{"id":10513,"date":"2022-05-14T18:21:07","date_gmt":"2022-05-14T10:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/live-coverage-spacex-launches-new-booster-with-more-starlink-satellites\/"},"modified":"2022-05-14T18:21:07","modified_gmt":"2022-05-14T10:21:07","slug":"live-coverage-spacex-launches-new-booster-with-more-starlink-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/live-coverage-spacex-launches-new-booster-with-more-starlink-satellites\/","title":{"rendered":"Live coverage: SpaceX launches new booster with more Starlink satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Starlink 4-15 mission launched SpaceX\u2019s next batch of 53 Starlink broadband satellites. Follow us on&nbsp;Twitter.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>[tabby title=\u201dSFN Live\u201d]<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3CdHMRBry08\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>[tabbyending]<\/p>\n<p>Less than 24 hours after launching Starlink satellites from California, SpaceX lofted another 53 internet relay stations at 4:40 p.m. EDT (2040 GMT) Saturday from Cape Canaveral aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. It was SpaceX\u2019s 20th launch of the year, and the second of 2022 to debut a new Falcon 9 booster.<\/p>\n<p>The booster landed on SpaceX\u2019s drone ship \u201cJust Read the Instructions\u201d floating in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX completed preparations on the Falcon 9 rocket Saturday, and began loading super-chilled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) vehicle at T-minus 35 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Helium pressurant also flowed into the rocket in the final half-hour of the countdown. In the final seven minutes before liftoff, the Falcon 9\u2019s Merlin main engines were thermally conditioned for flight through a procedure known as \u201cchilldown.\u201d&nbsp;The Falcon 9\u2019s guidance and range safety systems were also configured for launch at 4:40:50 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>After liftoff, the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket vectored its 1.7 million pounds of thrust \u2014 produced by nine Merlin engines \u2014 to steer northeast over the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket surpassed the speed of sound in about one minute, then shut down its nine main engines two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. The booster dropped away from the Falcon 9\u2019s upper stage, then fired pulses from cold gas control thrusters and extended titanium grid fins to help steer the vehicle back into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>Two braking burns slowed the rocket for landing on the drone ship&nbsp;around 400 miles (650 kilometers) downrange approximately eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_56543\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-56543\" style=\"width: 2459px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-56543\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/f9starlink_jrti_NE.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2459\" height=\"1283\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/f9starlink_jrti_NE.jpg 2459w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/f9starlink_jrti_NE-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/f9starlink_jrti_NE-678x354.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/f9starlink_jrti_NE-768x401.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/f9starlink_jrti_NE-1536x801.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/f9starlink_jrti_NE-2048x1069.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2459px) 100vw, 2459px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-56543\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Falcon 9 rocket for the Starlink 4-15 mission headed northeast from Cape Canaveral, with the first stage landing on the drone ship \u201cJust Read the Instructions\u201d in the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The booster \u2014 tail number B1073 \u2014 flew on its first mission Saturday.&nbsp;The landing of the first stage occurred just prior to shutdown of the upper stage engine. The rocket coasted halfway around the world before reigniting the&nbsp;Merlin-Vacuum upper stage engine about 45 minutes into the mission, paving the way for separation of the 53 Starlink satellites at T+plus 54 minutes, 32 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Retention rods released from the Starlink payload stack, allowing the flat-packed satellites to fly free from the Falcon 9\u2019s upper stage in orbit.&nbsp;The 53 spacecraft will unfurl solar arrays and run through automated activation steps, then use krypton-fueled ion engines to maneuver into their operational orbit.<\/p>\n<p>The Falcon 9\u2019s guidance computer aimed to deploy the satellites in a near-circular orbit ranging in altitude between&nbsp;189&nbsp;miles and 197 miles (305 by 318 kilometers), at an orbital inclination of 53.2 degrees to the equator. The satellites will use on-board propulsion to do the rest of the work to reach a circular orbit 335 miles (540 kilometers) above Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The Starlink satellites on Saturday\u2019s mission will fly in one of five orbital \u201cshells\u201d used in SpaceX\u2019s global internet network. After reaching their operational orbit, the satellites will&nbsp;enter commercial service and begin beaming broadband signals to consumers, who can purchase Starlink service and connect to the network with a SpaceX-supplied ground terminal.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_56932\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-56932\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-56932\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/starlink-data.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/starlink-data.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/starlink-data-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/starlink-data-678x381.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/starlink-data-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-56932\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After Friday\u2019s mission, SpaceX has launched 2,600 Starlink satellites to date, including spacecraft that were decommissioned or suffered failures. More than 2,200 of those satellites are in orbit and functioning as of this week, according to a list maintained by Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist who closely tracks spaceflight activity.<\/p>\n<p>Read our mission preview story for more details.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ROCKET:<\/strong>&nbsp;Falcon 9 (B1073.1)<\/p>\n<p><strong>PAYLOAD: <\/strong>53&nbsp;Starlink satelllites (Starlink 4-15)<\/p>\n<p><strong>LAUNCH SITE: <\/strong>SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida<\/p>\n<p><strong>LAUNCH DATE: <\/strong>May 14,&nbsp;2022<\/p>\n<p><strong>LAUNCH TIME:<\/strong>&nbsp;4:40:50 p.m. EDT (2040:50 GMT)<\/p>\n<p><strong>WEATHER FORECAST:<\/strong>&nbsp;80% chance&nbsp;of acceptable weather; Low risk of upper level winds; Low risk of unfavorable conditions for booster recovery<\/p>\n<p><strong>BOOSTER RECOVERY:&nbsp;<\/strong>\u201cJust Read the Instructions\u201d drone ship east of Charleston, South Carolina<\/p>\n<p><strong>LAUNCH AZIMUTH: <\/strong>Northeast<\/p>\n<p><strong>TARGET ORBIT: <\/strong>189&nbsp;miles by 197 miles (305 kilometers by 318 kilometers), 53.2 degrees inclination<\/p>\n<p><strong>LAUNCH TIMELINE:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>T+00:00: Liftoff<\/li>\n<li>T+01:12: Maximum aerodynamic pressure (Max-Q)<\/li>\n<li>T+02:34:&nbsp;First stage main engine cutoff (MECO)<\/li>\n<li>T+02:37: Stage separation<\/li>\n<li>T+02:44: Second stage engine ignition<\/li>\n<li>T+02:50: Fairing jettison<\/li>\n<li>T+06:23: First stage entry burn ignition (three engines)<\/li>\n<li>T+06:37: First stage entry burn cutoff<\/li>\n<li>T+07:59: First stage landing burn ignition (one engine)<\/li>\n<li>T+08:24: First stage landing<\/li>\n<li>T+08:50: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 1)<\/li>\n<li>T+45:29: Second stage restart<\/li>\n<li>T+45:31: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 2)<\/li>\n<li>T+54:32: Starlink satellite separation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>MISSION STATS:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>154th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010<\/li>\n<li>162nd launch of Falcon rocket family since 2006<\/li>\n<li>1st launch of Falcon 9 booster B1073<\/li>\n<li>134th Falcon 9 launch from Florida\u2019s Space Coast<\/li>\n<li>86th Falcon 9 launch from pad 40<\/li>\n<li>141st launch overall from pad 40<\/li>\n<li>67th flight of a new Falcon booster<\/li>\n<li>46th dedicated Falcon 9 launch with Starlink satellites<\/li>\n<li>20th Falcon 9 launch of 2022<\/li>\n<li>20th launch by SpaceX in 2022<\/li>\n<li>19th orbital launch based out of Cape Canaveral in 2022<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Starlink 4-15 mission launched SpaceX\u2019s next batch of 53 Starlink broadband satellites. Follow us on&nbsp;Twitter. [tabby title=\u201dSFN Live\u201d] \ufeff [tabbyending] Less than 24 hours after launching Starlink satellites [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10513"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}