{"id":10818,"date":"2021-11-23T17:04:23","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T09:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/falcon-9-launch-timeline-with-dart\/"},"modified":"2021-11-23T17:04:23","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T09:04:23","slug":"falcon-9-launch-timeline-with-dart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/falcon-9-launch-timeline-with-dart\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcon 9 launch timeline with DART"},"content":{"rendered":"

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base, heading southeast over the Pacific Ocean with NASA\u2019s DART asteroid deflection experiment.<\/p>\n

The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is poised for takeoff from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, at 10:21:02 p.m. PST on Nov. 23 (1:21:02 a.m. EST; 0621:02 GMT on Nov. 24).<\/p>\n

The payload for the mission is NASA\u2019s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, mission. The first-of-its-kind mission will take aim on a binary asteroid next September, guiding itself to strike the smaller of the pair.<\/p>\n

The target asteroid, named Dimorphos, is about the size of a football stadium. Scientists will use ground-based telescopes to measure how much the kinetic impact from DART changed the orbit of Dimorphos around its larger companion, named Didymos.<\/p>\n

The experiment will demonstrate how a future spacecraft could be launched to nudge an asteroid off of a collision course with Earth. Didymos and Dimorphos, the asteroid system targeted by DART, do not pose any near-term threat to our planet.<\/p>\n

DART was developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and funded by NASA. The entire mission costs $330 million, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

The Falcon 9 first stage booster set to launch the DART mission has two previous flights to its credit. It first flew in November 2020 with the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich oceanography satellite, then launched again in May with 60 Starlink internet satellites.<\/p>\n

The second stage will perform a \u201cdogleg\u201d steering maneuver, or a left turn, early in its burn to align with the proper track for DART\u2019s launch. The trajectory allows SpaceX to position its drone ship for the first stage landing a proper distance away from Isla Guadalupe, a Mexican island west of Baja California.<\/p>\n

The timeline below outlines the launch sequence for the Falcon 9 flight with DART.<\/p>\n

Data source: SpaceX<\/strong><\/p>\n

T-0:00:00: Liftoff<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
After the rocket\u2019s nine Merlin engines pass an automated health check, hold-down clamps will release the Falcon 9 booster for liftoff from the SLC-4E launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:01:00: Mach 1<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The Falcon 9 rocket reaches Mach 1, the speed of sound, as the nine Merlin 1D engines provide more than 1.7 million pounds of thrust.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:01:12: Max Q<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The Falcon 9 rocket reaches Max Q, the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:02:33: MECO<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The Falcon 9\u2019s nine Merlin 1D engines shut down.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:02:36: Stage 1 Separation<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The Falcon 9\u2019s first stage separates from the second stage moments after MECO.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:02:44: First Ignition of Second Stage<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The second stage Merlin-Vacuum engine ignites for a five-and-a-half-minute burn to put the rocket and DART spacecraft into a preliminary parking orbit. The second stage will perform a \u201cdogleg\u201d maneuver early in its burn to align with the proper track for DART\u2019s launch.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:03:11: Fairing Jettison<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The 5.2-meter (17.1-foot) diameter payload fairing jettisons once the Falcon 9 rocket ascends through the dense lower atmosphere. The 43-foot-tall fairing is made of two clamshell-like halves composed of carbon fiber with an aluminum honeycomb core.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:06:40: Stage 1 Entry Burn Begins<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
A subset of the first stage\u2019s Merlin 1D engines begin an entry burn to slow down for landing. A final landing burn will occur just before touchdown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:08:06: SECO 1<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket shuts down after reaching a preliminary low-altitude orbit around Earth. The upper stage and DART begin a coast phase scheduled to last more than 20 minutes before the second stage Merlin Vacuum engine reignites.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:08:52: Stage 1 Landing<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Falcon 9 rocket\u2019s first stage booster touches down on SpaceX\u2019s drone ship \u201cOf Course I Still Love You\u201d in the Pacific Ocean.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:28:37: Second Ignition of Second Stage<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The Falcon 9\u2019s second stage Merlin engine restarts to propel the DART spacecraft on an Earth escape trajectory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:29:30: SECO 2<\/b><\/p>\n

\"The
The Merlin engine shuts down after a 53-second burn to put the DART spacecraft on the proper trajectory to escape Earth\u2019s gravity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+0:55:40: DART Separation<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
NASA\u2019s 1,358-pound (616-kilogram) DART spacecraft separates from the Falcon 9 rocket\u2019s second stage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base, heading southeast over the Pacific Ocean with NASA\u2019s DART asteroid deflection experiment. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is poised for takeoff from Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, at 10:21:02 p.m. PST on Nov. 23 (1:21:02 a.m. EST; […]<\/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-10818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10818"}],"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=10818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}