A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 51 Starlink satellites from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base. The first stage of the rocket landed on the "Of Course I Still Love You" drone ship in the Pacific Ocean several minutes after separation.
Credit: SpaceX
Credit: SpaceX
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TechTranscript
00:00 T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, engines full power, and liftoff of Starlink.
00:14 Go Starlink, go Falcon.
00:16 [Engine noise]
00:23 Vehicle is pitching downranger.
00:25 [Engine noise]
00:29 And 1D, chamber pressure is nominal.
00:32 [Engine noise]
00:42 At T-plus 30 seconds, Falcon 9 has successfully lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at 109 p.m. Pacific time.
00:49 [Engine noise]
00:57 Power and telemetry are nominal.
00:59 [Engine noise]
01:06 Falcon 9 is supersonic.
01:08 And as you just heard, Falcon 9 is now supersonic, meaning that it is traveling faster than the speed of sound.
01:13 [Engine noise]
01:20 Max Q.
01:21 And you just heard the callout for Max Q, and this means that the vehicle is currently experiencing the greatest amount of external stresses as it ascends through the Earth's atmosphere that it will see during its flight today.
01:31 [Engine noise]
01:41 And we are about one minute away from a series of events being MECO, stage separation, SES-1, and fairing separation.
01:49 MECO stands for Main Engine Cutoff, which is when all nine Merlin engines will shut down in preparation for stage separation.
01:56 And during that point, pneumatic pushers will separate the first and second stages, and the first stage will begin its journey back to Earth, while the second stage will light its Merlin vacuum engine, making second engine start one to propel our Starlink satellites to their planned orbits.
02:09 And shortly after, the fairing halves will separate and fall away from the vehicle to later be recovered.
02:14 Let's keep an eye out for these events happening in pretty quick succession, about 15 seconds from now.
02:19 [Silence]
02:41 MECO.
02:42 Stage separation confirmed.
02:45 [Silence]
02:49 Vacuum engine.
02:51 [Silence]
02:58 Fairing separation confirmed.
03:00 And with those callouts, we can confirm MECO, stage SEP, SES-1, and fairing separation.
03:06 And although we didn't have views of fairing separation from the second stage, we will be attempting to recover both fairing halves using our recovery vessel, GO BEYOND.
03:14 And both of the fairing halves flying on today's mission are flight proven and are flying for their second time.
03:19 [Silence]
03:39 Both vehicles continue to follow nominal trajectories.
03:43 And there you heard that stage one and stage two are both following nominal trajectories.
03:47 And currently, the first stage is on its way back to Earth towards our drone ship, of course, I still love you.
03:52 And if successful, this will mark our 190th overall landing of an orbital class rocket.
03:57 And the MVAC engine attached to the second stage is continuing its burn, which will last another several minutes.
04:02 [Silence]
04:23 And on the left side of your screen, we have views of our first stage as it's making its way back to our landing site.
04:28 And the right side has our MVAC engine on the second stage, which is performing nominally.
04:32 [Silence]
04:58 And as you can see, we have two out of Falcon's four grid fins in view on the left side of your screen.
05:03 And they measure four feet by five feet and help guide our booster back to our landing site by actively changing the vehicle's center of pressure.
05:10 [Silence]
05:39 And as a reminder, Starlink is a satellite internet constellation designed and manufactured by SpaceX to provide high-speed, low-latency internet to people living in remote and rural locations all around the globe.
05:52 The next major milestone we have coming up is the beginning of our entry burn on our first stage, which is scheduled to occur around T-plus six minutes and 40 seconds.
06:00 [Silence]
06:17 You also may be noticing white puffs of gas from the bottom of our first stage, which is nitrogen from our attitude control system, which also helps us control the vehicle's descent.
06:25 [Silence]
06:31 Both vehicles continue to follow nominal trajectories.
06:34 And again, we're waiting for the beginning of our stage one entry burn around 10 seconds from now.
06:38 [Silence]
06:52 Stage one entry burn startup.
06:54 And there's the callout for stage one entry burn.
06:57 And stage one, which we also call the booster, has ignited engines one, five, and nine to slow it down for atmospheric reentry.
07:03 And this will be a short burn lasting another 10 seconds.
07:06 [Silence]
07:14 Stage one entry burn shutdown.
07:16 And you just heard the callout that the entry burn on the first stage has completed.
07:20 And the first stage used to launch our 51 Starlink satellites into space today is flying for its third time, having supported the Space Development Agency's Trans Zero mission and one Starlink --
07:29 Stage one FTS has saved.
07:31 And one Starlink mission previously.
07:33 [Silence]
07:51 And coming up next, we will have the start of our landing burn, second engine cutoff, and the landing of our first stage booster.
07:56 Stage two FTS has saved.
07:58 Stage one transonic.
08:01 And you just heard the callout that the first stage is now transonic, meaning it is traveling nearly the speed of sound.
08:08 And second engine cutoff and the first stage landing attempt will happen in quick succession, so keep your eye out.
08:14 [Silence]
08:18 Stage two terminal guidance.
08:20 [Silence]
08:32 Stage one landing burn.
08:34 And there's confirmation that the stage one landing burn has started in preparation for landing on our drone ship, Of Course I Still Love You, which is coming into view.
08:42 [Silence]
08:46 Stage one landing leg deploy.
08:48 [Silence]
08:52 [Applause]
08:57 Stage one landing confirmed.
08:59 And backstrap down.
09:01 [Silence]
09:11 And we have a nominal orbit insertion.
09:13 And Falcon 9 has successfully landed on our drone ship, Of Course I Still Love You.
09:18 And this marks our 190th overall landing of an orbital class rocket, including Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy missions.
09:24 And if you heard those callouts, we also had a successful SECO and nominal orbital insertion.