#SpaceX Starlink-10 launched into a thick soup of humid sky tonight from LC-39A, with 2 rideshare sats for @SpaceflightInc's customer @BlackSky_Inc. Another Falcon landing too. On to the next....
It takes about 3 minutes after launch to pass the Kármán Line, the boundary to #space around 62 miles above us. That requires 1.7 million pounds of heart-pounding thrust coming from the nine Stage 1 engines that are pushing 1+ million pounds of #engineering through... (cont'd)
...the atmosphere. It’s one thing to understand it. It’s another thing to actually do it. Congrats to all our amazing partners at @SpaceX, @SpaceflightInc, and @LeoStellaLLC + the incredible @BlackSky_Inc team whose efforts are taking #globalmonitoring to the next level.
Starlink V1.0 L4 - L8 all inserted into their coast phase at around 216km altitude. L1 - L3 however inserted at around 168km. Starlink V1.0 L9 marks a return to the earlier insertion altitude, at a slightly higher velocity, but with only 57 Starlink satellites on board.Why? The 60 L3 satellites were deployed at an altitude of 302km, close to a circular orbit. The 57 L9 satellites were deployed at about 400km, also roughly circular, because that is the required orbit for the BlackSky rideshare satellites. Achieving this orbit required a small reduction in overall payload to 57 Starlink satellites.As per some of the earlier missions, the L9 S2 throttled back to about 94% throttle at the 450s mark. It also burnt longer than L3 to compensate, and shut down travelling some 25m/s faster.
We have liftoff! Falcon 9 clears the tower, carrying 57 Starlink satellites, and 2 @BlackSky_Inc satellites - part of SpaceX's rideshare program.This was booster B1051's 5th launch and landing. Which one will go for that 6th flight?
B1051 taking the high road. Congrats again, @SpaceX!
I realized in the webcast this morning's Starlink flight means the last 2 launches from historic 39A were the Demo 2 booster (1st flight, left) and the Demo 1 booster (5th flight, right). In the 2+ months in-between, the Demo 2 booster has already flown again (ANASIS-II mission).
Are you sure the orbit is the reason for reduction to 57 Starlinks?
... typically when we're flying Starlink, we go into an elliptical orbit after one burn and then we separate the satellites, and their ion thrusters will lift them to the final orbit. But for the spaceflight customer with the BlackSky satellites we needed to get to a circular orbit, so they required two burns, the second which you saw just a little while ago, when we got to apogee. That circularized the orbit, but in order to do that, that took more propellant out of the vehicle, so you couldn't carry quite as much mass, so we traded off three of the Starlinks, so we're at 57 Starlinks on the stack.
Engines in flight, at night🔥🔭🚀A closeup look at Falcon 9 with #Starlink & @BlackSky_Inc via telescope tracking slowmo... Congrats @SpaceX @elonmusk Watch for the flames, stay for the sounds and colors, scope crew at it again @Erdayastronaut @OPT_Telescopes @astroferg
Are you sure the orbit is the reason for reduction to 57 Starlinks? The delta-V between 302 km circular and 400 km circular is about 56 m/s. Getting rid of 2 starlinks (at 260 kg each), then adding 2 BlackSky (55 kg each)
Quote from: LouScheffer on 08/07/2020 02:06 pmAre you sure the orbit is the reason for reduction to 57 Starlinks? The delta-V between 302 km circular and 400 km circular is about 56 m/s. Getting rid of 2 starlinks (at 260 kg each), then adding 2 BlackSky (55 kg each) Getting rid of 3 starlinks
Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief are almost back to Port Canaveral. #SpaceXFleet #SpaceX
Looks like Ms. Tree fished a fairing half from the water. #SpaceXFleet #SpaceX
Looks like Ms. Tree's fairing half is intact. #SpaceXFleet #SpaceX
It looks like Ms. Chief also fished a fairing half out of the water. #SpaceXFleet #SpaceX
Looks like Ms. Chief's fairing half is also intact. #SpaceXFleet #SpaceX
Of Course I Still Love You droneship and B1051.5 are tracking towards an arrival at Port Canaveral between 1pm and 3pm EDT tomorrow - subject to change.
Update: OCISLY is slowing down to time for an arrival TOMORROW morning (Aug 10), shortly after dawn, around 7 - 8am ET.Droneship will NOT be arriving today.
B1051.5 can already be seen off the coast where it will be lurking until tomorrow morning when it will enter Port Canaveral. #SpaceXFleet #SpaceX
