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

e e good evening everyone and Welcome to our live coverage of the latest Mission from vanderberg space Force Base I'm Robinson Smith will be providing our commentary for the duration of this coverage we're broadcasting as we always do from the space flight now news Bureau here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center our Stephen young young is running the technical operations of the broadcast this evening our launch photographers Adam Bernstein and Michael Kane of course have the evening off getting some rest since this is a West Coast Venture however you can always keep up with their photography over on X you can find Adam at aurn NYC and Michael at mty Kane Jr we are currently T-minus 27 minutes 37 seconds and counting to the liftoff of the latest falcon9 rocket from space launch complex 4 East or slick 4E there bber space 4 space SpaceX preparing to send up another 20 of its starlink V2 mini satellites this evening this will be the 112th launch of the V2 mini starlink variety the 49th dedicated starlink launch so far this year alone the booster supporting it all till number B 1063 in the space 6 Fleet is going to be flying for a 19th time if all goes well with tonight's countdown speaking of that countdown SpaceX has confirmed that they are in propellent load right now as far as the weather standing at about 70% favorable according to the company and all systems on the Falcon 9 rocket are looking good according to SpaceX so all things being equal we are progressing well towards an ontime departure at the time you see there on your screen again 7:35 p.m. Pacific 10:35 p.m. Eastern 0235 UTC for our friends joining from around the world and as we're kicking things off go ahead and hop in the live chat let us know where you're joining us tonight know I've already seen some folks hopping in got Brenda F joining from San Diego Bobby Texas unsurprisingly joining us from Texas Scott Cook down in New Brunswick California Richard and Lancaster good to see you all this evening as you're joining us tonight be sure to do us a favor and hit that like button it allows more folks to find this live coverage as the YouTube algorithm will sense the engagement and brings more friends in on the action and subscribe to space like now if you haven't already and when you do be sure to click the Bell icon that way you'll be notified the next time we start one of these live streams or post new videos to the channel as a lot of folks are active here in the live chat want to give a shout to our wonderful moderators helping us out tonight thanks to kalisti Lee who's been in here for quite some time since the stream was published earlier today and Stephanie b as well appreciate the two of you looks like Astro Joe is joining us tonight as well keep our eyes peeled for Astro Jen and Rusty Shackleford if they're popping in tonight to join in the fun we're also powered by a wonderful Channel member Community here on YouTube so thanks to folks like butterfly John Torrance Beverly Alton chat MTB I'm Lita Linda Moody cats in the house and many others Channel membership comes with the number of perks including discounts to our online shop shop. spaceflightnow.com access to member only videos here on YouTube and of course the ability to watch all the liftoff moments of our launches here in Florida in 4k and want to thank Kalisa Lee for gifting five space flight now memberships kicking us off on a good footing with some generosity thanks clisa and a welcome to Lynch Pio and fig 86 joining us with Channel membership as well so to our newest seven channel members welcome aboard and we're very glad to have you with us last but not least if you have a comment or question and would like to be a part of our show and your comment or question is a appropriate to be read on the show of course you can use the YouTube Super Chat feature we'll be monitoring that as well as looking for some good member comments here as we continue to roll merrily along currently t- Min has 22 minutes 27 seconds in counting passed a couple of Milestones here in the countdown timeline but still have a number of them to go so let's go ahead and kick things off and let's talk about what we're still in anticipating over the next 23 minutes some change of course given that we are in prop load the SpaceX launch director did give that go-ahead at about the t- minus 38 minute Mark propellent load got underway a little more than 10 minutes ago with two events those being the loading of rp1 or rocket G kosene on board the Falcon 99's first and second stages and the loading of liquid oxygen began on the Falcon 99's first stage the team minus 30 minute Mark is when they started loading cenic helium on board the pressure vessels on the Falcon 9's first stage the helium is used to pressurize the main propellant tanks during flight similar process happening on the second stage at about the T-minus 25 minute Mark about 40 seconds or so ago the loading of second stage rp1 wrapped up looking ahead the next Milestone is coming up at minus 20 minutes and 50 seconds it's when the strong back chill down process begins of course we are familiar with that is evidence by the so-called big vent that is seen at about the 20 minute and 20 second Mark that the process begins at the 20 minute 50c Mark they are thermally conditioning the feed lines prior to Second Stage locks load which comes up at T minus 16 minutes T minus 7 Minutes the engine chill down sequence begins that involves flowing a small amount of liquid oxygen through the plumbing and turbo pumps helps protect the engines from the risk of thermal shock and damage during that startup sequence about 6 minutes out the first stage kerosene tank should be full the team minus four and a half 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° away from the Falcon 9 rocket stays in that position until liftoff 3 minutes out the first stage liquid oxygen tank should be full a minute later second stage lock load is complete at which point the Falcon 9 is loaded with about a million pounds of propellant the final 60 seconds control the countdown is handed over from the ground sequencer to the Falcon night's onboard flight computers the propellant tanks are brought up to flight pressure the spasic launch director will give their go for launch at 45 seconds out the ended ignition command is issued at T minus 3 seconds and of course if all nine Merlin engines ignite and are healthy command will be issued for the hold down clamps to release the Falcon 9 for a t zero liftoff again coming up in T minus 20 minutes 20 seconds right at the time you see here on your screen 7:30 p.m. Pacific 10:35 p.m. Eastern 0235 UTC now just as a added note of course the launch window for today does extend out to 11:33 uh uh Pacific however because SpaceX has begun the propellent loading process they are committing themselves to a launch attempt at the time you see listed here on your screen because they use a load and go style of fueling the timeline we just finished talking about basically has them fueling practically to the point of liftoff so they don't have the option to hold once fueling has begun if for some reason they do encounter a snafu in the next 19 minutes 20 seconds they do have a backup window tomorrow Friday July 12th beginning at 6:13 p.m. Eastern now T-minus 18 minutes 26 seconds in counting let's go ahead and talk about where this Falcon 9 rocket is going to be heading once it leaves the pad let's talk a little trajectory shall we looking at a satellite view of space launch complex for East or slick for e there at vanderberg space force base in just about 18 minutes when that Falcon 9 takes flight it's going to be heading in a southeasterly trajectory all those who've been with us for previous starlink launches in recent months will be very familiar with this flight path so for those in central to Southern California or Mexico perhaps even as far as Arizona maybe even Utah go ahead and keep those cameras handy and keep your eyes to the West be sure to let us know if you're able to snap a picture of tonight's launch go ahead and tag us on X if you do we're simply at space flight now following stage separation that first stage booster 1063 will follow the orange path for a touchdown on the Drone ship of course I still love you if this is successful this will Mark the 96 Landing of a booster on this particular drone ship and the 329th booster Landing to date aad fairings will separate a little bit down range of the map you see here on your screen they gently float down to the Waters of the Pacific Ocean supported by parachutes and as you can see from this slide from a SpaceX presentation earlier this year they save about $6 million per recovery efforts so a very important part of their business model is to recover refurbish and reuse those payload fairings in addition to of course the first stage booster this is an image of what it looks like when they're bringing those fairings on board one of their recovery vessels SpaceX is in the process of certifying both its boosters as well as the payload fairings for up to 40 flights so far its most flown booster has 22 missions under its proverbial belt we T minus 15 minutes 50 seconds in counting at this point the big vent will have wrapped up and second stage Lo oxygen load will be getting underway taking a look at the live chat want to thank cbass for a $2 Super Chat really appreciate that cbass saying you guys are awesome appreciate the kind words and I will go ahead and extend that out to our space flight now Community here on YouTube because I think you guys are pretty awesome as well and also want to thank uh losos dlpk for $10 Super Chat really appreciate the support losos e e now T minus 13 minutes 27 seconds in counting talked about where the falcon9 rocket is going let's talk about what is on board of course as you can see there at the top of your screen this is the starlink 9-3 mission on board our 20 Starling satellites 13 of which include the direct cell phone capability so far SpaceX has launched a total of 103 of those DTC satellites so far adding another 13 to that total at this point the image on the left hand side of your screen are what the starlink V2 mini satellites look like stacked up in their launch configuration each of them clocks in at about 1,760 pounds or about 800 kilograms their solar panels infer they have a wingspan of about 100 ft or 30 m they use argon Hall thrusters for in orbit maneuvering as opposed to the previously used Krypton Hall thrusters they were built in Redmond Washington and they'll be deployed at about 180 miles or 290 km altitude at a 53° inclination and though we don't have a good rendering from SpaceX of a V2 mini and its on orbit configuration we do have this image from hoo robotics which specializes in basically non-ar faic photography or Imaging other satellites on orbit and they captured this picture you see here of a V2 too many satellites it was about the middle of last year so coming up on a little more than a year ago now we're now tus 11 minutes in counting just under four minutes away from the point in which the engine chill down sequence will begin and as we are coming up on the cusp of sunset there in California depending on what the cloud conditions are where you happen to be watching if you're in the western part of the United States or in Mexico where you might be able to catch a glimpse of the falcon9 rocket if the lighting conditions are exactly right where you are you may be able to capture something like this image from a one of our recent launches is Falcon 9 was seen cruising over San Diego is captured by Skyhawk so if you are able to capture a glimpse the falcon9 again go ahead and tag us on X formally known as Twitter love to see what you get and as I mentioned this will be the 19th time that this particular First St booster is flying let's go ahead and talk about the flight history of this booster oh we still have a few minutes before we get our eyes on it ourselves its first flight came back on November 21st of 2020 that was the launch of the Sentinel 6 Michael Fric or the Sentinel 6A a radio ultimeter satellite that was followed up by its first starlink mission l28 on May 21st or excuse me May 26th of 2021 then a pretty nifty mission for NASA the double asteroid redirection test simply known as Dart NASA's Endeavor to see if we could change the trajectory of another celestial body in particular an asteroid our first real big planetary defense mission that was proved successful and more is being learned about it all the time and in fact the European Space Agency is going to be launching a follow-up mission called Hera to go examine the aftermath of Dart and get a closeup Viewpoint of exactly what kind of impact Dart made it's launching believe in the October time frame of that mission stays on course next up for a series of starlink satellite missions we had starlink 4-1 on February 25th 4-13 on May 14th 3-1 on July 11th 3-4 on August 31st 4-31 on October 28th 2-5 on February 17th changing Pace here we had a ride share mission on April 15th of 2023 that was transporter 7 followed up by a smaller but still combo ride share Mission between the ridium next 9 satellite and couple of additional satellites from the one web constellation I was followed up going back to starlink land after that for one mission 5- 13 on July 7th that was followed up by a launch for the space development agency trench zero flight to a demonstration mission that was followed up going back into starlink land starlink 7-4 on October 9th 7-7 on November 20th 7-1 on January 24th 7-17 on March 11th and of course most recently starlink 8-7 on May 14th we're now T minus 6 minutes 26 seconds in counting about 40 seconds into that engine chill down sequence taking a look at the live chat appreciate the more than 15,000 of you who are joining with us live this evening if you haven't already we'd certainly appreciate it if you could hit that like button for us and allow some more folks to find their way into our live coverage take a look at the live chat want to thank a few folks for your support as we're getting ready to get our eyes on the rocket momentarily thanks to Bravo actual for a $5 super chat thank you Bravo Aiden green with a $14 Super Chat thank you Aiden appreciate your support says hey man love your stuff post manly Motocross but started getting it to Rocket stuff L as Eden's photography hope you can check it out appreciate it go ahead and take a look Valentina Ortega with a $5 Super Chat thank you Valentina Cynthia Graves with a $5 Super Chat as well thank you Cynthia appreciate your support this evening Carlo Montes with a $2 Super Chat thank you Carlo and SG joining us tonight one of our wonderful channel members with $5 Super Chat and a good luck Corgi appreciate you SG tanks are pressing for strongback retrack and as you can hear and I will generously say see we are now getting the sights and sounds from the pad there at vandenbberg space force base and it is just about as Vandenberg of a launches you can expect at this point the lighting is such that you can see the sort of the silhouette of the Falcon 9 rocket and the strong back there but not a whole heck of a lot else and uh this started vantage point I imagine nominally this would be a a pretty good Viewpoint of the strong back retracting with the clamp arms opening up and transporter erector pulling away from the falcon9 rocket and I will say uh use your imagination guaranteed though that is what's happening right now in this view we may be able to see a little bit of movement as as about as good of a vantage point on the Falcon 9 as we've got right now in about 45 seconds we should hear the call that the first stage liquid oxygen tank is done filling stage one locks load is complete and we heard that good call coming up next the last big remaining fueling call out will be in about 40 seconds for the second stage locks tank that point the Falcon 9 will be fully loaded with 1 million pounds of propellant as we're waiting for that call I want to thank one of our wonderful channel members I am L for joining us tonight with a $5 Super Chat good to see you Lita who says good to see you all again thanks space fight now family for the great coverage and ride along with fellow launch Buddies stage two lock load is complete and with that call the Falcon 9 is fully loaded with 1 million pounds propellent and you can slightly see it in this well you could see it but what you just heard that ground guest Closeouts is what we were partially seeing for just a couple seconds [Applause] one minute out talking isn't start up last call we're waiting to hear of course is the space launch director give their go for launch that should be coming up momentarily LD is go for launch and with that the Falcon 9 is ready and raring for a liftoff in just over 30 seconds let's go ahead and listen to The Final Countdown from SpaceX and we'll be back with you on the other side of liftoff T minus 30 seconds tus 15 seconds tus 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ignition and lift off n Go St go vehicle is pitching down range stage one propulsion is ninal Falcon 9 is Supersonic and a good lift off of the Falcon 9 rocket now minut into flight coming up on the point of Max nominal the point of greatest aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle here hear that call out also heard that the Falcon 9 was traveling faster than the speed of sound of course as you can see the Telemetry data on the bottom leftand corner of your screen we're coming up on a few different events in Fairly rapid succession here first stage management cut off at 2 minutes 25 seconds that call that you just heard they are thermally condition iing the Merlin vacuum engine because a few seconds after Mo there'll be stage separation and then that upper stage engine excuse me will ignite for second stage engine starter scs1 at t+ 2 minutes at 35 seconds the payload fairings will then be deployed just a little after the 3 minute mark main engine cut off State separation confirmed and back ignition all good call outs and see those three events happening back to back fairing separation confirmed with those P Lo fairings now falling away the Starling satellites exposed to the vacuum of space for the first time in this Mission you can still see those fairings falling away just beyond the Merlin vacuum mention in the shop which is pretty nifty so now a little more than four minutes into flight coming up the next event is in less than two minutes that'll be the start of the first stage entry burn the Falcon at first stage will begin to slam on the brakes and slow itself down in preparation for a landing on the Drone ship of course I still love you that burn will last about 26 seconds in total e those who have been with us for a number of Falcon flights here no doubt noticing a bit more Frost buildup that we're seeing around the Merlin vacuum engine than typical not to say that that's necessarily problematic by any means but just a interesting observation bage one entry bur startup and this burn lasting about 26 seconds in total stage one entry burn shut down now just about 7 minutes into flight can see the speed of the falcon9 first stage booster 1063 is saf dropping rapidly that call the FTS the flight termination system has been safed as it is no longer needed for this stage in Flight we're coming up on the start of the landing burn t plus 7 minutes and 49 seconds just about 20 seconds stage one Landing burn stage two is in terminal guidance stage one Landing leg deploy stage one Landing confirmed and as you can see in here a good Landing of 1063 on the Drone ship launching and Landing for a 19th time and back shut [Music] down e at this point in the Falcon flight the upper stage will go into a coast phase where nominally in 50 at the T plus 52 minute 20 second Mark there will be a brief 1 second burn of that Merlin vacuum engine and then the Starling satellites are scheduled to be deployed at t+ 59 minutes in 14 seconds and as SpaceX noted on X this was their 70th Falcon mission of the year 70 and the Falcon family so that includes 69 Falcon 9 launches and one Falcon heavy flight noting that for posterity before we go ahead and turn to our look at our mission stats but before we do want to thank just a few more folks for their support this evening our thanks to cingi frog for a $10 Super Chat this coming in before liftoff saying uh just to send that rocket up basically eat that rocket uh Dylan with a $2 Super Chat appreciate you Dylan asking about the camera views and those are ad cameras from SpaceX Christopher Cooper with a $2 Super Chat thank you Christopher apocalypse cow giting five space line out memberships thanks apocalypse cow and welcome aboard to our five newest channel members be sure to thank apocalypse if you haven't already in the live chat Monkey Tree Rob sending some love to Mandy this evening Cole cting one of our wonderful channel members with a $2 Super Chat good to see you this Cole uh good to see you this evening Cole I should say and I'm I'm doing pretty well hope you're doing all right as well RPM for years with the $5 Super Chat said he was launch or said they were launching their drone to follow the launch from soal so you have to let us know RPM how that turned out hopefully you were able to escape some of the the fog in the area M could you rob with a $2 Super Chat thank you monkey tree and Kath L one with a $10 Super Chat thank you Kath and with that let's go ahead and take a look at the mission stats as they currently stand with a good liftoff and landing of the first stage booster marking flight number 19 for b1063 this was the 354th Falcon 9 launch to date the 69th Falcon 9 launch of 2024 and as we were just talking about that makes this the 70th SpaceX orbital launch of 2024 as well this was spacex's 120th orbital launch in the last 365 days the 84th orbital launch from slick 4 East at vanderberg 152nd overall orbital launch from that pad as well this marks the 24th orbital launch from Vandenberg this year practically catching up to the total from all of 2023 23 of those launches have been SpaceX missions in addition there was also the recent noise of Summer launch from Firefly Aerospace and their Alpha rocket moving on to some recovery stats this was the 96th Landing of a booster on the Drone ship of course I still love you this was spacex's 258th drone ship landing and the 329th Falcon booster Landing to date finally some industry stats this was of course the 24th orbital launch from California the 74th orbital launch from us soil 82nd from us rocket company and the 133rd orbital launch from around the world taking a look at the pie chart here us with those 82 missions still holding about 62% of the pie China with about a quarter of the mission so far this year although they did have another launch failure uh yesterday Russia has launched eight times so far Japan with four and a mishap there as well Iran and India with four uh two launches a piece North Korea with one failed launch so far and one of the newest to join this piie of course is the European space agency and Arion space with the launch of the Aron 6 Rock ET that just happened earlier this week if you weren't able to be with us for our live launch coverage we had a great deal of fun being joined by our friend Frederick so go ahead and watch that replay if you like to catch up on what was a great conversation and live coverage frerick is a a font of knowledge so we were very fortunate to be joined by him on that stream so that is up on our Channel right now to go ahead and check out and for those who want to head in this weekend with your eyes on the next rocket launch of course we're tracking the starlink 10-4 Mission which is set to launch over the weekend from here in Florida looking at that for no earlier than July 14th so set your alarms and join us in the we hours of Sunday morning although for those in California it'll be just a little bit after midnight about 12:35 or so all goes well with the white time there so not too terribly late for those night owls but somewhat painfully early for us here on the East Coast but we will Soldier on as we always do couple more folks I think just uh wrapping things up here welcome aboard to Norman abin joining us at the pad leader level welcome Norman glad to have you with us John Moren with a 10 Super Chat thank you John RPM uh letting us know that no luck on the Drone but uh the one for a few weeks ago is on his page so folks can check that out there and zuk zipper with a $5 Super Chat saying thank you for letting me a part of another important step in human advancement well we're glad to have you with us Duke and for everyone who's able to join us for our live launch coverage and we hope to see many of you back here again when next we cover the next launch so for our editor Stephen young and for our moderators in the live chat kalist Lee Stephanie b as Joe as Jen Rusty Shackleford Rob here at space light now I'm will Robin Smith remember be good to yourselves be good to others and we will see you next time folks bye-bye e e