LIVE! SpaceX NROL-113 Launch

e well good evening everyone and welcome here to the Launchpad and our live launch coverage of SpaceX nr13 launching from slick 40 at renberg space force station in California if it's your first time here welcome my name is Zach I'm the founder and host here at the Launchpad and here at TLP it's our mission to inform and Inspire the explorers of tomorrow because we believe that space is better together and we're glad to have you all joining us here live today SpaceX is getting ready to begin their live coverage t l minus 8 minutes 10 seconds in counting Falcon 9 booster 1063 going for its 20th flight you're looking at a live view of slick 4E where propellant loading is well underway list us it into SpaceX mission mission control for an update on the count just about 8 minutes from now tonight's Mission carries a national security payload designed built and operated by the national reconnaissance office or nro for short my name is Ronnie foreman and I'm a senior commercial sales manager here at SpaceX tonight's Mission marks our 381st overall launch the 86th launch of 2024 and the 7th nro launch on a falcon 9 this Mission continues the nro's development of cuttingedge capabilities that deliver critical information that can only be obtained from the vantage point of space the range and vehicle are currently green which is great news and we are on track for an ontime launch tonight at 8:20 p.m. Pacific now we won't be showing any views of the payload this evening at the request of our customer so for now let's meet the vehicle and learn a little bit about the most flown us launch vehicle ever the Falcon 9 rocket Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket that is designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads chill call out there that engine chill has begun Falcon 9 is also the first and currently the only orbital class rocket capable of reflight the bottom 2third of the vehicle is the first stage also referred to as the booster not only is the first St the largest part of the rocket but it's also the portion of the rocket that we attempt to land on one of our drone ships or back on land for future reuse reusability is a critical part of our goal of making life multiplanetary every Mission provides valuable information on repeated launch and reusability that also allows us to refly rp1 load is complete there's confirmation that we're fully loaded with rp1 on board the first stage now as I was saying reusability allows us to refly the most expensive parts of the rocket which in turn dri down the cost of access to space to that end tonight's booster will be flying for the 20th time and the SpaceX team is working toward qualifying our Fleet of Falcon boosters and fairings to support 40 missions each at the very base of Falcon 9 there are nine m1d engines collectively those generate 1.7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff and accelerate the first stage through the Earth's atmosphere on its way to space just about 2 and 1/2 minutes after off the booster will separate from the rest of the rocket to make its way back to Earth stage two then continues on to its Target altitude where it will deploy today's payload after stage separation the booster will be returning to our drone ship of course I still love you which is currently stationed in the Pacific Ocean great view of it there on your screen as well today we've landed a falcon booster 344 times now coming back to this spectacular nighttime view of Falcon 9 on the launch pad P above the first stage is the second stage which has a single than are pressing for strong back retract perfect they were pressing up for strong back retract now that second stage has a single mvac engine that will ignite after the first stage separates that second stage is what will carry the nro payload to orbit located above the second stage is the payload fairing which is the large barrel structure at the top of the rocket at 17 ft in diameter the carbon composite payload fairing protects satellites on their way to orbit and those halves will be jettisoned around 3 minutes into today's flight call outs for mission control that we're preparing for strong back retract the next visual indication we're going to have of our progress toward liftoff tonight is the opening of those clamp arms around the base of stage two I'm sorry around the base of the payload fairing we've been hearing a lot of call outs from Mission Control about the transporter erector or te and coming up great right on time we're retracting the te away from Falcon 9 at T minus 0 the ground hydraulic systems will pull the te even further away from Falcon as it lifts off and clears the pad the first stage is connected to a launch Mount at the base of the te right now but the structure is hinged to allow for that retraction we just saw you've heard it called the strong back by the launch Team so far in no small part because it does a lot of heavy lifting in the leadup to launch we use the te both to roll the vehicle out to the pad and raise it to its vertical launch position the te is also what we use to Route the vehicle's fluids power and Telemetry umbilical from ground systems to the rocket and payload until Falcon 9 switches to internal power and clears the pad now at this point in the countdown both the first and second stages are nearly fully loaded with 1 million pounds of kerosene stage one lock load is complete confirmation of locks load complete both the first and second stage finish loading propellants just about a minute apart from each other and again the propellants on board Falcon 9 are a kerosene fuel called rp1 and liquid oxygen we're currently standing by for lock locks load complete on board the second stage expected in just about 30 seconds as always the white clouds that you see around the vehicle are totally normal that's the chilled gas from above the liquid oxygen tank that we vent overboard to maintain pressure in the rocket as needed when that vented oxygen comes out of the tank and into the California air the humidity condenses into clouds standing by for confirmation of locks load complete on stage two stage two lock load is complete right on schedule so the next major Milestone that we're listening for is at about tus 60 seconds when Falcon 9 will be in startup mode that means that the fal that the Falcon 9 autonomous internal flight computer close outs are on their way there for Falcon [Applause] 9 and we are just about 15 seconds away from startup mode when those autonomous internal flight computers will take over the launch countdown then just inside of tus 2 seconds we will light the m1d engines for liftoff Falcon 9 is in startup there's confirmation that Falcon 9 is in startup mode and at this time the nro payload continues to be healthy and our Falcon 9 team is tracking no issues on the rocket LD is go for launch there's confirmation from our launch director that we are go for launch this evening so let's sit back and watch as Falcon 9 lifts off from vandenbberg space force base in California T minus 30 seconds tus 15 seconds tus 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 2 1 ignition and lift off of Falcon 9 go nrol 113 vehicle's pitching down range stage one propulsion is nominal if you're just joining us Falcon 9 has successfully lifted off from space launch complex 4 East as you can hear on your screen and we are getting some awesome shots of ascent we've also heard a few call outs so far from Mission Control nominal power and Telemetry including that everything is looking nominal from both a power and Telemetry standpoint now in just a few moments we're going to Throttle Down the engines in preparation for Max q and with that call out we hear that Falcon 9 is moving faster than the speed of sound Max Q there's that Max Q call out as you may have heard us mentioned before Max Q is a critical flight Milestone because this is the moment in Flight with the highest amount of aerodynamic pressure so with that we have three events coming up in quick succession here starting with Mo stage seep and scs1 main engine cut off for moo for short is where all nine m1d engines will shut off to slow the vehicle down in preparation for stage separation there's confirmation that we're chilling the mvac engine for scs1 stage two of course will continue to Second engine start one after stage Zep and that's when the single mvac engine will ignite to propel the second stage orbit less than a minute after all of these flight events the fairing halves will also separate and jettison away from the rocket will hear that one called out from mission control but as a reminder we won't have any payload views tonight at the request of our customer standing by for main engine cut off in just about 15 seconds M engine cut off stage separation confirmed and back ignition we have had great confirmation and Views there of main engine cut off stage separation and of course second engine start one we are standing by now for the call out for fairing separation and we will be attempting to retrieve these fairing halves once they fall back down to earth using our recovery shipped go beyond fairing separation confirmed there's confirmation of fairing up now coming up about 3 minutes from now the booster which you've got great views of the grid fins on your screen right now will initiate its entry burn to begin its Journey to the of course I still love you drone ship which is currently station in the Pacific Ocean those grid fins on board stage one are the primary mechanical structure that we use to guide the rocket on its way back to Earth of course what we are leading up to is the entry burn expected again at just about t plus 6 minutes after liftoff if you are just joining us today you're coming in to our live webcast of the nro payload launch we had an ontime 8:20 p.m. Pacific liftoff from vandenbberg space for space in California followed by successful main engine cutoff stage separation second engine start one and fairing separation to start the entry burn we'll relight three of the m1d engines on board the first stage which is essentially the same as pumping the brakes we need to slow the vehicle down as it passes back into the Earth's atmosphere to reduce re-entry forces which helps us to recover and reuse the booster on future flights during the entry burn Falcon 9 will be decelerating by firing those Merlin engines but we're still moving really fast this causes the vehicle to fly through Merlin's exhaust gases which is also known as the Rocket's plume and deposits a layer of soot on the vehicle surface that soot comes from the carbon based fuel that Falcon 9 uses and with each repeated flight the soot builds up a little more on the outside of the vehicle you can of course continue to track the first stage Telemetry in the bottom left corner of your screen as the booster continues to make its way back to our drone ship of course I still love you which is currently stationed in the Pacific Ocean reusability is key to lowering the cost of space flight which enables more investments in critical space infrastructure in today's case supporting National Security the Falcon 9 F excuse me the Falcon 9 first stage that is supporting today's Mission performed it is about to perform this entry burn for the 20th time stage one entry burn startup there we have great views that entry burn has begun on board our first stage booster and we are expecting this burn to last about 20 seconds stage one entry burn shutdown and confirmation of shutdown the Merlin engines on board the first stage are optimized for sea level which is primarily because they operate in the Earth's atmosphere they achieve 190,000 pounds of thrust each during both ascent and descent at liftoff Falcon 99's first stage has thrusted greater than five 747 airplanes at full power stage one FTS is safed by contrast the mvac engine on board the second stage has a much wider nozzle and is optimized to 22,500 lb of thrust in vacuum now coming up in just over 30 seconds we'll have our Landing burn on board the first stage stage one transonic confirmation that stage one is transonic on its way back to its R Points with our drone ship just like the entry burn we're expecting our Landing burn to be relatively quick the difference here though is that what we're using this burn for is to touch down softly on the surface of our drone ship guidance stage one Landing burn confirmation of Landing burn startup can see those grid fins working as we target the Drone ship here stage one Landing confirmed and confirmation of touchdown this again was the 20th launch and Landing for this first stage this Landing also marks spacex's 345th recovery of an orbital class rocket including first stage Landings for Falcon 9 and Falcon heavy and what another beautiful view following along Falcon 9 booster 1063 on its 20th flight now successfully back on Earth on the Drone ship of course I still love you well that's going to do it for today's live coverage of nr1 uh 13 excuse me from vandenbberg it is a classified Mission so we won't get to see anything more of the second stage but that is not all the excitement coming up in the next 24 hours we finally finally are going to get to see Star lighter leave the International Space Station now yes it's leaving its crew behind and yes we'll see if it can actually make it back to Earth but it's finally undocking and we hope you will join us here live on the Launchpad starting at around 5:30 p.m. eastern time we will be staying live the entire time through undocking uh deorbit burn and Landing I know NASA's going to take breaks in between but stay with us through the whole time bringing the latest updates hatch closure has been confirmed on the station and Starliner is ready to depart tomorrow update for Polaris Dawn now targeting 3:38 a.m. Monday morning so make sure you stay tuned for our live coverage of that and so many more big launches coming up later this month we've got h2a we've got soyu Falcon 9 electron Falcon heavy pslv Starship Vulcan who knows what other rocket will get thrown in there we got new Glenn and Vulcan again maybe next month uh as well as many more coming through the end of the year so make sure you hit that subscribe button so you never miss another live launch coverage right here on the Launchpad but that's going to do it for us here tonight from our TLP space Co Studio my name is Zach and we'll see you next time because space is better together good night