Watch live: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 20 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg, California

e e e good evening everyone and Welcome to our live coverage of the latest Mission from vanderberg space Force Base I'm Robinson Smith I'll be providing our commentary for the duration of this coverage we are broadcasting as we always do from the space flight now news Bureau here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center yes uh to answer one of our Channel member Wicked codes comments in the live chat essentially was uh warming up the old vocal pipes getting ready for round two for SpaceX live launch coverage today for those of you who were with us earlier this afternoon welcome back if you're just joining us for the first time today Welcome to our live coverage of the starlink 9-2 Mission second of a falcon9 rocket to lift off from the continental United States this evening of course the starlink 10-2 Mission launched successfully from Cape Canaveral space force station with the liftoff about quarter after 1:00 p.m. here on the East Coast deploying 22 starlink satellites to low earth orbit mission on tap this evening fairly similar deploying to the ninth shell as the name implies of the starlink mega constellation 20 starlink satellites V2 Minis on board this particular Falcon 9 rocket set to lift off in 27 minutes and 7 Seconds 13 of those include the direct to cell capability with this addition to the DTC piece of the constellation after tonight SpaceX will have sent up a total of 90 of these direct to cell satellites if the pattern holds they will continue to launch 13 per batch of satellites heading to the ninth shell of course we'll continue to track the number of DTC satellites in addition to our other stats that we keep track of and let you know the progress on that as we continue to the growth of that constellation this evening we are supported by our editor Stephen young who's running the technical operations of the broadcast our photographers Adam Bernstein Michael Kane join the evening off this is of course a launch from California they were hard at work supporting our Florida coverage earlier today we'll have a busy day tomorrow as we are getting prepared for the first Falcon heavy launch of the Year that'll be supporting NASA and Noah's go satellite the fourth and Final in the go R series of satellites that are used to monitor weather conditions as well as climate observations here in the United States that mission set to launch from pad 39a on Tuesday at 5:116 p.m let's go ahead and take a live look over at that pad right now at this point in the evening we were expecting to see the Falcon heavy rocket reaching the Launchpad there near the crew access Tower however earlier this evening The Hanger door opened up the Falon heavy started to roll out but then the rocket was rolled back into the hanger and the door was closed so we are working to learn more about the reason for the roll back and what potential impacts this may have on the timing of everything between here and launch day of course with any additional updates we'll be sure to pass those along to you as we learn them but now is a good time to bookmark space flight now.com on your preferred web browser if you haven't already go ahead and check that for further updates that we'll post there as well as to our social media if you're not already following us we are on X formally known as Twitter as well as threads and Facebook currently with this mission that we're tracking here tonight the starlink flight from vanderberg space for space SpaceX has begun fueling the Falcon 9 rocket we're now T-minus 23 minutes 52 seconds in counting before we step into the launch countdown first off I want to thank the more than 5800 of you that are joining with us live this evening if you haven't already be sure to hit that like button allows the YouTube algorithm to recognize this is an active stream and that we've got a lot of folks that are joining with us and allows some more people to find their way into the live coverage as well speaking of the live coverage we couldn't do these types of streams without the support of our wonderful moderators holding it down in the live chat so thanks to kalisti Lee Astro Jen and Astro Joe I see all joining us this evening hope you are all doing well Kalisa good to see you back again after this afternoon try to keep an eye on the live chat and see if we spot Stephanie B and or Rusty Shackleford we're also powered by a wonderful Channel member Community here on YouTube so thanks to folks like kalisti Lee Jimbo Indie Mrs ed3 Patty chuchill pasaria H Josh King Ronda Walters Artemis Glenn a divinely chosen Tiff and many others Channel membership comes the number of perks including discounts at our online shop shop. spacelight now.com access to member only videos here on YouTube the ability to watch all of our cap based launch liftoff moments in 4k speaking of emis Big Ups to him for kicking us off with a good bit of generosity here gifting 5050 space light memberships really appreciate that level of generosity emis and to our 50 newest channel members from Artemis also I see psychonaut 69 also get to to space light now membership appreciate that psychonaut so to our newest 51 channel members welcome aboard we're glad to have you with us be sure to thank emis or psychonaut in the live chat and uh emis not done gifting another 20 space f out memberships my goodness sir thank you so much for your support this evening in addition to a $50 Super Chat really really appreciate the support of this level emis thank you so much Artemis says let's get those donations going people with his uh trademark Leroy Jenkins in there for good measure coming back to this Mission we're now team minus 21 minutes 4 seconds and counting mention that countdown timeline we are stepping well through the fueling process right now back at the tus 38 minute Mark is the point at which the poll concludes ahead of the started propellent load the process for SpaceX is a little bit different than what we hear in some other countdown polls like the recent uh rocket lab mission on their 50th flight or say an atlas 5 rocket where you will hear all the various positions on Console give a verbal go ahead to proceed from their position SpaceX does theirs electronically so with a simple mouse click it can digitally register that they are ready to move on so once the team has pulled go for prop load then that process begins the T-minus 35 minute Mark with a couple of events RP 1 or rocket grade kerosene is loaded on board the tanks on the falcon9 first and second stages and at the same time liquid oxygen is loaded on board the Falcon 99's first stage T minus 30 minute Mark they start loading cryogenic helium onto the pressure vessels in the falcon9 first stage helium is used to pressurize the main propell tanks during flight same process starts at about the T minus 25 minute mark on the second stage T minus 23 minutes second stage kerosene loading concludes then at T-minus 20 minutes and 50 seconds is when the strong back chill down process begins it'll recall this from our Cape launches as the big vent we start to see the big vent at about T minus 20 minutes and 20 seconds though the actual chill down process begins 30 seconds prior at the time you see here it's followed by the start of second stage locks load on the Falcon 9 at tus 16 minutes moving on to the T-minus 7 Minute Mark the chill down of the nine Merin 1D engines gets underway that involves flowing a small amount of liquid oxygen through the plumbing and the Turbo pumps it helps protect the engines with the risk of thermal shock and damage during the startup sequence about 6 minutes before lift off the first a kerosene tank should be full then at tus 4 and 1/2 minutes the strong back retract sequence begins starts with the clamp arms underneath the payload fairings opening up and then here at Vandenburg the transporter erector with a strong back will recline about 13 degrees away from the falcon9 rocket stays in that position until liftoff 3 minutes out the first stage locks tank is full same on the second stage at about the 2-minute Mark at which point the Falcon 9 is fully loaded with 1 million pounds of propellant in the final 60 seconds control of the countdown is handed over from the ground sequencer of the Falcon has onboard flight computers the pent tanks are brought up to flight pressure the launch director will give their go for launch at 45 seconds out the engine ignition command is issued at tus 3 seconds and if all nine engines are healthy and ignite command will be given for the hold down clamps to release the Falcon 9 rocket for a t0 liftoff tonight again they are targeting that liftoff at 8:47 p.m. Pacific 1147 p.m. Eastern 0347 UTC or in other words 17 minutes 15 seconds if having two rocket launches was not enough for SpaceX today of course they've been busy with other things as well taking a look back from earlier today about a hour and a half hour 45 minutes after the liftoff of the falcon9 rocket in support of the starlink 10-2 Mission saw the roll out of yet another Falcon 9 booster passed by us here at the Press site apologies for the technical hiccup what you're looking at here on your screen is the roll out of the Falcon 9 first AG booster tail number 1062 in the SpaceX Fleet little hard to read that 62 number there near the top of the rocket just a little bit beneath the Hypersonic grid fins there by the Falcon logo however our photographer Michael Kane was able to get a nice tight shot as the booster was passing by this video shot by our other photographer Adam Bernstein as the rocket was rolling out from the hangar X site heading out we believe to space launch complex 40 more than likely in support of the upcoming starlink Mission launching later this week that being starlink 10-3 of note for this booster it currently has 21 flights under its previous launch history and this will make launch number 22 making this booster once again the launch leader for SpaceX and its Falcon 9 first stage booster Fleet currently it's tied with b1061 this booster b162 last launched back in miday so looking forward to seeing it take to the skies again as we've mentioned previously SpaceX is in the process of certifying its first stage boosters for up to 40 flights each along with the payload fairings and in fact on the starlink 10-2 Mission SpaceX noted that one of the fairing halves launched for a 20th time becoming the launch lead or the flight leader among the fairings currently a te minus 13 minutes 55 seconds in counting we're a couple minutes into second stage locks load at this point less than seven minutes away from the start of the engine chill down sequence as we were awaiting that next fueling Stone let's go ahead and talk about where this Falcon 9 Rocket's going to be going once it leaves the pad let's talk a little trajectory shall we as has been and will likely continue to be the case with missions heading to the ninth shell of the starlink constellation once the rocket leaves the pad here at space launch complex 4 East or slick 4E Falcon 9 will fly in a southeasterly trajectory along the coast of California and Mex Meo being that we're fairly close to Sunset as was the case with the last Falcon flight from California for our friends in the area of California and possibly Arizona and Utah keep your eyes to the skies you may see a very cool jellyfish effect if you do be sure to try to snap a photo grab a video if you can and tag us on X formerly known as Twitter we'd love to see uh what you can see from wherever you are following stage separation the first stage booster flying this Mission which is b1075 in the SpaceX Fleet land on the Drone ship of course I still love you as mentioned SpaceX is trying to get to 40 flights with its payload fairing so naturally it will endeavor to recover the fairing halves from this Mission and bring them back into Port where they will be refurbished and turn around for future flights they float down to the Waters of the Pacific Ocean supported by a parachute system SpaceX noted in a company presentation earlier this year that they save about $6 million per recovery effort here's what it looks like as they're being loaded onto the recovery vessel now T minus 11 minutes 37 seconds in counting e we're now T-minus 10 minutes 50 seconds in counting taking a look at the live chat want to thank the now more than 15,000 of you who are joining with us live really appreciate you spending part of your Sunday evening with us as we countdown towards another launch of the Falcon 9 rocket if you haven't already we certainly appreciate it if you could do us a favor by hitting the like button it shows YouTube that yall are here with us live and engaging and it'll allow this video and this live content to be brought to more folks we certainly appreciate that also appreciate some of the support that we've gotten through the YouTube Super Chat feature and some new channel members as well so welcome aboard to Michael T gazel attorney at law joining us at the spacecraft Commander level really appreciate that Michael joining us at the the top tier there few folks with uh $2 super chats here Desert Rat 1697 thank you so much Ralph uh Kil cup one of our wonderful channel members thank you Ralph good to see you tonight Sharon Walker appreciate the Super Chat as well to Terry Darrow saying love what you guys do thank you well thank you so much Terry for supporting us this evening and yes as long as your comment or question is appropriate to be read on the show we'd love to bring you into the convers ation using that Super Chat function Ernie Sierra with a $5 Super Chat thank you so much Ernie and Haley Higgins hash Irish Haley joining us from Oceanside just north of in the message looks like it's cut off Sid or SD oh San Diego that's right from last time yes yes also want to thank some more generosity from our wonderful channel members here looks like Artemis gifted another 40 super 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Mission are a total of 20 Starling satellites among those are 13 that feature the direct to cell capability SpaceX has so far launched 77 of those this will bring the total up to 90 on the year spacex's goal is to launch enough of the DTC starlink satellites to begin offering beta service to its United States customers last year SpaceX announced a partnership with T-Mobile in order to introduce that capability to Us carry or us uh customers it also has number of international Partners in this Venture as well and has started to get the paperwork going with the FCC in order to do some testing out beyond the US Territory each of these starlink satellites clocks in at about 1,760 LBS or about 800 kg once their solar panels unur they have a wingspan of about 100 fet or 30 m they use argon Hall thrusters for in orbit maneuvering as opposed to to the previously used Krypton Hall thrusters they were built in Redmond Washington nearish uh Seattle they'll be deployed at about 180 M or 290 km altitude at a 53° inclination but you're seeing there on the left of the starlink V2 minis from a previous launch here's what they look like in their on orbit configuration as imaged by heo robotic which specializes in imagery of other on orbit spacecraft we're now T-minus 5 minutes 52 seconds in counting just about a minute away from the start of the strong back retract sequence again that will start with the clamp arms underneath the payload fairings opening up and then the transporter erector of the strong back will recline about 13° away from the falcon9 rocket stays in that position until lift off before we hit that point and we'll start getting views of the Falcon 9 rocket very soon want to thank a few more folks for your support this evening thanks to ndn Boogie for dollar Super Chat thank you ndn Cynthia Graves with the $5 Super Chat Cy saying hey Shel can't trust nobody with a secret $5 Super Chat thank you and with that we have a gorgeous sunset view of the Falcon 9 rocket we were hearing that the weather near vanderberg was quite pictures tonight and as you can see with these live pad shots now certainly lives up to the hpe a much much clearer view here than we had here in Florida earlier today I call out for the strong back retract squence now getting underway so again be sure to a let us know in the live chat where you're watching from tonight and B if you're in the area of Southern California Central to Southern California along on the West Coast of Mexico or as far out as potentially Arizona or Utah keep your eyes looking West and if you are able to capture a photo or video be sure to tag us on Facebook threads or especially X see the strong back now pulling away from the Falcon 9 rocket now about 40ish seconds away from the first stage liquid oxygen tank being full hear that call out in about 30ish seconds while we're waiting squeezing a couple more folks support thanks to channel member Nelson Rays good to see you again this evening Nelson and thanks for giting five space fly now memberships also to apocalypse cow for getting five space one now memberships thanks to the both of you to our newest channel members welcome aboard we're very glad to have you with us be sure to thank Nelson and Apocalypse in live chat if you haven't already stage one lock load is complete good call out from SpaceX the last remaining big fueling item here will be the second stage locks load that wraps up in about 40 seconds stage two lock flad is complete and with that call out the Falcon 9 rocket is now full with 1 million pound propellent now less than a minute and a half to lift up for folks who are able to see the rocket in real time we were about a minute and 10 seconds away from liftoff the SpaceX feed comes in at about a 7sec delay or so so keep that in mind if you're helping to see the rocket with your own eyes we're now about a minute to lift off so we'll come back to our live chat here on the other side of launch but for now we're going to keep our attention focused on the Falcon 9 itself standing by for the go for launch call LD is go for launch and with that we are now 40 seconds away away from spacex's second Falcon 9 flight of this Sunday team min 30 seconds starlink satellites are on board this particular Falcon flight 13 feature the direct cell capability team I go ahead and listen in to this final count we'll be back with you on the other side 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ignition and lift off Falcon 9 go Space X go direct to cell vehicle is pitching D rage stage one propulsion is nominal power and Telemetry nominal vehicle is suic and a good lift off of the Falcon 9 rocket from vanderberg space Force Base Falcon 9 now traveling faster than the speed of sound and you heard that call out of Max Q passing through the point of greatest aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle I'm back chill started with that call out they are thermally conditioning the Merlin vacuum Manion on the second stage of the Falcon 9 preparation for the start of its burn we're coming up on a few different events in Fairly rapid succession here on the second minute of the flight first we'll see first stage main engine cut off for Mo at about t plus 2 minutes and 25 seconds that'll be followed 3 seconds later by stage separation then that Merlin vacuum engine will ignite at about t plus 2 minutes 35 seconds then the payload fairings will deploy at just past the 3 minute Mark a nice view of the horizon line there coming in from the left hand side of your screen just a few seconds left before Mo main engine cut off stage separation confirmed and back ignition all good call outs all good events there from SpaceX you see the Merlin vacuum engine starting to ignite the Hypersonic grid fins deploying fairing deployment coming up now in just a couple seconds fairing separation confirmed and with that the starlink view too many satellites now exposed to the vacuum of space for the first time on this Mission little more than 3 minutes to flight now coming up in less than 3 minutes will be the start of the first stage entry burn that's coming up at about t plus 6 minutes and 1 second that burn will last for about 25 seconds in total you see see the Falcon 9 first stage still continuing to climb it reaches an ape of about 115 kilomet give or take looks like it's probably hit the top of its Arc at one 14 today yep now it's starting to make its descent a little more than four and a half minutes into flight those periodic bursts you're seeing it between the Hypersonic grid fins those are the cold gas thrusters they are used to help adjust the attitude of the booster or its positioning as it begins to orient itself and start to make its way back down towards the Drone ship of course I still love you stationed in the Pacific Ocean now more than 5 minutes to flight we're now less than a minute away from the start of that first stage entry burn beginning where that first stage booster will reignite few of its Merlin engines begin to dramatically slow the vehicle down stage one entry burn startup and there you see the start of that entry burn once again this burn lasting for about 25 seconds in total about 5 seconds left stage one entry burn shut down with the conclusion of that entry burn you can see the speedometer has dropped quite dramatically from where it was previous to the burn beginning coming up the next Milestone is about a minute away now t plus 7 Minutes 49 seconds is when the first stage Landing burn begins it'll set up that first stage booster b1075 in the SpaceX Fleet for a landing on the Drone ship of course I still love you at about t plus 8 minutes and 14 seconds stage one FTS is saved that call there the flight termination system or the FTS has now been safed it's no longer in use for the first stage at this point in the flight stage one transonic Falcon 9 now slowing to below the speed of sound it's combination of the at atmospheric dragon that entry burn helping to slow the vehicle down setting up again that Landing burn to begin stage one Landing burn should see some views of the Drone ship pop up on the right moment stage two in terminal guidance Landing like deploy stage one Landing confirmed and with that for the 11th time this first stage boost 1075 is up and down safe on the Drone ship come back shut down and with the conclusion of that burn on the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket will go into a parking orbit and Coast until t+ 53 minutes 16 seconds where there will be a brief 2cond burn setting up the Starling satellites to deploy at t+ 1 hour and 10 seconds certainly appreciate all of you who have been with us this evening want to go ahead and hit our mission stats and then we'll pop back over to the live chat before we go ahead and close things out this evening with the launch and landing of that first stage booster marked the 11th mission for b1075 in the SpaceX Fleet this was the 346th Falcon 9 launched to date the 64th Falcon flight of 2024 so far the 66 overall SpaceX launch on the year including the two flight tests of spacex's Starship rocket from Starbase facility in southern Texas this was spacex's 117th orbital launch within the last 365 days the 82nd launch for SpaceX from this particular pad space launch complex 4 East and this was the 150th overall orbital launch from slick 4E also the 21st orbital flight from Vandenberg this year looking to add the first nonsp SpaceX Vandenberg orbital launch later on this week with a mission on behalf of NASA that is a firefly Alpha flight looking to launch on Thursday moving on to some recovery stats this was the 94th booster landing on the Drone ship of course I still love you this was spacex's 253 drone ship landing and the 322nd Falcon booster Landing overall finally some industry stats again the 21st orbital launch from California the 68th orbital launch from us soil it's marked the 75th orbital launch from a US rocket company and the 122nd oral launch from around the world here's where that pie chart now stands us missions representing si uh 62% of the overall oral launch P China's 31 missions including the orbital Ascent or the ascent to lunar orbit I should say from the chongi mission big week for China as a matter of fact as the sample that were gathered on The Far Side of the Moon are set to return to Earth believe early in the morning hours on Tuesday from the perspective of where we are here on the east coast and before we wrap up as promised want to return to the live chat here and thank some folks for your support this evening our thanks to Lyn Shapiro for $10 Super Chat thank you Lynn saying this is a wonderful YouTube feed L joining us from Brea California RPM for years with a $5 Super Chat saying that they launched a drone to get good video of the flight tonight from Seal Beach California very interested to see how that ended up shaking out already starting to see some good stuff from folks over on X forly known as Twitter looks like a very cool jellyfish effect captured by Pink uin from Gilbert Arizona another jellyfish from uh X handle christamas saying my son was super stoked for this launch looks lovely be sure to tag us on X if you were able to catch the launch night love to see more of what you were able to spot this evening also want to thank can't trust nobody with another uh Super Chat saying watching from Bombay Beach at uh foyer Resort Bella Rose with a $2 Super Chat thank you Bella 7-Eleven dirty D with a $2 Super Chat thank you 7-Eleven looks like Mario on X got a great view from belflower tonight FP uh festive pineapple was able to capture uh some nice imagery from their vantage point in Santa Barbara and Skyhawk 0404 got a very beautiful jellyfish effect with a nice overall uh view of the plume from their vantage point and San Diego and I apologies for for not remembering uh one of our channel members mentioned that the launch was coinciding with the uh fireworks at one of the theme parks down near San Diego I believe Six Flags Magic Mountain maybe um if you happen to capture those two simultaneously love to see that photo th that video our thanks also to Robert Allen with his $10 Super Chat thank you Robert for your support this evening Stephanie Houston and username both of $2 super chats thanks to the both of you want to welcome a few new channel members here welcome aboard to Robert Hendrickson skate letter and xu0 I'll joining with Channel membership at the pad leader level welcome aboard to the three of you and uh welcome to whomever uh skate letter just gifted a space flight on membership 2 as well finally Lucinda miles with a $2 chat thank you Lucinda Nick trulin with a $7.77 super chat Nikki Gracie Dad joining us from Santa Paulo in California good to have you all with us tonight and finally wumpy with a $5 Super Chat saying my first time seeing a launch with good binoculars from Escondido California absolutely unreal what you can see with your own eyes and yes highly recommend if you can possibly catch a launch in person either here in Florida or over in California it is quite the remarkable experience as you can see here with this image that uh Stephen was kind enough to toss in our slides this again captured by Skyhawk 404 a wonderful image here so we're going to close out our live launch coverage tonight but again be sure to continue tagging us on uh Facebook threads and X love to continue seeing your work and I want to remind you again once you're done here with this stream pop over to our 24-hour live stream launch pad live where we've got our camera eyes on launch complex 39a where the Falcon heavy rocket will eventually be rolling out in support of the NASA and Noah goou Mission sending up that geostationary satellite currently targeting a liftoff from this particular Launchpad here in Florida on Tuesday June 25th at 5:116 p.m. Eastern 2116 UTC for our friends around the world we'll have good coverage leading up to the mission number of briefings both tomorrow and on Tuesday leading up to the plan launch attempt the weather well that's another story only forecast to be 30% favorable for liftoff at 516 as of today's Lodge with forecast so we'll see if that improves or deteriorates once tomorrow's Outlook is issued and we'll be sure to keep you updated on all of the changes or potential changes not guaranteeing that the launch will be adjusted but with the weather given what it is certainly not an impossible possibility you can head over to spaceflightnow.com or keep it right here on YouTube and we'll keep you in the loop want to thank our wonderful moderators in the live chat who've been helping us out throughout the course of the evening our thanks to Kalisa Lee to Astro Joe and to Astro Jen and a general thank you the support of Rusty Shackleford and Stephanie b as well thanks of course to our space flight now editor Stephen young for running the technical operations of the show and most of all thanks to you for wherever you're you're watching from tonight certainly appreciate it and we hope you continue to join us with all of our live launch opportunities be sure to click that subscribe button if you're not already subscribed to the channel as you head out the digital door it's free and if you turn on the notifications then you'll be given the heads up when we start our next live launch broadcast or post new videos here on the channel for all of us here at space flight now I'm Will Robinson Smith be good to yourselves get to others hope you had a wonderful weekend and are arrested and rejuvenated for another week ahead and we will see you next time folks bye-bye e