SpaceX Schedules Two Back-to-Back Launches
Today, June 26, 2020, at 16:18 Eastern Daylight Time (20:18 UTC), SpaceX is scheduled to launch its 9th V1 StarLink mission.
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Static fire testing of the Falcon 9 Booster 1051.5 was successfully completed on June 24 at 14:18 EDT. This will be the 5th flight of Booster 1051, making it the 3rd Falcon 9 Booster of their fleet to attempt 5 launches.
The StarLink V1L9 Launch is the 10th StarLink launch, with the first one successfully launching 60 of the V 0.9 test satellites. Those satellites lack a lot of the intercommunication functionality and are not counted among the constellation, which currently sports nearly 480 satellites.
When fully completed, the StarLink constellation is expected to contain about 40,000 satellites which will provide high-speed, very low latency broadband internet to nearly every inch of the planet.
The Falcon 9 Booster is capable of lifting 60 StarLink satellites per launch and deploys them without the use of a dispenser such as is typically used to deploy satellites.
The original launch design incorporated a satellite dispenser, which limited the number of satellites to 30. SpaceX founder and chief engineer, Elon Musk, decided the number could be bumped up to 60 satellites by eliminating the dispenser altogether. The satellites each have Krypton-Ion thrusters that they use to ascend to their operational orbits and for their built-in collision avoidance system. The satellites can also use them to temporarily move out of the way of other vehicles or satellites, then return to the operational orbital plane. So, instead of using a dispenser, the 2nd stage is given a slight spin, just before releasing the satellites which are simply stacked one on top of another. Once released, the centripetal force of the spin causes them to separate from each other. They do bump into each other lightly, but they are designed to withstand those small forces. Sir Isaac Newton dispenses the satellites just fine without adding any mass to the booster stack! The ion thrusters and collision avoidance system have proven the ability to successfully deploy the satellites without a dispenser.
A stack of 60 StarLink satellites is prepared for payload integration on the F9 second-stage booster.
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The StarLink missions max out the payload capacity of the Falcon 9 Booster in both mass and volume when the booster is in its reusable configuration.
On the last StarLink mission (V1L8), just a few weeks ago on June 4, 2020, only 58 satellites were launched in order to make room for three ride-share payloads. Three SkySat satellites from Planet Labs were successfully deployed prior to deploying the StarLink satellites. The SkySat constellation will consist of 21 satellites when the final three are launched by SpaceX in July of this year. SkySat is an Earth-imaging constellation that photographs the surface of Earth daily. The goal is to improve services like Google Earth by providing much more recent and relevant imagery as well as high-definition, 30fps video clips of up to 90 seconds duration on demand.
Today's scheduled launch also includes a rideshare payload consisting of two Black Sky satellites (Global 5 and Global 6). Therefore the StarLink payload stack should be a little short of the full complement of 60 units.
I plan on offering a live stream of the launch on my Facebook
page and will be answering questions. Be sure to come watch the launch with us online!
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Today's launch was scrubbed due to some technical issues. Launch crew needed more time to work through these issues.
The StarLink V1L9 is now scheduled for July 17, 2020.
The next #SpaceX launch which is a GPS III satellite is scheduled for June 30 at 15:56 Eastern Daylight TIme.