[ad_1]
SpaceX fired a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral on Wednesday in a pre-flight test for a Starlink satellite launch on Sunday, approaching the company’s final mission before sending two NASA astronauts into orbit for the first time on may 27th.
The test shot occurred at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on Wednesday at platform 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Falcon 9’s nine main Merlin engines were accelerated to full power, generating 1.7 million pounds of thrust, while clamping restrictions kept the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket firmly on the ground.
The engines burned for several seconds, sending a cloud of steam and exhaust fumes skyward onto the launch pad by the sea.
Static litmus test is a regular part of all SpaceX launch campaigns, giving engineers the opportunity to practice countdown procedures and load the Falcon 9 with super-chilled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen boosters to verify readiness. the rocket for the flight.
After a data review, SpaceX will continue final preparations for the launch of around 60 more satellites for its Starlink Internet network, joining more than 400 other Starlink spacecraft launched since May 2019.
SpaceX aims to launch around 1,000 more Starlink satellites later this year and next year to begin offering Internet services globally. Initial beta testing of the Starlink network could begin later this year, beginning in higher latitude regions such as Canada and the northern United States.
Thousands of more Starlink spacecraft could be launched in the coming years to meet global demand, according to SpaceX.
A new umbrella to reduce glare from Starlink satellites will debut at the launch this weekend. The umbrella-shaped visor will prevent sunlight from reaching the brightest parts of the flat-panel spacecraft, making them less visible from the ground.
Scientists have expressed concern that thousands of Starlink satellites, as envisioned by SpaceX, could affect astronomical observations through ground-based telescopes. So far, SpaceX has responded with an experimental darkening treatment that offered some reduction in visibility, and the company says it is changing the orientation of Starlink satellites during the period shortly after launch to move their solar panels away from the sun.
The umbrella should provide a more significant dimming effect, says SpaceX.
SpaceX confirmed a successful result of Wednesday’s static litmus test in a tweet. Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch at 3:53 am EDT (0753 GMT) on Sunday from platform 40, less than 24 hours after a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is ready to take off from neighboring platform 41 with the US Air Force X-37B space plane. USA .
Officials with the 45th Space Wing, which manages the range of all launches from Cape Canaveral, said approval of the Falcon 9 for Sunday’s flight depends on a timely launch of the Atlas 5 rocket on Saturday. If the Atlas 5 launch is dropped on Saturday and ULA tries again on Sunday, the Falcon 9 launch for the Starlink network would be delayed until early Monday on a first-come, first-served basis.
SpaceX said Wednesday that the first stage assigned to launch this weekend is a veteran of four previous flights, which will land on a SpaceX unmanned ship after each mission. The thruster first flew from Cape Canaveral in September 2018 with a Telesat communications satellite, then launched again from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in January 2019 with 10 Iridium voice and data relay payloads.
Their third flight occurred last May on Falcon 9’s first dedicated launch for the Starlink program. More recently, the booster was launched on January 6 from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage will again attempt to land on SpaceX’s unmanned spacecraft northeast of Cape Canaveral. If it lands, it will mark the first time SpaceX retrieves a first stage of Falcon 9 for the fifth time.
SpaceX ground crews are preparing a new Falcon 9 rocket for the launch of Demo-2 from platform 39A.
The next launch from Cape Canaveral after this weekend’s flights is the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s Demo-2 mission, which will take NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station.
Assuming this weekend’s Starlink mission is going according to plan, Crew Dragon is scheduled to launch at 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT) May 27 from Platform 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, just a few miles north of Platform 40.
It will be the first time that astronauts have fired into orbit from US soil since the space shuttle’s last launch on July 8, 2011.
Send an email to the author.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
[ad_2]
