A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the 11-satellite Bandwagon-1 mission from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
"On board this mission are 11 spacecraft including KOREA's 425Sat, HawkEye 360's Clusters 8 & 9, Tyvak International’s CENTAURI-6, iQPS's QPS-SAR-7 TSUKUYOMI-II, Capella Space's Capella-14, and Tata Advanced Systems Limited’s TSAT-1A," SpaceX wrote in a mission description.
Credit: SpaceX
"On board this mission are 11 spacecraft including KOREA's 425Sat, HawkEye 360's Clusters 8 & 9, Tyvak International’s CENTAURI-6, iQPS's QPS-SAR-7 TSUKUYOMI-II, Capella Space's Capella-14, and Tata Advanced Systems Limited’s TSAT-1A," SpaceX wrote in a mission description.
Credit: SpaceX
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TechTranscript
00:00T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ignition, engines full power and liftoff of bandwagon
00:161 and ADD 425, go Falcon, go SpaceX.
00:25T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ignition, engines full power and liftoff of bandwagon
00:511 and ADD 425, go SpaceX, go SpaceX, go SpaceX, go SpaceX, go SpaceX, go SpaceX, go SpaceX,
01:18T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ignition, engines on, go SpaceX, go SpaceX, go SpaceX, go SpaceX, go SpaceX, go SpaceX, go SpaceX, go SpaceX, max two
01:48So coming up in about 45 seconds, we'll have several events in quick succession.
01:55The first of those will be MECO, or main engine cutoff.
01:59That's where all of those Merlin 1D engines will shut down on the first stage.
02:03Then we'll have the stage separation.
02:05The first stage, or the booster, is going to do a flip maneuver.
02:08While that's happening, the second stage is going to ignite its Merlin vacuum engine,
02:14and then the first stage is going to start its boost-back burn to go towards landing
02:18zone one to attempt that land landing.
02:20So MECO, stage separation, the flip maneuver, second engine start, and then boost-back burn.
02:31Main engine cutoff.
02:34Stage separation confirmed.
02:42Stage one boost-back startup.
02:50Awesome views on the lower right there.
02:52That was the second stage heading off to orbit.
02:55We've got a tracking shot here of the first stage doing its boost-back burn.
03:05This tracking view from the ground, looking back at this first stage.
03:08Again, its 14th flight today, so we're looking for its 14th landing attempt at landing zone
03:13number one.
03:21This is a view from the cameras on board the first stage.
03:24We're looking at a shot down towards the engines.
03:28You can see the grid fins here.
03:29Those will deploy shortly after the boost-back burn completes.
03:41And a reminder, the second stage is continuing on its mission, but at the request of our
03:46customer, we won't be showing any second stage views today, so we're just going to keep focused
03:50on the great views we have of the first stage.
04:06So what you're seeing here periodically are some white gas coming out of the first stage.
04:12On the right-hand box on your screen are the grid fins deploying.
04:15We use the aerodynamic grid fins to get the first stage back towards our landing site.
04:22They have aerodynamic control of the vehicle once we get into the Earth's atmosphere.
04:34Those white plumes that you're seeing are of an attitude control gas.
04:38We use – those are referred to as cold gas thrusters.
04:43So we have some gas stored on the vehicle, and since there isn't very much atmospheric
04:49force this high up in the atmosphere, we have to give ourselves little puffs of thrust to
04:55orient the vehicle, get the heat shield pointed down, and get the vehicle in the entry attitude
05:00to come back towards landing zone one.
05:30Some great shots of planet Earth.
05:32Again, the camera on the right-hand side of your screen now is actually looking up through
05:36the interstage.
05:37So we're looking into that carbon fiber interstage.
05:41That's where the second stage was previously.
05:44And on the left-hand side of your screen, we've got a ground tracking shot of the first
05:47stage making its way back towards landing zone one, not too far from the launch site
05:53at Kennedy Space Center.
06:20And we're coming up on the entry burn for the first stage.
06:26So there are two burns that we do here.
06:29There's an entry burn where we turn on just a few of Falcon 9's engines.
06:33That's to slow down as we start getting back towards the atmosphere and start to pick up
06:37some heating on the vehicle.
06:40And then the second of those burns is much closer to landing.
06:46So here's the first of those burns, the entry burn.
06:49That's burn lasting just about 20 or so seconds.
07:13And there is successful shutdown of the entry burn.
07:18So now the next major burn will be the landing burn that'll happen just before landing will
07:24ignite just a single Merlin engine.
07:28The landing legs will deploy and then hopefully we'll have a soft touchdown at landing zone
07:32one.
07:33You can see it starting to come into focus here on the view on the right-hand side of
07:38your screen heading towards landing zone one.
07:43Stage one transonic.
07:59Stage one landing burn.
08:02Stage two FTSO safe.
08:06And there is the startup of the single center Merlin engine for landing burn.
08:10We'll see the grid, excuse me, the landing legs deploy here.
08:22Stage one landing leg deploy.
08:29And there is successful landing of our first stage.
08:34And that marks for the 14th landing on this particular booster, 294th landing of an orbital
08:40class rocket.
08:42We also heard a call out there for nominal orbit insertion cutoff and then nominal orbit
08:48insertion.
08:49So that means the second stage is well on its way for the rest of our mission.
08:54But with our first stage landed, that's going to bring our webcast coverage to a close.