Launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 in California: the first launches and landings of Vandenberg Air Force Base

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket using a previously piloted first step was about to be launched on Sunday to propel an Argentinean environmental satellite into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The first stage should end at the launch site, a first for the West Coast rocket base.

The takeoff of runway 4-East was targeted at 19h21h28. PDT (GMT-7; 10:21 pm EDT), just under an hour after sunset. The Air Force warned locals to wait for unknown sonic booms as the scene returns to Vandenberg.

"Local residents could see the first leg of the Falcon 9 return to Vandenberg Air Force Base, including multiple engine burns associated with the landing," said the Air Force on its website. "When attempting to land, residents of Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties may hear one or more sonic booms."

These images and sounds are familiar to residents near Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida, where SpaceX landed for the first time with a Falcon 9 recall in December 2015. In the meantime, the company has recorded 10 more successful landings at the air base and 18 others. on drones at sea.

But Sunday's flight marks the first time SpaceX has planned a landing in Vandenberg, using a concrete circular platform known as the Landing Zone 4, just a few hundred meters from the Falcon boat launch.

But as always, landing is a second goal. The main objective of the flight is to place the SAOCOM 1A satellite in orbit around the Earth's poles, the first of two orbital radar stations capable of "seeing" through clouds and at night to measure the humidity of the Earth. soil, key indicator of crop yields, droughts and floods.

The Argentine National Commission for Space Activities, or CONAE, will operate the two SAOCOM satellites in cooperation with the COSMO-SkyMed radar satellites of the Italian Space Agency.

To bring the satellite into the planned polar orbit, the flight plan requires the Falcon 9 to take off on a south track over the Pacific Ocean. Two minutes and 24 seconds after takeoff, the previously stolen first stage should separate and move away, followed a few seconds later by the ignition of the second stage single engine engine.

Ten minutes later, the satellite SAOCOM 1A should be launched from the second stage to fly on its own.

The first step, on the other hand, should swing a few moments after the separation and fire three of its nine engines to start returning to the launch site. A second "burn" is planned to slow down before it can return to the noticeable atmosphere.

Then, using four "gate fins" at the top of the servomotor to maintain its orientation and trajectory, the rocket should drop the tail first to the landing strip, deploying four legs and pulling with one engine for the first time. To land about seven minutes and 46 seconds after launch.

A successful landing would mark the 30th time that SpaceX retrieved a recall after launch.