Live coverage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket countdown and launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Starlink 4-25 mission will launch SpaceX’s next batch of 53 large-scale Starlink satellites. follow us Twitter.
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SpaceX sent another batch of 53 Starlink Internet satellites into orbit Sunday on a Falcon 9 rocket, the company’s 33rd mission of the year and its sixth launch in July. Liftoff took place from Platform 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:38 a.m. EDT (1338 GMT).
A Falcon 9 booster has landed on a SpaceX drone ship parked in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Cape Canaveral.
The rocket headed northeast from Kennedy Space Center to deliver a full broadband relay station into an orbit between 144 miles and 210 miles (232 x 338 kilometers). About 15 minutes after liftoff, 53 flat-stacked satellites are deployed from the Falcon 9’s upper stage.
With Sunday’s mission, designated Starlink 4-25, SpaceX launched 2,957 Starlink Internet satellites, including prototypes and test units that are no longer in use. Sunday’s launch was SpaceX’s 53rd mission, primarily designed to put Starlink Internet satellites into orbit.
Inside the Kennedy Launch Control Center firing room, the SpaceX launch team began loading ultra-cold, condensed kerosene and liquid oxygen engines into the 229-foot (70 m) Falcon 9’s 35-minute T-minus.
In the last half hour of the countdown, helium from the compressor also poured into the rocket. In the final seven minutes before liftoff, the Falcon 9’s Merlin main engines were thermally adjusted for flight in a procedure known as “cooling down.” The Falcon 9’s control and field safety systems are also configured for launch.
After liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket tested its 1.7 million pounds of thrust, generated by nine Merlin engines, to steer across the northeast Atlantic.
The rocket exceeded the speed of sound for about one minute and then shut down its nine main engines two and a half minutes after liftoff. The booster stage was fired from the Falcon 9’s upper stage, then pulsed from cold gas thrusters and extended titanium grid fins to help propel the vehicle back into the atmosphere.
Two pelvic burns slowed the rocket as it landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas drone about 400 miles (650 kilometers) after taking off for about eight and a half minutes.
The Starlink 4-25 mission booster rocket, known as B1062, has been launched on its eighth space flight. It debuted with the launch of a US military GPS navigation satellite in November 2020, and all crewed Inspiration4 and Axiom-1 missions launched in September 2021 and April this year.
Recently, a rocket carrying Egypt’s geostationary communications satellite Nilesat 301 flew on June 8.
The landing of the first stage on Sunday’s mission came moments after the Falcon 9’s second stage engine failed to deliver the Starlink satellites into orbit. The 53rd spacecraft, built by SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, separated from the Falcon 9 rocket at T+ plus 15 minutes and 24 seconds.
Locking rods were fired from the Starlink payload stack, allowing the planar satellites to fly freely from the Falcon 9 upper stage into orbit. The 53 spacecraft will rotate and power the solar arrays using automated actuation steps and then use krypton-fueled ion thrusters to maneuver them into their operational orbit.
The goal of the Falcon 9 control computer is to place the satellites in an elliptical orbit with an orbital inclination of 53.2 degrees to the equator. The satellites will use onboard thrust to do the rest of the work to reach a circular orbit 335 miles (540 kilometers) above Earth.
Starlink satellites will fly in one of five orbital “shells” in different directions of the global Internet at SpaceX. Upon reaching their operational orbit, the satellites will enter commercial service and begin transmitting broadband signals to consumers, who can purchase Starlink service and connect to the network via a ground station provided by SpaceX.
Including Sunday’s Starlink 4-25 mission, SpaceX launched six Falcon 9 rockets in just 17 days this month, deploying 251 Starlink Internet satellites in five flights while also sending a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station.
Missile: Falcon 9 (B1062.8)
Load capacity: 53 Starlink satellites (Starlink 4-25)
launch site: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Lunch date: July 24, 2022
launch time: 9:38:20 EST (1338:20 GMT)
weather forecast: 80% chance of acceptable weather; low risk of upper level winds; Reduced risk of conditions unfavorable to improved recovery
Recovery from reinforcement: A drone ship named ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ east of Charleston, South Carolina
AZIMUTA LAUNCH: northeast
target orbit: 144 miles times 210 miles (232 kilometers times 338 kilometers), 53.2 degree miles
Launch Timeline:
- T+00:00: take off
- T+01: 12: Maximum air pressure (Max-Q)
- T+02:27: First stage main engine shutdown (MECO)
- T+02:30: Stage separation
- T+02:37: Fire the engine in the second stage
- T+02:42: Get rid of the peace
- T+06:48: First stage entry combustion ignition (three engines)
- T+07:08: First stage input combustion shutdown
- T+08:25: Stage 1 burner ignition (one engine)
- T+08:43: Second stage engine shutdown (SECO 1)
- T+08:46: Landing in the first stage
- T+15:24: Starlink satellite connection
Job statistics:
- 167th Falcon 9 launch since 2010
- 175. Starting the Falcon family since 2006
- Eighth launch of Falcon 9 Booster B1062
- Falcon 9 #144 launched from Florida’s Space Coast
- SpaceX52 launched from platform 39A
- Issue 146 overall from board 39A
- The 109th flight of the reusable Falcon 9 booster
- 53rd special Falcon 9 launch with Starlink satellites
- 33. Falcon 9 launch in 2022
- SpaceX33 launch in 2022
- 32nd orbital launch attempt from Cape Canaveral in 2022
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