Watch Live: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 21 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg, California

for good evening everyone and Welcome to our live coverage of the latest Mission from vanderberg space Force Base I'm Will 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 SpaceX has not made a statement as of yet as far as the start of fueling on this particular Falcon flight from vanderberg so we will couch the uh t z clock you see in the top right hand corner of your screen with a bit of an asterisk that that is the countdown toward a plan liftoff at the as of right now advertised t0 time of 6:45 p.m. Pacific and of course as you see on this slate is 9:45 p.m. Eastern or 145 UTC want to welcome in the a little more than 1100 of you who are watching with us live this evening if you happen to get up early or stay up late with us for our multi-hour launch coverage spacewalk coverage this morning of the as space mobile Bluebird 1-5 Mission coupled with the polaron spacewalk it's good to have you back if you're just checking in for the first time today welcome on board hope you've had a good productive Thursday and getting ready to see another falcon fly this time of course from the West Coast our Steven young is running the technical operations of the broadcast our photography team of Adam Burns team Michael Kane have the evening off since this is a vanderberg launch but don't you worry they be back in Action before you know it since we have another local launch at space launch complex 40 on tap for Sunday looking to send up another pair of Galileo satellites for the European Commission taking a look from the go west satellite A View over the central to Southern California part of the state you can see it's a fairly Clear Day in most of the state in this part of the region however you can see right around the area of vanderberg that pesky fog that is so uh typical of that part of the area is still hanging around so can't promise this will be a gorgeous launch liftoff moment however it looks like the clouds in the rest of that part of the state are fairly minimal so hopefully once it does clear the area of the pad have a fairly good launch this evening as we get things rolling want to welcome in first off our wonderful moderators in the live chat a good evening to kalis Lee good to see you back again this uh evening and a welcome to Astro Jen Astro Joe good to see you we'll keep an eye out for Aussie space girl and Russy Shackleford if you happen to see them pop into the live chat be sure to give them a warm space flight now hello we're also powered by a wonderful Channel member Community here on YouTube so thanks to folks like butterfly cornea Thomas AKA triple hot mess it's a great handle Patty ch Jeff Hansen uh the rocket girl Christian Nava and many others Randy 84 Channel membership comes with a number of perks including discounts at our online shop that is shop. spacelight now.com access to member only videos here on YouTube and of course the ability to watch all of our live launch liftoff moments in 4k as we step into the countdown so far want to give you an idea of where we are again relative to a 6:45 p.m Pacific liftoff assuming SpaceX has given a go and they are in the fueling process for this falcon9 rocket launch the go-ahead for the start of fueling would have been given at about tus 38 minutes setting up for the beginning of prop load with a couple of events EV those include loading of rp1 or rocket grade kerosene on board the Falcon 99's first and second stages and the loading of liquid oxygen on board the Falcon 9's first stage T minus 30 minutes they start loading C aium onto the pressure vessels on the Falcon 's first stage the helium is used to pressurize the main propellent tanks during flight same is true about 5 minutes later on the second stage few minutes after that the second stage kerosene tank is fully loaded T-minus 20 minutes and 50 seconds just about 20 seconds ago the strong back chill down process began res set to Begin Again assuming SpaceX is in fact in the fueling process of its falcon9 rocket that manifests itself in the so-called big vent that we are accustomed to seeing for a cape based launches as they are thermally conditioning the fee lines prior to Second Stage locks load which begins at tus 16 minutes T minus 7 Minutes the engine chill down sequence begins and involves flowing a small amount of liquid oxygen through the plumbing and the Turbo pumps helping to protect those engines from the risk of thermal shock and damage during the startup sequence about a minute later the first stage kerosene tank is full and at T minus 4 and a half minutes the strong back retract sequence begins once we get Visual Evidence of that about uh 20 or 30 seconds into this process see the clamp arms underneath the payload fairings opening up and then the transporter erector or the strong back Hero at vanderberg will recline about 13° away from the Falcon 9 rocket stays in that position until lift off that Point there's a way for the Falcon 99 to ascend about three minutes at the first stage liquid oxygen tank is full minute after that same is true on the second stage at which point the Falcon 9 is fully loaded with 1 million pounds of propellant in the final 60 seconds is the Falcon 9 hear the call for Falcon 9 being in startup means control of the countdown is handed over from the ground sequencer to the Falcon kns onboard flight computers the panks are brought up to flight pressure and then the SpaceX laun director gives their go for launch at 45 seconds out the engine ignition command is issued at tus 3 seconds and fall 9 Merlin 1D engines are healthy and ignite the command will be given for the hold down clamps to release the Falcon 9 for a t0 liftoff coming up in T minus 18 minutes 27 seconds coming up we believe at 6:45 p.m. Pacific 9:45 p.m. Eastern 0145 UTC for for taking a look at our live chat here first off I want to thank the more than 3200 of you who are now joining with us live also want to thank psychon 69 for gifting a space flight now membership really appreciate that and to our newest Channel member welcome aboard we're glad to have you with us also want to give a big thank you to one of our very generous channel members Artemis with not one but two $100 super chats it's good to see you back emis and very very much appreciate the support at that level it is most welcome especially after we had a kind of a quiet summer back in July couple months of or a couple weeks I should say of no launches so very grateful for the support and for on top of that gifting 50 space flight out membership so to our 50 new channel members welcome aboard to the large cluster of you be sure to thank emis in the live chat if you haven't already we hope you stick around with Channel membership glad to have you with us know the Vandenberg launches and get a a fairly large swath of folks in the southwestern United States so let us know where you're watching from tonight in the live chat if you haven't already and be sure to share some photos and videos tag us on our social channels you can find us on Facebook threads and X love to see what you come up with from this launch as you're thinking about turning your eyes to the skies let's talk about about where this Falcon 99's going to be flying once it leaves the pad let's talk a little trajectory shall we Falcon 9 Rocket's going to be ascending from space launch complex 4 East or slick 4E there at vanderberg today's Mission will be spacex's 90th launch from this pad the 158th total orbital launch from slick 4E heading up to the ninth shell in the starlink uh constellation the Falcon 99's going to be heading in a southeasterly trajectory along the coast of California and Mexico the first stage booster tail number b1071 making its 18th flight today set to land on the SpaceX drone ship called of course I still love you SpaceX will also Endeavor to recover the payload fairings as it saves about six million per recovery effort SpaceX is working to certify both its boosters and its payload fairings for up to 40 flights each this what it looks like as the fairings are brought aboard one of the recovery vessels so we've got some folks from of course Florida here I see Brian me down in San Diego JP p uh excuse me Jr pipe hitter from Mesa Arizona Terry the Barry joining us from South San Jose Hills in LA county got salt 20 in Yuma Arizona Arcadia California for gang Li oh we got Philip Kaufman from Tulsa Oklahoma not sure if Oklahoma is going to be able to see this that might just be a a bit too much to ask for for this Falcon flight but yeah if the skies are clear and their lighting conditions are right maybe we'll get lucky although this is a pre Sunset launch there in California so the length of visibility may be a little bit tempered here just want to set expectations for what folks may be able to witness at this point at T minus 12 minutes 44 seconds SpaceX has begun second stage locks load on the Falcon 9 rocket there Vandenberg space Force Base assuming a t0 liftoff of 645 coming up the next event will be the chill down of the nine Merlin 1D engines we're just uh about five or so minutes away from getting our eyes on the Falcon 9 rocket here now T minus 11 minutes 17 seconds in counting on board the Falcon 9 rocket are 21 starlink V2 mini satellites this Mission set to be the 62nd star length launch for SpaceX so far in 2024 in the 125th time that they've launched a batch of these V2 mini Starling satellites on board among those are also 13 that include the direct to sell capability with this Mission SpaceX will have sent up 207 of these direct to sell starlink satellites so far in total after this launch there will also have been 7,022 starlink satellites that have been launched to date for SpaceX building out its Mega constellation in low earth orbit according to astronomer and expert orbital tracker Jonathan McDow there are currently before this launch just a herir over 6,400 starlink satellites that are currently remaining on orbit each of these V2 minis weighs about 1,760 LBS or about 800 kg with their solar panels on fural they have a wingspan of about 100 ft or 30 m they move around using their argon Hall thrusters replacing the previously used Krypton Hall thrusters they were built in Redmond Washington which is is near Seattle will'll be deployed at about 180 M or 290 km in altitude and a 53° inclination SpaceX has since published a uh rendering of uh Starling V2 mini satellite and its Auto reconfiguration but this is an actual photo snapped last year by a satellite from hoo robotics which specializes in on orbit Imaging now T-minus 9 Minutes 4 seconds in counting let's go ahead and talk about the booster that's flying this Mission tail number 1071 getting ready to make its 18th flight today with this Mission began its career with a pair of launches for the national reconnaissance office undisclosed payloads for the nro first one n 87 which launched on February 2nd of 2022 second n 85 launching on April 17th next up was the Sara 1 Mission launching on June 18th 2022 followed up by a pair of starlink satellites starlink 3-2 on July 22nd and Starling 4-9 on October 5th coming right after was the surface water and ocean topography or swap Mission this was a joint operation from NASA and Kess which is the French space agency they also had some uh partnership with with the Canadian space agency and the UK space agency as well on that mission that brings us back into starlink territory for a couple of missions we had starlink 2-6 on January 31st of 2023 and Starling 2-8 on March 17th that was followed by this booster's first ride share Mission transporter 8 on June 12th of 23 back to starlink land we go starlink 6- 15 on July 20th and 7-2 on September 12th actually one year ago from today that was followed up by this booster second r chair Mission transporter 9 on November 11th 2023 then we're back to starlink City for a while starlink 7-8 on December 8th 7-13 on February 10th and 7-18 on April 2nd when one more mission for the national reconnaissance office for this booster so far n 146 uh batch of what is believed to be the star Shield satellites a partnership between SpaceX and north of Grumman though the nro has remained pretty mum on all of that unsurprisingly most recently of course launch number 17 starlink 9-4 back on July 28th and as we're now T minus 6 minutes 8 seconds in counting we're coming Upon Our views the Falcon 9 rocket so let's quickly step through the launch timeline here after the Falcon 9 lifts off it'll pass through Max Q or the point of greatest aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle at about t+ 1 minute 7 seconds it's followed by a few different events in Fairly rapid succession we see first stage main engent cut off for Mo t plus 2 minutes and 26 seconds followed 4 seconds later by stage separation then scs1 or second stage engine ignition Marland vacuum engine will ignite t plus 2 minutes 36 seconds the payload fairings will jettison just after the 3 minute Mark entry burn set to begin at t plus 6 minutes and 6 seconds lasting about 22 seconds in total slowing down the vehicle and preparation for the landing burn to begin and T Plus 7 minutes and 50 seconds that's followed up by the Drone ship Landing we're anticipating here at 8 minutes and 12 seconds into flight and then the Merlin vacuum mention will cut off about 30 seconds after that Falcon 9 will remain in a coast phase until t plus 53 minutes and 55 seconds at which point there will be a brief 1second burn to circularize the orbit and then the Starling satellites will be back retract at t plus 1 hour hour and 48 seconds and with that we bring you views of the falcon9 rocket which is actually not quite as socked in by fog as we were anticipating so not too bad just uh shrouded by its own Vapor here strong back lower has started and that call out for the strong back retract sequence begin again that will start with the clamp arms underneath the payad fairings opening up and then the transporter erector with a strong back will recline about 13° away from the rocket there you see the strong back beginning to move away from the Falcon 9 stack vanderberg now unique in that it is the only one of spacex's three launch pads which does not have a crew access tower now T minus 3 minutes 34 seconds in counting want to thank the now more than 13,000 of you who are watching with us live if you haven't already be sure to hit that like button allows more folks to find find their way into our live coverage stage one locks load is complete he that call for stage one lock load being complete coming up next will be the second stage locks load wrapping up at which point the Falcon 9 will be fully loaded ready to go taking a look at the live chat briefly want to thank some folks for support this evening but thanks to Shirley Benoy for a $2 Super Chat good to see you this evening Shirley Michael Penland one of our wonderful channel members with a $2 Super Chat as well thank you excuse me Michelle my apologies Haley Higgins Irish Haley $2 Super Chat checking in from Oceanside California just North of San Diego our thanks to Josh King and psychonaut 69 for each gifting a space flight now membership stage two locks load is complete and with that call the Falcon 9 is fully loaded with 1 million pounds of propellant our thanks as well to gas launch close out head started Jeff for shop for a very generous $25 Super Chat appreciate that level of generosity Jeff heard the call for ground gas Closeouts that's the additional venting you're seeing right now as they're clearing the lines in preparation for launch just about a minute also want to thank Patty chil for a $2 Super Chat saying space flight now thank you thank you mods best peeps in the live chat i' probably have to agree with that Falcon 9 is about to be in startup here Falcon 9 is in startup here you hear that call out control of the countdown is being handed over from the ground sequence start of the Falcon on board flight monor go for launch theal tank were brought up to flight pressure and with that go for launch we are now just a little more than 30 seconds away from the liftoff of this Falcon 9 rocket today welcome back to the live chat on the other side of liftoff but for now let's go ahead and listen into the final count and we'll be back with additional commentary on the other side of liftoff T minus 15 seconds T minus 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ignition and lift off Falcon 9 go Starling go B vehicle is pitching down range engine chaming pressure is nominal power and Telemetry nominal vehicle is supersonic Max q and a good flight of the Falcon 9 so far as we're about a minute and a half into this Mission Falcon 9 pulling away from the California coastline we're coming up on a trio of events in Fairly rapid succession here in about a minute we'll see first stage managing cut off at t plus 2 minutes 26 seconds that'll be followed by stage separation about 4 seconds after that and then second stage engine start scs1 t plus 2 minutes 36 seconds that'll be capped by fairing to playment just after the 3 minute Mark a little more than two minutes into flight starting to see the nice curvature of the Earth on the far leftand side of your screen here M stage separation confirmed and ignition all good call outs from SpaceX here some great views of both stages coming up on fairing deployment now fairing separation confirmed those Starling satellites now exposed to the vacuum of space for the first time in this flight see the fairings Falling Away back to Earth they'll splash down in the Pacific Ocean into the support of parachutes now about 3 and A2 minutes into this flight the next event we're looking for is the first stage entry burn set to begin at about t+ 6 minutes and [Music] 6 for now five minutes into flight those pulses that you're seeing in between the Hypersonic grid fins are the cold gas thrusters those are used to adjust the falcon9 first Stag's attitude or its positioning helps to orient the vehicle as it's preparing for the start of its entry burn coming up now in just about a minute Falcon 9 first stage booster will use three of the Merlin engines for that entry burn as you watch the Telemetry data in the bottom leftand corner of your screen you'll notice that the speedometer will start to dramatically plummet once that entry burn starts stage one entry in the startup good call for the start of the entry burn this burn lasting about 22 uh little more than 20 seconds in total entry bir shut down with a good entry burn behind us now we're looking for the start of a landing Burns is saf it's coming up at t plus 7 minutes and 50 seconds call for FTS being safed the flight termination system no longer needed at this station flight Falcon 9 now cruising through through some clouds as it heads down towards the Drone ship it's going to be landing on the Drone ship of course I still love you if successful this will be the 101st booster Landing for that particular drone ship stage two FTS is safed stage one transonic Falcon booster now traveling below the speed of sound as you can see the speedometer continuing to drop upper stage engine burn continues to look good stage one leg burn Landing burn beginning we should see some views from the Drone ship coming up on the right hand side of your screen Landing like theoy and confirms 18th time nearly at Sunset good Landing of this booster b1071 see n no for and uh nominal orbit insertion falcon9 upper stage now heading into a good parking orbit where it will Cruise until about t plus 50 3 minutes 55 seconds there will be a brief 1C burn setting up the Starling satellites to be deployed at t+ 1 hour and 48 seconds before we close things out with our mission stats want to thank a few more folks who have been helping to support our live coverage this evening our thanks to Jason's garage and RV repair for a $2 Super Chat appreciate that Jason I'm Lita joining us uh one of our wonderful channel members for the $5 Super Chat a great night for a launch thanks for all you do appreciate that Lita Patty chill the $2 Super Chat another one of our channel members checking in from Springfield Massachusetts Ed Boswell with a $2 Super Chat thank you Ed saying thanks for the coverage another Channel member Daniel W with a $2 Super Chat check it in good evening Daniel D ljs with a $5 Super Chat and a dancing lemon man emoji I guess appreciate it either way way Brock gamer TV GT with a uh Super Chat as well thank you Brock one of our wonderful moderators clisa Le giting 10 space line now memberships appreciate that clisa to our newest 10 channel members welcome aboard glad to have you with us and it's another Channel member Sila for lunch with a 20 Super Chat appreciate the support sulur and with a good liftoff and landing of the Falcon 9 first stage booster let's check in on our mission stats as they currently stand as mentioned this was the 18th launch for this particular booster launch and Landing fortunately this was spacex's 374th Falcon 9 launch to date the 89th so far of 2024 this is spacex's 317th Falcon booster reflight for the launch of a booster that has flown at least once this was spacex's 92nd launch of the year including a falcon heavy Mission back in June and two Starship flights earlier this year as well this was spacex's 122nd orbital launch within the last 365 days the 90th from slick 4E and the 158th overall overall orbital launch from this particular pad moving to some recovery stats this was the 101st landing on the Drone ship of course I still love you that marked the 269th Drone ship landing and the 348th booster Landing for SpaceX so far of course blue origin is uh looking to make this recovery stat page a little more Dynamic once they start launching and uh are successful on Landing their new Glenn rockets for stage booster looking forward to that their first mission coming up in uh sometime in November now that the Escapade Mission has been hunted to the spring finally some Mission stats for the space industry this was the 31st orbital launch from California notable in that now at this launch vurg has surpassed their total number of launches from all of last year 30 of these flights have come from SpaceX and you've got one of those as well from Firefly Aerospace with the launch of their noise of Summer on their Alpha rocket star length 9-6 marked the 96th orbital launch from us soil so far this year the 105th launch from the US rocket company and this was the 168th orbital launch from around the world the six orbital mishap so far here's where the pie chart stands now us with its 105 launches hold 63% of the pie China with 41 still hanging on with a quarter Russia with 10 the recent launch of the soyu ms26 Cosmonaut and Astronaut mission to the International Space Station those two cosmonauts and Nat astronaut Don Pettit now on board the orbiting Outpost and with that launch actually breaking a orbital human space flight record with 19 people currently orbiting around the globe at as we speak India has launched three missions so far Japan with four Iran and the European Space Agency of two and North Korea with a lone launch on the year so far with that we're going to go ahead and put today in the books it has been quite a long day between two launches and a space walk all those missions with SpaceX today want to finally close up by thanking Mark AO for gifting 10 space flight now memberships welcome aboard to you all glad to have you with us want to thank our wonderful moderators in the live chat space Aussie girl Astro Joe Astro Jen Kalisa Lee Ry Shackleford for all you do helping us out in the live chat helping to keep things kosher and allow folks to have a good time ask questions share takes but do so in a respectful way we certainly appreciate that our thanks to our space flight now editor Steph young for running the technical operations of the broadcast most of all thanks to you for wherever you are watching this live launch coverage for if you made it all this way to the end of our live stream you're watching on a replay we certainly appreciate it if you can give this video a like and be sure to subscribe to space FL now on your way out the digital door if you haven't already DJ Andre hitting at the buzzer with a $2 Super Chat appreciate you DJ just as a reminder we're looking forward to the launch of a pair of Galileo satellites from here at the cape coming up on Sunday and I will share smoking Fox's sentiment in that there is yes quote no sleep for team space however there is sleep for team space FL now so we're going to go ahead and sign off it is now 10:00 on the east coast and we are a little tired so with that going to go ahead and wind things down appreciate all of you for being with us remember be good to yourselves be good to others we will see you next time folks and until then bye-bye for