SpaceX Aces 27th Falcon 9 Rocket Flight Of The Year, A New Record – Spaceflight Now

A Falcon 9 rocket streaks into the sky over Florida’s Area Coast on Thursday evening. Credit score: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now

SpaceX set a new record Thursday for the most missions by the firm’s Falcon rocket household in a 12 months, efficiently sending a cargo of 48 Starlink web satellites and two BlackSky optical Earth-imaging spacecraft into orbit from Cape Canaveral.

The 2-stage, 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station at precisely 6:12 p.m. EST (2312 GMT).

With a glow of orange, adopted seconds later by a ground-shaking rumble, the Falcon 9 cleared the seaside launch advanced and arced downrange northeast over the Atlantic Ocean. 9 Merlin 1D principal engines, burning a combine of kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants, powered the rocket into a clear late autumn sky with 1.7 million kilos of thrust.

The primary stage, itself 15 tales in top, shut down its 9 engines and indifferent from the Falcon 9’s higher stage greater than two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. That left the higher stage’s Merlin engine to drive the 50 satellite tv for pc payloads into a parking orbit lower than 10 minutes into the mission.

In the meantime, the Falcon 9’s reusable booster stage coasted to the apex of its ballistic trajectory, then plunged again into the environment at roughly 5,000 mph (8,000 kilometers per hour).

Right here’s a replay of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket departing Cape Canaveral at 6:12pm EST (2312 GMT) with 48 Starlink web satellites and two BlackSky distant sensing microsats. https://t.co/GNgwv4wfvn pic.twitter.com/hWuufU3PH7

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 2, 2021

Braking maneuvers utilizing three, then one, of the first stage’s engines slowed the booster for a pinpoint landing on SpaceX’s soccer field-sized drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” positioned in the Atlantic Ocean east of Charleston, South Carolina.

The primary stage, designated B1060 in SpaceX’s fleet, returned to Earth after its ninth journey to area and again. The drone ship will return to Florida’s Area Coast with the booster, which SpaceX will examine and refurbish for a future flight task.

A SpaceX restoration ship was additionally on station downrange in the Atlantic Ocean to retrieve the two halves of the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing, which the firm additionally reuses. The fairing shells on Thursday evening’s mission had been new.

The Falcon 9 rocket’s higher stage coasted midway round the world, flying over Europe, the Center East, and the Indian Ocean earlier than briefly reigniting its engine off the coast of Australia about an hour into the mission.

The second higher stage engine firing circularized the rocket’s orbit at about 270 miles (440 kilometers), in line with altitude information displayed on SpaceX’s dwell launch webcast.

That set the stage for the last section of the mission, the satellite tv for pc deployment sequence.

First, the rocket solid off the two 121-pound (55-kilogram) BlackSky satellites mounted to the prime of the stack of Starlink satellites. The dual satellites, every internet hosting an optical imaging telescope for Earth observations, separated from the rocket at T+plus 63 minutes and T+plus 67 minutes.

The higher stage then launched the cluster of Starlink web stations at 7:41 p.m. EST (0041 GMT), or 89 minutes after liftoff, whereas flying exterior the vary of SpaceX floor stations. SpaceX confirmed the deployment of the Starlink satellites a jiffy later, when the rocket flew over a monitoring website at the firm’s Starbase advanced in South Texas.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster has landed on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic Ocean.

This was the ninth launch and touchdown for this rocket — designated B1060 — in practically 18 months of service.

Reside protection: https://t.co/GNgwv4wfvn pic.twitter.com/XFjqfNz0C4

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 2, 2021

The on-target satellite tv for pc deployments punctuated SpaceX’s 27th Falcon 9 launch of the 12 months, exceeding a earlier record for Falcon 9 launch exercise set final 12 months with 26 missions.

SpaceX has three extra Falcon 9 launches scheduled from Florida’s Area Coast earlier than the finish of December.

Subsequent up is the launch of NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE mission from pad 39A at Kennedy Area Heart on Dec. 9. The IXPE spacecraft carries three X-ray telescopes that can probe circumstances round black holes and neutron stars, some of the most excessive environments in the universe.

One other Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station on Dec. 18 with the Turksat 5B geostationary communications satellite tv for pc. A SpaceX cargo mission to the Worldwide Area Station is slated to take off Dec. 21 from Kennedy Area Heart.

SpaceX might launch yet another Falcon 9 rocket mission from Vandenberg Area Pressure Base in California later this month. However there’s no agency launch date for that mission, which is able to carry one other batch of Starlink satellites into orbit.

A Falcon 9 rocket climbs away from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station with 48 Starlink web satellites and two BlackSky distant sensing satellites. Credit score: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now

With the launch of 48 extra Starlink satellites Thursday evening, SpaceX has delivered 1,892 spacecraft to orbit for its privately-funded international broadband community. That determine doesn’t embody failed satellites and different Starlink craft SpaceX has deorbited.

Thursday evening’s mission, named Starlink Group 4-3, was SpaceX’s thirty second Falcon 9 launch since Could 2019 primarily devoted to hauling Starlink satellites to orbit.

Most of the Starlink satellites launched thus far have deployed into a 341-mile-high (550-kilometer), 53-degree inclination orbit, the first of 5 orbital shells SpaceX plans to finish full deployment of the Starlink community. SpaceX completed launching satellites in that shell with a collection of Starlink flights from Cape Canaveral from Could 2019 via Could of this 12 months.

Since Could, SpaceX has rushed to finish improvement of new inter-satellite laser terminals to placed on all future Starlink satellites. The laser crosslinks, which have been examined on a handful of Starlink satellites on prior launches, will cut back the reliance of SpaceX’s web community on floor stations.

The bottom stations are costly to deploy, and include geographical — and typically political — constraints on the place they are often positioned. Laser hyperlinks will permit the Starlink satellites to move web site visitors from spacecraft to spacecraft round the world, while not having to relay the alerts to a floor station linked to a terrestrial community.

SpaceX is presently offering interim web providers via the Starlink satellites to shoppers who’ve signed up for a beta testing program.

In September, SpaceX launched the first batch of 51 Starlink satellites into a 70-degree inclination orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Area Pressure Base. That orbital shell will finally include 720 satellites at an altitude of 354 miles (570 kilometers).

Other than the 53-degree and 70-degree orbital shells, SpaceX’s different Starlink layers will embody 1,584 satellites at 335 miles (540 kilometers) and an inclination of 53.2 levels, and 520 satellites unfold into two shells at 348 miles (560 kilometers) and an inclination of 97.6 levels.

Video downlinked from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket over South Texas confirmed 48 Starlink web satellites flying free of the higher stage, finishing tonight’s profitable launch.

This brings the complete quantity of Starlink craft launched to 1,892.https://t.co/GNgwv4wfvn pic.twitter.com/bvlK7mKhz3

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 3, 2021

The mission Thursday evening was the second Starlink flight to focus on the 53.2-degree inclination orbit, barely offset from the 53-degree inclination planes populated throughout the first section of the Starlink community deployment. The earlier Starlink launch Nov. 13 was the first to enter the 53.2-degree orbital airplane.

SpaceX has regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Fee for roughly 12,000 Starlink satellites. The corporate’s preliminary focus is on launching 4,400 satellites on a collection of Falcon 9 rocket flights. SpaceX’s next-generation launcher, a big rocket known as the Starship that has not but reached orbit, might finally be tasked with launching a whole bunch of next-generation Starlink satellites on a single mission.

The 2 distant sensing microsatellites that hitched a journey to area on the Falcon 9 rocket Thursday evening be part of eight others in BlackSky’s energetic constellation.

Two BlackSky satellites launched Nov. 17 on a Rocket Lab mission from New Zealand, and Rocket Lab plans one other launch subsequent week carrying two extra BlackSky payloads.

Increasing the constellation “will improve the firm’s geospatial capability for information whereas growing revisit charges for purchasers,” BlackSky mentioned in a assertion.

The surge of launches with BlackSky satellites will double the measurement of the firm’s fleet from six to 12 spacecraft over a interval of lower than three weeks.

One other two BlackSky satellites are booked for launch on a Rocket Lab mission in early 2022. The distant sensing firm has ordered further spacecraft from its producer, LeoStella, based mostly in Tukwila, Washington, a suburb of Seattle.

LeoStella is a three way partnership between BlackSky and Thales Alenia Area, a main European satellite tv for pc producer.

BlackSky, with places of work in Seattle and Herndon, Virginia, is deploying a fleet of small distant sensing satellites to offer high-resolution Earth imagery to business and authorities shoppers. The corporate expects to achieve a fleet measurement of 30 satellites inside a few years.

One huge buyer for BlackSky is the U.S. navy and intelligence businesses. BlackSky has agreements to promote business imagery to NASA, the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace and the Nationwide Geospatial-Intelligence Company.

BlackSky says the business marketplace for its providers embody clients in transportation, infrastructure, building, and provide chain administration.

Two BlackSky satellites pictured inside a SpaceX processing facility at Cape Canaveral earlier than a earlier mission. Credit score: SpaceX

Every of the present era of BlackSky International spacecraft can seize as much as 1,000 coloration photographs per day, with a decision of about 3 toes (1 meter). In the future, BlackSky will deploy a third era of BlackSky satellites with sharper decision stage of about 20 inches, or 50 centimeters.

The corporate makes use of synthetic intelligence and machine studying algorithms to course of and analyze imagery beamed again to Earth from BlackSky satellites. The algorithms and detect and establish objects in the photographs with out people in the loop, in line with BlackSky.

SpaceX offers comparatively low-cost rides to orbit to exterior clients by promoting additional capability on its Starlink missions. The launch firm additionally launches devoted rideshare flights, known as Transporter missions, with dozens of small satellites from a vary of U.S. and worldwide clients.

Spaceflight, a Seattle-based firm, managed the rideshare launch service for BlackSky, which is a return buyer with SpaceX. Three BlackSky satellites launched on earlier Falcon 9 missions, together with two on a Starlink launch in August 2020.

Based on SpaceX’s web site, the firm prices $1 million to launch a 440-pound (200-kilogram) satellite tv for pc on a rideshare mission. That’s considerably decrease than some other launch supplier, together with small satellite tv for pc launchers like Rocket Lab’s Electron.

However Rocket Lab and different smallsat launch firms can satellites into orbit on devoted rides, giving operators extra flexibility to decide on their altitude and inclination.

E mail the writer.

Comply with Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.