SpaceX is preparing for a two-to-two launch just nine hours apart on Sunday, the shortest period between Florida’s orbit-class flights since 1966. The launch is a dramatic bid to put 60 more Starlink Internet relay stations into orbit. Remote Sensing Satellite of Argentina.
The planned launch follows Last-Second “Hot-Fire Absolute” The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 heavy rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was the first or classified National Reconnaissance Office fee spy satellite on Saturday.
At least one of the first three-stage engines of the Halley-Lift Delta 4 was in the process of igniting when computers ordered a shutdown just three seconds before the planned liftoff. It is not clear how the abortion began, but there will be at least one week left in the flight for observations and corrective action.
ULA webcast
On Sunday, SpaceX received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Force Eastern Range to attempt a back-to-back launch.
But weather could play a role in the historic double header, with forecasters calling for a 50-50 chance of acceptable weather for the morning Starlink launch, with Argentina’s SOCOM 1B satellite dropping 40 percent to the evening’s “go”.
If the weather is favorable, the Starlink flight will depart at 10:12 a.m. at the Kennedy Space Center and at Pad 39. The company will mark the 100th flight of SpaceX since the first launch of the Falcon 1 in 2006 and the 94th flight of its workhorse Falcon 9. Three triple-core Falcon Heavy has also been launched.
The 60 Starlinks, set to launch on Sunday, will raise the star of SpaceX to 713. The first phase of the rocket, making its second flight, will attempt to land the -f-shore droneship after the vehicle has been taken out of the lower atmosphere.
Nine hours and six minutes after the start of Sunday morning, another Falcon 9 is scheduled to orbit SOCom 1B around Earth’s poles for takeoff from Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station near Cape Canaveral, the first such flight from Florida since 1969. .
The first phase of the Falcon 9, its fourth flight, will attempt to land at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. If the Starlink and SOCom landings are successful, SpaceX will have a record of 60 first-stage recoveries, 18 at the Air Force Station, 40 at the Droneship and one at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
To reach polar orbit from Cape Canaveral, the Falcon 9 will move south and conduct a one-time “Doglag” maneuver to make a straight south turn off the coast of Florida. The flight path will take the rocket over Cuba.
SpaceX
In 1960, a cow was killed in Cuba by debris from a faulty rocket, sparking protests across the island nation. All polar orbital missions since 1969 have departed from Vandenberg where the rocket-propelled ocean remains above orbit.
SpaceX initially planned to launch SAOCom 1B from Vandenburg, but sought permission to move the flight to Cape Canaveral to ease ground processing issues.
The company has obtained government approval for the move, in part due to the Douglag maneuver, which reduces over-lighting in populated areas, downgrades the rocket’s altitude until it reaches populated areas, and because the Falcon 9 has an automated flight safety system. AFTS is designed to quickly end a flight, if a revenue catastrophic problem is found.
The 6,720-pound SAOCOM 1B needs a polar orbit to be able to observe the entire planet while eclipsing its cloud-intrusive radar. The spacecraft will work in concert with the same L-band radar mapper Launched in 2018 With Cosmo-Skymed X-band satellites from Italy.
Built for 360-mile-high orbits, the 600 million SOCOM system is designed to monitor soil moisture and other factors affecting the agricultural sector, collecting high-resolution data around the clock regardless of cloud cover.
“One of the main goals of the com satellites is to provide information for the agricultural sector,” Raul Kulishevsky, executive and technical director of CNAE, Argentina’s space agency, told Spaceflight Now.
“The things we develop are maps of soil moisture, not just surface, but by taking advantage of the L-band capabilities we can measure soil moisture 1 meter below the surface. So this is very important information.”
.
