Blastoff! SpaceX launches US spy satellites for National Reconnaissance Office, nails landing

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ignition and lift off of Falcon 9 go nrol 113 vehicle's pitching down range stage one propostion is nomal if you're just joining us Falcon 9 has successfully lifted off from space launch complex 4 East as you can hear on your screen and we are getting some awesome shots of the scent we've also heard a few call outs so far from Mission Control power and telemetry including that everything is looking nominal from both a power and Telemetry standpoint now in just a few moments we're going to Throttle Down the engin in preparation for Max q and with that call out we hear that Falcon 9 is moving faster than the speed of sound Max Q there's that Max Q call out as you may have heard us mentioned before Max Q is a critical flight Milestone because this is the Moment In Flight with the highest amount of aerodynamic pressure so with that we have three events coming up in quick succession here starting with Mo stage step and SC1 main engine cut off for moo for short is where all nine m1d engines will shut off to slow the vehicle down in preparation for stage separation there's confirmation that we're chilling the mvac engine for scs1 stage two of course will continue to second engine start one after stage Zep and that's when the single mvac engine will ignite to propel the second staged orbit less than a minute after all of these flight events the fairing hves will also separate and jettison away from the rocket we'll hear that one called out from mission control but as a reminder we won't have any payload views tonight at the request of our customer standing by for Main engine cut off in just about 15 seconds main engine cut off stage separation confirmed and back ignition we have had great confirmation and Views there of main engine cut off stage separation and of course second engine start one we are standing by now for the call out for fairing separation and we will be attempting to retrieve these fairing halves once they fall back down to earth using are recovery shipped go beyond fairing separation confirmed there's confirmation of fairing up now coming up about 3 minutes from now the booster which you've got great views of the grid fins on your screen right now will initiate its entry burn to begin its Journey to the of course I still love you drone ship which is currently stationed in the Pacific Ocean those grid fins on board stage one are the primary mechanical structure that we use to guide the rocket on its way back to Earth of course what we are leading up to is the entry burn expected again at just about t plus 6 minutes after liftoff if you are just joining us today you're coming in to our live webcast of the nro payload launch we had an ontime 8:20 PM Pacific liftoff from vandenbberg space for space in California followed by successful main engine cutof off stage separation second engine start one and fairing separation to start the entry burn we relight three of the m1d engines on board the first stage which is essentially the same as pumping the brakes we need to slow the vehicle down as it passes back into the Earth's atmosphere to reduce re-entry forces which helps us to recover and reuse the booster on future flights during the entry burn Falcon 9 will be decelerating by firing those Merlin engines but we're still moving really fast this causes the vehicle to fly through Merlin exhaust gases which is also known as the Rocket's plume and deposits a layer of soot on the vehicle surface that soot comes from the carbon based fuel that Falcon 9 uses and with each repeated flight the foot builds up a little more on the outside of the vehicle you can of course continue to track the first stage Telemetry in the bottom left corner of your screen as the booster continues to make its way back to our drone ship of course I still love you which is currently stationed in the Pacific Ocean reusability is key to lowering the cost of space flight which enables more investments in critical space infrastructure in today's case supporting National Security the Falcon 9 F excuse me the Falcon 9 first stage that is supporting today's Mission performed it is about to perform this entry burn for the 20th time stage one entry burn startup there we have great views that entry burn has begun on board our first stage booster and we are expecting burn to last about 20 seconds stage one entry burn shutdown and confirmation of shutdown the Merlin engines on board the first stage are optimized for sea level which is primarily because they operate in the Earth's atmosphere they achieve 190,000 pounds of thrust each during both ascent and descent at liftoff Falon 9's first stage has thrusted greater than 5 747 airplanes at full power stage one FTS is safed by contrast the mbac engine on board the second stage has a much wider nozzle and is optimized to 22,500 lbs of thrust in vacuum now coming up in just over 30 seconds we'll have our Landing burn on board the first stage stage one transonic confirmation that stage one is transonic on its way back to its R Point FS is sa with our drone ship just like the entry burn we're expecting our Landing burn to be relatively quick the difference here though is that what we're using this burn for is to touch down softly on the surface of our drone sh terminal guidance stage one Landing burn confirmation of Landing burn startup can see those grid fins working as we target the Drone ship here stage one Landing confirmed and confirmation of touchdown this again was the 20th launch and Landing for this first stage this Landing also marks spacex's 345th recovery of an orbital class rocket including first stage Landings for Falcon 9 and Falcon heavy