SpaceX to launch second mission from Florida within two days - NASASpaceFlight.com - NASASpaceflight.com

SpaceX has launched the archetypal of a brace of Falcon 9 missions astir 23 hours isolated from the company’s 2 Florida motorboat pads. The archetypal ngo carried the archetypal 2 satellites for a caller constellation known arsenic O3b mPOWER to orbit connected Friday, Dec. 16, with liftoff coming astatine the precise extremity of an 87-minute motorboat model astatine 5:48 PM EST (22:48 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SCL-40) astatine the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS).

This is acceptable to beryllium followed by a antithetic Falcon 9 sending 54 much Starlink net satellites into debased Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) astatine the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) connected Saturday, Dec. 17 astatine 4:32 PM EST (21:32 UTC).

The grounds for the fastest clip betwixt launches from Cape Canaveral dates backmost to Nov. 11, 1966. On that date, an Atlas-Agena Target Vehicle lifted disconnected from Launch Complex 14 astatine 2:07:59 PM EST. That was followed 1 hr and 39 minutes aboriginal by the motorboat of the Gemini 12 ngo carrying astronauts Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin from Launch Complex 19 astatine 3:46:33 PM EST. The brace would aboriginal signifier rendezvous and docking with the people vehicle.

While the Eastern Range, which includes some CCSFS and KSC, stated its readiness to enactment some launches conscionable 33 minutes isolated connected Friday, SpaceX announced it was “prioritizing motorboat of the O3b mPOWER ngo connected Friday afternoon, and mounting up for motorboat of Starlink connected Saturday, Dec. 17.”

The shortest turnaround betwixt SpaceX missions occurred earlier this year. The institution launched the Crew-5 ngo to the ISS astatine 12:00 PM EDT connected Oct. 5. That was followed by the motorboat of Starlink Group 4-29 7 hours and 10 minutes aboriginal astatine 7:10 PM EDT.

Recovery Vehicles

Both the O3b mPOWER launch, arsenic good arsenic the Starlink 4-37 mission, are dense payload flights for Falcon 9 fixed the respective mission’s destinations, requiring drone vessel landings of the 2 archetypal signifier boosters.

The booster launching archetypal from SLC-40 was B1067-8. This booster antecedently supported two CRS missions (CRS-22 and CRS-25), 2 Commercial Crew missions (Crew-3 and Crew-4), the Turksat-5B and Hotbird-13G communications satellites, and a Starlink mission. It landed connected the drone vessel A Shortfall of Gravitas, 672 km owed eastbound if the motorboat site, astir 8 and fractional minutes aft liftoff.

The Falcon 9 archetypal signifier connected LC-39A is B1058-15, which volition beryllium the archetypal clip a Falcon 9 booster flies for the 15th time. It antecedently flew connected the crewed Demo-2 mission, arsenic good arsenic launching ANASIS-II, CRS-21, 2 Transporter rideshare missions, and 9 Starlink flights. Just Read the Instructions, located 652 km to the northeast of the motorboat site, volition beryllium the landing people for this flight.

Both fairing betterment ships, Bob and Doug,  have been called connected to enactment the treble ngo and retrieve the payload fairing halves which support the payloads during ascent done Earth’s atmosphere. These volition beryllium returned to Port Canaveral and refurbished for usage connected aboriginal flights.

Bob supported O3b mPOWER portion Doug is supporting Starlink 4-37.

O3b mPOWER 1 & 2

SES is simply a Luxembourg-based outer telecommunications web with 67 presently operational satellites (before the O3b mPOWER launch) nether its power successful some geostationary orbit (GEO) and mean Earth orbit (MEO). Five of those are portion of a radical called O3b, besides referred to arsenic O3b MEO.

The web was primitively owned by a institution called O3b Networks, with the sanction being an initialism meaning “other 3 billion,” referring to the astir 3 cardinal radical connected the satellite who did not person dependable entree to the net astatine the clip of the archetypal motorboat successful 2013. The institution was purchased by SES successful 2016.

Those 20 archetypal satellites volition stay successful their existent orbit 8,063 km (5,010 mi) supra the equator successful MEO up of the caller network, which SES says volition grow their outer net and communications networks.

The 11 second-generation O3b mPOWER satellites are designed to supply high-throughput and low-latency information and net to governments, telecommunications companies, and adjacent commercialized companies specified arsenic cruise liners.

The thought for the further web began backmost successful 2016 arsenic a collaboration betwixt SES and Boeing. These peculiar outer buses, the Boeing 702X, person a wide of 1,900 kg. These upgraded 702 satellites, according to Boeing, are built utilizing Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab’s custom-designed star arrays, which request to beryllium built to withstand further radiation successful MEO.

According to Boeing and SES, the caller satellites usage a “software-defined payload,” which volition let them to supply much than 5,000 steerable spot beams per satellite, providing arsenic fewer arsenic 50 megabits per 2nd and up to aggregate gigabits per 2nd per customer. The institution besides claims roundtrip latency of less than 150 milliseconds.

The caller outer web already has customers waiting for this launch. According to SES, immoderate customers see Microsoft, Orange, arsenic good arsenic ISAT Africa. Other partners see large cruise lines specified arsenic Royal Caribbean International, Virgin Voyages, and Italian cruise enactment MSC, which volition see dedicated hardware designed to person the fastest information from the caller web connected the Explora 1 vessel which is presently nether construction.

The O3b mPOWER network’s 11 satellites volition beryllium launched connected 5 antithetic SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, including the 2 connected this mission. The satellites are designed to beryllium stacked and launched successful batches of 2 oregon three. SES says the program is to motorboat 4 much satellites connected 2 antithetic launches during the archetypal 4th of 2023. That is expected to beryllium followed by 2 much satellites launched aboriginal successful 2023. A last 3 satellites are expected to motorboat successful 2024, completing the network.

Our archetypal 2 #O3bmPOWER satellites are preparing for launch! 🤩 Stay tuned for much details connected however you tin ticker the livestream!

🛰️🛰️ @BoeingSpace
🚀 @SpaceX #ShareAnywhere pic.twitter.com/T3yL8o6VQq

— SES (@SES_Satellites) December 14, 2022

The institution expects it to instrumentality astir six months aft motorboat for each outer to scope its designated orbit 8,000 km supra Earth and to beryllium commissioned. The work is expected to statesman rolling retired to customers astatine the commencement of Q3 successful 2023.

Starlink Group 4-37

The 2nd mission, known arsenic Starlink Group 4-37, volition instrumentality 54 Starlink net satellites to the 4th ammunition of the orbiting constellation. That means the last destination volition beryllium a circular orbit of 560 km, inclined 53.2 degrees. This besides marks the archetypal Starlink motorboat successful astir 2 months.

The astir recent Starlink motorboat was backmost connected Oct. 28, erstwhile 53 satellites took disconnected from Vandenberg Space Force Base successful California arsenic portion of Group 4-31. The past clip SpaceX launched much satellites to adhd to its net constellation from Florida was Group 4-36 backmost connected Oct. 20.

After this launch, determination volition beryllium 3,612 satellites launched arsenic portion of the Starlink network.  Of those, 291 person already reentered and burned up. With different satellites having already failed oregon are presently successful the process of being deorbited, that leaves 3,284 moving satellites successful orbit aft Group 4-37 becomes operational.

Each spacecraft is simply a Starlink v1.5 satellite, which has a wide adjacent 300 kg acknowledgment to the summation of laser inter-satellite links, which allows aggregate satellites to relay accusation to each different via laser until it reaches 1 adjacent to a crushed receiving station.

These 2 missions people SpaceX’s 58th and 59th launches of 2022, which volition enactment the institution 1 motorboat distant from the extremity of 60 missions successful a azygous year. Two much missions are presently scheduled for this year, including different Starlink ngo and EROS-C3.

(Lead image: The brace of O3b mPower satellites motorboat from SLC-40 atop Falcon 9. Credit: Stephen Marr for NSF)