Falcon 9 Archives - Page 24 of 38

August 26, 2024

Launch Preview: Polaris Dawn (Update: Now NET Wednesday)

Polaris Dawn at Kennedy Space Center's LC-39A

SpaceX plans to launch Polaris Dawn early ~~tomorrow~~ UPDATE: Wednesday morning from Pad LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center, with four astronauts aboard a Crew Dragon.

The launch is scheduled for 3:38 AM EDT, with two additional launch opportunities within a four-hour window at 5:23 AM EDT and 7:09 AM EDT. If, for some reason, the launch does not happen tomorrow morning, backup opportunities are available on ~~Wednesday~~, Update: Thursday August 29, at the same time.

Booster B1083 will be making its fourth flight on this mission. It has been in service since March, 2024 when it launched the Crew-8 mission from KSC. Its two other flights were Starlink missions.

At A Glance

Mission: Polaris Dawn
Date: NET August 28, 2024
Launch Window: 03:38 AM – 07:09 AM EDT*
Weather: 80% Go during the primary launch window
Organization: SpaceX / Polaris Program
Rocket: Falcon 9
Trajectory: Northeast
Launch Site: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center
Booster Landing: ASDS ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’
Payload: Crew Dragon ‘Resilience’ with four crew members
Destination: LEO

^{* consult SpaceX website for the specific target for T-0.}

Weather

There is a favorable forecast for tonight’s launch from the 45th Weather Squadron. They are calling for a 15% Probability of Violation of weather criteria, meaning there is an 85% chance the weather is acceptable for the launch.

(Updated to reflect latest forecast on 27 August)

Trajectory

Northeastwards, at around 51.8 degrees.

Launch spectators on the southeastern coast may get a view of the launch as it ascends from Kennedy Space Center — depending on local conditions and clouds between them and the rocket.

Payload

Crew Dragon Resilience, with four astronauts aboard: Jared Isaacman, Mission Commander; Scott “Kidd” Poteet, Mission Pilot; Sarah Gillis, Mission Specialist; and Anna Menon, Mission Specialist and Medical Officer.

Learn more about the astronauts:
Meet The Crew of Polaris Dawn

The Polaris Dawn crew, L-R: Anna Menon, Sarah Gillis, Scott “Kidd” Poteet and Jared Isaacman.
Photo: John Kraus / Polaris Program

Resilience will be familiar to Jared Isaacman, he flew aboard it during the Inspiration 4 mission.

Official Links
Polaris Dawn Official Website
SpaceX Official Polaris Dawn page
Polaris Dawn St. Jude’s Donation Page (please donate!)

Online Viewing

SpaceCoastLaunchCalendar.com will have a livestream of the launch if you’re not able to watch the launch in person: Livestream

SpaceX will have a livestream of the launch on their website: Polaris Dawn. This will also be available on the X platform. Coverage will start about 3.5 hours prior to liftoff.

Spaceflight Now will have coverage of the launch starting about one hour before liftoff on Youtube: link

For official updates regarding launch times, SpaceX.com is the best source of information. Starlink launch times change from time to time, and the company generally updates their website within minutes of the decision to change the launch time. This is very handy if none of the streaming options on YouTube have started their broadcasts.

Remember that there is a delay between a launch stream and the actual countdown clock. That is simply because of physics: it takes time for the signal to travel from the launch site, through the Internet, and back down to your phone, resulting in a five to fifteen-second delay.

Next Space Flight an app for iOS and Android phones, has a real-time countdown clock that is accurate to a second, give or take. The app is free. Search the App Store or Google Play. They are also on the web: nextspaceflight.com.

Launch Viewing: In Person

Given that this is a launch from Kennedy Space Center with no booster return to the Cape, Max Brewer Bridge and the northern Tistusville parks on Washington Avenue (US1) are your best bets: Space View Park, Rotary Riverview Park and others.

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Cape Canaveral National Seashore will be closed for the evening, but if the launch pushes past 6AM EDT, those areas should be open.

August 25, 2024

Meet The Crew of Polaris Dawn

The crew of Polaris Dawn looks at their ride to space at LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center on August 25.
Photo: John Kraus / Polaris Dawn

The four crew members of Polaris Dawn are in the final parts of mission preparation at Kennedy Space Center today, and readying themselves for the planned liftoff of their mission overnight Tuesday morning.

All four are incredibly accomplished, successful, and results-driven; their curriculum vitae (Latin for “course of life”) shows that vividly.

Official Links
Polaris Dawn Official Website
SpaceX Official Polaris Dawn page
Polaris Dawn St. Jude’s Donation Page (please donate!)

Here’s a brief look at their paths to the launch pad:

Jared Isaacman, Mission Commander

Jared Isaacman, seen August 25th during rehearsal of launch day activities at Kennedy Space Center
Photo: John Kraus / Polaris Dawn

Born in 1983 in New Jersey, Jared Isaacman began taking flying lessons in 2005. In 2008 and 2009, he set world records for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe. In 2011, he received a Bachelor’s degree in professional aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Isaacman is the CEO of Shift4, a leading payments processing company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and is the founder of Draken International, a company that provides contract air services using tactical fighter aircraft. Draken’s customers include the Department of Defense and the defense industry.

Isaacman was the Commander of 2021’s Inspiration 4, and Polaris Dawn will be his second spaceflight.

Scott “Kidd” Poteet, Mission Pilot

Scott Poteet, as seen August 25th during the rehearsal of launch day activities at Kennedy Space Center
Photo: John Kraus / Polaris Dawn

From Chattanooga, Tennessee, Scott Poteet is a retired United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who spent 20 years in the service. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of New Hampshire and a Master’s from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.

While in the Air Force, Poteet’s roles included a stint as commanding officer of the 64th Aggressor Squadron, a storied unit started in World War II that now primarily support the USAF Weapons School.

After the Air Force, Poteet worked for Draken Interntional and then Shift4 before he began training full time for the Polaris Dawn flight.

Poteet was a mission director in the 2021 for Inspiration 4. This will be his first flight to space.

Sarah Gillis, Mission Specialist

A familiar face to many space supporters, Sarah Gillis works for SpaceX as the Lead Space Operations engineer for the company, and she is often seen in documentaries and broadcasts of SpaceX’s crewed launch activities. She is often seen the Netflix documentary “Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space,” where she she helped train the crew for their upcoming flight and also during the activities in space.

From Boulder Colorado, Ms. Gillis says that, “Growing up in a family of artists and musicians, I can’t say I grew up dreaming of being an engineer (or even knowing what engineering was). Rather, I fell into it when I discovered there was a profession entirely dedicated to creative problem solving, and have been hooked ever since.”

Gillis holds a degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado. This will be her first space flight.

Anna Menon, Mission Specialist and Medical Officer

Anna Menon, as seen August 25th during the rehearsal of launch day activities at Kennedy Space Center
Photo: John Kraus / Polaris Dawn

From Houston, Texas, Anna Menon also works for SpaceX as the Lead Space Operations Engineer. In her role, she manages the development of crew operations and serves in mission control as both a Mission Director and crew communicator.

She has led the implementation of Dragon’s crew capabilities, helped create the crew communicator operator role, and developed critical operational responses to vehicle emergencies such as a fire or cabin depressurization. Anna served in mission control during multiple Dragon missions, such as Demo-2, Crew-1, CRS-22, CRS-23, Crew-3, Crew-4, and Axiom-1.

Menon is a NASA veteran, woking seven years at the agency as a biomedical flight controller for the International Space Station.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and also Spanish from TCU (Texas Christian University) as well as a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University.

This will also be her first spaceflight.

Polaris Dawn is scheduled to launch Tuesday, August 27th. SpaceX is targeting Tuesday, August 27 at 3:38 a.m. ET for Falcon 9’s launch from Launch Complex 39A SpaceX adds that there are two additional launch opportunities within the four-hour window at 5:23 a.m. ET and 7:09 a.m. ET. If needed, backup opportunities are available on Wednesday, August 28 at the same times.

A Falcon 9 with Crew Dragon lifts off from LC-39A
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville

_{Note: Biographies were prepared in part with information from the Polaris Dawn website.}

August 22, 2024

Polaris Dawn Crew At Kennedy, Training For Tuesday Morning Launch

The crew for the upcoming privately crew flight of Polaris Dawn mission arrived at Kennedy Space Center earlier this week and are now in final preparations for their upcoming flight aboard a Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon.

The Polaris Dawn launch window opens at 03:38 AM EDT Tuesday August 27 and extends until 07:10 AM the same day. If for some reason the launch is called off Tuesday, the next opportunity is Wednesday, August 28 using the same times.

Once aloft, the mission is planned to last five days.

“After more than two years of training, we are excited to embark on this mission,” said Jared Isaacman, commander of the Polaris Dawn mission earlier this week.

“We are incredibly thankful for this opportunity and to the thousands of SpaceX engineers who have contributed to this endeavor. We hope the results from our mission will accelerate SpaceX’s vision to make life multiplanetary and support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and its efforts to improve global survival rates for childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Throughout our mission, we will aim to inspire humankind to look up and imagine what we can achieve here on Earth and in the worlds beyond our own.”

Donate To St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Highest Orbit Since Gemini

Isaacmen will be joined by Sarah Gillis, Anna Menon and Scott “Kid” Poteet on the Polaris Dawn mission, which plans to eventually fly at an orbital attitude of ~700 km (~435 miles) above the surface of the Earth, the highest since Pete Conrad and Richard Gordon flew Gemini 11 to a 1,373 km (~853 miles) in 1966.

To provide a bit of contrast, the International Space Station orbits the Earth at around 400 km (~250 miles), and the Hubble Space Telescope is at 515 km (320 miles). Polaris Dawn will be above both.

Official Links
Polaris Dawn Official Website
SpaceX Polaris Dawn Mission Page

First Commercial Spacewalk

The mission also plans to conduct the first all-private spacewalk. All four astronauts will don new spacesuits built by SpaceX for this mission, while two will actually exit the depressurized Falcon 9.

“The idea is to learn as much as we possibly can about this suit and get it back to the engineers to inform future suit design evolutions,” Isaacman said Monday at Kennedy Space Center.

During their spacewalk, the crew will conduct tests to provide data that will provide SpaceX engineers with in-flight data of each suit’s performance, strengths, and weaknesses. That, in turn, will inform improvements, allowing SpaceX teams to produce and scale the suit for future long-duration missions.

LASER-based Space Communication

The mission will also test a new communications system while in flight. Using optical-based transmitters and receivers, Polaris Dawn will link with Starlink satellites, which will then link to Earth.

This will provide greater bandwidth than the current TDRSS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System) system used by current American spaceflights and of course ISS with military usage also being an important role for the system.

TDRSS has been in place since the 1980s, and while it has been a robust and reliable form of communication, its services are limited by the amount of usage for ISS, crewed flights, and other missions.

Currently, TDRSS provides about 6 Megabit per second in the S-band and 800 Mb/s in the Ku/Ka bands. That’s roughly what a home with cable broadband gets, and while that’s a decent amount of broadband, it is very busy and does no have a great deal of additional capacity.

The LASER links to Starlink will provide more bandwidth and multiple connections, giving more data flow to and from the Earth. With the growth of commercial spaceflight and the promise of commercial space stations in the near future, clearly a new system is needed.

Medical Experiments

Polaris Dawn will conduct at least forty human health experiments while in orbit, providing vital data to SpaceX about the physiological changes and effects of spaceflight on the human body, which in turn will help the company and others prepare future astronauts for long-duration flight both in orbit but also on the moon and for flights to and from Mars.

While it would be easy to overlook these experiments, new data on spaceflight and humans can only add to the knowledge already gathered through the years, particularly on ISS. The results that Polaris Dawn astronauts provide will confirm or question previous results, for example, and that can only improve the lives of future astronauts.

Talk of Titusville will be providing full coverage of the Polaris Dawn flight. Be sure to check back over the next few days for crew biographies, launch previews and more!

_{Note: article uses quotes from the Polaris Dawn website.}

August 20, 2024

Launch Report: SpaceX Launches Starlink 10-5 From Cape Canaveral

SpaceX launched another tranche of Starlink satellites to orbit this morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40.

Liftoff was at 09:20 AM EDT, with Booster B1085 completing its first mission successfully 8:14 minutes later when it touched down offshore on ASDS ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas.’

B0185, whose maiden flight was originally slated for Crew 9, was moved up in SpaceX’s rotation to prove in the booster due to some water intrusion while it was being shipped from the company’s McGregor, Texas facilities. The flight was nominal, and the booster will not be returned to Port Canaveral and ultimately SpaceX’s ‘Hangar X’ facility where it will be inspected and refurbished with an eye towards using it for the Crew 9 flight late next month.

The second stage continued to orbit nominally, with SpaceX reporting several successful second stage burns that optimized the orbit for payload deployment.

Payload deploy of 22 @Starlink satellites confirmed
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 20, 2024

Payload

23 Starlink satellites. They will join Group 10 of SpaceX’s burgeoning Starlink’s constellation of Internet communication satellites. That service is used by over 3.1 million users in over 100 countries and territories worldwide.

Launch Replay

Next Launch

SpaceX will launch another group of Starlink satellites early in the morning on Friday from Space Launch Complex 40.

Date: NET August 23, 2024
Organization: SpaceX
Mission: Starlink 8-6
Rocket: Falcon 9
Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Launch Window: 03:46 – 07:46 AM EDT
Payload: Starlink telecommunication satellites

Falcon 9 left two “smoke rings” as it ascended this morning. This one was the first.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville

Falcon 9 left a pair of “smoke rings” as it cruised through the clouds over Cape Canaveral this morning.
Photo: Charles Boyer, Talk of Titusville

August 20, 2024

SpaceX, Falcon 9, Starlink 10-5, August 20, 2024

SpaceX launched another tranche of Starlink satellites to orbit this morning from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40.

August 15, 2024

Launch Report: SpaceX Launches WorldView 3 & 4 Satellites From Cape Canaveral

On a humid, hazy and thoroughly typical August morning in central Florida, SpaceX launched the WorldView 3 and WorldView 4 Earth-imaging satellites owned and operated by Maxar Corporation.

Liftoff was at the opening of the launch window at 09:00 AM EDT, with Booster B1076 completing its 16th mission successfully 7:48 minutes later when it touched down at Landing Zone 1, about six miles from where it had launched only minutes before. Moments later, a pair of sonic booms sounded the booster’s return.

The second stage continued to orbit nominally, with SpaceX reporting several successful second stage burns that optimized the orbit for payload deployment.

Payload

Two Maxar WorldView Earth-observation satellites.

Launch Replay

Next Launch

It will be a quiet weekend at the Cape as no launches are scheduled until next Tuesday, August 20th when SpaceX will launch another tranche of Starlink satellites aboard Falcon 9. The launch will be from Space Launch Complex 40 and the window opens at 05:20 AM EDT.

Date: NET August 20, 2024
Organization: SpaceX
Mission: Starlink 10-5
Rocket: Falcon 9
Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Launch Window: 05:20 – 09:20 AM EDT
Payload: Starlink telecommunication satellites

Falcon 9 just before Max-Q (the point of the atmosphere’s highest resistance) today over Florida.
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville

August 14, 2024

Launch Preview: SpaceX Planning To Launch Legion Worldview 3&4 Satellites

SpaceX plans to launch Falcon 9 carrying two Maxar Earth-observation satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral tomorrow morning. The launch window opens at 09:00 AM EDT and closes at 12:00 PM the same day.

Booster B1076 has been assigned to the mission, and it will be making its 16th flight. This will be a Return To Landing Site Mission, meaning there will be a sonic boom heard across the Space Coast as the booster returns to land.

At A Glance

Mission: Legion Worldview 3 & 4
Date: NET August 11, 2024
Launch Window: 09:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT*
Weather: 80% Go during the primary launch window
Organization: SpaceX
Rocket: Falcon 9
Trajectory: Northeast
Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Booster Landing: LZ-1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Payload: two Maxar Earth-Observation Satellites
Destination: LEO

^{* consult SpaceX website for the specific target for T-0.}

Payload

Two Maxar WorldView Earth-observation satellites.

Weather

The 45th Weather Squadron’s forecast has a 20% chance of a weather-related range violation, meaning that weather is 80% go. They do have concerns about cumulus clouds in the flight path as well as an additional risk of upper-level windshear.

All in all, this is a great forecast for July in Florida.

Trajectory

Northeastwards

Online Viewing

SpaceCoastLaunchCalendar.com will have a livestream of the launch if you’re not able to watch the launch in person: Livestream

SpaceX will have a livestream of the launch on their website: Maxar 2 Mission. This will also be available on the X platform. Coverage starts about fifteen minutes before liftoff.

Spaceflight Now will have coverage of the launch starting about one hour before liftoff on Youtube: link

For official updates regarding launch times, SpaceX.com is the best source of information. Starlink launch times change from time to time, and the company generally updates their website within minutes of the decision to change the launch time. This is very handy if none of the streaming options on YouTube have started their broadcasts.

Remember that there is a delay between a launch stream and the actual countdown clock. That is simply because of physics: it takes time for the signal to travel from the launch site, through the Internet, and back down to your phone, resulting in a five to fifteen-second delay.

Next Space Flight an app for iOS and Android phones, has a real-time countdown clock that is accurate to a second, give or take. The app is free. Search the App Store or Google Play. They are also on the web: nextspaceflight.com.

Launch Viewing: In Person

If there is a launch that you really want to head to Jetty Park to see, this is one of them. While Jetty Park has an indirect view of liftoff (you won’t see the rocket until it clears the berm on the CCSFS side of the port) but you will get as good a view of the landing sequence as there is, on or off the base. Go early if you plan to view it from there, and then keep in mind that you must pay your entrance fee in advance.

Purchase a Port Canaveral Parking Pass

Otherwise, the usual Space Launch Complex 40 viewing sites are quite good as well: the Banana River Bridge on FL 528W, Cocoa Beach, and the southern Titusville parks on Washington Avenue.

Keep in mind it will get progressively warmer as morning progresses, so be prepared with cold drinks, sunscreen and maybe even bug spray, just in case.

August 12, 2024

SpaceX Announces Privately Crewed Fram2 Mission, Launch NET Late 2024

Crew Dragon sitting on SpaceX’s launch pad at LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center
Photo: Charles Boyer / Talk of Titusville

SpaceX announced a new private crew mission aboard Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon that is slated to fly no earlier than late this year.

Called “Fram2”, the mission is named after the polar exploration ship Fram, a ship used in expeditions of the Arctic and Antarctic regions by the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, Oscar Wisting, and Roald Amundsen between 1893 and 1912. Fram is now housed in a museum in Oslo, and is held in high regard by many polar exploration explorers.

The polar ship Fram, in a photograph from the Fram Museum in Oslo.

Fram2 will be going to space rather than onto the open ocean, of course, and during the upcoming mission, Mission Commander Chun Wang a Maltese citizen, will be joined by Norway’s Jannicke Mikkelsen acting as vehicle commander; Australia’s Eric Philips the vehicle pilot; and Germany’s Rabea Rogge, a mission specialist, will be aboard Falcon 9. None of the four have traveled to space to date.

The Fram2 crew: from left: Eric Philips, Jannicke Mikkelsen, Chun Yang, Rabea Rogge
Photo: SpaceX

Fram2’s Planned Mission

Their mission will be to examine “unusual light emissions resembling auroras. The crew will study green fragments and mauve ribbons of continuous emissions comparable to the phenomenon known as STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement), which has been measured at an altitude of approximately 400 – 500 km above Earth’s atmosphere.”

The SpaceX release also says that crewmembers will “to better understand the effects of spaceflight on the human body, which includes capturing the first human x-ray images in space, Just-in-Time training tools, and studying the effects of spaceflight on behavioral health,” all to inform long-term spaceflight such as the company’s stated goal of sending humans to Mars.

The launch will take place in Florida no earlier than late this year.

The original SpaceX announcement is here.

August 12, 2024

Launch Report: SpaceX Launches Starlink 10-7

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 carrying another group of Starlink satellites from Kennedy Space Center this morning in the predawn hours. Liftoff was at 06:37 AM EDT from Launch Complex 39A.

The booster used for this mission, B1073, completed its portion of the mission successfully a little more than eight minutes later when it touched down safely on the SpaceX drone ship ASDS ‘A Shortfall Of Gravitas’ east of Charleston on the Atlantic Ocean. The drone ship will now return to Port Canaveral after a few days, where the booster will be offloaded, transported to Space X’s ‘Hangar X’ facility at Kennedy Space Center. There it will be inspected, refurbished and prepared for its next mission.

At 07:34 SpaceX announced a successful second burn of the second stage of the Falcon 9 that it used for this mission, and at 07:41 AM the company announced a successful payload deployment of the Starlink satellites, indicating a successful end to the mission.

The Starlink satellites will now travel to the final orbital locations under their own power, and after commissioning, will joing the other 6100+ active satellites in the Starlink constellation. Those satellites provide Internet connectivity for over 3.1 million people in over 100 countries and territories across the globe.

Launch Replay

Replay of the Starlink 10-7 launch

Next Launch

NET Thursday, August 14, SpaceX will be back in action with a Falcon 9, this time from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station when the company plans to launch the WorldView Legion 3&4 satellites. Those satellites are owned and operated by Maxar, are used for Earth-imaging for Maxar’s customers.

Date: NET August 14, 2024
Organization: SpaceX
Mission: WorldView Legion 3 & 4
Rocket: Falcon 9
Launch Site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Launch Window: 09:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT
Payload: Earth-observation satellites

August 11, 2024

SpaceX Scrubs Starlink 10-7 At T-Minus 46 Seconds This Morning

SpaceX Scrubs In The Last Minute, Disappointing Spectators

It was hotter than a dog’s mouth this morning for spectators waiting in vain to watch today’s planned rocket launch. Scheduled to liftoff at 10:59 AM EDT, at 46 seconds, SpaceX called off the launch of Falcon 9 and the Starlink 10-7 mission from Launch Complex 39-A at Kennedy Space Center.

No official reason for the scrub was announced by the company.