Watch our dwell protection of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 11:50 p.m. EST (0450 GMT) from Area Launch Advanced 40 at Cape Canaveral Area Power Station, Florida, with 40 OneWeb web satellites. Comply with us on Twitter.
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SpaceX is counting all the way down to liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 11:50 p.m. EST Monday (0450 GMT Tuesday) with 40 extra web satellites for OneWeb. The Falcon 9 booster will return to Cape Canaveral for touchdown eight minutes later.
SpaceX delayed the launch of a distinct Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Area Power Base in California Monday night time as a result of unhealthy climate. That mission was purported to launch simply 35 minutes earlier than the OneWeb mission from Cape Canaveral.
The climate forecast in Florida is extra favorable Monday night time, with a better than 90% probability of excellent climate for launch of the 40 OneWeb satellites.
The SpaceX launch crew working in a management middle simply exterior the gate of Cape Canaveral Area Power Station will start loading super-chilled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the Falcon 9 automobile at T-minus 35 minutes.
Helium pressurant will even move into the rocket within the final half-hour of the countdown. Within the last seven minutes earlier than liftoff, the Falcon 9’s Merlin essential engines can be thermally conditioned for flight by way of a process referred to as “chilldown.” The Falcon 9’s steerage and vary security programs will even be configured for launch.
After liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket will vector 1.7 million kilos of thrust — produced by 9 Merlin engines — to steer downrange. The launch from California will head southeast over the Pacific Ocean, flying west of Baja California to focus on an orbit inclined 70 levels to the equator. The Falcon 9 departing from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral will initially head southeast, then flip south to fly parallel to Florida’s east coast, aiming for a polar orbit at an inclination of 87 levels.
The launcher will exceed the pace of sound in about one minute, then shut down its 9 essential engines practically two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff.
The booster stage will separate from the Falcon 9’s higher stage, then hearth pulses from chilly gasoline management thrusters and lengthen titanium grid fins to assist steer the automobile again into the environment. The lighter weight of the 40 OneWeb satellites will enable the Falcon 9 booster to put aside sufficient gas for the return to launch web site maneuver, which requires an additional burn to go again to Cape Canaveral.
A restoration ship can be on station within the Atlantic Ocean to retrieve the Falcon 9’s payload fairing after jettisoning from the rocket.
The mission will goal a 373-mile-high orbit inclined 87 levels to the equator. The higher stage of the Falcon 9 will launch the 40 OneWeb satellites starting about 59 minutes after liftoff. The satellites will use xenon-fueled propulsion programs to achieve their working altitude 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) above Earth.
The OneWeb launch from Cape Canaveral would be the second of 4 deliberate SpaceX missions for the broadband web supplier, which suspended launches on Russian Soyuz rockets final yr after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Inside weeks, OneWeb signed new contracts with SpaceX and New Area India Ltd., or NSIL, for launches on Falcon 9 and Indian GSLV Mk.3 rockets to complete constructing out the corporate’s satellite tv for pc community.
The 40 satellites on-board the Falcon 9 rocket will deliver the whole variety of OneWeb spacecraft launched to 544. OneWeb wants 588 operational satellites to finish its first-generation broadband community, or a complete of practically 650 spacecraft when counting spares.
Including extra relay stations to the constellation extends the community’s attain. OneWeb already gives web companies to communities in Alaska, Canada, and and Northern Europe the place terrestrial fiber connectivity is unavailable. The 40 satellites on Monday night time’s launch will assist put Southern Europe, the USA, North Africa, the Center East, Japan, and components of Australia and India inside OneWeb’s attain.
OneWeb’s contract with SpaceX was stunning to many satellite tv for pc trade watchers as a result of OneWeb is an oblique competitor within the broadband market. SpaceX sells Starlink service on to shoppers, whereas OneWeb sells to enterprises, web service suppliers, maritime corporations, and airways to offer connectivity for whole companies or communities.
ROCKETS: Falcon 9 (B1076.2)
PAYLOADS: 40 OneWeb satellites (OneWeb 16)
LAUNCH SITES: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Area Power Station, Florida
LAUNCH DATES: Jan. 9, 2023
LAUNCH TIME: 11:50:17 p.m. (0450:17 GMT)
WEATHER FORECAST: Higher than 90% probability of acceptable climate at Cape Canaveral
BOOSTER RECOVERY: Touchdown Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Area Power Station
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: Southeast, then south from Cape Canaveral
TARGET ORBIT: 373 miles (600 kilometers), 87 levels inclination
LAUNCH TIMELINE FOR ONEWEB 16:
- T+00:00: Liftoff
- T+01:12: Most aerodynamic stress (Max-Q)
- T+02:18: First stage essential engine cutoff (MECO)
- T+02:21: Stage separation
- T+02:28: Second stage engine ignition
- T+02:34: First stage increase again burn ignition
- T+03:21: First stage increase again burn cutoff
- T+03:34: Fairing jettison
- T+06:20: First stage entry burn ignition
- T+06:36: First stage entry burn cutoff
- T+07:27: First stage touchdown burn ignition
- T+07:56: First stage touchdown
- T+08:32: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 1)
- T+55:14: Second stage engine restart (SES 2)
- T+55:17: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 2)
- T+58:49: Separation of first OneWeb satellites
- T+01:35:17: Separation of ultimate OneWeb satellites
MISSION STATS:
- 196th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010
- 205th launch of Falcon rocket household since 2006
- 2nd launch of Falcon 9 booster B1076
- 168th SpaceX launch from Florida’s Area Coast
- 109th Falcon 9 launch from pad 40
- 164th launch general from pad 40
- one hundred and thirty fifth flight of a reused Falcon 9 booster
- 2nd SpaceX launch for OneWeb
- sixteenth general launch for OneWeb
- 2nd Falcon 9 launch of 2023
- 2nd launch by SpaceX in 2023
- 2nd orbital launch from Cape Canaveral in 2023
