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The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched Sunday the first mission back to launch site on the west coast. The launch, whose main mission was to deploy the SAOCOM 1A satellite radar satellite, took place from the Vandenberg Air Base 4E Space Launch Complex at 19:22 Pacific Time (Monday at 02:22 UTC). ). The first leg of Falcon was able to land in the 4 landing zone nearby about seven minutes and three minutes after takeoff.
Since the beginning, SpaceX has been striving to reduce the costs of access to space, largely by making the number of reusable rockets as large as possible. Although the company initially planned to recover the first stages of their rockets with parachutes, this proved impractical. Instead, Falcon 9 has been upgraded to provide additional performance that can be used – where mission requirements permit – for a first-floor powered landing.
Depending on the mass of its payload and the orbit it is aiming for, the first step can either return to its launch site or land aboard a floating platform called Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS). , positioned downstream of catching the vehicle on its existing path. SpaceX successfully landed at the launch site at Cape Canaveral in December 2015, followed a few months later in April 2016 by the first successful landing at the summit of the ASDS.
Until now, all recall recoveries at the SpaceX launch site on the West Coast, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, used an ASDS called Just Read The Instructions. The West Coast drone was used for the first time in January 2016 to attempt to recover the first stage of a rocket that had deployed the oceanographic research satellite Jason 3. However, the landing gear of the booster was not locked and he tilted to the touch. A year later, success was followed by the first mission of a multi-launch contract to deploy the Iridium-NEXT communications satellites.
Before the launch on Sunday, SpaceX had managed 27 times the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket: nine on the return-to-launch site at Cape Canaveral, thirteen on the East Coast ASDS, of course, I He always loves, and five aboard. Just read the instructions on the west coast.
In addition, the two side thrusters of the first Falcon Heavy rocket, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in February, also landed at Cape Canaveral, although the landing of its central core aboard Of Course I Still Love You failed. Falcon Heavy uses three modified Falcon 9 cores, tied together to provide additional thrust at the beginning of its flight.
The runway used for Sunday's mission is called Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4).
The landing zone was built on the site of the 4W Space Launch Complex (SLC-4W). Originally part of the launching site of the US Navy, Point Arguello, Launch Complex 2-3, as it had been designated at the time, was built for the Atlas-Agena rocket in the early 1960s. It was launched for the first time in July 1963 with an Atlas LV-3 Agena-D deploying the first KH-7 Gambit reconnaissance satellite. Point Arguello was incorporated into the adjacent Vandenberg air base in July 1964, while LC-2-3 was renamed SLC-4W in 1966. The twelfth and final launch of the Atlas from the platform took place in March 1965.
Just sixteen months later, SLC-4W began its long association with the Titan rocket family by hosting the inaugural Titan IIIB flight. A series of different configurations of Titan IIIB – combining the first and second stages of the Titan III (without boosters) and the upper Agena-D – left the SLC-4W from July 1966 to February 1987, all while mission for the National Recognition Bureau. Fifty-four of its sixty-eight launches carried KH-8 Gambit photorecognition satellites, while the others deployed Quasar communication satellites and a Jumpseat signaling spacecraft (SIGINT).
Between 1988 and 2003, thirteen Titan II (23) G rockets stole SLC-4W. These were decommissioned Titan II missiles used to deploy satellites, with or without the aid of solid fuel upper stages. The Titan II (23) G missions deployed a mix of payloads for military and civilian government agencies, about half of them with meteorological satellites. The final launch of SLC-4W took place on October 18, 2003, the last Titan II carrying a Defense Meteorology Program (DMSP) satellite in orbit. In all, 93 rockets were fired from the pad during his service.
Space Launch Complex 4 was a two-deck launch complex, accompanied by the SLC-4W and the nearby Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E). Formerly a Point Arguello 2-4 launch complex, the SLC-4E was also used by the Atlas-Agena rockets from 1964. However, these continued after the SLC-4W conversion for the Titan IIIB.
The SLC-4E will then be used by the Titan IIID, Titan III (34) D and Titan IV rockets, to support the final launch of a Titan vehicle in October 2005. SpaceX took over the complex in 2011 and released it in September. Rebuilt to launch Falcon 9 rockets. It is from SLC-4E that Falcon will take off for Sunday's mission to deploy the SAOCOM 1A satellite.
Satélite Argentino de Observación Con Microondas, or SAOCOM, is a constellation of radar imaging satellites currently being set up by the National Space Agency of Argentina, the Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE).
The constellation, whose name means satellite satellite observation of microwave, will be composed of two satellites, which will be interoperable with the Italian COSMO-SkyMed system. COSMO-SkyMed is a constellation of four satellites deployed between 2007 and 2010, whose launch of a new generation of satellites is scheduled for next year.
CONAE was one of the first customers of the Falcon 9 and signed a contract with SpaceX for the launch of the two SAOCOM satellites in April 2009: more than a year before the launch of the missile and another three months before the launch. launch of the smallest Falcon 1, the first successful launch of SpaceX with a functional load. At the time, both launches were to take place between 2012 and 2013.
SAOCOM 1A is a satellite of 3,000 kilograms. Built by INVAP, it is based on the platform used for the SAC-C remote sensing satellite, which was launched aboard a Delta II rocket in November 2000. Designed to operate for five years, the satellite will use radar to L-band opening synthesis (SAR). ) to image the Earth regardless of the weather or lighting conditions. SAOCOM 1B is an identical satellite that will join SAOCOM 1A in orbit next year.
The radar imaging sensor on both satellites is SAOCOM SAR. This can work in two different modes: band mapping and field observation with progressive scans (TOPSAR). In strip mapping mode, SAOCOM SAR can record images at a maximum resolution of 10 meters per pixel or 25 meters in medium resolution mode. Configured for TOPSAR, the instrument has a resolution of 25 meters (82 feet) per pixel in narrow mode and 50 meters (164 feet) in wide mode.
CONAE hopes to be able to use the SAOCOM constellation to monitor Earth's resources, agriculture and urban development, for mapping and to help manage and respond to natural or man-made disasters. The satellite will also be used to map soil moisture on the Earth's surface.
Sunday's launch was the sixty-second of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and the sixty-eighth of the SpaceX suit. The Falcon 9 flew for the first time in June 2010 and underwent a series of upgrades to the Block 5 configuration that will launch the SAOCOM 1A. The Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket whose first stage is powered by nine Merlin-1D engines. A tenth Merlin-1D in Merlin Vacuum configuration (MVac) feeds the second stage of the rocket. SAOCOM 1A was sitting on top of the second floor, surrounded by a payload fairing, which protects it from the earth's atmosphere as the rocket climbs toward space.
The first step that propelled Sunday's mission had already made a successful launch. The Core 1048 was previously used as the first leg of the Falcon 9, which deployed ten Iridium-NEXT satellites at the end of July, successfully landing onboard Just Read The Instructions after launch. Sunday's launch marked his second flight. However, the first step of Block 5, unlike previous versions, is able to complete more than two missions before retirement.
Refueling for Falcon 9 in anticipation of takeoff was approximately 35 minutes before the countdown, after being authorized by the Director of Launch approximately three minutes earlier. The rocket burns RP-1 propellant – rocket quality kerosene – oxidized by liquid oxygen.
The initial propellant load consisted of RP-1 for both rocket stages and liquid oxygen for the first stage only. The loading of liquid oxygen into the second stage began about sixteen minutes before launch.
The last ten minutes of the count saw a lot of activity as the final preparations for the launch took place. There was only seven minutes left of liquid oxygen in the engines on the first stage of the rocket to cool them and prepare them for ignition.
The Strongback, a structure used to carry the Falcon 9 from its hangar to the launching ramp, lift it up vertically and provide support and umbilical connections during the countdown, began to retract away from the rocket about four minutes before takeoff. The Vandenberg backback is older than those used by SpaceX on the east coast and uses a different retraction process. It moves to its launch position before takeoff instead of moving away from the rocket that starts to climb.
The last minute of Sunday's countdown saw a number of final key checks by Falcon's on-board computers. The propellant tanks of the rocket were put under pressure before the flight and, at forty-five seconds, the launching director gave the last shot. About three seconds before take-off, the nine Core 1048 Merlin-1D engines fired up, were going through the checkout and getting stronger before the rocket hit T-0.
Falcon started to rise vertically from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 4E before heading south. Fifty-nine seconds after take-off, Falcon reached the maximum dynamic pressure zone, Max-Q, where the increasing rocket speed and the drop in atmospheric pressure at altitude caused the moment of maximum mechanical stress on the vehicle.
The first stage of the rocket burned for two minutes and twenty seconds, after which the nine Merlin-1D engines stopped. This event is designated as Main Engine Shutdown (MECO). Four seconds later, the first step is detached from the second and the two steps separate. SAOCOM 1A remained in orbit on the second leg, while the first leg resulted in a series of new engine burns to return to California.
Seven seconds after separation, the second step ignited its Merlin Vacuum engine. Sunday's mission asked the second stage to burn only once before deploying the payload, although the engine is launched a second time after separation of the spacecraft in order to have the second stage .
An important step in the flight took place shortly after the start of the second leg. The separation of the payload fairing, 17 seconds after the start of the combustion, exposed the SAOCOM 1A satellite to space for the first time. The fairing splits into two halves that will fall off the vehicle.
On recent flights from Vandenberg, SpaceX conducted tests to recover the payload fairing under a parachute as it descended into the atmosphere.
Although they were able to recover intact fairing halves into the water after a parachute descent, they can not be re-used as they have been contaminated with salt water.
A vessel, Mr. Steven, has been equipped with a large net and is sailing in the Pacific Ocean at each launch to attempt to catch the fairing as it descends.
Although this has not yet been achieved, SpaceX has confirmed that another attempt was canceled for Sunday's mission.
The first fire of the second stage lasted seven minutes and thirty-six seconds. This placed SAOCOM 1A directly into its deployment orbit. The separation of the spacecraft occurred two and a half minutes after stopping, at 12 minutes and 37 seconds of mission time elapsed.
Shortly after the spacecraft deploys the second leg, its fire will resume, resulting in the destruction of the scene, which will return to the atmosphere in its second Earth orbit, south of Hawaii.
As the second leg continued to orbit SAOCOM 1A, the first leg of Falcon itself burned three times as it returned to Vandenberg Air Force Base. Immediately after being separated from the second step, the servomotor returned to direct its engines in the direction of flight.
Twelve seconds after the start of the reminder burn, the first firing step is to change course to the launch site. The leg will continue to gain altitude until it reaches the climax – or the highest point in its path – before starting to descend to the atmosphere.
The next burn started three minutes and 34 seconds after the staging. It was the entrance fire that slowed down Falcon's first floor when he returned to the densest layers of the Earth's atmosphere, protecting it from heating. Finally, about a minute and a half later, a single engine restarted to burn on landing, guiding the Core 1048 to landing at Landing Zone 4.
Sunday's launch marked the 16th Falcon 9 mission in 2018. The next launch of the rocket is currently scheduled for mid-November with a multitude of small satellites under SSF-A Smallsat Express charter from Spaceflight Industries.
The Qatari satellite Es'hail-2 is not expected to fly earlier than November. However, a specific launch date has not yet been set.
The satellite SAOCOM 1B, which will be a partner in the orbit of the SAOCOM 1A satellite, is currently scheduled to be launched at the earliest in June next year.
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