The booster stage released from the Falcon 9’s upper stage, then fired pulses from cold gas control thrusters and extended titanium grid fins to help steer the vehicle back into the atmosphere. The rocket exceeded the speed of sound in about one minute, then shut down its nine main engines two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. In the final seven minutes before liftoff, the Falcon 9’s Merlin main engines were thermally conditioned for flight through a procedure known as “chilldown.” The Falcon 9’s guidance and range safety systems were also configured for launch.Īfter liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket vectored its 1.7 million pounds of thrust - produced by nine Merlin engines - to steer northeast over the Atlantic Ocean. Helium pressurant also flowed into the rocket in the last half-hour of the countdown. Stationed inside a launch control center just south of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, SpaceX’s launch team began loading super-chilled, densified kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 vehicle at T-minus 35 minutes. The launch Tuesday was the 56th SpaceX mission primarily dedicated to hauling Starlink internet satellites into orbit. With Friday’s mission, designated Starlink 4-27, SpaceX has launched 3,108 Starlink internet satellites, including prototypes and test units no longer in service. Deployment of the 53 flat-packed satellites from the Falcon 9’s upper stage occurred about 15 minutes after liftoff. The Falcon 9 rocket headed northeast from the Kennedy Space Center, aiming to deliver the flat-packed broadband relay stations to an orbit ranging between 144 miles and 208 miles in altitude (232-by-336 kilometers). EDT (1921 GMT) to loft the Starlink payloads into orbit, and the reusable first stage booster landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 3:21 p.m. SpaceX launched another batch of 53 Starlink internet satellites Friday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
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