LIVE! SpaceX BlueBird Block 1 Launch

e e e e e e e well good evening everyone and welcome here to the LaunchPad and our live launch coverage of SpaceX Bluebird block one 1 through five tonight SpaceX will be set to launch the first five commercial satellites for the a space mobile cell phone compatible Broadband constallation we are counting down to a targeted liftoff time of 4:52 a.m. eastern time but as usual this time of year we are monitoring weather conditions we are currently only 30% go but we are counting down L minus 1 hour 9 minutes and Counting till launch if it's your first time here though welcome my name is Zach I'm the founder and host here at the Launchpad here at TP it's our mission to inform and Inspire the explorers of tomorrow because we believe that space is better together as as has gone live now SpaceX will be going live about 15 minutes ahead of launch and we will work on patching those in today's Falcon 9 is booster 1078 going for its 13th flight set to land back at Landing Zone 1 here in Cape Canaveral if it's your first time here though welcome my name is Zach I'm the founder and host here at the Launchpad here at TLP it's our mission to inform and Inspire the explorers of tomorrow because we believe that space is better together and let's listen in to ASAT space mobile so we countdown to launch live view of the bluebird 1 to5 Mission at the Launchpad here in Cape Canaveral Florida Welcome to our webcast I am your host Dave Mosher and I am a member of as space mobile we are coming to you from the Apollo Saturn 5 Center at Kennedy Space Center I don't know if you can hear that in the background but a big crowd has assembled here to witness history and the making in fact uh let's take a quick look at the floor if we can we have hundreds of guests here that are assembled and a little later we should hear from our founder chairman and CEO Abel Aon uh in a quick speech to that crowd now now we are located just a few miles away from space launch complex 40 or lc40 for short a Falon Aline rocket is standing 23 stories tall out there with as space Mobile's first five commercial satellites called bluebirds nestled inside the top of its nose cone as space Mobile's Bluebird 1 to5 mission is not only a huge milestone for our company but also the future of how the world connects why each of our Bluebird satellites is built to eliminate dead zones they will provide cellular broadman coverage from space directly to Everyday phones just like the one you already have in your pocket now our unprecedented mission is currently slid uh currently scheduled to lift off at 4:52 a.m. eastern daylight time however like all rocket launches the situation is fluid we'll keep be posted on weather and other issues that may affect launch timing while we count down to that launch uh in the meantime we have a great show for you today we have more live views of the launch vehicle in words from some very special guests that we have here and also some pre-recorded footage uh now as space mobile has partnered up with some incredible players across the mobile industry including American Tower AT&T rettin Verizon and Vodafone some of which are here today to share their Amazing Stories now if you are new to as space mobile welcome thank you for joining us in fact I have a little something special to catch you up on our history and what we're all about featuring our founder chairman and CEO Abel Avon let's play that that clip e e e [Music] welcome back to the studio if you are just joining us I'm Dave Moser with as space mobile and we are counting down to the launch of our first five commercial satellites called bluebirds these birds represent the dawn of the world's first space-based cellular Broadband Network they are designed to work like cell towers so your phone doesn't know the difference we just um we just heard from Abel Aon our CEO founder and chairman of EST space mobile but there are some folks who have been with us since the early days and have a unique lens on our company its Origins and our pioneering satellite direct to cell technology that is capable of 4G and 5G connectivity and Beyond before as space mobile went public many of our wouldbe strategic Partners looked at what Abel and the team were doing and our unique plan to use satellites to connect to Everyday cell phones one of those people was ednap of American Tower Corporation who is now a board member for as space mobile let's listen to what Ed had to say as we near today's highly anticipated launch e e e e e e e e e Ed nap CTO of American Tower and a board member of as space mobile sharing his uh Vision his stories of how he came into this company and his vision of it now it is incredible to have Ed and our team um plus one of the largest cell tower companies on Earth mind you supporting our mission to connect the unconnected as we count down to launch the space force is closely monitoring our launch weather today the latest forecast gives us about a 30% chance of squeaking toward liftoff today uh the good news is that is the overall window so we may have a little bit better window at our time which is currently going to be 4:52 a.m. that could that could move we'll watch the weather um but so that that launch window is open through 9:00 a.m. eastern daylight time approximately so we have a good amount of time to uh wait for you know a cloud moving over the Launchpad to get out of the way um in fact we are about 20 minutes away from finding out just how serious a launch attempt will be which again is at 4:52 a.m. eastern daylight time as of right now uh we are listening for a call called a go for prop load that means they're going to start fueling the rocket with propellant uh because if you don't fuel a rocket you can't launch it uh so that's really important a call for us to listen to today now while we wait for that and as more of you join us this morning uh rolling out of bed or maybe you're in Europe and you're already awake and got your coffee I'd like to introduce you to a very special guest who knows a lot more about I do uh than both cell towers and satellites and this person also has a very unique view of as space mobile as space Mobile's journey in earlier years uh with me here in Cape canaval Florida from AT&T's headquarters in Dallas Texas is J.R Wilson vice president for Tower strategy and roaming Jr welcome to the webcast thank you Dave great to see you good morning thanks um now I hear you're a big fan of as space mobile um and also AT&T has some Dee rooted interest in this company why can you kind of paint a picture for us here about that yeah first um I mean you got to go back so obviously we're a 100e plus company we've been around for a very long time and AT&T has a very rich history when it comes to satellites and it actually goes back to 1960 AT&T working with bell Labs we launched our first satellite and in 1962 we launched the first communication satellite it was called Telstar and um that was quite successful and you think about that time frame like 1960 that was 3 years after yeah N9 years before lunar Landing so very very rich history and then you look at the journey kind of leading up to now we made many many investments in satellites over the years um and it you know those Investments came in different shapes and forms including broadcast um which we still have investments in today we've used satellites for cell site back hul in very remote regions we use satellite connectivity extensively for our national Disaster Recovery which is really the Envy of the industry leading all the way up to now in our collaboration with a that's that's incredible history you know I was just thinking about that as I was looking over today's notes like that was three years after Sputnik when you guys were working with satellites that's that's it's amazing it's amazing yeah and you know I didn't personally think of att's history as going back that far so and I don't think most people think of us as a company it's like a satellite company because we're a connectivity company yeah well clearly you have you have that interest uh in Satellite companies and especially ours you've kept a pretty close tab on the progress that we've made over the years here can you share um some of those things that stick out of you those stick out to you those major Milestones that as space Mobile in partnership with uh with ATT has has sort of accomplished sure well well first is I mean it kind of goes back to the shirt right we believe that connecting changes everything so uh that that's the mission that we've been on with as space mobile and we've reached some very significant Milestone so going back to the launch of blue Walker in 2022 you know as soon as we could we began testing so we we first you know we started with our first voice call then we moved on to our first video call then our first SP G call and of course we've been doing a lot of other testing and configuration along the way working closely with a bell and the rest of the as team so this is really all about how do we start to pre- optimize a network getting ready for you know commercial launch and a true go to market so I mean you've given us a good really good detailed background on the company as its relationship to satellites what about your do you have any personal connection to these things we're we're trying to launch in the space today tell me yeah a little a little bit I actually started my career with a company called telesc which was funded by Bill Gates and Craig MCA and the the mission of telesc was effectively to become a satellite Broadband provider similar to what starlink does today in companies like one web and then um I moved on to AT&T and and my journey at AT&T has really been about you know how do we connect as many places globally and in the us as we possibly possibly can and um you know we we've accomplished quite a bit over those years um you know you look at our roaming business we we cover 225 countries we have we have more more carriers and more countries than I I believe that we still hold the title of anyone globally um so that's one and then SE uh secondarily uh I was involved in starting a business that provided Wireless Communications on cruise ship and all of that the back haul was delivered over satellite so I was a big part of that business for a number of years and in fact we still uh have a relationship with that business and our customers can go on 175 plus cruise ships globally so this is just like a n a natural extension of everything that we've been doing and everything I've personally been doing in my career for the last two decades plus you know you you kind of anticipated my next question which was what is a terrestrial you know mobile network operator doing like hanging out with and buddying up with a company like space mobile you sort of answer that but I don't know if you wanted to add any more flourish well look it's a very symbiotic relationship right because in order for direct to mobile to work you have to use terrestrial Spectrum so it was a natural partnership and actually you know going back to that experience that I had with the cruise lines that that was when I first met AEL and that was actually when he first started sharing his ideas his vision of what became as so yeah so I mean it's just really really cool so you know and going back to that testing that we did The Voice the the video call the 5G I mean that was all delivered over AT&T Spectrum so it just makes sense that we collaborate very tightly yeah and you know here we are on the cost of launching these five birds I mean what does this what does this mean um uh what does this mean to you what does it mean to the company why is it significant great question it's huge right because uh direct to mobile I mean what what the beauty of it is the seamlessness of it because you don't have to you can use your existing handset it'll work with the majority of handsets that are already out there you don't have to alter your device in any way shape or form you don't even have to download an app it's just going to work and you think about you know building out that Global footprint for roaming you think about all the cruise lines that we have cover and then you think about the the great great Network that we have in the US the the leading National provider when it comes to coverage there's still thousands of miles square miles of coverage Gap so this is like part of the overall mission is how do we just paint everything blue we like blue so we like orange but we you know we'll we'll with some blue colors I was with or we were orange for a while too so we like orange I don't remember those days uh but or orange goes well with blue so you know I'll take that well uh Jr thank you for joining us it was a pleasure to have you uh Dave thank you so much look I think this is going to go down as one of the great Innovations of the 21st century so I'm thrilled to be here great yeah um uh if you're just joining this webcast welcome I am your host Dave Mosher and with as space mobile here at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape canaval Florida are hundreds of guests eagerly awaiting to see if we have a launch today let's have a a look down at that scene if we can here we have oh yeah there we go we can see everybody hanging out I think they're watching this webcast so if you guys want to wave go ahead and do that uh incredible show yeah there we go incredible showing out here really hoping we get to lift off this morning um and speaking of rockets our first five commercial satellites called bluebirds are nestled inside the top of that 229t tall launch vehicle out there uh in fact we have some really cool images of those satellites let's pull those up wow look at that um these are the five Bluebird satellites stacked on top of a dispenser and uh this is shortly before we encapsulated them meaning we uh put them inside of the nose cone and that is two halves of a faing you can see those right there um those slowly come together seal up the payload and protect it uh during launch so during launch those will those fairings will come off and return to Earth and uh satellites will keep going on the upper stage or or second stage um and again those golden C cylinders are the blueb Burge each is about the size of a small car maybe a a Fiat if you can picture that or a very large refrigerator maybe a walk-in refrigerator um and they are fix that custom dispenser I don't know what the technical term for that Arrangement is but I'd call it the uh revolver chamber or maybe stack of cans uh a huge number of factors are of course beyond our control uh when we're going down to t0 the moment of launch the good news is we're only about 10 minutes away from knowing if that rocket will be fueled and that is a very NE necessary step for seeing a launch because again you can't have a launch without fuel inside the rocket we'll keep you posted on that as soon as we have word while we count down to launch I want to give you a better sense of the incredible scale of those first generation bluebirds you saw just a moment ago uh in the plans we have for the Next Generation uh those blue birds are each compacted in their containers which have that golden thermal blanket around them and uh however all of our satellites once deployed in space will be the largest ever Communications arrays in low earth orbit or Leo uh now size matters when you're trying to take a small phone like this and connect it to space and provide highspeed internet without any modifications to the device so let's watch that [Music] clip e e cast estimates about a 70% chance of overall violating any one of a number of weather related rules there are about 10 of those uh if you're counting the good news is that we if we miss an opportunity you know at 4:52 a.m. which is when our launch window opens we do have some time to wait out that weather until we are go for liftoff now for example if a big cloud is sitting over the rocket and we need to wait for it to move out of the way we have some time to do that so we may not launch at exactly 452 stay tuned to this webcast we'll keep you posted um and right now we are waiting a very important call for what's called prop load um this is when the propellant goes into the rocket and we are listening for a call from the launch director at SpaceX around T-minus 38 minutes launch or about 4:14 a.m. eastern daylight time that is when we will know if our launch vehicle a falcon9 rocket will be fueled with liquid propellant and liquid oxygen if so we are very likely looking at a launch today around 4:52 a.m. if not we will get launch delay information to you as soon as we have it and trust me we're all anxiously awaiting that information uh by the way that propellant I'm talking about is a form of kerosene called rp1 which is a sort of higher grade jet fuel most of that prop will pump into the largest section of the rocket called the first stage booster and in a separate tank liquid oxygen to eventually and rapidly combust that fuel uh together so both the fuel and oxygen are very very cold especially that liquid oxygen that's colder than 330° fhe I believe so don't panic if you see a lot of gases coming off of the rocket uh that's water vapor cond ing from the air due to a very chilly fuel temperature um and it's very humid today so you might see a lot of that uh the effect is similar to dropping a piece of dry ice into a bucket of water sort of bubbles up now the rocket may also get Frosty on the outside might look a little white that's also typical no need to to panic about that uh and once the rp1 fueling wraps up we should hear about liquid oxygen going into the smaller upper stage of the rocket that should start around tus 16 minutes into the countdown we are in today while we are waiting I have a really great video coming up it explains how the space-based cellular Broadband Network that as space mobile is building could really help out workers who put their lives on the line for the rest of us let's roll that tape e e e I don't know about you but I am not a fan of dead zones for cellular broadband and I can't wait for this mission to get into low earth orbit if you like that video you can find a lot more of those on our YouTube channel that is at youtube.com SLC for Channel slast spacemobile That's youtube.com SLC spacemobile all one word please hit that subscribe button so you don't miss any updates and if you're watching on the webcast now on YouTube go ahead and subscribe as well now um I want to talk about some of those some of that content we have on there we have so many videos that really get into the premise and the mission in the incredible technology really that we've developed over the past years here at as space mobile we have interviews with Partners uh including you saw Jr here earlier today we have an interview of for example Chris SAR and him talking about the story of how as space mobile and AT&T sort of got together and we have a little bit more of that story today later in the webcast uh but we also have interviews with uh for example uh an executive from telica in South America um someone from Nokia someone from tsmc the manufacturer of chips uh tsmc is our partner in in producing Asic chips the application specific integrated circuits that are going to be in our next generation of bluebird satellites that's a really important component of the future of this company and we have a little video about that too so and speaking of those chips those are going to be approximately on the new satellites the next gen it's going to be 10 times more uh capacity than the satellites we're launching today so we're already kind of several steps ahead of where we need to be in our man manufacturing and we're working really hard to produce those satellites and uh and make history um now we also have some explainer videos and uh some behind the scenes videos if you want care to take a look at those now I think we are still waiting for a call on loading that propellant I haven't seen anything yet so I'm going to keep telling you about uh some other things so for example we have a satellite operations center in Lam Maryland what is that this is a place where our our Mobsters who are uh Mission operators are anxiously awaiting for this mission to launch so they can phone home to the satellites uh and talk to them um so we I don't know if we can pull up that view of the mission operations center at this point okay we don't have that view just yet but uh as you can see next to me we do have a launch vehicle and it is on the pad it is vertical and our satellites are on top there and I do see what looks like some gases moving over there uh so we may have propellant loading into that rocket let's take a look at that now looks like we're just looking at some conve there all all the the wiggliness that you see on the screen there so we're going to keep a view of this launch pad for just a moment while we wait for that call and see if we are going to launch at 4:52 a.m. eastern daylight time I'll be back with you in just a moment e e e for all right guys we are going to have a little bit of announcement here at the Apollo Saturn 5 Center and uh again once once again I'm Dave Mosher I am the host of this podcast I'm with as space Mobile on the floor we have uh Tom derer with AT&T he's warming up the crowd for an announcement with our CEO chairman and founder Abel Avan so he's going to do a little bit of a speech Let's listen in to what's going down there on the floor as we wait to see what happens while they do the webcast up there but you're here on an incredible day as space mobile here working really to usher in the beginning of a of a new error in in Mobile connectivity really aimed at eliminating those cellular dead zones that we sometimes find ourselves in and I know when we travel from place to place as we do so often nowadays we can hit those but what we're doing today here is going to help eliminate a lot of that and it certainly goes from an AT&T perspective a long way to our goal of of being the best converg connectivity provider uh in the country now I know that we're we're starting to run short on time we're about a half an hour away from launch so I want to bring over uh among the special guests today that you're going to hear he about and hear from I want to introduce a um a really important person here Abel is here there he is and I know Abel I know as the CEO of space mobile AC a space mobile you're going to want to have a couple of words with these folks before we get started a little bit more than a couple of words hey guys thank you very much to be this early thank you and I just got a word we're launching on the at the beginning of the window so that's uh we're going we're going up so I want to I want to thanks ER all everybody that have worked so hard to get us to this point I mean it has been an incredible journey a very very difficult Journey with a lot of reward but this journey started by Design in the largest ever structures put into space and um the first one was launched in 2022 called Blue Walker 3 we learned a lot from that still working perfectly we did the first ever phone call from space we did the first ever LTE connection from space we did the first 5G connection from space and we are working in building the first and only broadband system to connect the phone that you just have in your pocket that is a tremendous tremendous goal we are just at the beginning of it and uh we are super super thankful for all the support that we get from you uh for our investors for everybody that follow this project so so closely uh we're extremely extremely PR proud extremely extremely thankful and uh we hope to change the world together with you so this is this is the the the beginning of that Journey so let me let me quickly talk about what is going to happen now so shortly we're going to move outside we're going to see lift off if we continue to be on time we're going to go up we're going to check the satellites a lot 9g that's roughly what you see when you're in a roller coaster going up um when we get to around 525 km we're going to separate hopefully we have the feed that you will be able to see how the satellites eject out my Engineers are going to call me we had a back room somewhere here where we're going to take command of the satellite and start a um communicating with them um so but you probably will be able to see the booster coming back and also you you will be able to see how we eject these satellites into space um this is a super exciting moment and uh that's what we have planned for today so that's uh then in the following days we're going to take command of Thea we're going to check them up and we are going to be preparing to basically deploy them when we deploy them you know as they go up they they are of the size of a small car but when they deploy up they are a very large structure I mean that that's um a in meters a a roughly 8 m by 8 meter roughly 24 ft by 24 ft of area each one of them and that's really what make the differ in connecting the phone that you had in your pocket that's that's where really make it a broadband system that how you make it that you can connect directly to to your phone when we have them deployed and starting operations um we we plan to start using them fully they two usage for them one is uh a a a government usage they're going to start using then um very early on in the mission and then our partners which also were super thankful AT&T and Verizon they're going to start also using testing and start offering the service so our goal is to offer the service as close as possible as it will be when we're in full operation but obviously uh we are bringing up satellites the time that we have them available for services is is limited but as we add more we get more continued service so so that's again this is beginning of the journey the our next satellites the one are the largest ever launched in Leo our next generation is three and a half times bigger so that really give us a a lot of a lot of runway in how to basically keep the worldall connected again thank you thank you so much thank you to be part of this very very honor to having you all waking up this early to see this together with us my Engineers are around we're going to leave after we lose s of the satellites and hopefully you will stay and see the remaining of the mission again thank you so much thank you thank you so much thank you all right you just heard from from Abel Evan the founder chairman and CEO of as space Mobile Live from Kennedy Space Center and he brought us some great news which is they're putting propellant in that rocket as well as liquid oxygen we need those two ingredients in our launch vehicle today to make it go up so if you are just joining us we are live in Cape canaval Florida and I your host Dave Moser from the as space mobile Communications team we are counting down to a launch at 4:52 a.m. eastern daylight time uh which is the opening of our window this is great news because we've been fighting some pretty uh unfavorable weather conditions and while we wait we have some cool animations that help show the scale of those Bluebird satellites that Abel was talking about uh and the ones that we are attempting to launch today our first generation Bluebird satellites so you can see in the picture uh to to my left your right I guess uh we have a scale size animation so you see those cars pulling up this thing can fit six fulls sizee cars on top of it once it's unfolded a small family power boat um it's also about just under half the size of a volleyball court where if you live in a city it's a roughly a one or two bedroom um apartment in terms of square footage it's about 700 Square ft now when those rocket uh when those bluebirds are folded up they're put into the top of the rocket the rocket goes up as you're seeing here and it needs to reach 177,000 mph uh to reach low earth orbit and once it does that second stage will come off and eventually the satellites will be uh separated from the launch vehicle as you can see here uh that step by the way is not going to happen until about 55 minutes after launch uh but don't go anywhere because we're going to keep the webcast going throughout that entire time um now once these satellites go into orbit and they are deployed which was a process that could take a few weeks uh we'll see what happens um they will be the largest commercial Communications arrays in low earth orbit as AEL just said uh you need that kind of aperture to provide highspeed cellular Broadband from space and connect with everyday smartphones like this one now um to get these satellites into space as I just said we compacted them and placed them inside the top of the rocket that's the nose cone you can see over here um inside or the five satellites they're covered in Gold sort of thermal blanketing and they're stacked in a a stack of cans or like a revolver from a gun um and that thing is going to reach 17,000 17,000 m per hour in a matter of 8 minutes or so um and that is about a dozen times faster than a bullet R uh fired from a gun so if you are a satellite in low earth orbit that is essentially the speed that you need to continuously freefall around the planet and that's kind of in a nutshell how satellites work now uh launches us the first important phase of the bluebird 1 through 5 once we get these satellites up our goal as I said is to deploy them and then we need to test them we're going to have a test campaign uh we announc that we're going to use about 2,000 ordinary mobile phones all over the world with select testers to kick off the first ever space-based cellular Broadband Commercial Services with our incredible Partners like the one we saw here today we have J.R Wilson sitting here this means we have uh today's launch attempt we are on the cusp of creating a network that is Rich with use cases for consumer consumers First Responders government agencies and more so how will this space age approach to Cellular Broadband actually work lucky for you we have prepared an explainer that highlights how the bluebird 1 through five mission and its underlying technologies will do D that let's have a look you're driving through the middle of nowhere e e e e e e really just scratches the surface of what should be possible with as space Mobile's space-based cellular Broadband Network in speaking of network that Network we are coming to you live from Cape Canaveral Florida we're not too far from here sits a big rocket with the first five commercial satellites on top uh and that is the view you're seeing here if you see a bunch of gases coming off the side that is because propellant is going inside of the rocket which is a a good thing we want that to happen and and once again I am Dave Mosher I am your host from the as space mobile Communications team now the large first stage or booster of our 229 ft tall launch vehicle should be just about done filling up with that uh very chilly liquid oxygen I mentioned again it's about Nega 330 340 Dees Fahrenheit very very cold and there's also rp1 which is the propellant that is a high-grade form of kerosene and that's why it's looking a little Frosty here we have some gas coming off and this view by the way is coming from about 2.7 mi from the Launchpad so it's a really close view pretty pretty awesome look at uh space access pad out there at the Cape Canaveral space Forest Station um now after this uh after the the first stage booster is done being filled our launch provider will fill up the upper or second stage with liquid oxygen or locks and that is needed to rapidly combust that rp1 fuel and send this rocket soaring toward low earth low earth orbit which is where we want those satellites uh to get dropped off now um some other things to note about this is the launch timeline like what are we expecting so right now we have been filling up with propellant and liquid oxygen um the next really big step that we're looking for here is to finish that upper stage uh locks loading then we're going to do something called an engine engine chill around T minus 7 minutes now what is that that is when SpaceX will run some of that liquid propellant um and oxygen through or one of the two through the engines to chill them because if you have a lot of very cold fuel H hitting a relatively warm engine that's not good so they have to do a pre-chill on those engines um and that'll take a while and right around the one minute Mark is we're really going to see if we're going to have a launch today because that's when our launch provider will start going through all the checks needed and around 45 seconds to launch we should know uh if we're going to do it cuz we're going to hear a go for launch from that launch director and again to my left and your right is a view of that rocket on the Launchpad lc40 here in Cape canaval Florida um so we got a I I I got a special graphic I want to share with you this is from SpaceX um it's up on their website under their launches page now this is kind of the full profile look at what mission is going to do today on the bottom left there you see that rocket and it takes off and it's going to take about 2 and a half minutes to get to a point where we have stage separation that is when the booster in the upper stage so the first stage and uh Second Stage will separate now that booster is going to flip around which is why you see that Loop up top and it's going to come back to earth and SpaceX is going to try to reuse that and I believe the booster we are launching on today has been used a number of times so that's going to go through an entry burn it's going to do some automated Landing back here at the cape uh for those of you sitting out at the banana Creek bleachers uh our guests here today they're going to be uh see quite a show because it's very loud there's some Sonic booms there's some flame it's pretty exciting now immediately after that booster comes back we should see or hear about um second engine um second engine cut off that is they called SEO and it's the first of a couple cut offs and we need that to start a coast phase into uh orbit around Earth now our satellites aren't just going to hang out there uh well they are going to hang out there for about 45 minutes and then after that we're going to get a little burn on that upper stage and get those satellites to exactly where they need to go and at that point at about 54 minutes 55 minutes into the launch we are going hopefully to see some views of those satellites set operating from the upper stage so so now the while we wait for this process to to ensue we we get to launch I want to share a quick interview with a former member of the military speaking of the space force station and someone who has a really great pulse on how First Responders today could really use over my name is somia Shasta and I'm a heat shield engineer here at SpaceX joining you from Hawthorne California we're just about 12 minutes away from launch both the vehicle and range are green and we are on track for an ontime launch at 4:52 a.m. eastern time although we do have a 60% possibility of violation on weather so we are keeping an eye on that today's mission is as space Mobile's first of five launches of their Bluebird commercial satellites which are designed to work like cell towers in space directly with everyday mobile phones today's Mission follows as space Mobile's blue Walker satellite 3 which launched on a falcon 9 Mission back in 2022 blue Walker demonstrated satellite direct to cell phone calls data downloads streaming video and video calls as plans to build a constellation of many satellites including a Next Generation Bluebird that's three times larger than the bluebird satellites launching today which themselves are about half the size of a volleyball court before we meet today's Falcon 9 let's take a minute to learn more about as space mobile and its Bluebird satellites and if you're just joining us welcome here to the Launchpad and our live launch coverage of SpaceX blue blurred block one satellites 1 through 5 set to launch from slick 40 at Cape Canaveral space force station in Florida in just over 10 minutes time we're also getting ready to begin live coverage of the historic Polaris Dawn spacewalk so make sure you stay tuned on both streams at as they're going to be happening at basically the same time we have liftoff and then we're immediately into spacewalk coverage we will be planning to stay live following all the deployments of the bluebirds that expected to occur just about an hour after launch so we hope that you'll stay with us for that while also watching the playist on launch of course we're going to be answering your comments and questions you can send those in the chat by taking us at the Launchpad and if you haven't yet share out the stream invite people to join us we're going to listen back in to as's commentary as SpaceX mission control as we count down the final 10 minutes till launch e a couple of years ago and I have to say he's a a big fan of what as space mobile is doing as you can see with that video and I'm I'm really glad that he is on our board and in our orbit as a company uh and while um we're speaking of orbits we are trying to get to launch today we are looking at a 452 a.m. launch time now if you're just joining us I am Dave Mosher I am the head of content here at as space mobile and uh we are rapidly counting down to the launch of this Mission which is Bluebird 125 um and we've heard some incredible partners of ours um and be sure to replay this broadcast if you're just tuning in I know some of you are coming in pretty late you know you're waking up and you're just trying to see if this Rocket's going to go well it's probably going to go today that's the good news but we have some really great content that we've done earlier in the show so definitely take a listen uh take a watch after the show and uh or rewind the broadcast whatever you want to do because there's some really cool stuff in that broadcast now our volun vehicle is getting close to fully fueled if it's not fully fueled already I think we're right about the seven minute Mark which is when the locks load on that upper stage rocket um of the Falcon 9 is going to be finished the bluebird satellites which are built by as space Mobile in Midland Texas seek to help connect the unconnected around 2.6 billion people have no internet access and more than 5.5 billion cellular subscribers still experience coverage gaps as space Mobile's goal is to provide 4G and 5G cellular Broadband coverage to even the most remote of areas including High speed downloads streaming and video calls plan service could also assist first respond First Responders and help with Disaster Recovery today's mission is a critical step for as space mobile as they continue to expand their Network and bring communication services to even more people around the world now let's meet Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket developed and manufactured by SpaceX known for its safe reliable and costeffective access to space it's all it's also the first and currently the only orbital class rocket capable of reflight starting at the top of the vehicle is the payload fairing a protective shell that encases the payload being sent to space complete today's fairings will be flying for their 18th and eighth times today and will be recovered by our recovery vessel go Cosmos after launch that fairing will separate and jettison away from the vehicle exposing the payload once Falcon 9 reaches space here's a photo of these satellites being encapsulated in that fairing just a few days ago continuing down the vehicle we have the second stage the second stage is powered by a single Merlin vacuum engine or mvac which is optimized to perform in the vacuum of space and below that is the first stage which contains eight engines arranged around one Center engine held in place by a structure called the oct web each of these nine Merlin 1D engines delivers about 190,000 lb of thrust at sea level which gives Falcon 9 a combined 1.7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff the Falcon 9 first stage is also equipped with four Landing legs that deploy just before landing to allow for vertical touchdown on a drone ship or a landing pad let's take a look at today's flight profile today Falcon 9's Prime objective is to launch the five Bluebird satellites into low earth orbit and in order to do that falconess for retract Falcon 9 will follow a trajectory that takes it Southeast over the Atlantic Ocean climbing vertically before curving downrange in a maneuver we call the gravity turn where the rocket starts bending its path to race along the Earth's surface about 1 minute into flight the rocket will hit Max Q or maximum Dynamic pressure where the vehicle is continuing to gain speed as it passes through the thick lower atmosphere at about 2 minutes back lower has started we just heard from on the Nets that the strong back uh is beginning to pull away from the vehicle we will first actually see the clamp arms opening up which we see right there and then the strong back will pull away so after about 2 minutes Falcon 9 will arrive at its second major flight milestone main engine cutoff or Mo and immediately following Mo the first and second stages separate following stage separation the first stage will perform a stage flip maneuver to orient Orient itself for Boost back burn and at about the same time the M back engine will light during Second engine start or sces one on stage two to continue carrying the blue brid satellites to their intended orbit and a few seconds later the first stage will execute a roughly one minute boost back burn to reverse Direction and begin to head home and about 40 seconds after boost back starts the payload fairing will separate exposing the bluebird satellites to space for the first time about 2 and a half minutes after completing the Boost back burn the first stage will perform an entry burn as it re-enters the atmosphere slowing down to Red reduce heat and stress on the vehicle this is followed about 1 minute later by The Landing burn which will guide the first stage all the way back down to touchdown today we'll be attempting to return the booster to the launch site and touchdown at Landing Zone 1 or lz1 at Cape Canaveral stage one lock load is complete at this point in the countdown both the first and second stages are nearly fully loaded with 1 million pounds of Rocket grade kerosene Fuel and liquid oxygen both the first and second stage should finish propellent loading about a minute apart from each other with the first stage finishing up at the tus 3 minute Mark which just happened and the second stage finishing shortly at the tus 2 minute mark stage two lock load is complete so we just heard that the second stage is now fully loaded with propellant and at about tus 60 seconds Falcon 9 will enter startup and that means that the Rocket's autonomous internal flight computers will have taken over the launch countdown and then just inside of tus 2 seconds we will light the nine m1d first stage engines for liftoff weather is still looking green and the range is ready to support our t0 close out is started our t0 of 452 a.m. eastern time and with that we are proceeding into the last few minutes of terminal count Falcon 9 is in startup just heard that Falcon 9 is now in startup which means the internal flight computers have taken over for the launch countdown LD go for launch and the launch director or LD has given the final go for launch so at T minus 35 seconds all are go for the launch of Falcon 9 vehicle pitching down range stage one propulsion is nominal cop your arms at t+ 33 seconds and counting Falcon 9 has successfully lifted off from slick 40 after clearing the tower we tilt or gimbal the engines to initiate a roll maneuver which you may notice in the stage one camera view this enables the vehicle antennas to stay in the best position for communicating with the ground and in just a few seconds we'll be throttling down the engine in preparation for Max Q or maximum aerodynamic pressure vehicle supersonic Max q and there's Max q and from this point on while Falcon 9 is still accelerating to an orbital speed of about 17,500 mph aerodynamic pressure on Falcon decreased increases as we approach the vacuum of space and back chill started now we have six events coming up in quick succession and we should hear all of these called out by Mission Control starting with Mo then stage separation stage one flip second engine start one or SCS one and the first and the first stage boost back burn and lastly fairing separation after stage one shuts down its engines and separ Ates from the second stage the booster turns itself around in a flip maneuver to make its way back to land near the launch site the Boost back burn is a controlled engine burn that both slows the booster's forward velocity and then propels it towards its Landing site after boost back stage stage one will continue to coast in microgravity to the highest point of its flight called the apogee it will then begin to descend cut off there we just heard Mo stage separation confirmed stage separation and back ignition and scs1 start great call outs there and a great view of that mvac engine lighting up so after boost back it will then begin to descend under the acceleration of gravity until it's time to relight the engines for entry burn fairing separation confirmed great call out there for fairing separation we will be attempting to retrieve the these fairing halves once they fall back to Earth with our recovery vessel go Cosmos coming up next we will have Boost back shutdown right on time both vehicles are nominal trajectory so we're now about t+ 3 minutes and 48 seconds into today's Mission and our next major mission Milestone will be the first stage entry burn which will take place just past the t+ 6 Minute Mark to start the entry burn we will relight three of the m1d engines which is really similar to pumping the brakes to slow down the vehicle as it passes back into the Earth's atmosphere the entry bur helps reduce the heat generated from the friction of the of the atmosphere and reduces the aerodynamic forces acting on Falcon which helps maintain controlled flight and prepare for the landing burn we are about 1 minute and 15 seconds away from the first stage entry burn the Merlins on the first stage are optimized for sea level and these achieve about 190,000 lbs of thrust each during ascent and descent and at liftoff Falcon 99's first stage has thrust that's greater than 5747 airplanes at full power and the enac engine that you see burning on your screen has a a much wider nozzle and that one is optimized to 22,500 lb of thrust in vacuum that entry burn coming up in about 30 seconds where Falcon 9 will decelerate by firing its Merlin engines page one entry burn you can great call out there and you can see the entry burn just completed but you can see that uh that the stage one is still continuing to move really really fast even though it is slowing down during entry burn the vehicle is flying through Merlin's exhaust gases or or it's plume which deposits a layer of on the vehicle surface and that soot comes from the carbon based fuel that Falcon 9 uses and with each flight the soot builds up a little bit more on the outside of the vehicle we have Landing burn coming up in about 30 seconds from now stage one Landing burn great call call for a landing burn Landing leg deploy stal landing confirm and that was the 13th launch and Landing for this first stage this Landing marks spacex's 347th recovery of an orbital class rocket including first stage Landings for Falcon 9 and Falcon heavy stage two is in terminal GS we have seo1 coming up in about stage FS 15 seconds from now and back shut down great call out we just had seo1 and we aren't expecting to have ground station coverage for the first three deployments today so we'll be returning around t+ 1 hour for the final two deployments so we'll see you then good transfer bit [Music] e e e [Music] for for [Music] for for for for [Music] [Music] for [Music] for for e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e [Music] [Music] [Music] for e e e for e [Music] [Music] e e e [Music] [Music] for for for [Music] for [Music] for [Music] [Music] for for for for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] for e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] for e e e for e e e [Music] [Music] e [Music] for [Music] for e for