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EDITOR’S NOTE: The launch of SpaceX’s next mission is scheduled for Sunday at 6:01 a.m. EDT (10:01 a.m. GMT). Daylight saving time begins in the United States at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday.
For the third time in 10 days, SpaceX is preparing a Falcon 9 rocket for launch Sunday from the Florida space coast along with 60 other Starlink Internet satellites. This time, SpaceX aims to extend the reuse record of a Falcon 9 booster to nine flights.
The launch of SpaceX’s next 60 Starlink satellites is scheduled for an instant opportunity at 6:01 a.m. EDT (1001 GMT) Sunday from Station 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The mission will be SpaceX’s eighth Falcon 9 launch of the year, and the third in 10 days from two launch pads in Florida a few miles apart. The previous two Falcon 9 flights on March 4 and March 11 each carried 60 Starlink satellites into orbit.
SpaceX transferred the Falcon 9 rocket for Sunday’s launch to Platform 39A early Saturday, rolling the 229-foot (70-meter) rocket a quarter-mile away from an integration hangar on the southern perimeter. from the historic launch complex, once used as a departure point. point for the Apollo moon missions and numerous space shuttle flights.
Ground crews were to lift the rocket vertically later Saturday to prepare for the countdown to dawn on Sunday, when SpaceX crews will oversee the loading of the two-stage launcher with kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants.
There is a 90% chance the weather will be favorable for takeoff on Sunday morning, according to the US Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron.
The Falcon 9 rocket slated for launch on Sunday will fly with a first-stage booster recovered from eight previous missions. The booster – designated B1051 – will be the first in SpaceX’s inventory to launch for a ninth time. Two different first stages of SpaceX’s fleet, including the B1051, are currently tied for the record with eight missions.
The rocket payload fairing, or nose cone, was also refurbished from a previous mission. The shroud was launched on a Falcon 9 mission in January, and SpaceX salvage ships retrieved the shroud from the Atlantic Ocean.
SpaceX officials said the most recent version of the Falcon 9 booster could perform 10 flights with only minor inspections and renovations between missions. With a review, the Falcon 9 Block 5 boosters could perform 100 missions, said SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk.
Hans Koenigsmann, senior advisor and former vice president of SpaceX, said last month that he believed the 10-flight limit was not a “magic number”.
“We have learned a lot about the renovation,” he said during a panel discussion on February 23 at the 47th Spaceport Summit. “We’re learning… what to pay attention to and maybe some of it is obvious. We want to take care of the heat shield. Some engine components require some degree of inspection on a regular basis to make sure the seals are working, and so on. So we learned with each landing. “
The Starlink network is driving SpaceX’s rapid launch cadence. Koenigsmann said SpaceX will soon hit the 10-flight mark with one of its Falcon 9 boosters.
“I’m pretty sure we’ll get to 10 flights soon, and then we’ll continue to review the booster and assess (if) we can move forward with it,” he said. “My personal opinion is that we will probably continue until we see more damage on the booster.”
Koenigsmann said SpaceX will look at the data rather than specifying a certain number of flights for each recall.
“We will inspect them regularly, at regular intervals,” he said. “And the next time you check the engine for hold and see if there’s any damage there.” For me, it’s an engineering problem. I don’t think the number 10 is a magic number.
“Also, for example, we could start to gradually introduce new components at some point and actually extend the life of the booster,” Koenigsmann said.
SpaceX has launched 1,265 Starlink Internet satellites to date. Some of these satellites were prototypes and re-entered the atmosphere and burned down. Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and respected tracker of space flight activity, says SpaceX currently has about 1,200 Starlink satellites in orbit.
Launch on Sunday will be SpaceX’s 22nd dedicated Falcon 9 mission with Starlink satellites.
The Starlink network could eventually have more than 10,000 satellites, but the first phase of Starlinks will have 1,584 satellites orbiting 550 kilometers above the Earth on trajectories tilted 53 degrees towards the equator. SpaceX has obtained Federal Communications Commission approval for approximately 12,000 Starlink satellites at a range of altitudes and inclinations, all within a few hundred miles of the planet. The low altitude allows satellites to provide customers with high-speed, low-latency connectivity, and helps ensure that the spacecraft naturally re-enters the atmosphere faster than if it were flying further from Earth.
Starlink already provides interim beta service in high latitude regions, such as the northern United States, Canada, and England. Further Starlink launches this year will expand the coverage area.
SpaceX announced earlier in the week that Starlink’s beta service will soon begin reaching customers in Germany, New Zealand and other parts of the UK, including Wales, Scotland, Ireland. North and North of England. These areas could receive beta service in the “coming weeks,” SpaceX said.
SpaceX is accepting pre-orders from prospective Starlink consumers, who can pay $ 99 to reserve their seat online to get Starlink service when it becomes available in their region. For people living in the southern United States and other low-latitude areas, it should happen by the end of 2021, SpaceX says.
Once confirmed, customers will pay $ 499 for a Starlink antenna and modem, plus $ 50 in shipping and handling, SpaceX says. A subscription will cost $ 99 per month.
Starlink satellites are built by SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, and each spacecraft weighs about a quarter of a ton on takeoff. They are fitted with wings of energy-generating solar panels, krypton ion thrusters for propulsion, and visors to dim their brightness to people on the ground, an attenuation added to Starlink satellites last year after astronomers raised concerns that the spacecraft would ruin some telescopic sightings.
Like previous Starlink launches, the satellites will separate from their Falcon 9 launcher on Sunday in a low-altitude transfer orbit, then use their ion thrusters to move higher in the Starlink operational fleet at 341 miles high.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 will aim to land on SpaceX’s “Of Course, I Still Love You” drone in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Cape Canaveral approximately eight and a half minutes after takeoff. The drone spacecraft will return the veteran rocket to Florida for preparations for a potential 10th launch.
The rocket’s upper stage, meanwhile, will guide the 60 Starlink satellites into an orbit at an average altitude of about 168 miles (271 kilometers) using two burnt out engines. The deployment of the 60 flat satellites is scheduled for 7:05 a.m. EST (11:05 a.m. GMT), approximately 64 minutes after lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center.
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