SpaceX Launched And Landed 52 Starlink Satellites From Florida
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 52 Starlink spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The rocket's first stage landed on the "A Shortfall of Gravitas" drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean several minutes after separation.
The rocket's first stage landed on the "A Shortfall of Gravitas" drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean several minutes after separation.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00 [ Radio ]
00:04 [ Radio ]
00:08 [ Radio ]
00:12 [ Radio ]
00:16 [ Radio ]
00:20 [ Radio ]
00:24 Falcon 9 is pitching down range.
00:28 Stage one chamber pressure is nominal.
00:32 [ Radio ]
00:36 [ Radio ]
00:44 At T plus 30 seconds F9 has successfully
00:48 lifted off from slick 40 at the cape at 310 AM
00:52 Eastern Time.
00:56 [ Radio ]
01:00 F9 is currently going through the
01:04 throttle bucket which is when we throttle down the 9 M1D engines in
01:08 preparation for max Q.
01:12 [ Radio ]
01:16 Falcon 9 is supersonic.
01:20 Which means that the vehicle is now traveling faster than the speed of sound.
01:24 Should be hearing the call for max Q shortly. Max Q.
01:28 And there it is. And max Q is the point at which the vehicle
01:32 experiences the greatest amount of external stress as it ascends through the earth's
01:36 atmosphere.
01:40 [ Radio ]
01:44 [ Radio ]
01:48 We're now about one minute
01:52 away from a series of events. MECO, stage sep, SES1,
01:57 and fairing separation. MECO or main engine cut off is where all 9
02:01 of the Merlin engines on the first stage shut down. Stage separation is
02:05 when the first and second stages separate from one another. SES1
02:09 or second engine start one is where we light the
02:13 Merlin vacuum engine on the second stage. And fairing separation is when the
02:17 two fairing halves separate and fall away from the second stage.
02:21 Keep an eye out as these are going to happen pretty quickly back to back.
02:25 [ Silence ]
02:29 [ Silence ]
02:33 [ Silence ]
02:37 [ Silence ]
02:41 MECO.
02:45 Stage separation confirmed.
02:49 Vacuum engine.
02:53 Solid callouts there on MECO, stage separation, and SES1.
02:57 Should be coming up on fairing separation in just a couple seconds.
03:01 Fairing separation confirmed.
03:05 And there you can see those two fairing halves separating and falling
03:09 away from the second stage. Both of the fairing halves that flew on
03:13 today's mission are flight proven with one half flying for the fourth time and
03:17 the other its fifth. We'll be attempting to recover both fairing halves using
03:21 our recovery vessel, Bob.
03:25 Both stages are on nominal trajectories.
03:29 [ Silence ]
03:33 Just as a reminder, on the left hand side of the screen
03:38 is the Falcon 9 first stage and on the right
03:42 is the MVAC engine on our second stage carrying our Starlink satellites to
03:46 their desired orbit.
03:50 [ Silence ]
03:54 [ Silence ]
03:58 [ Silence ]
04:02 The MVAC engine on your screen right there
04:06 is attached to the second stage, is continuing its burn,
04:10 which will last for another couple minutes. And you can read the velocity
04:14 on the bottom right hand side of your screen, which is continuing to increase.
04:18 [ Silence ]
04:22 [ Silence ]
04:26 [ Silence ]
04:30 [ Silence ]
04:34 [ Silence ]
04:38 [ Silence ]
04:42 [ Silence ]
04:46 For those of you who are just joining us, we had an on time lift off
04:50 at 310 AM Eastern time from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral.
04:54 Today's Starlink mission marks SpaceX's
04:58 39th launch of the year and 230th Falcon 9 mission to date.
05:02 [ Silence ]
05:06 [ Silence ]
05:10 [ Silence ]
05:14 [ Silence ]
05:18 [ Silence ]
05:22 The 52 satellites on today's mission
05:26 will join the rest of our Starlink constellation, which is now delivering
05:30 high speed, low latency internet to over 1.5 million people
05:34 around the globe. Starlink is the world's largest satellite
05:39 constellation and today's launch marks our 20th Starlink mission just for 2023.
05:43 [ Silence ]
05:47 Acquisition of signal Bermuda.
05:51 [ Silence ]
05:55 [ Silence ]
05:59 [ Silence ]
06:03 [ Silence ]
06:07 [ Silence ]
06:11 [ Silence ]
06:15 Coming up in a couple of seconds should be the entry burn
06:19 startup on stage one.
06:23 The entry burn slows down the first stage so that all of that heat loading and structural loading
06:27 from the atmosphere doesn't go straight into the vehicle.
06:31 [ Silence ]
06:35 There you can see that entry burn has begun where stage one has
06:39 relit three of its engines, engines one, five, and nine to slow it down for
06:43 atmospheric re-entry.
06:47 [ Silence ]
06:51 [ Silence ]
06:55 [ Silence ]
06:59 You can see that the entry burn on the first stage has now
07:03 been completed. The first stage that is used to launch our 52 Starlink
07:07 satellites into space today is flying for the ninth time today.
07:11 We do have one more burn coming up on the first stage, which is the landing burn
07:15 and it should be coming up in about a minute. The center
07:19 engine, E9 specifically, is the engine that relights for landing burn
07:23 to slow it down before it touches down on the drone ship.
07:27 [ Silence ]
07:31 [ Silence ]
07:36 [ Silence ]
07:40 [ Silence ]
07:44 Stage one transonic.
07:48 You heard that the first stage is transonic,
07:52 which means it is traveling near the speed of sound.
07:56 [ Silence ]
08:00 Coming up next, we have the landing burn, which should start
08:04 in about 15 seconds from now.
08:08 [ Silence ]
08:12 [ Silence ]
08:16 Stage one landing burn.
08:20 Stage two terminal guidance. The stage one landing burn has started
08:24 in preparation for a touchdown on our drone ship. Just read the instructions.
08:28 Keep an eye out for the landing legs that are scheduled
08:32 to deploy just a few moments before landing.
08:36 [ Silence ]
08:40 Stage one landing confirmed.
08:44 Falcon 9 has now successfully landed, marking the ninth successful landing for this
08:48 booster. We're now awaiting
08:52 second engine cutoff, which is right on time.
08:56 [ Silence ]
09:00 [ Silence ]
09:04 Nominal orbit insertion.
09:08 And you just heard we had successful
09:12 SECO 1 and nominal orbital insertion. So with
09:17 confirmation of successful first stage landing and second engine cutoff, that's going to
09:21 wrap up our coverage for today. Today's landing marks our 199th
09:25 overall landing of an orbital class rocket, including Falcon 9
09:29 and Falcon Heavy missions, and our 230th Falcon 9 mission
09:33 to date. Be sure to check back for more.