![]() Next up is the launch of NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE mission from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center on Dec. SpaceX has three more Falcon 9 launches scheduled from Florida’s Space Coast before the end of December. The on-target satellite deployments punctuated SpaceX’s 27th Falcon 9 launch of the year, exceeding a previous record for Falcon 9 launch activity set last year with 26 missions. This was the ninth launch and landing for this rocket - designated B1060 - in nearly 18 months of service. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster has landed on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX confirmed the deployment of the Starlink satellites a few minutes later, when the rocket flew over a tracking site at the company’s Starbase complex in South Texas. EST (0041 GMT), or 89 minutes after liftoff, while flying outside the range of SpaceX ground stations. The upper stage then released the cluster of Starlink internet stations at 7:41 p.m. The twin satellites, each hosting an optical imaging telescope for Earth observations, separated from the rocket at T+plus 63 minutes and T+plus 67 minutes. That set the stage for the final phase of the mission, the satellite deployment sequence.įirst, the rocket cast off the two 121-pound (55-kilogram) BlackSky satellites fastened to the top of the stack of Starlink satellites. The second upper stage engine firing circularized the rocket’s orbit at about 270 miles (440 kilometers), according to altitude data displayed on SpaceX’s live launch webcast. The Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage coasted halfway around the world, flying over Europe, the Middle East, and the Indian Ocean before briefly reigniting its engine off the coast of Australia about an hour into the mission. The fairing shells on Thursday night’s mission were new. The drone ship will return to Florida’s Space Coast with the booster, which SpaceX will inspect and refurbish for a future flight assignment.Ī SpaceX recovery ship was also on station downrange in the Atlantic Ocean to retrieve the two halves of the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing, which the company also reuses. The first stage, designated B1060 in SpaceX’s fleet, returned to Earth after its ninth trip to space and back. hWuufU3PH7īraking maneuvers using three, then one, of the first stage’s engines slowed the booster for a pinpoint touchdown on SpaceX’s football field-sized drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” positioned in the Atlantic Ocean east of Charleston, South Carolina. Here’s a replay of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket departing Cape Canaveral at 6:12pm EST (2312 GMT) with 48 Starlink internet satellites and two BlackSky remote sensing microsats. ![]() Meanwhile, the Falcon 9’s reusable booster stage coasted to the apex of its ballistic trajectory, then plunged back into the atmosphere at roughly 5,000 mph (8,000 kilometers per hour). ![]() That left the upper stage’s Merlin engine to drive the 50 satellite payloads into a parking orbit less than 10 minutes into the mission. The first stage, itself 15 stories in height, shut down its nine engines and detached from the Falcon 9’s upper stage more than two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. Nine Merlin 1D main engines, burning a mix of kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants, powered the rocket into a clear late autumn sky with 1.7 million pounds of thrust. With a glow of orange, followed seconds later by a ground-shaking rumble, the Falcon 9 cleared the seaside launch complex and arced downrange northeast over the Atlantic Ocean. The two-stage, 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at exactly 6:12 p.m. SpaceX set a new record Thursday for the most missions by the company’s Falcon rocket family in a year, successfully sending a cargo of 48 Starlink internet satellites and two BlackSky optical Earth-imaging spacecraft into orbit from Cape Canaveral. ![]() A Falcon 9 rocket streaks into the sky over Florida’s Space Coast on Thursday night.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |