SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket with Eutelsat 10B satellite tv for pc – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX’s oldest working Falcon 9 rocket, in service since 2018, made its remaining flight Tuesday night to ship the Eutelsat broadband satellite tv for pc into orbit to offer Web companies to plane and ships throughout the North Atlantic, Europe, the Center East, and Africa . The mission accomplished a sequence of 4 main Eutelsat satellite tv for pc launches since early September.

The Eutelsat 10B satellite tv for pc lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 9:57 p.m. EST Tuesday (02:57 GMT Wednesday) from Pad 40 on the Area Power Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Eutelsat 10B is directed to a degree in geostationary orbit to transmit communications indicators throughout a protection space from the North Atlantic to Asia, utilizing greater than 100 spot beams to speak with airline and cruise ship passengers, marine crews and different customers en route. .

Monday night time’s launch try was canceled a few hours earlier than liftoff to “enable for added preflight checks,” SpaceX mentioned. And SpaceX defied the percentages Tuesday night time after forecasters predicted a 90 p.c likelihood of unacceptable climate circumstances for the launch.

SpaceX didn’t try to get better the 229-foot (70-meter) first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket. The launch firm has entered into an settlement with Eutelsat to make use of the Falcon 9’s full carry capabilities to ship the Eutelsat 10B satellite tv for pc into as excessive an orbit as doable with no redundancy or first stage gas for touchdown maneuvers.

A number of miles north of Website 40, SpaceX was set to launch a Falcon 9 rocket earlier Tuesday to start a cargo resupply mission to the Worldwide Area Station. However unhealthy climate prevented the launch of that flight from the Kennedy Area Middle, delaying the mission till Saturday.

Eutelsat 10B deployed from the highest part of a Falcon 9 rocket about 35 minutes after launch. The rocket was supposed to place the spacecraft right into a “supersynchronous” switch orbit with an apogee, or farthest level from Earth, properly above Eutelsat 10B’s remaining working altitude of twenty-two,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers). The Eutelsat 10B mission’s goal apogee when the spacecraft was deployed was above 37,000 miles, or about 60,000 kilometers, in response to Pascal Homsi, Eutelsat’s chief technical officer.

As an alternative of reserving a few of its gas for touchdown on the unmanned craft, the Falcon 9 first stage rocket burned its 9 foremost engines for a couple of seconds longer than ordinary, giving the rocket an additional burst of upper-stage pace. This allowed the Falcon 9 second stage engine to launch the Eutelsat 10B satellite tv for pc into the next orbit than would in any other case have been doable.

SpaceX nonetheless deliberate to retrieve two halves of the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing for refurbishing and reuse.

A spokesman for Thales Alenia Area, maker of Eutelsat 10B, mentioned deploying the satellite tv for pc in a supersynchronous orbit would scale back the time wanted to achieve the ultimate operational geostationary orbit by about 10 days. Primarily based on the Thales Spacebus Neo satellite tv for pc platform, Eutelsat 10B will use plasma thrusters to make the orbit changes wanted to spherical its orbit at a geostationary altitude of twenty-two,000 miles above the equator, the place it’ll circle the Earth in line with the planet’s rotation.

Throughout Tuesday night time’s countdown, the Falcon 9 launcher was full of 1,000,000 kilos of fuel and liquid oxygen within the remaining 35 minutes earlier than liftoff.

After the groups verified that each one technical and climate parameters had been “inexperienced” for launch, the 9 Merlin 1D foremost engines on the launch car’s first stage had been fired to life with an ignition fluid known as triethylaluminum/triethylborane, or TEA-TEB. As soon as the engines had been cranked to full throttle, the hydraulic clamps opened to free the Falcon 9 for liftoff into house.

The 9 foremost engines generated 1.7 million kilos of thrust for greater than two and a half minutes, propelling the Falcon 9 and Eutelsat 10B into the higher environment. The booster stage then disengaged and separated from the Falcon 9 higher stage to start an uncontrolled descent into the Atlantic.

The booster was not outfitted with SpaceX’s restoration {hardware}, resembling titanium ribs or touchdown legs. And SpaceX has not deployed one among its unmanned craft for an expendable mission.

A SpaceX restoration craft was on station to get better the payload fairing of a Falcon 9 rocket after two halves of the nostril cone parachute parachuted into the ocean off Cape Canaveral. The payload fairing broke off the rocket about three and a half minutes into the flight, shortly after the Falcon 9’s higher stage engine ignited.

The Falcon 9 rocket fired its higher stage engine twice to launch the Eutelsat 10B spacecraft into an elliptical supersynchronous orbit, after which the satellite tv for pc unfurled from the rocket. Eutelsat 10B will deploy its photo voltaic panels and start maneuvers with the on-board electrical propulsion system to circle its orbit at a geostationary altitude of about 22,000 miles above the equator.

ROCKET: Falcon 9 (B1049.11)

PAYLOAD: Eutelsat 10B communications satellite tv for pc

LAUNCH SITE: SLC-40, Area Power Station at Cape Canaveral, Florida

LAUNCH DATE: November 22, 2022

LAUNCH TIME: 21:57 EST (02:57 GMT Nov 23)

WEATHER FORECAST: 10% likelihood of truthful climate

BOOSTER RECOVERY: No

LAUNCH AZIMUTH: East

TARGET ORBIT: Supersynchronous switch orbit

LAUNCH SCHEDULE:

• • T+00:00: Begin
  • T+01:16: Most aerodynamic strain (Max-Q)
  • T+02:43: First stage foremost engine shutdown (MECO)
  • T+02:47: Splitting the scene
  • T+02:54: Second stage engine ignition
  • T+03:36: Fairing jettisoning
  • T+08:05: Second stage engine shutdown (SECO 1)
  • T+26:18: Second stage engine restart
  • T+27:27: Second stage engine shutdown (SECO 2)
  • T+35:28: Eutelsat 10B detachment

MISSION STATISTICS:

• 186th Falcon 9 launch since 2010
• The 195th launch of the Falcon household of rockets since 2006
• The eleventh launch of the Falcon 9 launch car B1049
• 159th Falcon 9 launch from Florida’s Area Coast
• The 104th Falcon 9 launch from Pad 40
• 159th launch total from web site 40
• The 127th flight of a reusable Falcon 9 launch car
• SpaceX’s fifth launch for Eutelsat
• 52nd Falcon 9 launch in 2022
• SpaceX’s 53rd launch in 2022
• 51st orbital launch try from Cape Canaveral in 2022

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Observe Stephen Clarke on Twitter: @StephenClark1.