SpaceX 100th Falcon 9 launch

Seven more Starlink Internet satellites will take off from Cape Canaveral on Sunday night on the 100th flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher and the seventh flight of SpaceX’s reusable “Fleet Leader” booster.

Falcon 9 Rocket East is scheduled to launch on Sunday (0256: 21 GMT Monday) from Pap 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 21:56:21. Mission SpaceX is set to explode less than 34 hours after its last flight. Falcon 9 is launched from California An oceanographic satellite designed to measure sea level rise.

The launch of Falcon 9 on Saturday with the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich oceanographic satellite was SpaceX’s 22nd mission in 2020, breaking the company’s record for most openings in a calendar year. Sunday’s flight will increase records.

Although the Falcon 9 from California started with the latest first stage booster from the factory, the SpaceX launch from Florida on Sunday night will use a booster that has flown six times earlier. The seventh flight of the rocket will set a new record for SpaceX’s rocket reuse program, breaking a mark set by the booster itself on its sixth mission in August.

The rocket designed for Sunday launch – known as B1049 – was launched in September 2018 with the launch of the Telstar 18 VANTAGE geostationary satellite from Cape Canaveral. It was relaunched in January 2019 from Wendenberg Air Force Base in California with 10 Iridium Voice and Data Relay satellites.

Booster flew again in May 2019 with SpaceX’s first set of 60 Internet Starlink satellites, followed by three more Starlink missions on January 6, June 3, and August 18.

“This startup will make him a fleet leader,” SpaceX tweeted to Booster on Saturday.

Alan Musk, founder and CEO of SpainX, says the latest version of the Falcon 9 Booster can fly 10 times without major repairs and up to 100 times with periodic reviews.

According to the US Space Force’s 45th Meteorological Squadron, there is a 60% chance of weather on Sunday night in Cape Canaveral. The main weather concern is Kamlus clouds and eerie weather that are associated with scattered rains along the Florida coast.

SpaceX tested the rocket’s nine Marlin 1D engines on Saturday at 4:00 PM EST (2100 GMT). The engines fired for several seconds as the pierced clamps secured the rocket to Pad 40, sending a small disturbance across the Cape Canaveral spaceport.

The launch team planned to launch the rocket early Friday morning before a possible launch attempt Saturday night, but SpaceX concluded the test at the last minute before powering up. After removing the pulse from the rocket, SpaceX reloaded the Falcon 9 during a test countdown Saturday afternoon, which culminated in a successful 4am shooting.

SpaceX will re-load the kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the rocket on Sunday evening, starting at 9:21 am EST (0221 GMT). The automatic countdown will be preceded by system loading, final steering system checks and pressure, before T-minus 3 seconds to issue an order to turn on the nine Merlin 1D engines.

Restrictions will open the 229-foot (70-meter) long Falcon 9 rocket to 40 feet with a force of 1.7 million pounds from its main Marlin engines.

Heading northeast from Cape Canaveral, the first phase of the rocket will take about two and a half minutes for a recall mission, with the probe’s C-Course drone on “I Still Love You” about 400 minutes northeast. The landing will be targeted. Launch site.

Moments before the Falcon 9’s upper stage engine shuts down, the Booster T + Plus will land on the floating platform in 8 minutes and 44 seconds. According to a timeline of the mission released by SpaceX, the upper stage will launch 60 T + Plus flat-panel Starlink satellites at 14 minutes and 44 seconds.

The rocket aims to position satellites between 132 miles (213 kilometers) and 227 miles (366 kilometers) in an elliptical tank, with an inclination of 53 degrees in the equatorial region.

The quarter-ton satellite that SpaceX built in Redmond, Washington is expected to be equipped with solar panels that generate electricity and will begin extending its krypton-ion thrusters to increase its operating speed to 341 miles (550 kilometers). Where will they join. More than 800 Starlink relay stations to transmit broadband Internet signals in the most populous world.

With the launch on Sunday, SpaceX has deployed 955 Starlink satellites into orbit since May 2019.

SpaceX plans to operate an initial block of approximately 1,500 Starlink satellites at an altitude of 341 miles from Earth. Founded by billionaire Alan Musk, the company has received regular approval from the Federal Communications Commission to create a fleet of 12,000 small Starlink broadband stations operating in co-band, co-band and V-band frequencies.

There are also plans for a large fleet of 30,000 additional Starlink satellites, but a network of this size has not been cleared by the FCC.

SpaceX says the Starlink network, designed for low-latency Internet service, has entered beta testing in several US states and Canada.

“Last month, SpaceX launched its” Nothing Better Beta “testing program,” the company said in a post on its website. “Service invitations have been sent to a section of people who have requested availability updates on Starlink.com and who live in areas covered by the service. A few weeks ago, Canada gave Starlink regulatory approval, and last week SpaceX began service in parts of southern Canada. “

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: Stephen Clark 1.