The first generation Starlink network architecture includes satellites flying at altitudes of several hundred miles, orbiting at inclinations of 97.6°, 70°, 53.2° and 53.0° with respect to the equator. SpaceX’s most recent Starlink launches launched the satellite to Shell 4, at an inclination of 53.2 degrees, after the company completed most of its launches at its first 53-degree inclination facility on Last year.
Starlink’s Shell 5 is believed to be one of the layers of the constellation’s polar orbit, inclined at 97.6 degrees. But Wednesday’s mission name, Starlink 5-1, may indicate that SpaceX has changed the naming scheme for Starlink shells.
The SpaceX launch team was stationed inside the Launch Control Center south of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the early hours of Wednesday’s countdown. SpaceX began loading supercooled viscous kerosene and liquid oxygen propellant into the Falcon 9 vehicle in less than 35 minutes.
Material from the helium pressure also poured into the rocket in the last half hour of the countdown. In the last seven minutes before takeoff, the Falcon 9 Merlin’s main engine is thermally conditioned for flight through a procedure known as “chilldown”. The Falcon 9’s guidance and field safety systems are also configured for the launch.
After liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket delivers 1.7 million pounds of thrust, produced by nine Merlin engines, to head southeast toward the Atlantic Ocean. The launch marked the resumption of Starlink’s mission from Cape Canaveral using the southeast launch corridor, which SpaceX used last winter to take advantage of better sea conditions to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 booster.
During the summer and fall, SpaceX launches the Starlink mission to the trajectory of Florida’s northeastern space coast.
The Falcon 9 rocket exceeded the speed of sound in about a minute, then shut down its nine main engines two and a half minutes after liftoff. The booster stage is separate from the Falcon 9’s upper stage, so it emits pulses from the refrigerated gas control thrusters and extended titanium grille fins to help guide the vehicle through the atmosphere.
Two brake burners slowed the rocket as it landed on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravity” about 410 miles (660 kilometers) about nine minutes after liftoff.
The Falcon 9’s reusable payload fairing was removed during the second burn stage. Rescue vessels are also stationed in the Atlantic Ocean to recover the nose cone after it falls under a parachute.
The first stage landing on Wednesday’s mission came moments after the Falcon 9’s second stage engines to send the Starlink satellite into orbit stalled. The separation of the Starlink 54 spacecraft, built by SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, from the Falcon 9 rocket occurred about 19 minutes after liftoff. SpaceX had to wait for the rocket to pass through the ground station on Guam to confirm Starlink’s separation from the upper stage.
The Falcon 9 guidance computer aims to deploy the satellite in an elliptical orbit inclined 43 degrees to the equator, with an altitude of between 131 miles and 210 miles (212 by 338 kilometers). Upon separation from the rocket, the 54th Starlink spacecraft will unfold the solar array and perform self-activation steps, then use ion thrusters to maneuver it into its operational orbit.
Rocket: Falcon 9 (B1062.11)
Useful load: 54 Starlink satellite (Starlink 5-1)
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Station, Florida
Lunch date: December 28, 2022
lunch time: 04:34:00 EST (09:34:00 GMT)
Weather forecast: more than 90% probability of acceptable weather conditions; low risk of upper winds; Moderate risk from unfavorable conditions for better recovery
Recovery from update: The drone ship is called “A Shortfall of Gravity” in the northeastern Bahamas
LAUNCH IN AZIMUTH: southeast
target orbit: 131 miles by 210 miles (212 kilometers by 338 kilometers), 43.0 degree miles
Launch history:
- T+00:00: take off
- T+01:12: Maximum Air Pressure (Q-Max)
- T+02:29: First Engine Main Termination Stage (MECO).
- T+02:32: Separation phase
- T+02:39: Second stage engine ignition
- T+02:44: Calm down
- T+06:44: ignition of first stage inlet burners (three engines)
- T+07:00: First stage afterburner input shut off
- T+08:26: First Stage Combustion Ignition (Single Engine)
- T+08:38: Second level machine disconnected (SECO 1)
- T+08:47: First stage landing
- T+18:43: Starlink satellite discontinued
Mission stats:
- 193rd Falcon 9 launch since 2010
- The 202nd launch of the Falcon family since 2006
- Launch of the eleventh Falcon 9 B1062 booster
- The 165th Falcon 9 launch from the Florida Space Coast
- Launch of 107 Falcon 9s from platform 40
- 162nd overall release of 40 cards
- Flight 132 of a repurposed Falcon 9 booster
- The launch of the 67 Falcon 9s is primarily intended for the Starlink network
- Launch of the 59th Falcon 9 in 2022
- SpaceX launches 60 in 2022
- 57th orbital launch attempt from Cape Canaveral in 2022
