LAUNCH TIME | August 31, 2022 - 07:30 |
LAUNCH PROVIDER | SpaceX |
CUSTOMER | SpaceX |
ROCKET | Falcon 9 Block 5 - Booster 1063 |
LAUNCH SITE | Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, California |
PAYLOAD MASS | 12,580 kg circa |
DESTINATION | LEO |
LANDING SITE | Of Course I Still Love You |
WEATHER | - |
SpaceX will launch 46 Starlink satellites. This will be the 57th operational Starlink mission and will be the fourth mission to launch satellites in Shell n. 3.
This mission will bring the number of Starlinks launched to 3,210 (2,842 still in orbit).
The booster (B1063), after taking the second stage and the satellites out of the Earth's atmosphere, will land on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You located in the Pacific Ocean. The Falcon 9 fairings will be recovered from the sea approximately by the NRC Quest recovery vessel.
This will be the seventh launch for B1063, which has already launched the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich mission, DART and 4 other Starlink missions.
A few hours after the satellites are released, the second stage will turn on its engine to perform a deorbit maneuver and disintegrate into the Earth's atmosphere. Re-entering the atmosphere avoids the creation of new space debris.
What is Starlink?
Starlink is SpaceX's constellation for broadband internet. The first phase of the project consists of approximately 42,000 satellites arranged in 5 shells.
The Starlink service is available in Italy, orders can be placed from the official website starlink.com.
How are Starlink satellites made?
Each Starlink V1.5 satellite has a compact design and a mass of 292 Kg. Each satellite is equipped with 4 phased array antennas for broadband and low latency communications and two satellite dishes. The satellites are also equipped with an inter-satellite laser communication system that allows the satellites to operate with fewer ground stations and coverage of the entire planet, even at the poles.
The satellites also have a star tracker for vehicle attitude control. Each Starlink is equipped with a self-contained collision avoidance system using the US Department of Defense tracking database.
Also to reduce costs, each satellite has only one solar panel and uses krypton as fuel instead of xenon for its ion thruster. This thruster is used to ensure the correct position and for orbital raising and lowering, at the end of the satellite's life the thruster will be used to deorbit the satellite and allow its destruction upon re-entry into the atmosphere.
The distribution of satellites in the different Shells of phase 1:
| ALTITUDINE | INCLINAZIONE | NUMERO DI SATELLITI |
Shell 1 | 550 | 53.0 | 1.584 |
Shell 2 | 570 | 70.0 | 720 |
Shell 3 | 560 | 97.6 | 348 |
Shell 4 | 540 | 53.2 | 1.584 |
Shell 5 | 560 | 97.6 | 172 |
Falcon 9
The Falcon 9 Block 5 is SpaceX's partially reusable two-stage launch vehicle. The vehicle consists of a reusable first stage, a expendable second stage and a reusable fairing pair.
The first stage The Falcon 9 first stage contains 9 Merlin 1D engines optimized for sea level. Each engine, powered with RP-1 and liquid oxygen (LOx), produces 845 kN of thrust at sea level. Merlin 1D engines are so powerful that if one engine fails immediately after take-off or 2 engines during flight the vehicle remains able to place the payload in orbit.
After the separation from the second stage, the booster starts some of the 9 engines to make a landing on the Landing Zones located on the coast or on the droneships located in the open sea.
The second stage The second stage is the only expendable part of the Falcon 9. It contains a single Merlin 1D Vacuum motor that produces 992 kN of thrust. The second stage is capable of several ignitions, allowing the Falcon 9 to place loads in different orbits.
Fairings The Falcon 9 fairing consists of two reusable halves. The first half is called the active half and houses the pneumatics for the separation system while the other is the passive half.
Both fairing halves are equipped with thrusters and a parachute that are used to gently touch the fairing half into the ocean.
The official live stream will start at about T-5 minutes.