Page 110 - SAMENA Trends - September-October 2022

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SpaceX to Launch the 3,500th Starlink Satellite

SpaceX is gearing up to launch another “startup.” At this point in the sequence, the themselves for reentry using cold gas
batch of Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit tanks will also start to pressurize to flight thrusters and then parachute down to a
(LEO). Liftoff is scheduled to occur at 10:50 levels. Shortly after, the launch director soft splashdown on the ocean. These will
AM EDT (14:50 UTC) on Oct. 20 from Space will then give the go or no-go decision to be recovered by SpaceX’s multi-purpose
Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape proceed with the launch. At T-3 seconds, recovery vessel Doug. Both recoveries will
Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. the onboard computers will command occur more than 650 km downrange in
This mission–known as Group 4-36–will ignition of all nine Merlin 1D engines on the North Atlantic Ocean. Once both the
see Falcon 9 loft 54 Starlink satellites the first stage, which will ramp up to full second stage and Starlink satellites have
to the fourth shell of SpaceX’s Starlink power 2.8 seconds later. If engine health reached orbit, the second stage will initiate
constellation, bringing the total number is confirmed to be good, the rocket will an end-over-end rotation maneuver. This
of Starlink satellites launched to over command the ground computers to release will aid in the dispersion of the satellites
3,500. Nine minutes later, the engine chill the hold-down clamps, allowing the vehicle after deployment, which should happen at
process will begin. In this process, a small to lift off. The flight profile for this mission around T+15 minutes. Once the satellites
amount of liquid oxygen is allowed to flow follows a similar one to all recent Starlink are deployed, the MVacD engine on the
through the turbopumps of each of the nine missions to shell four from Cape Canaveral, second stage will perform another burn
Merlin 1D engines on the first stage. This where the vehicle arches to the northeast for deorbit and disposal over the Pacific
thermally conditions the pumps ahead of over the Atlantic Ocean. The rocket will Ocean. Elon Musk recently shared a video
the high flow of this cryogenic fluid during pass through the area of maximum on Twitter of this process as captured by
engine ignition and avoids the creation of aerodynamic pressure–or max-Q–roughly one of the satellite’s onboard engineering
bubbles of oxygen that could damage the one minute and 10 seconds into flight. cameras on a prior mission. Thursday’s
pumps. At the T-6 minute mark, RP-1 load Roughly two and a half minutes into the launch is aiming to put 54 more Starlink
will finish on the first stage and the tanks flight, Falcon 9’s first-stage engines will satellites into the fourth shell of the first
will get ready for pressurization ahead of shut down in an event called main engine generation of the constellation, bringing the
strongback retraction. The strongback cutoff–or MECO. A few seconds after this, total of Starlink satellites launched to 3,505.
retraction process will begin at around T-4 both stages will separate and the second Out of these, 275 satellites have already
minutes with the opening of the top clamp stage will ignite its single Merlin 1D Vacuum reentered. Of the ones remaining in orbit,
arms followed by a roughly one-and-a-half- (MVacD) engine. This will be MVacD’s first 63 are non-maneuvering and 2,704 are in
degree rotation away from the rocket. LOX of two burns during the mission and will their operational orbit. Falcon 9’s first stage
load will end on the first stage at around T-3 last approximately six minutes. Shortly for this mission, B1062, will be flying for
minutes and will continue on the second after ignition, the payload fairing halves the 10th time after previously supporting
stage until approximately T-1 minute and will separate. While the second stage and the launch of two GPS-III satellites, two
40 seconds. Once propellant loading is Starlink satellites continue on their flight private Crew Dragon missions, the launch
complete, the rocket and ground systems to the target 232-by-336 kilometer orbit, of the Nilesat 301 geostationary satellite,
will prepare for liftoff. This includes purging the first stage and fairing halves will return as well as four prior Starlink missions.
the propellant lines to both the booster and to Earth for recovery and reuse. The first This will put 1062 as the sixth booster in
second stage as well as performing final stage will execute its traditional entry and the fleet to reach SpaceX’s initial goal of
software checks. At T-1 minute, control landing burns, targeting a touchdown on flying the first stages 10 times with minimal
of the automated countdown sequence SpaceX’s Autonomous Spaceport Drone refurbishment between flights. SpaceX’s
will be handed over to Falcon 9’s onboard Ship A Shortfall Of Gravitas (ASOG). The launch on Thursday will be the 63rd launch
computers in a process SpaceX calls fairing halves, meanwhile, will orient dedicated to Starlink and the company’s
fifth launch of the month. Another Starlink
mission from the Cape was previously
scheduled to launch next week; however,
this was delayed into November to
prioritize maintenance work at the launch
pad, as well as to ensure schedule priority
for commercial customers. SpaceX’s next
mission from Florida will therefore be the
long-awaited launch of the USSF-44 mission
onboard a Falcon Heavy rocket, currently
scheduled for no earlier than Oct. 31. Work
has been underway at Launch Complex
39A for the past two weeks to prepare the
ground systems for the fourth launch of the
world’s most powerful operational rocket.

110 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022