Watch live: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches mission for Norway from Vandenberg, California

e e e e good evening everyone and Welcome to our live coverage of the latest Mission from Vandenberg space force base and while Robinson Smith will be providing our commentary for the duration of this coverage we are broadcasting in part from space FL Now new studios in the Kennedy Space Center I am rounding out our weekend of launch commentary from here in Southern California unfortunately not right at the vanderberg space Force Base perhaps will be able to manage that for another time and another opportunity but it is good to be with you all this evening as we are preparing to see the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket sending up as you can see here on the Slate the Arctic satellite Broadband Mission this is a pair of twin satellites going up on a joint mission for a few different part Partners principally this mission was contracted by space Norway on behalf of the Norwegian Armed Forces however there are also a couple of payloads on board from the United States space force managed through the space Force Space systems command there's also a commercial telecommunications payload on behalf of ViaSat we're all going to talk all about that as we Contin on through the count but first and foremost want to thank the more than 2100 of you who are watching with us live this evening 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 we would certainly appreciate that also want to thank the folks behind the scenes that are making this coverage possible our thanks to our space FL now editor Stephen young who is running the technical operations of the broadcast of course our photographers Adam Bernstein Michael Kane have the evening off as this is a California based Mission they'll be back in Action before you know it of course we had the scrub earlier today of the starlink 10-7 Mission so our Adam Bernstein will be up bright and early to help support that launch taking a look back on the East Coast at historic launch complex 39a where that Falcon 9 still ready and waiting to launch SpaceX did not give a reason as to why this Mission scrubbed 46 seconds before it was ready to lift off rather just simply said that they had paused the launch at that point but that they are preparing to Target a liftoff tomorrow morning with a launch no earlier than 6:37 a.m. eastern that would be 10:37 UTC for our friends around the world but popping over here to the West Coast you can see the Falcon 9 and this still image from SpaceX of this Falcon 9 getting ready to launch as I mentioned the uh asbm Mission the Arctic satellite Broadband Mission which is bringing connectivity to a northern polar region and it is using an unique orbit to do so which we'll be talking about as we continue on through the count liftoff here set for 7:02 p.m. Pacific that is 10:02 p.m. Eastern for our friends back on the east coast and o202 UTC for those joining around the world also want to thank Kalisa Lee Astro Jen for popping in here for moderator duties alongside Astro Joe if you see any of the other moderators pop up be sure to give them hello and how do you do we are powered by a wonderful Channel member Community here on YouTube so thanks to folks like fig six or fig 816 excuse me William Foss sulfur for lunch Mars 2028 Patty chaile butterfly James the rocket girls Zephyr wolf many many others as well James fley hello to you I'm leita good to see you this evening Channel membership comes with a number of perks including discounts at our online shop that is shop. spaceflightnow.com access to member only videos here on YouTube and of course the ability to watch all of our live launch liftoff moments from the east coast in 4k want to thank one of our moderators speaking of one of our wonderful moderators Astro Joe marking 25 months says a channel member at the pad leader level glad to have you still with us Astro Joe who says thanks space flight now missed a few live launches outside of our availability that is a okay okay my friend it is always good to have you on board whenever you are available we are T minus 23 minutes in counting as we are proceeding toward the liftoff of this Falcon 9 rocket let's go ahead and pop over to an image here of what's on board these twin satellites that are getting ready to launch in just a little more than 20 minutes from now both of these were manufactured by northr Grumman again pulling together a number of different partners to make this Mission possible they are Dimension wise 3x 3x4 M translating roughly to 9.8 by 9.8 x 13.1 ft weigh about 2 tons or about 4,000 lb and with their solar panels extended they have a wingspan of about 27 M or 88.6 ft we have a video actually if we can go to this real quick of the orbit that these satellites are going to go to this is a highly elliptical orbit and these satellites will be in the same orbit but spaced apart from one another so that there's sort of a duality of coverage go ahead and bring this in St thank you according to space Norway they use what's called a three apy period with the highest orbital altitude being 43,500 km the lowest which you see there at the bottom of your screen thanks to this space Norway animation of about 8,100 km I know it's kind of hard to tell exactly how far apart in this approximation these sat lights are roughly 8 hours and they orbit at an a 63° inclination this program began back in 2019 again from space Norway bringing on a multitude of partners for the capabilities that these two satellites will bring again to that Northern polar region where you can see the beams that are uh steerable pointing down towards the communications component of this again coming from the company via set each satellite has what they call Global Express that being with an x capital x these are AA band payloads which and I'll quote them here allow them to quote provide stream uh seamless Broadband to Aerospace Maritime and ground users using or operating in the this will be the first time that the ViaSat Network corporates payloads into this orbit providing dedicated Arctic coverage we'll talk a little bit more about the other payloads on board as we continue on through the count currently T minus 20 minutes 6 seconds and counting this point the rocket is preparing for the second stage liquid oxygen load so we've just begun the so-called big vent there at the strong back happens as the feed lines are being chilled let's go ahead and pivot over to the launch countdown timeline let you know some of the Milestones that we've already passed and what's still on the docket for this Falcon flight AS SpaceX is continuing to track towards that 7:02 a.m. departure time of course the countdown begins as it always does with the falcon9 rocket at about the T-minus 38 minute mark when the SpaceX launch director will verify the go for the start of propellant load that process begins with two events simultaneously at T minus 35 minutes they load both rp1 or rocket grade kerosene as well as liquid oxygen into the first stage rp1 goes into the first and second stages of the rocket T-minus 30 minutes they begin loading a cryogenic helium onto the pressure vessels on the first stage helium is to pressurize the main propelling tanks during flight that same process comes up on the second stage at about the T-minus 26 minute Mark tus 23 minutes loading of second stage kerosene wraps up and a T-minus 20 minutes and 50 seconds that Milestone that I was just speaking of strong back chill down process and the so-called big vent gets underway wraps up at about T minus 16 minutes and 30 seconds setting up for second stage liquid oxygen load to begin right at that 16-minute Mark which is our next big milestone that we're coming upon tus 7 Minutes the chill down of the nine Merlin 1D engines gets underway and that involves flowing a small amount of liquid oxygen through the plumbing and the Turbo pumps that's important because it helps protect the engines from the risk of thermal shock and damage during the startup sequence about 6 minutes before lift off the first stage kerosene tank should be full then at T minus 4 and 1/2 minutes the strong back retract sequence begins a little bit different here at Vandenburg as opposed to either at Kennedy Space Center or Cape canille space force station starts the same with the clamp arms underneath the payload fairings opening up but here at vandenbberg the transporter erector or the strong back will recline about 13° as opposed to a degree and a half on the East Coast stays in that position until liftoff 3 minutes out first stage liquid oxygen loading completes 1 minute later second stage locks load wraps up and at that point Falcon 9 is fully loaded with 1 million pounds of propellant in the final 60 seconds control of the countdown is handed over from the ground sequencer the Falcon night's onboard flight computers the propellent tanks are brought up to flight pressure the SpaceX launch director will give their go for lift off at 45 seconds out the engine ignition command is issued at T minus 3 seconds of course if all nine Merlin 1D engines are healthy and ignite the command will be issued for the hold down clamps to release the Falcon n rocket t0 time here with this Mission at 7:02 p.m. Pacific 10:02 p.m. Eastern and O2 O2 UTC or in other words tus 16 minutes 39 seconds SpaceX of course targeting a triple launch attempt over the weekend they managed to launch the starlink 8-3 Mission from pad 40 over at Cape canaval space force station attempted to launch the 10-7 starlink Mission this morning again they got down to the 46 second Mark before that scrub was called and that launch if you're just joining us has been rescheduled for tomorrow morning at 637 a.m. eastern 10:37 UTC so be sure to join us back for our live launch coverage of that mission again beginning of course an hour prior to liftoff as we are preparing to get some live views of the rocket before we do let's go ahead and hit on the trajectory of this uh falc 9 rocket and where it's going to fly once it departs from Vandenberg space Force Base as we mentioned the Falcon 9 of course lifting off from space launch complex 4 East or slick 4E aant Berg it's going to be departing heading in a southeasterly trajectory I like this perspective that we've got on the map today gives a good sort of overall vantage point of where the Rocket's going and about where the Drone ship of course I still love you is waiting for that booster to land notable milestone for of course I still love you today if this booster Landing is successful this will Mark the 100th booster to land on this particular drone ship so a nice feather in spacex's cap for reusability of course the payload fairings will be jettison just a bit down range of the map you see here on your screen and SpaceX will endeavor to recover those as well using one of their recovery vessels they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean under the support of parachutes and will be again brought aboard those recovery vessels since they save about $6 million per recovery effort so an important part of their business model to do so we do have live pictures now of the Falcon 9 rocket in unsurprisingly a blanket of some vanberg fog here thankfully not as bad as we've seen it some other times as we continue on with our live launch coverage today want to than the now more than 7,000 of you who are watching with us live if you haven't already be sure to hit that like button it certainly is helpful in allowing more folks to find this live launch coverage as we continue to Roll Along also you can use the YouTube Super Chat feature if you have a comment or question about this Mission or other happenings in space your comment or question is appropriate to be run on our show we' love to bring you into the chat here so we'll keep our eye out for some relevant comments as we continue to step through this countdown process have a talk about the um payloads on board the spacecraft here as uh SpaceX is playing a promotional video right now of course the other main customer that is on this mission is the US space force again uh coordinated through the space Force's space systems command couple of payloads that are on board here the first being the enhanced Polar Systems recapitalization or epfr payload one for each of the satellites both built by north of grumman's strategic Space Systems Division and they're described as and I'll quote them here an extremely highfrequency or ehf military satellite Communications system which is designed to provide secure 247 anti-jam low probability of deception detection SL intercept Communications for US forces operating in the Arctic region something that the spaces command says was a real value savings for the United States since instead of having to create the whole system on their own and contract north of Grumman in its entirety they save about their estimate is uh about $900 Million by being a hosted payload instead of flying a dedicated Mission they also argue that by going this route this puts this technology in operation about 3 years ahead of schedule had they gone a more traditional route taking a look now at some video of the manufacturing of the spacecraft again built by North Grumman one of the other payloads coming from space systems command is called the control and planning segment or caps which they describe as a single software Baseline which consolidates segment command control and planning of its Legacy enhanced polar system and future EPS recapitalization payloads essentially helping to lay the groundwork for future operations in this particular orbit which the SpaceX commentator noted will be the first time they're launching payloads to this particularly High elliptical orbit so another notable milestone for SpaceX one other that all note as we're now tus 9 minutes 25 seconds in counting is that the Falcon 9 rocket that is launching this Mission which happens to be tail number b1061 is flying for its 22nd time with this Mission and that'll make it the flight leader alongside the first booster to get that Milestone that was b162 SpaceX of course is working towards certifying both its boosters as well as its payload fairings for up to 40 flights a piece go ahead and take a moment to run through quickly the booster history before we see it Fly for its 22nd time this first mission happened to be a very important one the first full six-month crew rotation mission that SpaceX launched to the ISS that was of course crew one back on November 15th 2020 it was back in AC again with Crew 2 the following year on April 23rd that was followed by uh Sirius xm8 Satellite launching in June of 2021 another mission to the International Space Station was up next that was the Commercial resupply Services or CRS mission number 23 that launched on August 29th followed by uh I which was an x-ray uh Observatory that was launched on December 9th of 2021 followed up by some staring launches first of starlink 4-7 on February 3rd first of Starling flights for this particular booster then launched Transporter 4 a ride share mission for SpaceX from pad 40 on April 1st no fooling back in 2022 was followed by its second uh ride chair Mission transporter 5 on May 25th 2022 Global Star FM 15 on June 19th followed by starlink 3-3 on August 12th Aeros C3 satellite on December 30th and we'll step through these maybe a little more briskly since we're just about 7 minutes before liftoff now starlink 2-7 on March 3rd 3-5 on April 27th 2-10 on May 31st 7-1 on August 22nd 7-5 on October 21st the project uh 425 project mission for South Korea on December 1st 2023 moving into this year we had Starling 10 or 7-10 on January 14th got so many missions we had to go to a third column on this one 7-15 on the Starling front on February 23rd worldview Legion satellites number one and two on May 2nd and most recently we had starlink 8-8 on June 8th which brings us to the launch if Stephen we can pivot over to this view oh you saw it very B briefly but that was the launch configuration of the uh satellites that are launching today those twin Arctic satellite Broadband Mission satellites little bit of a overview here of the Falcon 9 rocket with some graphics courtesy of SpaceX see there the second stage powered by of course the Merlin vacuum engine or the mvac engine which produces more than 200,000 pounds of thrust it burns the same propellant mix kerosene and liquid oxygen same as the first stage the top of the rocket of course are those payload fairings which are 13.1 M or 43 ft tall or 5.2 M are 17.1 ft in diameter which again will be Endeavor to be recovered at the conclusion of this Mission just beneath the second stage is the inner stage which is a composite structure consisting of an aluminum honeycomb core which is surrounded by carbon fiber it has Deployable Hypersonic grid fins which are essentially titanium winglets that provide stability and steering as the Falcon 9 comes back through the atmosphere tail first like a big old Dart heading today towards the Drone ship of course I still love you at the top of the inner stage are three mechanical latches that attach the second stage and speaking of that drone ship we have a nice live view of of course I still love you again looking to see the 100th landing on that booster 22nd for this particular booster B 1061 the majority of the Falcon 9 of course consists of the first stage booster which given the name of Falcon 9 from the 9 Merlin engines which burn same as the second stage rp1 or rocket great kerosene and produce one .7 million pounds of thrust now T minus 4 minutes 25 seconds in counting with the call for a strong back retract you might be able to make it out a little bit with the uh I'll say moderate amount of fog that we're seeing here today hopefully there will be a view a little bit higher up close to the payload fairings and you can see those clamp arms when they start to open up and the TR transporter erector begins to recline back taking our look at our live chat here want to thank the now more than 14,000 of you who are watching with us live it's good to see you all this evening hope you've all had a wonderful and relaxing weekend appreciate you being here and if you could for us that like button and allow more folks to find their way into this live coverage this evening want to thank kalisti Lee for gifting five space fly now memberships appreciate that generosity kisti and to our newest five channel members actually I'll make that 10 with apocalypse cow also gifting five as well thank you apocalypse so to our 10 newest channel members sure to thank those two in the live chat if you haven't already and welcome aboard we're glad to have you with us uh thank you as well to smok and hay for a $2 Super Chat saying hello to Darlene and Celeste SG joining us this evening one of our wonderful channel members in a $3 Super Chat thank you SG you can see the strong back there is uh pulled back and we hear the call for stage one locks load wrapping up so now we are just waiting as far as the fueling milestones for the second stage of the Falcon 9 to conclude fueling which should happen in about 45ish seconds in the meantime want to thank Michael mcgory another one of our wonderful channel members for joining us back again good to see you appreciate the $5 Super Chat saying uh you sound healthy tonight you kick that cold every time I fly more than two hours I get a cold Starship could change that to Australia pretty quick yeah it's not quite a cold more just uh allergies from I think flying from coast to coast and working some long days out here but uh broadly speaking feeling just fine thanks for the concern Michael we're now T minus 2 minutes 6 seconds and counting again coming up on the call for the conclusion of second stage locks load we are standing by for that locks call out on board stage two just listening for that call at which point Falcon 9 will there's that call and we did just hear that call so now the Falcon 9 is is fully loaded with 1 million pounds of propellant as we come into the final minute and a half here Falcon 9 will enter into startup mode in about the next 20 or so seconds that little bit of extra clown layer that you see there is not just spontaneous fog from vanderberg those are the ground gas Closeouts that we're used to seeing over at the cape side of course do have word from SpaceX the range is green which is good whether should be cooperative so if you are in the Southern California Central Southern California area you might want to step outside and take a good look up LD is go for launch as we do have the launch retro giving there go for launch go ahead and just listen in a little bit more closely for just a second since we did have a scrub right about this time back on the west coast but the count is continuing here so all seems to be well with this particular Falcon 9 we are now just about 20 seconds away from liftoff T Min is 15 seconds 15 seconds and here we go 10 in 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 4 3 2 1 engine ignition and liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket sending up a pair of twin satellites to a highly elliptical orbit for the Arctic satellite Broadband mission that incredible view of course means that at t plus 33 seconds and counting Falcon 9 has successfully lifted off from space launch complex 4 East carrying the two asvm satellites now after clearing the tower as you can see a little bit on your screen and Telemetry are nominal there's good confirmations that our power and Telemetry on board Falcon 9 are looking good at this point we're gimb the engines on the booster to initiate a slight R supic call which means we're shifting we're now a minute and a half into the mission here still all moving along nominally with this Falcon flight beautiful Ascent from California coastline hopefully those in the southwest got a nice little show on this Ascent we're coming up on a few different events in Fairly rapid success session here first will be first stage main engine cut off for moo about 2 minutes 25 seconds in about 4 seconds later will be stage separation followed by the ignition of that second stage Merlin vacuum engine 2 minutes 35 seconds then the fairings will be deployed at t+ 2 minutes and 55 seconds seeing some views of that Merlin vacuum engine inside the interner stage there on the right hand side of your screen of course the continuing burn of the first stage about to hit Mo impex start up and just a quick clarification and I was pulling from uh the starlink timeline of events we were actually going to see uh fairing separation in about t plus 3 minutes and 23 seconds here so still just a little bit to go about 10ish seconds before the fairings are deployed internal views of those payload fairings looking up fairing separation at the two satellites and there you see them go the two Arctic satellite Broadband Mission sets now exposed to the vacuum of space for the first time on this Mission as we approach the 4minute mark in this flight coming up on the next event here at t+ 6 minutes and 22 seconds will be the start of the first stage entry burn beginning to slow the part of the vehicle down as it makes its way towards the Drone ship again that is a short uh excuse me of course I still love you a shortfall of gritas was on Deck this morning it is it's been a long day but good to have a double header with you all today happy to do it now less than two minutes away from start of that entry burn burn will last about 23 seconds in total now t+ 5 minutes 12 seconds in counting just to note those little white pulses that you're seeing in between the Hypersonic gri fins wait till we return to that view to keep talking about that in just a second here there a view from inside the inner stage and now we'll look from the onboard cameras on the falcon9 second stage of course important to toggle back and forth to provide ongoing views of both sides of the engine to ensure it's getting a good burn and there's nothing off nominal again those pulses in between the grid fins are the cold gas thrusters which help adjust the attitude of the first stage booster making sure it continues on the right trajectory heading down towards the Drone ship a little more than six and a quarter minutes into flight here we're just coming upon the start of that entry burn you see that burn now visually getting underway you take a look at the bottom left hand corner of your screen you can see the speedometer dropping dramatically as this entry burn is essentially that first stage booster slaming on the braks making sure it comes at the right speed for a safe touchdown on the Drone ship the next Milestone which for a falcon flight which would happen after the landing of the first age booster is going to be seeo one that'll be the conclusion of this first burn for the upper stage engine that's coming up at t+ 8 minutes and 14 seconds and that'll be followed just a few seconds after that by the start of the first stage Landing burn upper stage will perform two Burns in total before it deploys the asbm twin satellites about 5 minutes apart now coming upon the 8 Minute Mark we're just about 10 seconds away from the start of that uh point where the second stage engine will cut off again follow seconds later by The Landing burn beginning and there you see both of those happening nearly simultaneously and of course a uh Picture Perfect Landing of the booster B 10 61 Landing for a 202nd time marking the 100th booster landing on the Drone ship of course I still love you some great views of those satellites from the second stage cameras now at this point the upper stage has entered into a coast phase which will last until t+ 36 minutes 47 seconds and then there will be a burn lasting about 40 seconds in total because this is a customer Mission and even though there are uh us space force uh payloads on board this is not a classified Mission as such which is why a we're seeing upper stage views and B why SpaceX is continuing to provide uh views of the upper stage through payload deployment so as long as we still have these views to provide to you we will continue our live coverage as well we'll take the time now though to HP back over to our live chat really appreciate the nearly 21,000 of you who are sticking around through satellite deployment it's good to have you still with us want to thank a few more folks for your support this evening our thanks to Grandpa Jim pondu for being a channel member for a month really appreciate that it's always great to see folks pass that one month Mark and stick around with us pasm Mar H one of our pre-existing wonderful channel members with a $2 Super Chat saying well good to see you everyone Smiles I also do want to just briefly give a shout uh while I've been down here in Southern California did have the wonderful opportunity thanks to my brother the voice actor Isaac to pop over to the uh d23 Disney convention down in Anaheim for a little bit of that and uh shout to uh Robert for uh among all of the other Disney happenings and the various Brands and things that they own uh found me in the middle of the crowd and and flagged me down and and had some very nice words to say about what we do here at space flight now so uh big thank you to to Robert for making my day certainly um and you know as a reminder you know we are you know out and about at at various times so if for some happen stance reason we happen to cross paths don't feel shy and you know be sure to say hello to myself or Stephen or Adam or Michael if you happen to to pass Us in just life's comings and goings it's always great to connect in real life with people that we communicate with here through our live launch coverage and through our reporting so always wonderful to see people in the real world back to the chat here thanks to selas Marner with the $4 Super Chat saying thanks for all your coverage you're very welcome C us and apologies if I just completely butchered your name anation there uh I'm Lita with the $5 Super Chat saying thanks for all the info well let's blast this thing of course coming before lift off thank you Lita good to see you this evening Doren Pano with $5 Super Chat a very happy dancing lemon there I'm guessing that was after liftoff Cindy so with a $2 Super Chat thank you Cindy one of our wonderful channel members tyion with a 2 pound Super Chat and uh here we go Gail Parker with a $2 Super Chat as well thank you Gale appreciate your support tonight Christopher brummit with the very generous 20 uh Canadian dollar Super Chat thank you Christopher for uh supporting us at That level Christopher says did SpaceX hire a cinematographer to handle their cameras this might be one of the prettiest launches I've seen yet well while I cannot attest to their Staffing it was certainly uh a lovely Ascent although I will stack up our live tracking team against spacex's any day so I fully stand by our work but certainly very much appreciate when SpaceX does excellent tracking as well makes the whole thing much more as you say cinematic Pierce mama uh has been a member now for two months at the pad leader level thank you Mama saying thanks for the great coverage as always well thank you for your ongoing support of it our thanks as well to Chris Wilson for a $1 Super Chat thank you Chris Chuck Powers Mark in two months as a channel member at the pad leader level and up some very nice words saying well it's the best coverage for SpaceX launches I will extend that out to the whole team here at space flight now even though I may be routinely the one behind the mic it is very much a village effort so thank you for the kind words the Russian floof cat still one of my favorite handle names uh one of our Channel saying once more into the breach good call out there Anthony Rosano with a $5 Super Chat and I'll agree with this Gotta Love uh great launch love the view hopefully uh some folks in Southern California were able to get some good views on it did pop my head outside to see if I could spot it with my own eyes here in Southern California but I think it was just unfortunately at the wrong angle for a moment there Dave the Drone guy with a $5 Super Chat thank you you Dave saying go SpaceX indeed Christopher brummit back with another generous $20 uh Canadian Super Chat saying space fight now is always excellent SpaceX must be learning from you well I don't know if I'll go quite that far but I think if there are folks to learn from I will say Adam and Pete and Chuck or Surly ones that anyone who's doing uh tracking work on uh a rocket or anything in high speeded can certainly learn a thing or two from them I certainly have finally for now riby with also a very generous $20 Super Chat thank you riby saying thank you for the shout out will it was a pleasure to meet you at the convention oh that that is Robert there yes it was great to meet you as well I hope you had a wonderful time at d23 uh this of course is not an entertainment um live stream or you know conversation so we'll we'll limit our our conversation about this here and now but I'll just say briefly for those who enjoy that part of the uh entertainment ecosystem it was it was quite something it's not quite as cramped as some other conventions and uh there are a lot of lot of hardworking folks that put that together and including those uh Merchants as well as the performers so tip of the cap to books for this year's d23 back to the conversation at hand though susette Cochran with a $2 superchat saying congrats to the entire team thank you susette for the kind words back to the mission here we are t+ 16 minutes 41 seconds in counting that puts us about 20ish minutes away from the second stage engine burn coming up e for now t+ 18 minutes 18 seconds in counting for those curious about the next mission from Vandenberg space force BAS of course the immediate next one from the cape side of things will be the next launch attempt of the starlink 10-7 Mission again that launch looking to lift off from historic launch complex 39a at 6:37 a.m. eastern with a window that spans out to 9:49 a.m. eastern the next launch from here in Vandenberg though that is set to be the 11th transporter ride share Mission looking at a launch date of no earlier than August 16th that particular flight so coming up on Friday to take us into the weekend will be that ride share Mission again if SpaceX and all of its customers are ready to move forward with that of course e e one of the next launches that we're looking forward to from the Florida side of spacex's launch profile it is the second batch of or second set I should say of the worldview Legion satellites number three and four from maxr Technologies course they launched the first two earlier this year looking to send up I believe all six before 2024 closes out e e take taking a look back at our live chat here want to thank Malcolm MC figer for a $5 Super Chat thank you Malcolm asking about the reason why we took down our countdown clock and our uh real time clock uh the runup to launch and why it's currently not on the screen reason being is it's essentially when we do launches from the cape either from the Kennedy Space Center or from Cape canaval space force station we of course have our own tracking cameras there and principally through the countdown and through a great part of the launch campaign what you're seeing comes from our cameras and so it's important to have the real time live views that you're seeing match up with the real time countdown clock just to have those events line up to make sure they're matching with the launch countdown timeline and the uh post liftoff timeline as well that we talk about in the runup to the moment of liftoff however because SpaceX feed comes in on a slight delay and we unfortunately at this stage don't have our own tracking cameras down there Vandenberg or in the uh nearby vicinity we feel it makes the most sense for viewer consumption for you to see the events from the timeline basically in sync if that makes sense so you're seeing the SpaceX uh count clock there at the bottom of your screen that of course matches with the visuals that you're seeing from the SpaceX feed because they're all coming from the same source so hope that answers your question also want to thank Anthony Hazen for a $2 Super Chat thank you Anthony currently t plus 24 minutes 33 seconds in counting we are now just about oh 12 minutes and some change away from the start of the second stage second burn scs2 again that burn lasting about 40 seconds in total following that the upper stage will continue to Coast again until the deployment of the asbm 1 satellite coming up at t plus 42 minutes and 28 seconds that'll be followed by the deployment of the second satellite at t+ 47 minutes and 38 seconds as we mentioned earlier these two satellites are working along the same orbit but they're spaced about 8 hours apart at a 63° inclination and that's to be able to provide continuous coverage of that polar region so you can see with this highly elliptical orbit once one sort of slingshots around to the Pary or or the lowest point in the orbit it picks up a little speed and as it's coming up to the apy more than 43,000 or yes 43,500 km away from the earth slows down a bit allowing time for the second satellite to catch up and provide overlapping continuous coverage in that region so that's why you've got the spacing that you do of the deployment of these two satellites into this highly itical orbit or a three apy period as North Grumman calls it e we're now t+ 27 minutes 52 seconds in counting this particular orbit that the satellites are launching into called the Mia orbit which has its roots back in the Soviet Union as a way to provide that type of continuous coverage into the polar region was discovered back in the 1960s so has a long-standing legacy in space flight and now space Norway taking Vantage of that along with its Partners including the US space force as we're waiting views to come back to the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket you're seeing looks like it's passing over the southern tip of South America right now SpaceX has discussed and is in the process of get get some starlink dishes on the falcon9 second stage so perhaps in the not too distant future we'll be able to see some of these customer launches where right now there are handovers between ground stations which is why we have these periods where we don't see views of the upper stage it comes and it goes but as we saw with the most recent launch of spacex's Starship rocket in the re-entry of that upper stage perhaps there will come a day as well when views from the Falcon 9 second stage will also be continuous throughout the mission as well e we're now t+ 30 minutes 33 seconds in counting into this Mission at this point we are just about just about six minutes away from the start of that second stage burn e for taking a look back at our live chat I see Stephanie B has joined with us good to see you Stephanie now about four minutes away from that second stage burn that burn lasting about 40 seconds in total e as we're approaching that second burn of the upper stage engine want to thank Waco Jones for a $5 Super Chat appreciate that Waco saying great launch coverage Marathon weekend so many launches and boy wouldn't you believe it it has been quite a quite an endurance test for us here at space flight now between the three launch uh attempts that we covered to successful one we'll take another crack at it tomorrow morning so really four within about 72 hours when you stack them all together and uh lots of great reporting opportunities down here in Southern California so again want to extend a big thank you to our Channel member Community without whom reporting trips like this would not be possible so big thanks to all of you for that and look forward to sharing the fruits of our reporting labor with you some upcoming videos and articles you could read one of those right now on our website of course published a story about the conclusion of the Neo spacecraft getting sent its final Communications just before that we hit the weekend the opportunity to speak with the uh principal investigator for Neo wise who is now at the University of California Los Angeles talk to her outside of the clean room up in the gallery area overlooking a clean room that has some components of the upcoming NEOS surveyor spacecraft that will be also hunting for near Earth objects starting with its Mission launch no earlier than September of 2027 so be sure to pop over and check out that article if you haven't already cooking up a video version of that story I'll go ahead and tease that here for those who are still with us live so be sure to keep your eyes peeled to the channel look for that when it comes to be in the next uh couple of days as we are just about a minute away from that second stage burn beginning want to thank Lisa D for a $2 Super Chat chat Thank you Lisa and to Jose baros for a $5 Super Chat thank you Jose coming up on the burn now less than 10 seconds away the second burn will place the upper stage into the ideal orbit for this Mission that'll set up the satellites to deploy there you go you see the start of that burn again this lasting about 40 seconds in total is your call outs for both the conclusion of this burn and good nominal orbital insertion Now t+ 37 minutes 55 seconds and counting now less than four and a half minutes about four and a half minutes from the deployment of the first asbm 1 satellite it's coming up a t+ 42 minutes 28 seconds the second will be deployed at t+ 47 minutes and 38 seconds again to create that 8 Hour separation e e e for e now t plus 41 minutes 35 seconds in counting we were just uh taking a minute to check to see if there was any indication with a notam of whether SpaceX was planning to uh deorbit the upper stage once it comes down closer to the point of Pary in the orbit of this Mission there doesn't appear to seem but there doesn't seem to appear to be one by our estimation now t plus 42 minutes 8 seconds in counting we are now less than 20 seconds away from the deployment of the first of the asbm satellites and we heard confirmation of deployment of that first spacecraft I guessing it was blocked by the lower of the two so unfortunately we didn't actually get to see it drifting away from the upper stage here this Coast phase will continue on until t+ 47 minutes 38 seconds when the second satellite will be deployed e and now given a little bit of time and distance away from the falcon9 upper stage we're actually getting our first views of the asbm one satellite they're just off to the left well now they pivoted away but you could see it drifting away you could see the uniqueness of this orbit here following the uh Telemetry data see the the trajectory there of the second stage now we've got on board camera views back well intermittently I'll say e we're now t+ 46 minutes 19 seconds in counting we are just about a minute away from the deployment of that second of the two asbm satellites our t plus 47 minutes 7 seconds in counting less than 30 seconds away from deployment of this second satellite you can still see the first drifting off on the far leftand corner of your screen now about 10 seconds away from deployment unfortunately I think the second the first satellite will be just at a view by the time the second one deploys see we're not going to get views of both of them free flying but there you can see asbm 2 now off on its own and as we continue to watch these views of the asbm 2 satellite we're going to go ahead and get our mission stats ready to talk about where we stand on the SpaceX front go ahead and pivot away towards that in just a moment here with a good liftoff and landing of booster as well as deployment of the satellites the primary Mission here going to go ahead and take a look at where SpaceX now stands today's Mission as we've been discussing marked the 22nd flight of falcon9 First St booster 1061 this was the 362nd Falcon 9 launch to date the 77th Falcon 9 launch of 2024 this was the 306th Falcon booster reflight or the launch of a booster that has flown at least once this was spacex's 80th launch of the year so far including one Falcon heavy and of course two Starship missions this was the19th orbital launch for SpaceX in the last 365 days this was the 87th orbital launch from slick 4 East and the 155th overall orbital launch from that pad moving on to some recovery stats this was the 100th Landing of a booster on the Drone ship of course I still love you the 266th Drone ship Landing for SpaceX and the 337th overall booster Landing to date finally some industry stats moving out this was the 27th orbital launch from vitberg and I'll pause on this for just a second to note where we are in the year we are of course on August 11th and in total for all of 2023 there were 29 launches from bitburg space Force Base so we are just two missions away from tying the total years's record from vanenburg that being a combination of of course Firefly and SpaceX so with more missions from both on tap we're set to exceed that total in short order as we mentioned the transporter 11 ride share Mission coming up next as soon as this Friday this was the 83rd orbital launch from us soil the 93rd from a US rocket company and this was the 147th orbital launch from around the world with six launch failures on the year here's where our pie charts stands as of now with the US representing 63% of that high China with 24% you can see the rest of the breakdown down below and with that it has been as wo Jones so kindly put it in a Super Chat been a marathon weekend of launch coverage with one more still on tap Tomorrow full disclosure I will be making my way back to the Sunshine State so you'll be the more than capable hands of our Steph young for commentary for the second time at bat of the starlink 10-7 Mission so be sure to show your appreciation and uh they'll be in for some good commentary as we get into that second bite at the Apple for SpaceX on that mission with that we're going to go ahead and close things out it has been a long weekend and got to go ahead and wrap things up for our time here in California and head back out east for Stephen young and for the team here at space flight now and for our wonderful moderators in the live chat of course want to thank Astro Joe Astro Jen Stephanie be kisty Lee Rusty Shackleford thanks to you as always for the team I'm Will Robinson Smith remember be good to yourselves be good to others and folks we will see you next time and until then bye-bye for