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SpaceX has successfully completed a Falcon 9 static light prior to Starlink's first dedicated launch, breaking with a practice that dates back to the last catastrophic failure of Falcon 9 to date.
This failure occurred in September 2016 approximately nine minutes prior to a Falcon 9 static fire test, completely destroying the Amos-6 communications satellite rocket and payload and severely damaging the launch pad 40 ( SC-40). Since this fatal failure, the following 42 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy satellite launches have all been preceded by static fire tests without payload fairing. This process usually adds between 24 and 48 hours of work to launch operations, a price that is certainly small to pay to reduce the risk of failure of a rocket completely destroying valuable payloads. With Starlink v0.9, SpaceX makes different choices.
When super-cold liquid oxygen broke a sub-wrapped composite container (COPV) on the top floor of the Falcon 9, the resulting explosion and fire destroyed Falcon 9. Perhaps more importantly, the Amos-6 satellite of about $ 200 million installed at the top of the rocket actually ceased to exist, at a loss that posed a serious threat to the livelihood from its owner, Spacecom. Asked whether saving a day or two of a program was worth the potential destruction of customer payloads, the two customers, SpaceX, and their insurers obviously concluded that static fires had to be carried out without charges on board the rocket .
The only exceptions since Amos-6 are the debut of the launch of Falcon Heavy – with a payload that is both disposable and built SpaceX – and Crew Dragon DM-1, in which the integration of Falcon 9 with the D & C system. Dropping launch of Dragon had to be tested as part of the static fire. All other SpaceX rocket launches since September 2016 have excluded payloads during each routine static fire before flight.
SpaceX's spacecraft
Why this change of pace on this launch then? The answer is simple: for the first time, SpaceX is both the only payload / satellite actor and the launcher provider, which means that almost all the risks of the mission – and the consequences of the 'fail – rest solely on the shoulders of SpaceX. In other words, SpaceX has built and owns the mission-assigned Falcon 9, the 60 Starlink test satellites that make up its payload, and the launch complex that supports the mission.
Even so, if Falcon 9 fails during an internal SpaceX mission, customer launches could be seriously delayed by both the failure of the subsequent failure investigation and any potential damage to the complex. launch. In summary, while an internal mission provides SpaceX with unique freedoms, it is always in the company's interest to treat the launch as another, even if some client-centric corners are likely to be negated. In addition, the loss of the first payload of 60 Starlink satellites dedicated to SpaceX could be a major setback for the constellation, although this loss may be less than most people would assume.
This does not mean that SpaceX will not take advantage of the newfound freedom afforded by Starlink launches. In fact, CEO Elon Musk said that one of SpaceX's Starlink 2019 missions would become the first to reuse a Falcon fairing. In addition, SpaceX is free to do things that customers may object to but that its own engineers consider to be low risk. Notably, Starlink missions will be an almost perfect opportunity for SpaceX to evolve beyond their reusability goals without requiring customers to move beyond their comfort zone.
The sheer size of the Starlink constellation proposed by SpaceX – two phases of ~ 4400 and ~ 12,000 satellites – means that the company will need all the latent launch capacity it will be able to obtain over the next 5 to 10 years, at less until Starship / Super Heavy can do it. support internal missions. Extraordinary packing density will help minimize the number of launches required, but even an absurd of 120 satellites per launch (double Starlink v0.9'60) would still require an average of 12 launches per year to complete Starlink by 2030 .
In the meantime, it's a bit premature to think of a dozen Starlink annual launches. SpaceX's first dedicated Starlink launch (reputed Starlink v0.9) is scheduled to take off as early as 10:30 am, Paris time, May 15 (02:30 UTC), and is treated as an advanced yet intermediate step between Tintin's prototypes and a finalized spacecraft design. Still in an unprecedented stage, SpaceX has built sixty The Starlink satellites for the development-focused mission, contrasting with the six satellites (still a respectable achievement) of the OneWeb competitor launched in February 2019 as part of its own flight test program.
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