Watch live: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 20 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg, California

for good evening everyone and Welcome to our live coverage of the latest Mission from vanderberg space Forest base it's been a while since we've been able to say that it's good to be back in the Golden State getting ready for a falcon9 launch well Robinson Smith I'll be providing our commentary for the duration of this coverage we're broadcasting from the space flight now news Bureau here at Nasa Kennedy Space Center Stephen young is running the technical operations of the broadcast of course being that this is a West Coast based Mission our launch photographers Adam Bernstein and Michael Kane are off getting some well earned rest but rest assured they'll be back in Action before you you know it as we are tracking a starlink launch from here in Florida coming up in just a few days but we'll have more on that just a moment for now we are T-minus 30 minutes 31 seconds and counting to the launch of the starlink 8-2 mission we do have word from SpaceX that propellant load is in fact underway on tonight's Mission which means they are committing to the planned launch attempt of the t0 liftoff time see that right there on your screen 9 :30 p.m. Pacific 12:30 a.m. eastern 04:30 UTC for our friends joining from around the world this will be spacex's 33rd dedicated starlink Mission so far in 2024 like to help support our coverage of the Space Program there's a quick and easy way to do that if you are among the 5700 of you 5800 VI excuse me that are watching with us live first of all thanks for being with us on a Thursday evening although technically now on the East Coast it is Friday morning just past midnight so happy Friday everyone on the East Coast we have almost made it to the weekend as I was saying you can help support this channel it's quick and easy just by hitting the like button and sharing the Stream it allows more folks to find this live coverage and let the YouTube algorithm do its thing also we are powered by a wonderful Channel member Community here on YouTube so thanks to folks like fig 816 kisty Elise Cindy Marlene uh gusy Janine deera uh zepher wolf Stefan Michael Valerie Korea and many others for supporting us the channel membership we're very appreciative of that channel membership has a number of perks including the ability to watch all of our launches from the cape and the liftoff of those in 4k hello Lita and to Crazy ke that opal guy as well Channel membership also allows discounts online shop shop. spacelight now.com and access to member only videos here on YouTube last but not least you can use the YouTube Super Chat feature if you have a comment or question that you'd like to have be a part of the show or uper consideration and your comment or question is appropriate to be on our show we'd love to bring you into this topic of discussion either related directly to the starlink launch tonight if you have something else on your mind in the space domain love to talk about it as we step on through the next oh 27 minutes 35 seconds or so going back to the memberships uh want to welcome a few new channel members who happened to pop in to the community as we were getting things going so welcome to Robert Slayton Larry Barker Larry Baker excuse me and David Mills all joining at the pad leader level welcome aort we're glad to have you with us and also Clayton Clemens joining us Channel membership with pad leader level welcome to all four of you and for the generosity of some of our channel members kalis Lee gifting 10 space flight now memberships thanks so much kisty really appreciate that bit of generosity to kick us off in a good way psychon not not only gifting a space flight now membership but also joining with Channel membership himself at the pad leader level welcome aboard psycho N I know we've seen your handle pop up a number of times in these streams so glad you're joining the member community that is great to see and to Oscar the roselina fan 2022 has been a member for two months saying thank you for two months I hope ready rocket launches you're in Panorama City certainly hope that the launch goes off tonight as it was a long night last night hoping and waiting for what it end up being a scrub so fingers crossed there in a better configuration this time around also want to welcome Aldo Castleton joining us at pad leader level of Channel membership and a thanks to both Wicked code and to Trinity AKA mam t two of our pre-existing wonderful channel members for gifting five space line now channel memberships a peace as an independent news organization we are very appreciative to our members helping create new members so thanks to all of you for that and lastly for now thanks to ad and welcome aboard to channel membership joining us at the P leader level and with all that for now let's turn back to the mission at hand starlink 8-2 Mission we're about 10 minutes into the process of propellant load for this Falcon 9 flight from Vanderburg space Force Base again SpaceX looking for a t0 liftoff at 9:30 Pacific 12:30 a.m. eastern 0430 UTC let's go ahead and talk about the countdown for that mission some of the Milestones that have passed and what is still yet to come in this fueling process the countdown for a falcon 9 begins of course with the poll being taken to start propo that comes up at the team minus 38 minute Mark we do know that of course the go-ahead for fueling was given which began a little more than 10 minutes ago with a couple of Events first was uh propellant loading with both rp1 or rocket gr kerosene on the first and second stages of the Falcon 9 rocket at the same time liquid oxygen is also loaded on board the first stage at the T minus 30 minute mark it begin loading cenic helium into the pressure vessels on the falcon9 first stage that helies used to pressurize the main propellant tanks during flight same process comes up at about the T-minus 26 minute Mark so just about 2 minutes ago is when that began T minus 23 minutes the loading of the second stage kerosene tank concluded or is about to conclude I guess we're just a minute away from that wrapping up at about tus 20 minutes and 50 seconds strong back chill down process begins or folks who have been with us for a cape base launch you'll know that as the big vent happens as the feed Lin being chilled and prior to Second Stage liquid oxygen loading which Speaking of that comes up at about T-minus 16 minutes before liftoff the T-minus 7 Minute Mark the chill down of the N9 Marland entrance gets under way it evolves flowing a small amount of liquid oxygen through the plumbing and the Turbo pumps and it protects the engines from the risk of thermal shock and damage during the startup sequence about 6 minutes prior to liftoff the first stage kerosene tank should be full then at tus 4 and a half minutes we'll see the strong back retract sequence begin starts with the clamp arms underneath the payload fairings opening up and then the transporter erector with a strong back will recline about 13 degrees away from the Falcon 9 a little bit different here in Vandenberg compared to the cap based launches 3 minutes out the first stage liquid oxygen load is complete and at T minus 2 minutes second stage locks load has wrapped up at which point the Falcon 9 rocket is fully fueled with 1 million pounds of propellant in the final 60 seconds control of the countdown is handed over from the ground sequencer the Falcon 's onboard flight computers the propell tanks are brought up to flight pressure SpaceX launch director gives their go for liftoff at 45 seconds out ENT ignition Comm command is issued at T minus 3 seconds and if all nine Merlin engs ignite and are healthy the flight computer will give the command for the hold down clamps to release the Falcon 9 or t0o liftoff coming up once again at 9:30 p.m. Pacific 12:30 a.m. eastern 0430 UTC or in 21 minutes and 50 seconds well there wasn't a launch today here in FLA Florida but there was some action that we spotted over near the Press site NASA's Kennedy Space Center take a look at some video that I was able to capture you see a pair of payload fairings that were cruised on by the Vehicle Assembly Building which will'll come into frame in just a moment here you can tell these payload fairings have some age on them so more than likely flight proven fairings although SpaceX doesn't publ the tail number of the fairings or how many times they've flown so it's a little hard to track the history of them we believe these fairings will be used in an upcoming starlink Mission which is set for this weekend this is a good video because it gives you a set of scale and for had just a a temporary Focus issue there got right back to it can see in the background some of the buildings of importance here at the uh Kennedy Space Center those small ones just to the left of the VAB it's near the area where they work on the X-37B space plane and just behind the VAB on the left hand side from this perspective is the C3 PF the build where they were working on Starliner Boeing's spacecraft that'll bury astronauts to the International Space Station Now set to launch on May 17th and that building now immediately behind the fairings is a launch control center where they have the firing rooms and you can see actually just in the back background and I didn't I didn't even notice this when I was shooting it this evening but you can see the crawler transporter to hanging out in the background there is getting ready to move the base of the mobile launcher 2 which will be used for future Artemis missions starting with the Artemis 4light now is going to be using a slightly larger version of the SLS rocket which instead of the itum cryogenic propulsion stage or of the upper part of the rocket that will be retired and instead they'll use What's called the exploration upper stage and so because the rocket is taller they need a taller mobile launcher and that is currently in the works by a company called Beal unfortunately the mobile launcher 2 is years behind schedule and quite notably over budget but they seem to have gotten their finances in order and have gotten the schedule in a little bit of a better place so the work has been progressing fairly steadily now just to the right of this fr frame is the pad where actually mobile launcher 1 is sitting at right now that's pad 39b where the space launch system rocket launches previously of course the space shuttle we're now tmin 17 minutes 20 seconds and counting just a little over a minute away from the start of second stage liquid oxygen load on the Falcon and rocket e we're now tus 15 minutes 57 seconds of counting taking a look back at the live chat for a moment here want to thank uh Nick trins for our $10 Super Chat thank you so much Nick really appreciate that giving a shout out to Nikki Gracie and Dad down in Santa Pao California hope the family is doing well want to welcome both Dave rich and media Zoo for joining at the mission specialist and launch director levels respectively Channel membership really appreciate that from the both of you and welcome aboard we're glad to have you with us and a thanks to uh k h another one of our wonderful channel members gifting $20 Super Chat really appreciate that KH who I think was a gifted Channel membership just this evening if I'm not mistaken KH says thank you to this community so kind we've talked about the timeline of events for the fueling process of the Falcon 9 let's go ahead now and pivot to the flight of this vehicle and where it will be going once it leaves the LaunchPad Starling g-2 Mission similar flight pattern to the missions heading to the seventh shell of the starlink constellation after lifting off from slick 4E or space launch complex 4 East and federber space Force Base the Falcon 9 rocket will fly in a southeasterly trajectory along coast of California and Mexico following stage separation first stage booster is going to land on the only drone ship that is out there on the west coast that is of course I still love you if successful this Mission will Mark the 89th Landing of a booster on this particular drone ship as well as the 306th Falcon booster Landing to date on board this Falcon 9 rocket of course batch of starlink satellites taking a look at what those starlinks look like in launch configuration there are 20 of them on board this particular Mission each of them clocking in at about 1,760 lb or about 800 kilog with their solar panels infilled they have a wingspan of about 100 ft or 30 m they use argon Hall thrusters for inorbit Maneuvers as opposed to the previously used Krypton Hall thrusters they were built in Redmond Washington which is near Seattle and they'll be deployed at about 180 Mi or 290 kg in altitude at a 53 Dee inclination if you haven't already had a chance to pop over to our website spaceflightnow.com and read the preview article on this launch we'll note that there are only 20 starlinks in total on this flight however 13 of those have the direct sell capability something that SpaceX has been rolling out over the course of this year a little by little until this will bring the total number of announced direct to cell starlinks up to 25 so far well we don't have a great uh image from SpaceX of what the starlink V2 minis look like and they're on orbit configuration we do have this image from hoo robotics to give you an idea of what a starlink V2 mini looks like on orbit you see the solar panels stretching out to either side of the satellite main body this photo was captured last year claiming to be the first direct observation of a starling V2 mini on orbit at T minus 11 minutes 28 seconds in counting as was the case with our most recent launch from the cape this is a fair fairly young booster as compared to some of the quotequote oldtimers for the SpaceX Fleet this booster only launching for the fourth time on this flight let's go ahead and take a moment talk about the history of this particular booster till number 1082 in the SpaceX Fleet it's first couple flights similar to the one it's about to embark on right now they were both Starling commissions the first was back on January 3D of this year that was starlink mission 7-9 that was followed up a month later the starlink 7-14 mission on February 15th of this year and then most recently was a national security mission for this booster that was on April 11th launching the ussf 62 flight sending up the weather system followon microwave satellite a flight booked through the US space systems command it's the first of this military satellite program we're now T minus 10 minutes and Counting now Less Than 3 minutes away from the start of the engine Shi down sequence e e e we're now T minus 8 minutes 9 seconds in counting taking a look at the live chat here I want to thank the more than n uh excuse me 17,000 of you who are watching with us live if you haven't already be sure to hit the like button allow some more folks to find their way into this live coverage we are now less than eight minutes to the plan lift off of the falcon9 rocket also want to thank a few more folks directly for your support this evening thanks to Steve Nelson for a $5 Super Chat really appreciate that Steve thanks to Don Carley with a very generous $50 Super Chat my goodness done thank you so much for supporting us at That level that is very kind of you sir thanks to the Jones family ranch for also a very generous $20 Super Chat really appreciate that Jones family ranch who says Sierra Madre Middle School eighth graders are watching for the launch from the Catalina ENT Camp well if that group of eighth graders can hear me hello to Sierra Madre Middle School I hope you're all having a wonderful n conclusion to your eighth grade Year and best of luck in high school it's a fast for a year so remember to have fun and when you're ready to graduate consider going to Northwestern my alma Mo because that's a great school too also want to welcome Susan Mo Sharky joining us with Channel membership at the Pao level really appreciate that welcome aboard we're glad to have you with us some Joker named Adam Bernstein photography gifted five space flight now memberships and all seriousness thanks Adam of course for those who are not familiar Adam as one of our launch photographers and uh because this is over in California he wasn't able to make the jaunt out to the Golden State for a launch tonight so he's got the evening off joining with us virtually thanks to uh clist one of our other Wonder channel members you're giting a $20 Super Chat thank you clisa and I will Echo her sentiment saying hit the like button hearts are great but likes are what pushes the stream up and makes easier for people to find it that is very true Edward Pearson gifting a very generous $50 Super Chat thank you so much Edward really appreciate your supporting at that level and same to Jim Edgar also gifting a $50 Super Chat really appreciate that Jim good to see you again this even evening Jim says Jim uh Chris Jim and Nick are watching from Seattle Washington and my best homage to frasia Crane Hello Seattle finally to cool corn for a $2 Super Chat saying I get a nice view of the rocket in my backyard is certainly one of the benefits of being near to a pad speaking of near to a pad we now have views of this one and you can see as I mentioned the tanks are pressing for strong back retract SpaceX booster looking fairly unfl proven even though it's flown already three times but far less Sy than some of the others that we've seen recently still very clearly make out that SpaceX blue lettering that call you just heard they are preparing for the strong back retrack strong back lower has started which is now in motion starts with the clamp arms underneath the payload fairings opening up and then here in vandenbberg the strong back will recline about 13 degrees away from the Falcon 9 rocket as opposed to the degree and a half that we're used to out here in Florida there you see the strong backer The Transporter erector now in motion we're now T minus 3 minutes 15 seconds in counting and for our friends watching in the area of California or if you've got any kind of visibility on the rocket just letting you know in real time the well the clock that you see there at the base of the window you're looking at complete right now that is the SpaceX feed which is coming in on a slight DeLay So in real time we're about 11 seconds ahead of that so again real time we're about T minus 2 minutes 33 seconds and counting so just look at the clock at the bottom of the screen subtract subtract 11 seconds and if you've got inperson visibility in the rocket that's what you're going to want to watch for so don't want you to miss your opportunity coming up on the conclusion of fueling of the falcon9 rocket the next we're expecting to hear his second stage locks load complete meantime want to welcome or uh thank Becky haes for a $5 Super Chat and thanks to Mighty HTV for giting five space l now memberships really appreciate that from the both of you and hello to Heidi Hayden saying hello from Evanston Home of my alma Northwestern thank you Heidi and go cats stage two locks load complete and with that call out the Falcon 9 is now fully fueled and ready for flight we about a minute and a half away from the plan liftoff for the starlink ground gas 8-2 mission [Applause] again just as a reminder in real time it is T minus 53 seconds in counting falet 9 is in startup and the next call we're expecting is go for launch go for launch and with that looks like we're going to see a falcon fly in just about 35 seconds from now on the SpaceX clock again for those watching in real time you are now 20 seconds away we're going to go ahead and step back for a moment listening to the final countdown from SpaceX and we'll be back with you just on the other side of liftoff tus 15 seconds T minus 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ignition and lift off Falcon 9 go starlink go Space X entertainment pressure is nominal and had a good lift off nominal of the Falcon 9 rocket so far coming up on a minute into flight vehicle is supersonic hopefully folks there in Southern California getting a great view of Falcon 9 in Flight is now traveling faster than the speed of sound and with that call the rocket is passed through Max Q the point of greatest aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle coming up in the next minute we're going to hit a few different milestones in Fairly rapid succession first will be first stage main engine cut off or Mo at about t plus 2 minutes and 31 seconds that'll be followed 3 seconds later by St separation and then second stage engine start scs1 that'll be capped off by fairing deployment just after the 3 minute Mark that call out you just heard from SpaceX for mvac chill they are thermally conditioning the Merlin vacuum engine on the Falcon 9 second stage in preparation for the start of its burn coming up in less than a minute e Mo State separation confirmed and back conition and all good call outs from SpaceX and events you see here on your screen and there go the Hypersonic grid fins deploying there on the falcon9 first stage fairing separation confirmed with that the Starling satellites are now exposed to the vacuum of space for the first time on this flight can see a little bit of the glow of the lights from the California coastline there from the cameras on the falcon9 first stage it's up in the Box in the upper left hand side of the screen now trajectory so far all appears to be going smoothly with this Falcon Mission this is spacex's 48th launch of the year so far now four minutes into flight coming up in just over 2 minutes be the start of the first stage entry burn that burn lasting 21 seconds slowing the vehicle down considerably first stage booster appears to have reached its ape altitude still hovering around 116 kilomet e and we are now one minute until the start of the entry burn good views from inside the Falcon 9 first stage on the left hand side of your screen on the right toggling back and forth to look at both sides of the Merlin vacuum engine ensure that still burning evenly and there are no spots where it's either burning too hot or otherwise unevenly across the Merlin vacuum engine now 6 minutes into flight less than 10 seconds away from the start of the entry burn ninal trajectory entry burn startup entry burn shut down here's to have been a good entry burn coming up next will be the start of the landing burn which will begin in just about 1 minute from now a t plus 7 minutes and 55 seconds that'll set up for a drone stage Landing at about t+ 8 minutes and 18 seconds you can see the speedometer on the Falcon 9 first stage dropping rapidly entry burn considerably slowing it down and now also being slowed down by some atmospheric drag stage one transonic what that call out the Falconi first stage booster traveling below the speed of sound now just about 10 seconds until the start of that Landing burn stage one Landing burn Landing like deoy stage one Landing confirmed and with that a good Landing of falcon9 booster be 1082 for the fourth time see go and a good call out on SEO this point the Falcon 9 second state is going into a parking orbit where we'll Coast until about t plus 52 minutes 31 seconds there will be a quick 1second burn of that Merlin vacuum engine followed by Starling satellite deployment at t+ 1 Hour 1 minute and 25 seconds after those starlinks are deployed that'll set up the Falcon 9 second stage for one more burn that is a deorbit burn to drive it back into the atmosphere where it will burn up helping to eliminate the risk of creating unnecessary space debris on this Mission and with that we're going to go ahead and begin to wind things down but before we do want to thank some folks for their support as we were going through the Final Countdown here so thanks to Young quad vet for a $2 Super Chat saying can't wait to see the launch out here in SoCal and hopefully you got a good view of that young quad has Mariah H one of our wonderful channel members saying hi Will watching from Salt Lake City Utah curious to see if the uh visibility from Salt Lake was good tonight mighty HTV joining us the channel membership at the pad leader level welcome aboard Mighty H glad to have you with us Mike wear with a super chat as well thank you Mike rocket profit gifting a $20 Super Chat one of our wonderful channel members thank you so much rocket profit saying love these nighttime launches couple more from the rocket profit gifting five space flight n memberships really appreciate that and also rocket profit has been a channel member for 16 months saying can't wait for the day that the Raptors are dialed in as perfectly as those Merlins are and the Raptor engines for those not as familiar are the engines that power the Starship rocket obviously considerably larger and much more impactful on that vehicle also uh thanks to Young vet saying go go go go go as the rocket was lifting off I'm sure another Channel member Steve Brock's been a member for one month really appreciate your continued membership Steve simply saying appreciate you well appreciate you Steve and finally kisty Lee another one of our wonderful channel members gifting a $20 Super Chat saying thanks as always space light now will mods and all we appreciate you and yes a big thank you to our wonderful moderators in the live chat thanks to Astro Jen just scrolling to see if we've got anybody else hanging out with us tonight may just be Astro Jen tonight so thanks Astro Jen oh no Astro Joe there you are and it might be the right hour where Stephanie B is out there somewhere as well I think Russy Shaker is over on Launchpad live so thanks to all of yall for helping us out live chat and thanks to Haley Higgins for gifting the Super Chat as well thank you Haley appreciate the support and as we have a successful liftoff in landing of the Falcon 9 rocket let's go ahead and wrap things up as we always do with a look at the mission stats as the currently stand this was the fourth flight of this Falcon 9 booster tale 1082 this was space 6's 333rd little typo there 333rd Falcon 9 launch to date this was the 48th Falcon 9 launch of 2024 was the 49th SpaceX launch of this year including of course the integrated flight test number three for the Starship rocket down in South Texas this of spacex's 114th orbital launch within the last 365 days the 76 orbital launch from space launch complex 4 East down in vanderberg and the 144th overall orbital launch from that pad and of course the 15th or launch from vanderberg 2024 moving on some recovery stats this was the 89th landing on the Drone ship of course I still love you this was spacex's 300 or excuse me 238th drone chip Landing to date and the 306th booster Landing so far finally moving out to some industry stats from around the world this was 15th orbital launch from California the 51st orbital launch from us soil it was the 55th orbital launch from us rocket company including the four so far down in New Zealand rocket lab planning their fifth coming up a little bit later this month and this was the 89th orbital launch globally moving out to the pie chart view of things see the US us stands at 60% of the pi China 21 missions on the year and 25% launches Russia with six Japan with three India and Iran with two a piece want to than a few more folks on our way out here as we close things down our thanks to uh Steve Nelson Jr self who says man the's never got old thank you Libra Productions LLC Laura D and Lis are all gifting using the YouTube Super Chat really appreciate that and if you haven't already be sure to subscribe to space flight now on your way out the door and turn on notifications hit that Bell icon that way you get alerted whenever we do start these live streams and you get notified of the videos that we post here on the channel got a couple of them coming up for you tomorrow s a double dose of video goodness Friday which I know is a not El iteration at all not really that catchy but there you go got a new video coming out the promised part two of our two-part series on Boeing Starliner program that is dropping tomorrow in the early afternoon and then later on in the day we'll have a new episode of our normally weekly live excuse me not live series but our normally Weekly News Roundup series news from the Press site that's coming your way tomorrow afternoon as well got a couple of great guests on the podcast this week we were hoping that it might be in conjunction with the launch of the Starliner spacecraft and then we'd have that to talk about but that's not how the cards fall nevertheless we'll be joined by Friends the show Chris Davenport from The Washington Post and Jeff fa with space news so be sure to keep your eye out for that and a good robust conversation on the week that was in space news want to thank ww929 for a $2 Super Chat thank you so much ww and to Marshall moans for joining us the channel membership at the pad leader level really appreciate that Marshall and that'll go ahead and do it for us this evening want to once again thank the mods in the live chat thanks to Astro Joe Astro Jen Stephanie B and Rusty shakleford for all you do for our community really appreciate that thanks to our photographers Adam Bernstein and Michael Kane will be back in Action very soon again we've got a launch coming up here on the cape this weekend and also back out in Vandenberg looks like you have a launch coming up on the 14th of May so we'll be tracking that as well be sure to check out spacelight now.com for all the updates on the launch schedule so you can be as up toate as possible with what's coming down the pike our thanks to our space flight now editor Stephen young for running the technical operations of the broadcast to Sharon Stewart for hitting it at the buzzer joining us with Channel membership at the pad leader level welcome aboard Sharon we're glad to have you with us and most importantly thanks to you wherever you are watching for being with us for live coverage of the starlink 8-2 mission there's plenty more to come in the near future for all of us here at space flight now I'm a Robinson Smith remember be good to yourselves be good to others and we will see you next time good night for

Channel: Spaceflight Now

Views: 183,534

Keywords: Starlink 7-18, Space X

Id: C_wWuuXffKw

Length: 51min 8sec (3068 seconds)

Published: Fri May 10 2024