Watch live: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 116 small payloads from Vandenberg, California

for good afternoon everyone and Welcome to our live coverage of the latest Mission from vanderberg space Force Base andem Will Robinson Smith will 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 and for our friends over on the west coast a good but very late morning as we're just before the noon time hour there bottom of the hour of course as we are preparing to see the launch of SpaceX and its Falcon 9 rocket on its 11th ride share Mission dubbed transporter 11 setting till Li off at 11:56 a.m. Pacific 2:56 p.m. Eastern excuse me 11:56 a.m. Pacific 2:56 p.m. Eastern 1856 UTC on board our 116 payloads that are getting ready to deploy over the course of more than two hours dozens of companies lots of countries and lots to talk about as this mission is preparing to move forward we do have word from SpaceX that fueling is in fact underway which is good news for those of us wanting to see a launch today also means that SpaceX is committing to that launch time you see there on your screen for those unfamiliar once SpaceX begins fueling its Falcon 9 rocket because it uses a loaded ghost style of operations it fuels essentially up to the final minutes prior to liftoff so now that it has begun loading both liquid oxygen on board the first stage and rp1 or rocket grade kerosene on board both the first and second stages they are now targeting the liftoff time you see here on your screen now T minus 26 minutes 22 seconds in counting want to thank our space flight now editor Steph young for running the tech technical operations of the broadcast today into our wonderful moderators in the live chat see uh Astro Jen kalisti Lee Astro Joe hopping in and helping us out today really appreciate that from the three view believe Rusty Shackleford is holding it down over on Launchpad live so appreciate him as well and uh be sure to keep our eyes healed for Stephanie be although given the time in Australia about 12 hours ahead of where we are here on the East Coast it's 2:30 in the morning I would be shocked to see her join us but you never know can help out our moderators in the live chat by a not using all caps and B being respectful to each other and see keeping things uh apolitical there are plenty of other politics forums especially in an election year here in the United States and we respectfully ask that you look to those for that kind of conversation but feel free to talk about life space other things here and again just be respectful of one another our thanks to the more than 2600 of you who are watching with us live as we're kicking off our coverage this afternoon here on the East Coast if you haven't already be sure to hit that like button to allow some more folks to find their way into our live coverage as we are preparing to see this stack of payloads heading up into orbit today this just one side of the payload integrator that will be deploying all these satellites over the course of again more than two hours for this Mission we're also powered by a wonderful Channel member Community here on YouTube so thanks to folks like James Shan Coffey I am Lita Eric Dickens Mystic images art Allen the Kean fig 816 and many others let see Daniel good to see you runs with scissors hello Channel membership comes the number of perks including discounts at our online shop shop. space now.com access to member only videos here on YouTube and of course the ability to watch all of our launch liftoff moments from the east coast in 4k and again mentioned this earlier in the week but Bears repeating certainly big thanks to our sustaining channel members for helping to keep us going also provides us the opportunity to bring you good on the ground reporting as we did last week and we're still uh Doling out the fruit from that from our various stops to both the jet propulsion lab and PAs Dena as well as to Rocket Labs satellite facility in the Long Beach area of Southern California back earlier today we published a first article from our rocket lab visit talking about the two Escapade satellites that have now hit the road and are making the road trip out here to Florida ahead of their launch to the red planet a top uh blue Origins first new Glenn rocket so lots to talk about with that mission you can see some of our reporting live on the website right now that is of course space now.com keep your eyes peel to the YouTube channel there'll be a video version of that story coming in the very near future and of course coming up next week or I should say starting at the beginning of next week we'll have lots more reporting connected to the Polaris Dawn Mission as we'll be just now a week away starting on Monday from the launch of Jared isikman and his four-person Mission which will include the first commercial space walk last but not least bringing it back to today's operation though if you have a comment or question about today's Mission and your comment or question about this or other space happenings is appropriate to be on our show we'd love to bring you into the chat you can do so using the Super Chat feature here not only will he give us interesting things to talk about but it's another way to help support what we do here at space flight now and it is very much appreciated also want to welcome Mark joining us with Channel membership at the P theer level welcome aboard sir glad to have you with us currently T-minus 21 minutes 43 seconds and counting to the liftoff of this Falcon flight getting ready to send up as I mentioned 116 satellites heading up to a sun synchronous orbit where they will be deployed over the course of more than 2 hours fortunately it sounds like it's not going to be a foggy launch liftoff down at vanderberg so in about 10 minutes we'll be seeing eyes on the rocket we'll be able to verify that with our own eyeballs Al together if for whatever reason SpaceX is not able to launch today they do have a backup window that opens tomorrow August 17th there'll be another 53 minute window opening up at 11 1120 a.m. Pacific so far it sounds like all is on track with this Mission here as you can see with the stack lots of different customers who are on board this particular flight do have an article up on our website spaceflightnow.com if you'd like to peruse and read a little bit more about some of those who are on board this particular transporter Mission customers from the UK from Chile Australia Japan the United States and more on board this Mission I'll talk about some of those as we continue on do want to talk about the countdown timeline some of the Milestones still ahead of us for those unfamiliar or those just wanting a refresh countdown started at tus 38 minutes when the SpaceX launch director gave their go for the start of prop load as mentioned that began with rp1 or rocket grade kerosene being loaded on board the first and second stages of the Falcon 9 rocket liquid oxygen on board the Falcon 9's first stage first stage helium load began at T minus 30 minutes same on the second stage at t- 26 minutes that cryogenic helium is important because it's used to pressurize the main propellant tanks during flight tus 23 minutes loading of second stage kerosene concluded te mons 20 minutes 50 seconds the strong back chill down process begins manifest itself and what we know is the so-called big vent good visual feeling indication that everything remains on track and on time they're preparing the feed lines ahead of second stage liquid oxygen load which happens starting at tus 16 minutes moving on the chill down of the nine of Merlin 1D engin at the base the Falcon 9's first stage gets underway at tus 7 minutes that process involves flowing a small amount of liquid oxygen through the plumbing and turbo pumps helping to protect them from the risk of thermal shock and damage during the startup sequence about a minute later the first stage kerosene tank is full at T minus 4 and a half minutes we'll see the strong back retract sequence begin starts with the clamp arms underneath the payload fairings opening up and then the strong back otherwise known as The Transporter erector here at vanderberg will Cline about 13° away from the Falcon 9 rocket stays that position until liftoff 3 minutes out the first stage liquid oxygen tank will be fill about a minute later second stage liquid oxygen load concludes on the second stage and at that point the vehicle is fully loaded with 1 million pounds propellant the final 60 seconds control the countdown is handed over from the ground sequencer the Falcon nights onboard flight computers here the call out you'll hear the call for the Falcon 9 being in startup the propell tanks will be brought brought up to flight pressure at that time the SpaceX launch director will give their go for launch 45 seconds out the engine ignition command will be issued at T minus 3 seconds and if all nine Marland 1D engines are healthy and ignite command will be given for the hold down clamps to release the Falcon 9 for a t0 liftoff again coming up t- 17 minutes 17 seconds or the time you see right here on your screen 11:56 a.m. Pacific 2:56 p.m. Eastern and 1856 UTC for those joining from around the world but for those joining from the area near and around Vandenburg just a heads up if you weren't already aware this is an rtls style operation stands for return to Landing site what does that mean for you that means like we just saw with the recent maxar Mission there will be a sonic boom accompanying the return of the falcon9 first stage booster to its designated Landing Zone there Vandenberg that is lz4 or Landing Zone 4 currently T minus 16 minutes 25 seconds in counting at this point the big vents will have concluded and we are just about 15 15 seconds away from the start of second stage liquid oxygen load taking a look at the live chat here want to thank the know more than 4,500 of you who are joining with us live appreciate you being here on a Friday afternoon hope you've all had a wonderful productive otherwise satisfying week for those who have gone back to school whether that be University College or anything on down below hope it's been a good first week back if that's still coming up for you hope you're enjoying the last harz of summer vacation want to thank Channel member I'm leita for a $5 Super Chat saying hello willing team thank you all for all you do California loves you well as a California Kid born and raised I will always have love for the Golden State so right back at you another Channel member Michael mcguy $2 Super Chat thank you Michael saying hi from Valley Forge Pennsylvania moving on with this Mission let's go ahead and talk about the trajectory for this Falcon 9 rocket show you where it's going to fly and what lead the PAD as mentioned this Falcon 9 is going to be ascending from space launch complex four or slick for East heading out in way to the West on this one more than a southeasterly this is more or less Due West with a slightly Southern bent to it call this southwesterly as you can see though as we just mentioned with the red line that is the flight path back to El Z4 for the return to Landing site operation so again if you've got some friends or family or you yourself are in that area just be aware you may hear a sonic boom when the booster comes back on in or is uh is Johnny Cash sing when the Man Comes Around speaking of coming around those haloed fairings encapsulating the 116 satellites will be coming around again as SpaceX will have those splash down in the Pacific Ocean under the support of parachutes company saves about $6 million per recovery effort so it's important to them to make sure that they can get those back as often as possible refurbish them turn them around for future use that's what it looks like when bearings are brought aboard a recovery vessel here so far on the year SpaceX has launched 80 Falcon missions including 79 Falcon 9 Rockets one Falcon heavy looking for mission number 81 in just a little under 13 minutes from now taking a look at the live chat want to thank L cul for gifting a space flight nonmembership appreciate that Louise and a thanks to Sharon wer for a $2 Super Chat say looking forward to another great launch we can all certainly hope that everything continues to progress nominally ahead of liftoff coming up soon currently T minus 16 minutes excuse me T minus 12 minutes now uh 16 seconds in counting not trying to step back in time here folks I assure you on board this Falcon flight among the multitude of spacecraft you'll find this unique one here from planet labs this is one of 37 satellites that planet is launching 36 are its Earth Imaging satellites that it calls super does this particular one is a hyperspectral satellite called Tanger one this is a methane sensing satellite and it's a collaboration between Planet the organization carbon mapper Coalition and also features some technology from NASA's jet propulsion laboratory according to carbon mapper Coalition this is designed designed for very uh specifically focused sources of methane emissions it says it can reach a scale and I'll quote them here of quote individual facilities and pieces of equipment like leaking gas pipelines venting coal mines or leak in a landfill gas capture system the data gathered from this satellite will be incorporated into it a publicly available data portal to help better understand the sources and potential Health impacts of excessive methane leaks or just sources of methane another spacecraft that's on board this flight go ahead and roll this promotional video from them this is Chile company or Chile based company Liu getting ready to launch its Liu I butcher this pronunciation Ang satellite NG not entirely sure the pronunciation of that but this will be studying the biodiversity within Chile you can see their mission patch there for that flight just one of many on board and we do have views now of the Falcon 9 rocket you can see just a gorgeous and clear view of the Falcon 9 getting ready to make its Ascent in just about N9 and a half minutes from now so for those in the California area and also in the southwest if you are able to catch some views of this Falcon 9 flight be sure to tag us on Twitter or X formally Twitter you can find us simply by searching space flight now love to see what photos you come up with now T minus 9 Minutes 4 seconds and counting a couple minutes away from the point where SpaceX will be doing the engine chill down sequence seeing that photo we showed earlier of the multitude of payloads that are attached to the payload adapter here prior to encapsulation and payload fairings that are at top the Falcon 9 see one half of those in the background of this shot also notable for this Mission as we're just about to hit the 8 Minute Mark the deployment company called exol launch is marking its 30th Mission EXO launches supporting the integration of 42 out of the 116 satellites on board going over the falcon9 rocket here we'll start from the top and go to the bottom payload fairings are made up of a carbon composite material and 13.1 M or 43 ft tall 5.2 M or 17.1 ft diameter spring halves as we showed you on the map will be uh recovered a little bit further down range of where stage separation happens moving on down the second stage is powered by a single modified mer Merlin engine called a mer Merlin vacuum engine or an mvac engine it's equipped with a large nozzle which is optimized for Burns in the vacuum of space that's the name it produces more than 22,500 lb of thrust same as the first stage burns the same prop mix that being rp1 or rocket grade kerosene and liquid oxygen just beneath that there's the inner stage which is a composite structure consisting of an aluminum honeycomb core surrounded by carbon fiber it has titanium wings that provides stability and steering guiding it back down in this case towards Landing Zone 4 the basee of the rocket of course the majority is the first stage this is tail number 1075 it's going for its 12th flight today base the Falcon 9 first stage are nine Merlin 1D engines which same as the second stage burn rp1 and locks and produce 1.7 million pounds of thrust you can see a live picture here here of Landing Zone 4 this is where the falcon9 first stage booster will be intending to land here if successful this will be the 20th land Landing here at lz4 overall for SpaceX if this is successful again this will Mark the 340th overall booster Landing for the company to date our minus 5 minutes 26 seconds in counting appreciate the more than 9,600 of you who are joining with us live uh creeping up on 10,000 if you haven't already we'd certainly appreciate it if you could hit that like button for us allows more folks to find their way into our live coverage that would be very much appreciated also want to thank losos DBK for a $5 Super Chat thank you losos uh ra mgv for a Super Chat as well thank you uh rrj one of our wonderful channel members SG with a $5 Super Chat thank you SG you're now tus 4 minutes 41 seconds in counting this is a compilation video from SpaceX illustrating uh Sonic booms for you're now seeing the strong back retract sequence underway the transporter Rector pulling back about 13° away from the falcon9 rocket and stay in that position until lift off in about 20 or so seconds the first stage liquid oxygen tank should be full for the SpaceX commentator noting that later this year SpaceX intends to launch its second mid- inclination ride share mission called bandwagon 2 though they did not know a specific date for that but look out for that one coming up in the not too distant future now coming up on two minutes prior to liftoff here see if we can squeeze in a couple more Super chats in the interim welcome to gargoyle 2556 joining us with Channel membership with the mission specialist level welcome aboard gargoyle we're glad to have you with us gav tubs with a 5eo super chat saying what a sight incredible every time Lauren seals with a $2 Super Chat as well thank you Lauren and gargo with a very generous $20 Super Chat very sweet message saying that making that note and memory of his late wife Annette keep a kind thought out for you gargoyle and sincerely appreciate your support sorry for your loss that extra venting you're seeing here on your screen on the ground gas close outs as we are about to hear the SpaceX launch director give their go for launch let's listen in LD is go for launch and with that we heard the poll go ahead that we are go for launch now just a little more than 30 seconds let's go ahead and listen in and we'll join you with more commentary on the other side of liftoff t- minus 15 seconds tus 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ignition and with off Falcon 9 go transporter 11 fing down range chamber 45 seconds into flight beautiful nominal of the California coast at vandenbberg we've cleared the tower and a launch complex for East we've begun throttling down those Merlin 1D engines on the first stage in preparation for Max Q suic that's the point of Maximum aerodynamic stresses during ascent and a good launch so far as you just heard SpaceX throttling down ahead of Max Q There are going to be a few different events happening in Fairly rapid succession here coming up at t+ 2 minutes 14 seconds will be first stage main engine cut off or Mo that'll be followed 4 seconds later by stage separation the first stage will perform a flip maneuver about 4 seconds after that 4 seconds after that will be the ignition of the Merlin vacuum mentioned on the second stage then about t plus 2 minutes 31 seconds the Boost back burn will begin that burn lasting just a hair under a minute in total in between the ignition of the engines for the Boost back burn and when that burn includes the payload fairings will be deployed just before the 3 minute Mark first M coming up in just about a couple seconds for Mo stage separation confirmed M back ignition stage one boost St start up and there you saw those events boost back burn coming up on beiring separation shortly see those pad and there go the payad and there is successful confirmation of fairing separation also get a a good view of the payloads flying on today's Mission and a great shot there you can see a fairing half returning back towards the California coast as a reminder we will be recovering those fairings and refurbishing them for use on a future Mission things going well so far with this Falcon flight the Boost back burn has now concluded the next Milestone that we're looking for is the first stage entry burn beginning that's coming up at about t+ 5 minutes 56 seconds that burn will last until t plus 6 minutes and 12 seconds you can see the Hypersonic grid fins on the falcon9 first stage have been deployed those pulses that you're seeing between those two grid fins that you saw a little bit of actuation on those are the cold gas thrusters that help to adjust the attitude or the positioning of the falcon9 first stage as it makes its way back down towards Landing Zone 4 throughout the course of the deployment sequence both ahead of and in the midst of there will be a total of four Burns of the Merlin vacuum engine we're still in the midst of that first burn which should conclude at about t plus 8 minutes and 14 seconds the Falcon 9 upper stage will then continue on in a coast phase until t+ 50 minutes 20 seconds there will will be a brief 3 second burn of the Merlin vacuum engine and then a few minutes after that we'll start the deployment sequence first big deployment sequence here where there will be more than one about more than one payload deployed each minute you could see some great Ground tracking shots of that Falcon 9 First St booster tail number 1075 in the space of Fleet making its way back down towards the California coastline hoping to have a successful 12th Landing today coming up on the start of that entry burn here call for the entry burn you can see that there on your screen now should be shutting down any moment got shut down there Landing burn coming up just the central Merlin engine igniting you can see the speedometer on the Falcon 9 first stage is dropping dramatically is that booster making its way back down falcon9 first stage now traveling below the speed of sound let's go ahead and listen in as it makes its Landing stage one Landing bird Landing like the toy and that marks the 12th Landing for this booster it marks spacex's 340th Landing of an orbital class rocket next up just about 20 seconds will be the Merlin vacuum shutdown SEO second engine cut off number one stage two FTS has saved and V are done and there is successful shutdown of the Merlin vacuum engine for the insertion or Orit nominal parking orbit and that call out indicating that we are in the Target orbit uh for insertion of today's Mission around planet Earth so with that the next event is going to be coming up at around the t+ 50 minute Mark that'll be the second engine start uh for the second time of our Merlin vacuum engine we'll be back around in about 40 minutes to bring you live coverage of and so far a successful Mission with this mission for the transporter 11 Riot share operation so far good first burn of the Merlin vacuum engine as you just heard there will be a second burn coming up at t+ 50 minutes 20 seconds lasting just a few seconds at which point the orbit will be circularized and they'll begin the deployment of the first batch of satellites here on this Mission first one coming up is called gained sat 1A that was manifested by exol launch which has 42 satellites that are manifested on this Mission the 30th time that this company is going to be deploying satellites behalf of a multitude of customers that'll be followed by a mini ride share of its own that's an Australian satellite called War seed 1 also manifested by Exo launch those will be the first two set to deploy once the deployment process begins that's at t+ 53 minutes 56 seconds before we go ahead and acknowledge some super chats here because I want to thank the folks that have been supporting us during our live launch coverage I'll just uh note for the record as well that once we go through our mission stats we'll be wrapping up our dedicated live stream however since this is a long deployment period and we definitely want to allow you to see and hear that as it happens we will be putting that over on our 24hour live stream that is Launchpad live and we'll be doing some light commentary on there going in and out of the burns and the payload deployments so if you'd like to continue following this Mission you can do so over there but in the run after that let's go ahead and wrap things up or begin to do so right here where we are now our thanks to Ken sha 1 for a $10 Super Chat thank you Ken shha Mega Griswald with a $5 Super Chat thank you Mega AZ dkw 65 marking 2 months as a channel member here with us this of course happening prior to liftoff saying hoping for a successful launch thank you will and space flight now for your coverage well thank you ay and appreciate your ongoing support of what we do here at space flight now thanks to Gable deise or D Dez uh for a $10 Super Chat thank you Gable saying go falcon Lori Jones Wilson marking nine months as a channel member at the PAAD level appreciate you being with us Lori says simply hello all Spencer macalpine joining us with Channel membership at the pad leader level welcome aboard Spencer we glad to have you with us and thanks to David S for a $10 Super Chat saying thank you Emily snog grass a payload engineer and with that let's go ahead and take a look at our mission stats as they currently stand here first off with the updated bar chart now have 81 Falcon missions on the year 80 Falcon 9 rockets and one Falcon heavy for moving on to the rest of our mission stats this marked the 12th flight of this particular Falcon 9 first AG booster 1075 in the Space X Fleet this was space 6's 365th Falcon 9 launch to date as just mentioned the 80th Falcon 9 launch of 2024 this was the 309th Falcon booster refight with a launch of a booster that has flown at least once this are spacex's overall 83rd launch of the year including the Falcon heavy and two flights from Star base with their starship rocket preparing for flight five in the not too distant future this was spacex's 121st orbital launch within the last 365 days the 87th from slick 4E and the 155th overall launch from this particular pad moving on to some recovery stats this was the 20th touchdown at Landing Zone 4 marking the 74th land landing and the 240th overall SpaceX booster Landing to date finally some industry stats this was the 28th orbital launch from vanderberg this year the 87th from us soil the 96th from rocket company and the 152nd orbital launch from around the world and it congrats to India for a successful launch of its rocket earlier today that was the 151st launch happened uh in the overnight hours there have been six orbital launch failures on the year so far so here's where our pie chart now stands and with that as mentioned this will conclude our dedicated live stream here of the transporter 11 Mission but don't you fret for those wanting to keep up with the deployment of all 116 payloads on board we will turn you over momentarily to our 24-hour live stream channel that being Launchpad live where we will continue to do some light commentary over there as the various burn burs come up there are still three more burns on the Falcon 9 upper stage and we will listen in and watch as the payloads are deployed those are going to be happening in basically two big batches the first starting at about t+ 53 minutes 56 seconds and that will continue on until this one stretches for quite a while goes till about t+ 1 hour 22 minutes so nearly 30 minutes of Fairly continuous deployment then there will be the third burn of the Merlin vacuum engine at t plus 1 hour 45 minutes 21 seconds it's just a very brief uh less than second burn we'll enter into another Coast phase and then at t+ 2 hours and 27 minutes minutes there will be the fourth and final uh mid deployment burn I'll say post launch burn and we'll see the last patch of satellites be deployed starting at t+ 2 hours 30 minutes 22 seconds that deployment sequence lasts up until 2 hours 36 minutes and 30 seconds so still quite a bit left to see for those who are fans of satellite deployments and again that will be over on our live 24-hour live stream channel LOD pad live want to briefly thank Larry Williams for a $2 Super Chat thank you Larry saying love your coverage appreciate your support of it and to John Moren for a $10 Super Chat thank you John appreciate your support today John says always enjoy your coverage thanks for the kind words and thanks to our wonderful moderators Astro Jen kalisti Lee and Astro Joe for helping us hold it down here in the live chat as well as Rusty Shackleford keeping it tidy over on Launchpad live we'll see you all over there in just a moment here but RJ Pismo coming in at the buzzer with a very generous $20 Super Chat really appreciate that RJ thank you for your support at that level want to thank our space flight now editor Steph young for helping around the technical operations of this stage of our live coverage of course we are going to continue our work again over on Launchpad live but for those who have other things you need to attend to uh appreciate you being here for this stage of our live launch coverage and thanks to uh chisty lee for throwing in the link there to Launchpad live for all us here at space flight now I'm Will Robinson Smith be good to yourselves be good to others and if these are our parting words to you as you head into the weekend and I hope hope you have a wonderful one and folks we will see you next time and until then bye-bye