing that that we are working through on Tranche 0 that will get better with the future tranches is supply chain.
“I don’t think SDA did anything to take space being hard out of the equation here,” Eppolito said. “We’re still dealing with the same space environments, we’re still dealing with the same challenges … I think we solved a lot of those problems because of how agile we were. I think we probably don’t give enough credit to how tailored the agency is to resolve problems quickly.
SpaceX’s patch for the SDA Tranche 0A launch. Credit: SpaceX
SDA is geared toward finding ready-made, off-the shelf technology in commercial industry, such as satellite buses, sensors, and laser communication terminals, and quickly infuse it into military operations.
SpaceX, which has two satellites on Thursday’s launch, has built more than 4,000 small spacecraft for its Starlink broadband mega-constellation. York Space Systems, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris have experience in large-scale satellite manufacturing and space-based optical sensors.
SDA ordered 126 operational Transport Layer data relay satellites last year from York Space Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, plus 28 more Tracking Layer missile detection satellites from L3Harris and Northrop Grumman.
The agency also last year purchased another 12 Tranche 1 satellites from York Space Systems for demonstration of experimentation in tactical communications and integrated broadcast services, and bought 10 satellites from Ball Aerospace to demonstrate low latency data transport and beyond line of sight command and control.
The contracts for those satellites, part of SDA’s Tranche 1, total nearly $3.5 billion. Including the Tranche 0 and Tranche 1 orders, SDA has procured 204 spacecraft to date.
“The launches (for Tranche 1) start in September next year and they launch one a month for the next 12 months,” Tournear said.
A draft solicitation released by the agency earlier this year suggests SDA anticipates ordering as many as 216 more satellites for the Tranche 2 Transport Layer for launches beginning in 2026.
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Watch our live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 5-10 mission at 4:01 p.m. EDT (2001 GMT) on March 29 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Follow us on Twitter.
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SpaceX’s next launch will deliver 56 more Starlink internet satellites into the company’s global internet constellation after liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Wednesday afternoon.
The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 4:01 p.m. EDT (2001 UTC). Forecasters from the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predict a 60% chance of good weather for launch Wednesday.
The primary weather concerns Wednesday are expected to be thick clouds and ground winds. The weather team expects a broken deck of cloud cover and gusty northerly winds Wednesday. SpaceX has backup launch times Wednesday at 5:43 p.m. and 7:22 p.m. EDT (2143 and 2322 UTC) if conditions are not favorable at the first launch opportunity.
The mission Wednesday, designated Starlink 5-10, will continue deploying SpaceX’s older-generation Starlink V1.5 satellites after the company paused launches of new higher-capacity second-generation Starlinks this month.
Ground teams continue troubleshooting unspecified problems with the first batch of new Starlink V2 Mini satellites, which are larger and offer four times the broadband capacity of the older-design satellites. The first 21 Starlink V2 Mini satellites launched Feb. 27 on a Falcon 9 rocket, but stopped raising their altitude earlier this month. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, said the satellites encountered issues after the launch last month, and some of them could be deorbited while others could be salvaged to eventually move into the active Starlink fleet.
The new Starlink V2 Minis carry upgraded phase array antennas and a more efficient, higher-thrust argon-fueled electric propulsion system. They also have two solar arrays, compared to a single extendable solar panel on each Starlink V1.5 spacecraft.
SpaceX’s most recent mission last Friday launched 56 more older-generation Starlink V1.5 satellites, and the launch Wednesday will follow a nearly identical profile to add 56 more.
While the Starlink V1.5 satellites are similar to the Starlink spacecraft SpaceX has launched over the last few years, SpaceX began launching Starlinks in December into orbital planes that are part of SpaceX’s second-generation, or Gen2, network. The Starlink 5-10 mission will continue the Gen2 deployments.
With the 56 new satellites on Wednesdays flight, SpaceX will have launched 4,217 Starlink spacecraft since the first prototypes in 2018. That number includes test satellites no longer in service, and satellites that have already re-enter the atmosphere.
SpaceX currently has more than 3,800 functioning Starlink satellites in space, with roughly 3,300 operational and more than 400 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 Starlink V2 Mini satellites that SpaceX began launching in February represent an intermediate step between the smaller Starlink V1.5 spacecraft and the even larger full-size Starlink V2s, which SpaceX plans to deploy in orbit using the company’s new Starship mega-rocket. The Starlink V2s will be capable of transmitting signals directly to cell phones. But with the Starship rocket still undergoing preparations for its first orbital test flight, SpaceX began launching the Gen2 satellites on Falcon 9 rockets and developed the V2 Minis to fit on the company’s existing launch vehicles.
The Starship has nearly 10 times the payload lift capability of a Falcon 9 rocket, with greater volume for satellites, too.
The Federal Communications granted SpaceX approval Dec. 1 to launch up to 7,500 of its planned 29,988-spacecraft Starlink Gen2 constellation, which will spread out into slightly different orbits than the original Starlink fleet. The regulatory agency deferred a decision on the remaining satellites SpaceX proposed for Gen2.
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. With the launch Wednesday, SpaceX will have flown 330 Starlink Gen2 satellites into orbit.
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 previously authorized SpaceX to launch and operate roughly 4,400 first-generation Ka-band and Ku-band Starlink spacecraft that SpaceX has been launching since 2019.
The Gen2 satellites could improve Starlink coverage over lower latitude regions, and help alleviate pressure on the network from growing consumer uptake. SpaceX says the network has more than 1 million active subscribers, mostly households in areas where conventional fiber connectivity is unavailable, unreliable, or expensive.
The Starlink spacecraft beam broadband internet signals to consumers around the world, connectivity that is now available on all seven continents.
Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX’s vice president of Starlink commercial sales, said earlier this month the company is producing about six satellites per day at a Starlink factory near Seattle.
Like the first three Starlink Gen2 launches, the satellites on the Starlink 5-10 mission Wednesday will eventually maneuver themselves into a 530-kilometer-high (329-mile) orbit at an inclination of 43 degrees to the equator.
The Starlink 5-10 mission will deliver 56 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit. Credit: Spaceflight Now
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. Last year, most of SpaceX’s 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 in 2021.
During Wednesday’s countdown, SpaceX’s launch team will be stationed inside a launch control center just south of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to monitor key systems on the Falcon 9 rocket and at the launch pad. SpaceX 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 southeast over the Atlantic Ocean. 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 separate 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 slowed the rocket for landing on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” around 410 miles (660 kilometers) downrange approximately eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. The reusable booster, designated B1077 in SpaceX’s inventory, will fly on its fourth trip to space Wednesday.
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 Wednesday’s mission will occur just as the Falcon 9’s second stage engine cut off to deliver the Starlink satellites into a preliminary parking orbit. Another upper stage burn 54 minutes into the mission will reshape the orbit ahead of payload separation.
Separation of the 56 Starlink spacecraft, built by SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, from the Falcon 9 rocket was is scheduled nearly 65 minutes after liftoff.
The Falcon 9’s guidance computer aims to deploy the satellites into an orbit at an inclination of 43 degrees to the equator, with an altitude ranging between 185 miles and 210 miles (299-by-339 kilometers). After separating from the rocket, the 56 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 (B1077.4)
PAYLOAD: 56 Starlink satellites (Starlink 5-10)
LAUNCH SITE: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: March 29, 2023
LAUNCH TIME: 4:01:00 p.m. EDT (2001:00 GMT)
WEATHER FORECAST: 60% chance of acceptable weather; Low-moderate risk of upper level winds; Low risk of unfavorable conditions for booster recovery
BOOSTER RECOVERY: “Just Read the Instructions” drone ship northeast of the Bahamas
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: Southeast
TARGET ORBIT: 185 miles by 210 miles (299 kilometers by 339 kilometers), 43.0 degrees inclination
LAUNCH TIMELINE:
T+00:00: Liftoff
T+01:12: Maximum aerodynamic pressure (Max-Q)
T+02:28: First stage main engine cutoff (MECO)
T+02:31: Stage separation
T+02:38: Second stage engine ignition (SES 1)
T+02:46: Fairing jettison
T+06:12: First stage entry burn ignition (three engines)
T+06:31: First stage entry burn cutoff
T+08:04: First stage landing burn ignition (one engine)
T+08:24: First stage landing
T+08:37: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 1)
T+54:04: Second stage engine ignition (SES 2)
T+54:06: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 2)
T+1:04:52: Starlink satellite separation
MISSION STATS:
214th of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010
224th launch of Falcon rocket family since 2006
4th launch of Falcon 9 booster B1077
154th flight of a reused Falcon booster
183rd SpaceX launch from Florida’s Space Coast
119th Falcon 9 launch from pad 40
174th launch overall from pad 40
79th Falcon 9 launch primarily dedicated to Starlink network
19th Falcon 9 launch of 2023
20th launch by SpaceX in 2023
16th orbital launch attempt based out of Cape Canaveral in 2023
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An Electron rocket lifts off Friday with two BlackSky Earth-imaging satellites. Credit: Rocket Lab
Two BlackSky optical Earth-imaging satellites rode an Electron launcher into orbit Friday from New Zealand, while the Electron’s first stage booster gently parachuted into the Pacific Ocean as engineers consider abandoning airborne rocket recovery in favor of ship-based retrieval and reuse.
Rocket Lab engineers will inspect and test components on the Electron booster stage once it returns to the company’s factory in Auckland to see how well the hardware weathered the rocket’s scorching-hot re-entry back through the atmosphere, and more crucially, how the booster withstood the corrosive effects of salt water after splashdown.
The 59-foot-tall (18-meter) carbon-fiber rocket took off from Rocket Lab’s privately-owned spaceport on the North Island of New Zealand at 5:14:56 a.m. EDT (0914:56 UTC; 10:14:56 p.m. local time).
Nine kerosene-fueled Rutherford main engines on the first stage fired two-and-a-half minutes before switching off, allowing the booster to drop away from the Electron’s second stage, which fired a single engine to continue the climb into orbit with two commercial optical remote sensing microsatellites for the U.S. company BlackSky.
The booster arced downrange and briefly climbed above the internationally-recognized boundary of space, then plunged back into the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
The company has attempted to catch returning first stage boosters on two attempts with helicopters over the Pacific downrange from the New Zealand spaceport. On the first try last May, the helicopter briefly captured the booster’s parachute with a long boom, but the pilot commanded release of the rocket and its parachute after observing unexpected loads on the aircraft.
Rocket Lab called off a second catch attempt with a helicopter in November due to a telemetry loss from the rocket on descent back into the atmosphere.
For Friday’s mission, Rocket Lab did not include the helicopter in the recovery attempt, and instead planned to pull the booster from the ocean after splashdown under parachute. Engineers will bring the booster back to shore for inspections, refurbishment, and testing as Rocket Lab aims to eventually reuse rockets on multiple flights.
The boosters Rocket Lab builds for recovery attempts come with red markings, along with a heat shield and a silver thermal protection coating on the outer airframe of the first stage.
The booster was expected to reach a top speed of 5,150 mph (8,300 kilometers per hour). Aerodynamic drag slowed the rocket’s velocity as external temperatures built up to 4,350 degrees Fahrenheit (2,400 degrees Celsius). Then a drogue chute and main chute deployed to slow the booster’s descent for splashdown. Rocket Lab confirmed the booster reached the Pacific Ocean as intended.
Rocket Lab has recovered six Electron boosters since the first try in November 2020. Four were intentionally recovered from the ocean, and two involved a helicopter catch attempt. The company originally aimed to catch boosters with the helicopter to prevent corrosion on the rocket’s engines and avionics from sea water.
Inspections of the booster from the previous rocket recovery last year showed the Electron first stage was in better shape than expected, despite a dunk in the salt water of the Pacific.
“It turns out Electron survives a swim in the ocean well enough that many of its components actually pass re-qualification for flight, so for this mission we are putting the theory to the test of whether we need a helicopter at all,” said Murielle Baker, a Rocket Lab spokesperson and co-host of the company’s launch webcast Friday. “We have added waterproofing modifications to the stage to protect some of the key bits we want to keep dry, and depending on how well ocean recovery performs this go-around, the results may convince the team to stick with marine recovery altogether.
“The benefit of that would mean not only big savings cost to our recovery and reusability R&D, but it would also open up more flexibility for our launch windows and take us from 50% of Electron missions being suited for recovery up to as high as 70% of our missions,” Baker said.
Michael Daly, a Rocket Lab special projects engineer working on Electron reusability, said his team on the recovery boat will clean sensitive parts of the rocket prevent corrosion. Engineers and technicians on the recovery team will perform “operations like de-salting the engines, trying to remove all that bad salt water, and basically just trying to make the rocket survive that experience with the water.
“We’re going to be doing some modifications to the engines as well, in terms of the design to make them more resilient,” Daly said. “A mixture of these de-salting operations once it comes out of the water, as well as these design changes, will hopefully mean that we have to do minimal testing once we get these guys back.”
Once the booster is back at Rocket Lab’s Auckland factory, the company will disassemble and inspect the nine main engines, and remove avionics for examination and re-testing. Rocket Lab has already hot-fired a Rutherford engine recovered from an Electron flight.
Artist’s illustration of BlackSky satellites in orbit. Credit: BlackSky
The two BlackSky satellites launched Friday were deployed by Rocket Lab’s kick stage into a target orbit 280 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth, at an inclination of 42 degrees to the equator.
The two BlackSky Earth observation spacecraft, each about the size of a small refrigerator, were stacked one on top of the other for launch, fixed to a dual-payload adapter structure. The upper satellite deployed from the kick stage first, followed by separation of the adapter, then the release of the satellite in the lower berth around 57 minutes after liftoff.
Each BlackSky satellite weighs about 121 pounds (55 kilograms). The satellites are built by LeoStella, a joint venture between BlackSky and Thales Alenia Space, a major European satellite manufacturer. LeoStella’s production facility is located in Tukwila, Washington, a suburb of Seattle.
BlackSky, with offices in Seattle and Herndon, Virginia, is deploying a fleet of small remote sensing satellites to provide high-resolution Earth imagery to commercial and government clients.
One big customer for BlackSky is the U.S. military and intelligence agencies. BlackSky has agreements to sell commercial imagery to NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
BlackSky says the launch Friday expanded the company’s fleet to 16 operational satellites. The spacecraft were the 18th and 19th satellites launched overall for BlackSky’s commercial Earth-imaging constellation.
The optical remote sensing fleet provides high-frequency revisit capability, capturing images of locations around the world in daylight up to 15 times per day. Spaceflight, the Seattle-based launch broker and rideshare launch provider, managed the launch with Rocket Lab on behalf of BlackSky.
The BE-3 main engine on Blue Origin’s New Shepard booster fails about a minute after liftoff Sept. 12 on an uncrewed suborbital flight. Credit: Blue Origin
Structural failure of the nozzle at the base of a rocket engine powering an unpiloted New Shepard spacecraft toward the edge of space last September triggered a dramatic-but-safe in-flight abort, builder Blue Origin announced Friday, saying the company has identified fixes and plans to resume sub-orbital flights “soon.”
“The direct cause of the NS-23 mishap was a thermo-structural failure of the engine nozzle,” Blue Origin said in a statement. “The resulting thrust misalignment properly triggered the Crew Capsule escape system, which functioned as designed throughout the flight. The Crew Capsule and all payloads on board landed safely and will be flown again.”
The company did not say when flights might resume, only that Blue Origin “expects to return to flight soon, with a re-flight of the NS-23 payloads.”
Owned by Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin built the New Shepard system to carry passengers and microgravity experiments on up-and-down flights to the edge of space some 65 miles up. After about three minutes of weightlessness, the capsules fall back to Earth with a parachute-assisted touchdown near the launch pad.
The aborted flight last September 12 was Blue Origin’s 23rd and the fourth of 2022. Six of the last eight missions dating back to July 2021 carried passengers, including Bezos. Two of the eight most recent flights, including the aborted mission, carried cargo only using a capsule specifically reserved for that purpose.
The ill-fated NS-23 mission began when the hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine powering the single-stage New Shepard “power module,” or booster, roared to life, propelling the spacecraft skyward from Blue Origin’s west Texas launch site.
The early moments of the flight appeared normal as the rocket accelerated toward space, but one minute and four seconds after liftoff, the BE-3 exhaust plume changed color slightly and an instant after that, a large burst of flame erupted from the base of the rocket.
In a fraction of a second, the New Shepard capsule’s abort motor ignited with a rush of flaming exhaust, instantly pushing the spacecraft away from the malfunctioning booster. It then made what appeared to be a normal parachute descent.
The booster, meanwhile, automatically shut down the BE-3 engine and the rocket crashed back to Earth within the pre-defined launch hazard zone. There was no property damage on the ground and no personnel were injured.
A lengthy failure investigation included Blue Origin engineers, the Federal Aviation Administration, NASA and independent analysts who studied onboard video, recovered wreckage, telemetry and laboratory testing.
The investigators determined “the direct cause of the mishap to be a structural fatigue failure of the BE-3PM (power module) engine nozzle during powered flight.”
The higher temperatures and visible “hot streaks” in recovered nozzle fragments were caused by “design changes made to the engine’s boundary layer cooling system.”
“Blue Origin is implementing corrective actions, including design changes to the combustion chamber and operating parameters, which have reduced engine nozzle bulk and hot-streak temperatures,” the company said. “Additional design changes to the nozzle have improved structural performance under thermal and dynamic loads.”
While the next New Shepard flight will carry the same experiments that were launched in the September abort, Blue Origin provided no guidance on when passenger flights might resume.
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India’s LVM3, or GSLV Mk.3, rocket lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center with 36 OneWeb satellites. Credit: ISRO
The successful launch of 36 more OneWeb satellites aboard India’s most powerful rocket Saturday brought the total number of OneWeb spacecraft in orbit to 618, enough for the London-based company to start global broadband service later this year.
The mission was the penultimate launch for OneWeb’s first-generation satellite network, with another batch of spare spacecraft scheduled for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in May. The launch was the 18th flight dedicated to deploying OneWeb satellites, a tally that includes 13 launches on Russian Soyuz rockets booked with the French launch service provider Arianespace, three SpaceX missions, and two Indian rocket flights arranged through New Space India Ltd., the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization.
The milestone mission capped a decade-long effort to develop, build, and launch the OneWeb network, overcoming bankruptcy and the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
“This is the most significant milestone in the history of OneWeb, as we reach the satellites needed for global coverage,” said Neil Masterson, OneWeb’s CEO. “Over several years, we have remained focused on our commitment to deliver a network that will provide connectivity for our customers and communities that need it most. With today’s satellite deployment, facilitated by our expert team and our partners at ISRO and NSIL, we are realising this central ambition and are even closer to changing lives at scale.”
The Indian LVM3 rocket — also called the GSLV Mk.3 — blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, located on Sriharikota Island on India’s east coast, at 11:30:20 p.m. EDT Saturday (0330:20 UTC Sunday) after a smooth countdown. Liftoff occurred at 9 a.m. local time in India.
The 143-foot-tall (43.5-meter) rocket ignited two powerful S200 solid rocket boosters as the countdown clock reached zero. The boosters quickly powered up to generate 2.2 million pounds of thrust, propelling the LVM3 rocket off the launch pad at the Indian spaceport. The rocket initially headed southeast over the Bay of Bengal, then turned south in a maneuver designed to avoid an overflight of Sri Lanka.
The LVM3’s two core stage air-lit Vikas engines ignited about two minutes into the flight, and the burned-out boosters jettisoned to call into the sea. The nose cone on top of the rocket jettisoned moments later to reveal the OneWeb satellites mounted to a dispenser structure. The core stage separated and the cryogenic third stage ignited a hydrogen-fueled engine to fire more than 10 minutes and accelerate the OneWeb satellites to orbital velocity.
The OneWeb satellites began separating from their dispenser on the GSLV’s upper stage at T+plus 19 minutes, 42 seconds. The spacecraft deployed in groups of four over the following hour.
Massimiliano Ladovaz, OneWeb’s chief technology officer, tweeted late Saturday that ground controllers established contact with all 36 satellites after deployment from the Indian launch vehicle. U.S. military tracking data confirmed the rocket placed the satellites into an on-target near-circular orbit with an altitude of about 380 miles (450 kilometers) and an inclination of 87.4 degrees to the equator.
The OneWeb satellites, each weighing about 325 pounds (147.5 kilograms at launch), were expected to deploy solar panels and activate xenon ion thrusters to maneuver into their operational orbit at an altitude of 745 miles (1,200 kilometers). Once in their final orbit, the satellites will be ready to enter commercial service later this year.
OneWeb’s satellites are built in a factory just outside the gates of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida by a joint venture between OneWeb and Airbus Defense and Space. The satellites are are designed to beam low-latency broadband internet signals to customers around the world. Based in London, OneWeb is one of several operators either already launching large fleets of internet satellites, or planning to begin launches soon.
The 36 OneWeb internet satellites were encapsulated inside the LVM3 rocket’s payload fairing. Credit: ISRO
SpaceX’s Starlink internet constellation, which flies at lower altitudes than OneWeb, currently includes more than 3,800 satellites in orbit. Amazon’s Kuiper constellation will launch its first prototype satellites later this year, with plans to deploy more than 3,200 satellites in the next few years.
OneWeb originally booked launches on Russian Soyuz rockets through Arianespace, which had commercial rights to market Soyuz launches on the global market.
Russia’s space agency refused to launch more missions for OneWeb after Western governments levied sanctions on Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Officials from OneWeb do not expect to regain custody of 36 OneWeb satellites that were stranded at the Russian-controlled Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan when launches were suspended.
The company quickly booked launches with SpaceX and NSIL for the remaining launches required to complete the first-generation network. OneWeb also built replacements for the satellites confiscated by Russia.
“This launch is a very important milestone for ISRO as we demonstrated the successful launch of a second consecutive commercial payload of OneWeb,” said S. Somanath, chairman of ISRO, India’s space agency. “This valued customer trusted our capability and we have proved it in a very short span of time.”
An Indian GSLV Mk.3 rocket launched in October with 36 OneWeb satellites, and three SpaceX missions from Cape Canaveral using Falcon 9 rockets in December, January, and earlier in March added 120 more satellites to the fleet. The 36 OneWeb satellites launched Saturday brought the number of active OneWeb spacecraft to 618.
OneWeb has reported failures of two satellites in their constellation.
The final launch of OneWeb’s first-generation network is planned for early May on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. That mission will carry 15 spare satellites for OneWeb, plus a prototype for OneWeb’s next-generation constellation, which could number thousands of spacecraft.
The next OneWeb launch with SpaceX will share a ride to orbit with five spare satellites for Iridium’s voice and data relay network.
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk.3 with 36 OneWeb internet satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.
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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket heads downrange after liftoff Friday morning from Cape Canaveral. Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography
SpaceX continued launching satellites for the Starlink internet network Friday, sending a Falcon 9 rocket aloft from Cape Canaveral with 56 more older-generation broadband spacecraft as ground teams troubleshoot problems with a batch of upgraded Starlinks launched last month.
The 56 satellites were packed on top of the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket for liftoff at 11:43:10 a.m. EDT (1543:10 UTC) Friday from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Riding 1.7 million pounds of ground-shaking thrust from nine kerosene-fueled Merlin main engines, the Falcon 9 accelerated faster than the speed of sound in about a minute as it raced through a sunny sky heading downrange toward the southeast from Cape Canaveral.
Following a now-familiar routine, first stage of the rocket shut down its nine engines two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff, then dropped away to begin an arc toward SpaceX’s landing platform, or drone ship, positioned about 410 miles (660 kilometers) southeast of Cape Canaveral, or northeast of the Bahamas. The rocket, numbered B1067 in SpaceX’s inventory, reignited a subset of its engines to slow down for re-entry and landing, then settled onto the deck of the floating platform about eight-and-a-half minutes into the mission.
The recovery team will bring the rocket, now a veteran of 10 flights to space, back to Cape Canaveral for refurbishment ahead of a future mission. A separate SpaceX team in the Atlantic was on station to retrieve the two halves of the rocket’s payload fairing, or nose cone, after they parachuted into the sea.
The Falcon 9’s second stage fired its single engine two times to inject the 56 Starlink satellites into an orbit about 200 miles (300 kilometers) above Earth, at an inclination of 43 degrees to the equator. SpaceX confirmed the successful deployment of the 56 spacecraft a little more than an hour into the mission.
The 56 spacecraft on Friday’s launch totaled about more than 17.4 metric tons, or more than 38,000 pounds, tying the record for the heaviest payload ever flown on a SpaceX rocket with a previous Starlink launch in January. The company’s engineers have experimented with engine throttle settings, fuel efficiencies, and another minor upgrades to stretch the Falcon 9’s lift capability.
Another Falcon 9 launch set for Wednesday from Cape Canaveral will also carry more than 50 Starlink internet satellites.
Friday’s launch and the SpaceX mission next week were originally slated to loft more batches of SpaceX’s larger, second-generation Starlink satellites. The second-generation “Starlink V2 Mini” satellites are fitted with improved phased array antennas and have four times the communications capacity of earlier generations of Starlink satellites, known as Version 1.5, SpaceX said.
The first group of 21 upgraded Starlink V2 Mini satellites launched Feb. 27 on a Falcon 9 rocket, which released the spacecraft into orbit at an altitude of about 230 miles (370 kilometers). Publicly-available orbital data showed the satellites raised their altitude to nearly 240 miles (about 380 kilometers), but the spacecraft began gradually descending in mid-March.
Starlink satellites typically active their thrusters to begin maneuvering from their initial orbit, where they are deployed by the Falcon 9 rocket, to higher operating altitudes more than 300 miles above Earth. The stall in orbit-raising raised questions among some observers about the status of the new Starlink V2 Mini satellites.
“Lot of new technology in Starlink V2, so we’re experiencing some issues, as expected,” Musk tweeted Wednesday. He added that some of the Starlink V2 Minis satellites could be deorbited, while others will be “tested thoroughly” before boosting above the altitude of the International Space Station, which flies at 260 miles (420 kilometers) altitude.
The Falcon 9 launch Friday and the next flight from Florida on Wednesday were originally supposed to carry upgraded Starlink V2 Mini satellites, but SpaceX has swapped out those stacks of second-generation satellites for groupings of older Starlink V1.5 spacecraft. SpaceX has not confirmed if the problems with the first 21 Starlink V2 Mini satellites were the reason for the payload swaps on the next two Falcon 9 missions.
Friday’s launch was designated Starlink 5-5 in SpaceX’s launch sequence, and the mission set for March 29 is named Starlink 5-10. The launches carry batches of older-design satellites into orbits that are part of the Starlink second-generation, or Gen2, constellation, which will ultimately be primarily populated by Starlink V2 Mini satellites and a larger spacecraft platform called Starlink V2 sized to launch on SpaceX’s enormous future Super Heavy booster and Starship rocket.
The Starship has nearly 10 times the payload lift capability of a Falcon 9 rocket, with greater volume for satellites, too.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral to begin the Starlink 5-5 mission. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
According to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist and expert tracker of spaceflight activity, SpaceX has launched 4,161 Starlink satellites to date, and 3,858 of the spacecraft are currently in orbit, including the 56 new satellites deployed Friday. The rest were prototypes, failed spacecraft, or satellites intentionally commanded to re-enter the atmosphere and burn up.
McDowell said it wasn’t surprising that SpaceX encountered difficulties activating the new Starlink V2 Mini satellites.
“You’re launching a new design of satellite,” he said. “It is really not uncommon for the early weeks of flying a new satellite to discover, ‘Oh, we’ve got some teething problems, we’ve got to debug some stuff before we can really commission the satellite.'”
Another change on the upgraded Starlink V2 Mini satellite design is in the propulsion system. The new satellites are propelled by an argon-fueled electric thruster system, capable of producing 2.4 times the thrust with 1.5 times the specific impulse, or fuel efficiency, of the krypton-fueled ion thrusters on the first generation of Starlink satellites.
Each Starlink V2 Mini satellite weighs about 1,760 pounds (800 kilograms) at launch, nearly three times heavier than the older Starlink satellites. The are also bigger in size, with a spacecraft body more than 13 feet (4.1 meters) wide, filling more of the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing during launch, according to regulatory filings with the Federal Communications Commission.
The larger, heavier satellite platform means a Falcon 9 rocket can only launch about 21 Starlink V2 Mini payloads at a time, compared to more than 50 Starlink V1.5s on a single Falcon 9 launch.
“The V2 Minis, they’re not a completely clean sheet design from V1.5, but there’s a lot of new stuff on them, so we shouldn’t be too surprised that they’ve got some teething problems,” McDowell said.
This 10X time-lapse replay shows SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster soaring high above the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas after blasting off from Cape Canaveral today.
The Starlink V2 satellites will be capable of transmitting signals directly to cell phones, a step forward in connectivity from space that other companies are also pursuing. The V2 Mini satellites introduce E-band for backhaul links with gateway stations.
“This means Starlink can provide more bandwidth with increased reliability and connect millions of more people around the world with high-speed internet,” SpaceX said before the first launch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites last month.
The two deployable solar panels on each Starlink V2 Mini satellite span about 100 feet (30 meters) tip-to-tip. The previous generation of Starlink V1.5 satellites each have a single solar array wing, with each spacecraft measuring about 36 feet (11 meters) end-to-end once the solar panel is extended.
The enhancements give the Starlink V2 Mini satellites a total surface area of 1,248 square feet, or 116 square meters, more than four times that of a Starlink V1.5 satellite.
The FCC granted SpaceX approval Dec. 1 to launch up to 7,500 of its planned 29,988-spacecraft Starlink Gen2 constellation, which will spread out into slightly different orbits than the original Starlink fleet. The regulatory agency deferred a decision on the remaining satellites SpaceX proposed for Gen2.
The Starlink 5-5 mission delivered 56 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit. Credit: Spaceflight Now
SpaceX began launching older-generation Starlink V1.5 satellites into the Gen2 constellation on Dec. 28.
The FCC previously authorized SpaceX to launch and operate roughly 4,400 first-generation Ka-band and Ku-band Starlink spacecraft that SpaceX has been launching since 2019.
The Gen2 satellites could improve Starlink coverage over lower latitude regions, and help alleviate pressure on the network from growing consumer uptake. SpaceX says the network has more than 1 million active subscribers, mostly households in areas where conventional fiber connectivity is unavailable, unreliable, or expensive.
The Starlink spacecraft beam broadband internet signals to consumers around the world, connectivity that is now available on all seven continents.
Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX’s vice president of Starlink commercial sales, said earlier this month the company is producing about six satellites per day at a Starlink factory near Seattle.
A side-by-side comparison of the Starlink V1.5 and the Starlink V2 Mini satellites. Credit: SpaceX / Spaceflight Now
The launch Friday was the 20th mission of the year for SpaceX, putting the company on a pace for approximately 88 Falcon rocket flights in 2023. The company started the year aiming to launch 100 Falcon rockets, not counting the planned debut of the much larger Starship rocket.
Aside from the Starlink mission next week from Cape Canaveral, SpaceX is gearing up to launch a Falcon 9 rocket Thursday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with a cluster of small satellites for the U.S. military’s Space Development Agency.
Up to six Falcon 9 rockets and one Falcon Heavy rocket — made by combining three Falcon 9 first stage cores together — are on SpaceX’s launch schedule in April.
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Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex 1B on Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand with the two BlackSky commercial Earth-imaging satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.
Rocket Lab’s live video webcast begins approximately 20 minutes prior to launch, and will be available on this page.
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Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on the Starlink 5-5 mission with 56 Starlink internet satellites. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
SpaceX Webcast
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A side-by-side comparison of the Starlink V1.5 and the Starlink V2 Mini satellites. Credit: SpaceX / Spaceflight Now
SpaceX’s next two missions will revert to launching older versions of the company’s Starlink internet satellites, instead of new second-generation Starlink platforms as originally planned, while ground teams work out unspecified problems with the first batch of upgraded Starlinks launched in February.
The next two SpaceX launches with Falcon 9 rockets will each carry more than 50 Starlink internet satellites into orbit, beginning with the scheduled liftoff of a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:33 a.m. EDT (1533 UTC) Friday. Another Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral is tentatively scheduled for next Wednesday, March 29, at approximately 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 UTC).
Both launches were originally slated to loft more batches of SpaceX’s upgraded Starlink satellites. The second-generation “Starlink V2 Mini” satellites are fitted with improved phased array antennas and have four times the communications capacity of earlier generations of Starlink satellites, known as Version 1.5, SpaceX said.
The first group of 21 upgraded Starlink V2 Mini satellites launched Feb. 27 on a Falcon 9 rocket, which released the spacecraft into orbit at an altitude of about 230 miles (370 kilometers). Publicly-available orbital data showed the satellites raised their altitude to nearly 240 miles (about 380 kilometers), but the spacecraft began gradually descending in mid-March.
Starlink satellites typically active their thrusters to begin maneuvering from their initial orbit, where they are deployed by the Falcon 9 rocket, to higher operating altitudes more than 300 miles above Earth. The stall in orbit-raising raised questions among some observers about the status of the new Starlink V2 Mini satellites.
“Lot of new technology in Starlink V2, so we’re experiencing some issues, as expected,” Musk tweeted Wednesday. He added that some of the Starlink V2 Minis satellites could be deorbited, while others will be “tested thoroughly” before boosting above the altitude of the International Space Station, which flies at 260 miles (420 kilometers) altitude.
The Falcon 9 launches Friday and March 29 were originally supposed to carry upgraded Starlink V2 Mini satellites, but SpaceX has swapped out those stacks of second-generation satellites for groupings of older Starlink V1.5 spacecraft. SpaceX has not confirmed if the problems with the first 21 Starlink V2 mini satellites were the reason for the payload swaps on the next two Falcon 9 missions.
Friday’s launch is designated Starlink 5-5 in SpaceX’s launch sequence, and the mission set for March 29 is named Starlink 5-10. The launches will deliver batches of older-design satellites into orbits that are part of the Starlink second-generation, or Gen2, constellation, which will ultimately be primarily populated by Starlink V2 Mini satellites and a larger spacecraft platform called Starlink V2 sized to launch on SpaceX’s enormous future Super Heavy booster and Starship rocket.
The Starship has nearly 10 times the payload lift capability of a Falcon 9 rocket, with greater volume for satellites, too.
A view of a Starlink V2 Mini satellite captured by a sensor on a Satellogic imaging spacecraft in orbit, showing the Starlink craft’s solar arrays extended. Credit: HEO Robotics/Satellogic
The Starlink V2 satellites will be capable of transmitting signals directly to cell phones, a step forward in connectivity from space that other companies are also pursuing. The V2 Mini satellites introduce E-band for backhaul links with gateway stations.
“This means Starlink can provide more bandwidth with increased reliability and connect millions of more people around the world with high-speed internet,” SpaceX said before the first launch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites last month.
Another change on the upgraded Starlink V2 Mini satellite design is in the propulsion system. The new satellites are propelled by an argon-fueled electric thruster system, capable of producing 2.4 times the thrust with 1.5 times the specific impulse, or fuel efficiency, of the krypton-fueled ion thrusters on the first generation of Starlink satellites.
Each Starlink V2 Mini satellite weighs about 1,760 pounds (800 kilograms) at launch, nearly three times heavier than the older Starlink satellites. The are also bigger in size, with a spacecraft body more than 13 feet (4.1 meters) wide, filling more of the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing during launch, according to regulatory filings with the Federal Communications Commission.
The larger, heavier satellite platform means a Falcon 9 rocket can only launch about 21 Starlink V2 Mini payloads at a time, compared to more than 50 Starlink V1.5s on a single Falcon 9 launch.
The two deployable solar panels on each Starlink V2 Mini satellite span about 100 feet (30 meters) tip-to-tip. The previous generation of Starlink V1.5 satellites each have a single solar array wing, with each spacecraft measuring about 36 feet (11 meters) end-to-end once the solar panel is extended.
The enhancements give the Starlink V2 Mini satellites a total surface area of 1,248 square feet, or 116 square meters, more than four times that of a Starlink V1.5 satellite.
The FCC granted SpaceX approval Dec. 1 to launch up to 7,500 of its planned 29,988-spacecraft Starlink Gen2 constellation, which will spread out into slightly different orbits than the original Starlink fleet. The regulatory agency deferred a decision on the remaining satellites SpaceX proposed for Gen2.
SpaceX began launching older-generation Starlink V1.5 satellites into the Gen2 constellation on Dec. 28.
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.
The Gen2 satellites could improve Starlink coverage over lower latitude regions, and help alleviate pressure on the network from growing consumer uptake. SpaceX says the network has more than 1 million active subscribers, mostly households in areas where conventional fiber connectivity is unavailable, unreliable, or expensive.
The Starlink spacecraft beam broadband internet signals to consumers around the world, connectivity that is now available on all seven continents.
According to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist and expert tracker of spaceflight activity, SpaceX has launched more than 4,100 Starlink satellites to date, and more than 3,800 of the spacecraft are currently in orbit. The rest were prototypes, failed spacecraft, or satellites intentionally commanded to re-enter the atmosphere and burn up.
Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX’s vice president of Starlink commercial sales, said earlier this month the company is producing about six satellites per day at a Starlink factory near Seattle.
SpaceX test-fired a Falcon 9 rocket for the Starlink 5-5 mission at Cape Canaveral on Thursday morning, the day before its scheduled liftoff. Credit: Spaceflight Now
SpaceX test-fired the Falcon 9 rocket that will launch the next 56 Starlink satellites at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 UTC) Thursday on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral. After a data review, engineers were expected to give the go-ahead for final launch preparations Friday morning. SpaceX has three launch opportunities for the Starlink 5-5 mission at 11:33 a.m., 1:14 p.m., and 2:55 p.m. EDT Friday.
Forecasters from the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predict a greater than 95% chance of favorable weather for liftoff Friday.
It will more than an hour for the Falcon 9 rocket to deploy the 56 Starlink satellites into their targeted orbit, following two burns by the launch vehicle’s upper stage engine. The Falcon 9’s first stage, flying for the 10th time, will aim for landing on a drone ship northeast of the Bahamas around eight-and-a-half minutes after launch.
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After 2 scrubbed launch attempts, @RelativitySpace has launched its maiden Terran-1 3D-printed rocket, but failed to achieve orbit following a 2nd-stage anomaly.
ULA’s Delta 4-Heavy rocket lifted vertical on pad 37B at Cape Canaveral ahead of launch on the NROL-68 mission. Credit: United Launch Alliance
United Launch Alliance’s second-to-last Delta 4-Heavy rocket is scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral April 20 with a classified cargo for the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency, a mission that will mark ULA’s first flight of the year, officials announced this week.
ULA and the National Reconnaissance Office, the customer for the national security mission, announced the target launch date Tuesday.
The mission is known as NROL-68, and is expected to loft a large surveillance satellite into geosynchronous orbit, joining a fleet of government-owned spacecraft designed to eavesdrop on the communications of adversaries and foreign powers. But the NRO does not disclose details about its missions, and independent analysts use information about the rocket’s lift capability, trajectory, and similar past launches to predict the purpose of spy satellite missions.
“Everything’s looking great and we’re on track to launch another vitally important national security capability into space,” said Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, the U.S. Space Force’s program executive officer for assured access to space. “This will be our third national security launch this year.”
“These launches place critical capabilities into orbit for our nation and our allies in what are dynamic times for the space community,” Purdy said in a statement. “Every member of our launch team understands what’s at stake and works with care and efficiency to prepare for what’s going to be a tremendous launch.”
ULA, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is retiring the Delta family of rockets in favor of the new-generation Vulcan launch vehicle, which is scheduled to make its first test flight as soon as early May from Cape Canaveral. The Vulcan rocket will also replace ULA’s Atlas 5 launcher, which will fly 19 more times before retirement later in the 2020s.
There are just two more Delta rockets remaining in ULA’s backlog. Both missions will use the most capable version of the Delta rocket, the Delta 4-Heavy, made by combining three large booster cores together to create a triple-body rocket. The three Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68A engines, burning super-cold hydrogen fuel, will generate 2.1 million pounds of thrust at full power.
The launch set for April 20 will be the 15th flight of a Delta 4-Heavy rocket, which debuted in 2004, and the 44th flight of the Delta 4 family since 2002. The primary customer for ULA’s Delta 4 rocket has been the U.S. military and the NRO.
The Delta 4 rocket program, originally developed by Boeing, followed the Delta 2 rocket, a workhorse for NASA, the U.S. military, and commercial satellite operators in the 1990s and 2000s.
The Delta 4-Heavy’s second stage during pre-launch processing at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Credit: United Launch Alliance
The Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets currently flown by ULA show little resemblance to their forebears, but the names are steeped in history. Rockets bearing the Delta name began launching in 1960, and 387 Delta rockets have flown to date, most recently a Delta 4-Heavy launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California in September. That was the final Delta launch from the West Coast spaceport.
Both Delta 4-Heavy rockets left to fly will blast off from pad 37B at Cape Canaveral on missions for the NRO. The final Delta 4-Heavy will launch the NROL-70 mission in 2024.
ULA ground teams at Cape Canaveral integrated the Delta 4-Heavy’s three hydrogen-fueled boosters after the hardware arrived from the company’s factory in Decatur, Alabama. Then technicians attached the rocket’s upper stage, powered by an Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engine, before rolling the rocket to the pad and lifting it vertical earlier this year.
The launch team completed a practice countdown, or wet dress rehearsal, on the Delta 4-Heavy rocket Monday. The dress rehearsal involved loading thousands of gallons of super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the Delta 4-Heavy on pad 37B.
The mission set for launch April 20 will be the first launch from pad 37B since December 2020.
With the practice countdown complete, ground crews will next hoist the top secret payload for the NROL-68 mission on top of the Delta 4-Heavy inside the launch pad’s mobile gantry structure. A separate team is readying the spacecraft at a separate payload processing facility clean room at Cape Canaveral.
The Delta 4-Heavy rocket will stand 235 feet (71.6 meters) tall when fully stacked on the launch pad.
The Delta Cryogenic Second Stage is integrated with the Delta 4-Heavy rocket’s three first stage core boosters inside ULA’s Horizontal Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Credit: United Launch Alliance
After a few weeks of final checkouts and preparations, ULA will wheel the mobile gantry into position to reveal the Delta 4-Heavy for liftoff. Six hours after launch, the rocket will deploy its classified payload into geosynchronous orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) above Earth and closely hugging the equator.
Reaching such an orbit required the rocket to follow one of the most challenging flight profiles in the launch business, with three burns expected by the Delta’s upper stage to deploy its satellite payload at the targeted altitude.
While ULA preps the Delta 4-Heavy for liftoff from pad 37B, the company is working on the first flight-qualified Vulcan rocket a few miles to the north at pad 41. The Vulcan launch team completed a pair of tanking tests on the first stage of the Vulcan rocket and its Centaur upper stage, an upgraded, larger version the upper stage flown on the Atlas 5 rocket.
The Vulcan rocket will be powered by two Blue Origin-built BE-4 engines on the first stage.
Later this spring, ULA plans to ignite the Vulcan rocket’s BE-4 engines for a brief hold-down test-firing at pad 41, then roll the Vulcan rocket back to its vertical hangar, where technicians will install two strap-on solid rocket boosters and the payload fairing.
The inaugural test flight of the Vulcan rocket will carry into space an Astrobotic commercial moon lander and two prototype satellites for Amazon’s Kuiper broadband network.
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