Replay: Falcon 9 booster explodes on landing after launching 21 Starlink satellites

for for for good morning everyone and Welcome to our live coverage of the latest Mission from cap Canaveral space for station well Robinson Smith will be providing our commentary for the duration of this coverage we are broadcasting as we always do from the space flight now news Bureau here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center as we are kicking things off with this live coverage of course not the mission coming into this morning that we were hoping for anticipating to be covering with you all obviously we were all tracking the Polaris Dawn Mission but just for a brief overview of where things stand with that if you were asleep or otherwise occupied and missed the news and updates SpaceX has pushed that mission back to no earlier than Friday morning that's because this is a 5day mission for the player Dawn crew and so not only do they need to track the weather at lift off off the weather along the abort zones as they climb uphill but they also need to keep track of the weather for splash down on the backside of the mission and unfortunately whether on the backside of the play ston Flight were they to launch uh today well just didn't quite look good and that was the case for both today's launch opportunity as well as Thursday August 29th so SpaceX and the players program are standing down until at least Friday morning at the earliest of course they will continue to assess as things Roll Along taking a live look right now at the Falcon 9 in the big box over at launch complex 39a waiting to Launch Falcon 9 on the right hand side of your screen that is our mission dour now that clis Dawn is standing down the first of what SpaceX plans is to be potentially a falcon 9 double header between its two coasts first up is this starlink 8-6 Mission say a lift off in just a little bit more than 56 minutes our step young is providing technical support for the broadcast tonight our Adam Bernstein has the evening off but Michael Kane is out with us tonight if you'd like to keep up with the photography of the fellas you could find them over on X formally known as Twitter Michael Kane is at MDK junor Adam Bernstein at aurn NYC you can follow space light now simply at space light now if you're not on X you can find us also on Facebook as well as threads also be joined in support for our coverage tonight by our friends P Carson with Max Q Productions as well as Chuck Briggs tonight's mission is the starlink 8-6 flight a batch of 21 Starling satellites nestled into the payload fairings of Top This Falcon 9 rocket 13 of which will include the direct sell capability as far as the payloads for these back-to-back Falcon flights between the cape and vanderberg a wash rinse repeat situation and I believe the first time that we'll see direct cell satellites and back-to-back missions launch on the same day this particular Mission also the 58th dedicated starlink Mission launching in 2024 this will be the 121st time that SpaceX launches the starl like V2 mini variety currently SpaceX is targeting a taser liftoff time of 3:48 a.m. eastern it's 0748 UTC for our friends joining from around the world certainly appreciate the more than 1100 of you who are joining with us live know it's sort of an odd hour of the morning so appreciate you either staying up late or getting up early if you're here in the United States but see we've got uh Prime joining in from Norway so perhaps some more uh reasonable time of day sure to hop in the live chat let us know where you're joining in from always good to see where folks are watching if you haven't already certainly appreciate if you could hit that like button for us as well L more folks to find their way into our live coverage as we continue to roll on want to thank our moderators chisty Lee and Stephanie B for helping us out this morning keeping things kosher in the live chat also powered by a wonderful Channel member Community here on YouTube so thanks to folks like I am Lita Meera Ben Justin Dawson ziffer wolf SE Aviation Bruce barklay Ryan Snider and many others Channel membership comes with a number of perks including discounts at our online shop that is shop. spaceflight not.com access to member only videos and of course the ability to watch all of our launch liftoff moments here at the cape in 4k I want to welcome aboard see granus joining us the channel members ship at the mission specialist level and uh thanks to clist Le for gifting five space light now memberships appreciate that generosity so to our newest six channel members welcome aboard glad to have you with us last but not least if you have a comment or question about this Mission or other happenings in the realm of space flight and your comment or question is appropriate if you WR on the show we'd love to bring you into the chat as we're continuing to count down towards the liftoff of this falcon9 rocket you can use the YouTube Super Chat feature not only will you be giving us some interesting things to talk about during the countdown but you'll also be supporting what we do here at space light now and we will certainly appreciate that this some folks in the uh live chat suggesting a coffee to get things going or asking how I'm doing it's very kind uh it's a little bit too early for uh caffeine trip at least for me here but otherwise feeling fine raring to go hope all of you are doing well as well currently team I has 49 minutes 34 seconds in counting let's go ahead and talk about the countdown timeline the events that are coming up for us here as we continue to step on through the camp here for the lift off of this Falcon 9 rocket about T minus 38 minutes is the point in which the SpaceX launch director will verify their go for the start of propellent load SpaceX does electronic pole so if they feel like they're in a good position to move forward they can take that pole a little bit ahead of time but about te 30 minutes is the point at which they make the call to move forward Fielding starts 3 minutes later a couple of events they'll load rp1 or rocket grade kerosene on board the Falcon kns first and second stages the same time liquid oxygen is loaded on board the Falcon 99's first stage about T minus 30 minutes they'll start loading Ken kium onto the pressure vessels on the Falcon 99's first stage the heling was used to pressurize the main tanks during flight same process starts a few minutes later on the second stage you may recall there was a helium issue on the ground side that caused the scrubbing of the pois Dawn mission for Monday morning or Tuesday morning I should say that has since been resolved and now just the weather stands in the way of launching that mission moving on the count T minus 23 minutes the loading of second stage kerosene concludes about tus 20 minutes 50 seconds the strong back chill down process begins manifest itself in what we know as the big vent about tus 20 minutes 20 seconds the process itself starts tus 20 minutes and 50 seconds they're thermally conditioning the field lines ahead of the next event here te- 16 minutes second stage liquid oxygen loading gets underway moving on T my 7 Minutes the children of the N Merin entrance begins that process involves flowing a small amount of liquid oxygen through the plumbing of Turbo pumps helps protect them from the risk of thermal shock and damage during the startup sequence about a minute later the first stage kerosene tank is full in a team minus 4 and a half minutes the strong back retract sequence begins starts with the clamp arms underneath the pillowed fairings opening up and then the transporter erector the strong back will recline about a degree and a half away from the Falcon and Rocket stays in that position until liftoff that point pulls back in a much more rapid fashion to clear the way for the vertical climb with the Falcon 9 about 3 minutes before lift up the first stage liquid oxygen tank is full minute after that second stage locks load wraps up and which point Falcon 9 is fully loaded with 1 million pounds of propellant in the final 60 seconds control the countdown is handed over from the ground sequencer the Falcon kns onboard flight computers the propell tanks are brought up to flight pressure sp6 launch retro will gave their go for launch at 45 seconds out the engine ignition command is issued at tus 3 seconds and if fall N9 engines are healthy ignite the command will be issued for the hold down clamps to release the Falcon 9 for a t0 liftoff again that is coming up at 3:48 a.m. eastern 0740 UTC in tus 45 minutes and 9 seconds for for for for for only T minus 42 minutes 9 seconds in counting about 4 minutes away from the rough time when space XEL made the call the of prop load as we're waiting that let's go ahead and talk about where this Falcon 9 is going to be headed which leaves the pad let's talk little trajectory shall we this falcon9 rocket lifting off from space laot complex 40 over at the cape or slick 40 heading up to the eighth shell the staring constellation means it's going to be heading in a northeasterly trajectory once it takes off from the pad so for those watching in the northeastern section of Florida Georgia the Carolinas on up or if you got some friends or family in that area you might want to nudge them awake and if they're rocket fans maybe we be able to catch the Falcon 9 in Flight if the weather is good enough where they are following stage separation the falconite first stage boosters is going to be landing on the SpaceX drone ship a shortfall of Gravitas not for the record that shortfall gravitas was the Drone ship that SpaceX listed as supporting the Polaris Dawn Mission SpaceX when it published its launch information regarding this Mission said that shortfall gravitas would now be supporting this starlink flight so there may have been an adjustment uh given the scrub and just had the Drone ship reposition itself in order to support this Mission if that's the case then like the the other East Coast based drone ship just read the instructions they'll be repositioned when they decide to move forward with the launch of player done and it'll be down range ready to catch that booster when that mission gets the go ahead SpaceX also Endeavors to recover the payload fairings which splash down under the support of parachutes an important part of spacex's business model they save about $6 million per recovery effort so it's important to get those back and refurbished and reuse them as much as they can SpaceX is in the process of certifying both its first stage boosters as well as these payload fairings for up to 40 flights this what it looks like when they bring those fairings on board a recovery vessel Falcon on first stage that's supporting this mission is actually going to be flying for a 23rd time because the flight leader once again for SpaceX that'sit Falcon Fleet from T minus 38 minutes 38 seconds in counting coming upon the decision point for SpaceX as far as the start of fueling here if for whatever reason SpaceX needs additional time and they have not begun fueling they do have a backup opportunity available an hour from the current t0 time that is 448 a.m. eastern or 0848 UTC taking a look at our live chat here want to thank one of our wonderful moderators kisty Lee for gifting uh $10 Super Chat really appreciate that clisa pitching in for in her words Will's tea and Halls fund hours of commentary on random points in the middle of the night the T and Halls fund is uh certainly something that always needs replenishing so appreciate that clisa thanks to Dale Tony for a $5 Super Chat saying greetings from Bostic Western North Carolina wish I was there in person to see this launch Dale let us know if you're able to see the falcon9 during its climb up hill in North Carolina there's a chance you might be able to given the time of night slash morning Channel member Ryan Snyder with a $5 Super Chat thank Ryan saying keep up the awesome work appreciate the support Michael mcgory with a $5 Super Chat another one of our channel members saying go booster 1062 Old Reliable Michael went on to gift space flight now membership so thanks again Michael to our newest Channel member welcome aboard we're glad to have you with us and to Mir Ben for giting a space flight now membership thank you miror for your generosity now T minus 36 minutes 25 seconds in counting L than a minute and a half away to the start of fueling assuming SpaceX is prepared to do so coming into this launch opportunity the 45 weather Squadron forecast pretty good chance of favorable weather today about 85% chance of good conditions at liftoff the only concern this morning is the cumulus cloud rule fairly light winds here at the Press site as we're tracking the Rockets Ascent in a little more than 35 minutes SpaceX is of course running its countdown from the hangar X site here at KSC it's the facility where they refurbish their Falcon boosters and prepare them for future flights it also has support from its headquarters in Hawthorne California tus 35 minutes counting at this point assuming that goahead was given SpaceX is now fueling its Falcon 9 rocket here's what we're looking for if you take a look at the Falcon 9 near the bottom of the first stage could see a slightly light band and actually we don't have to try to use our visual cues here as we do have word from SpaceX that outload has begun for this pad 40 launch of 21 Starling satellites they confirm that range and the weather are both currently go so I'll still bring your attention back to that point at the Falcon 9 first stage booster in the next uh minute or two we'll start seeing a bit of a frost ring form in that part of the vehicle as the super cold densified liquid oxygen is loaded on board the Falcon 's first stage tank is those cool temperatures are loaded on board the Falcon 9 they'll meet the much warmer more humid Florida Air create a little bit of vapor you'll see more of that buildup of course as fueling rolls on currently T minus 33 minutes 20 uh 18 seconds in counting for e for for for currently T minus 30 minutes 2 seconds in counting happening right now SpaceX is loading that cenum we mentioned earlier on board the pressure vessels in the Falcon 9's first stage to pressurize the main propellent tanks during flight same process will happen on the second stage in about four minutes or so taking a look at the live chat want to thank the now more than 2300 of you who are joining with us live this morning if you haven't already we'd certainly appreciate it if you could hit that like button for us allow us more folks to find their way into our coverage also want to thank Channel member I'm Lita for a $5 Super Chat good to see you this morning Lita who says thanks for a great place to share the love of rocket launches a great group of people appreciate all you do well thank you Lita for your support of what we do here of course we'll have another launch to talk about a little bit later in this morning close to your neck of the woods over at vanderberg but for now keeping things here let's talk about the booster history of Number 1062 it's got quite a few launches under its belt going for flight number 23 today bringing up that record so let's go ahead and walk down memory lane before we see this next record setting flight this booster goes all the way back to November 5th of 2020 its first launch was the GPS 3 space vehicle number four or sv4 built by lockie Martin this was the fourth of the newer version of the US space Force's GPS constellation it has the nicknam sacka jaia named after the show shown woman who guided LS and Clark on their famous Expedition in the 1800s another GPS satellite was up next on June 17th 2021 this was space vehicle number five nicknamed Neil Armstrong who of course is the first person to set foot on the moon launch number three as fate would have it this morning was September 15th 2021 this was the first time this booster launched te went to orbit and commander of the player Stan Mission will remember this fondly this was the inspiration for flight the first time he went to space on the first all civilian free flyer Mission launch number four was January 6 2022 this was the sterlink 4-5 mission 49 version 1.5 satellites on board launch number five came on April 8th 2022 this was the second crude launch for this booster sending up the crew Dragon Endeavor curly do the ISS this was the axum one Mission the first private astronaut flight to the International Space Station first all private astronaut flight I should say flight number six came 21 days 6 hours and 10 minutes later on April 29th 2022 so far the shortest turnaround time for this particular booster that was starlink 4-16 Mission next up on June 8th 22 was the Nile sat 301 flight the Egypt based company n set flights 8 through 12 or a series of five Starling commissions those were 4-25 on July 24th 4-27 on August 19th 4- 36 on October 20th 5-1 on December 28th and 5-4 on February 12th through 2023 flight number 13 was on March 9th of 2023 this was the one web 17 Mission launching a batch of 40 of one web's broadband internet satellites this was the third and final dedicated launch at the time you do know now that uh launch number 20 is actually coming up that'll be the final collection of the Gen one conol satellites for util at one web there were couple of missions from the Indian space research organization that helped to initially round out the constellation these next round of satellites this final round I should say will be used according to util Sat one web in order to help replenish any of the satellites that or need to be replaced that was followed up by the Arab 7B Mission also known as batter 8 launching on May 27th 2023 this was a telecommunication satellite built by Airbus for Arab set provides C and Ku band coverage for Europe the Middle East and Central Asia and then from here on we are in Star link territory at starlink 6-7 on July 28th 6-23 on October 18th 6-30 on November 29th 6-38 on January 29th coming into this year 6- 44 on March 16th 6-49 on April 13th 6-59 on May 18th and most recently 10-3 on June 27th and of course brings us to starlink 8-6 Mission getting ready to lift off T minus 23 minutes 51 seconds just a few minutes here from the start of the so-called big vent as the sh the feed lines heading up to the second stage ahead of stage two Li for oxygen load for only T minus 22 minutes 18 seconds in counting taking a look at the live chat want to thank David roog Morton for gifting a space light am membership one of our wonderful channel members appreciate that David and to our newest Channel member welcome aboard glad to have you with us taking a closer look at the payload on board this Falcon flight there are 21 starlink satellites on board of those 13 include the direct to cell capability that'll bring the total launched to date after this flight to 155 of the DTC starlink satellites believe the plan from SpaceX is still to start a some beta service of the direct cell capability for customers later this year it's the 58th dedicated starlink mission of 2024 as well and the 121st total launch of uh V2 mini satellites each of them Clacks in about 1,760 lb about 800 kg with their solar panels INF furled they have a wingspan of about 100 ft or 30 m they use argon Hall thrusters for inorbit maneuvering they're built in Redmond Washington near Seattle and they'll be deployed at about 184 miles or 296 km in altitude at a 53.1 16° inclination we should be coming upon the start of the big vent here within the next 10 seconds and there it goes right on time the start of the so-called big vent good visual indication that fueling is moving along On Track and on time this venting will continue until right about tus 16 minutes and 30 seconds at which point it will taper off in preparation for a second stage locks load for for for for e we currently T minus 16 minutes 50 seconds in counting coming up on the last 15 seconds or so of the big vent here want to thank Tim for a $5 Super Chat appreciate you Tim says thanks for all the great coverage well thank you for supporting the coverage here just the beginning of our overnight launch coverage with this Mission well reason superhawk marking nine months as a channel member with us appreciate you sticking around with us Super Hawk saying as always great job mods please hit the like button y'all yes a tip of the hat to Stephanie B and chisty Lee for helping to hold things down in the live chat it I'll Echo that certainly appreciate it if you could hit that like button to allow us more folks to find their way into our live launch coverage certainly appreciate that and a thanks to Edward Pearson for a $5 Super Chat as well thank you Edward currently T minus 15 minutes 37 seconds in counting if you can see the big vent has wrapped up second stage locks load is now underway final big fueling Milestone prior to launch this falcon9 rocket next event of course will be the chill down of the nine Merlin 1D engines of the base the Falcon 9 it's coming up at T-minus 7 minutes e currently T minus 14 minutes 7 seconds and counting talked about the countdown timeline the events up to t0 let's talk about the other side of the coin what happens after this Falcon 9 leaves the pad after lift off at 3:48 a.m. eastern 0748 UTC Falcon 9 will pass through Max Q with a point of greatest aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle beginning about t+ 1 minute and 10 seconds it'll be followed by a few events in Fairly rapid succession we'll see first stage main engine cut off for Mo t plus 2 minutes 26 seconds followed a few seconds later by stage separation then the ignition of the Merlin vacuum engine on the second stage scs1 2 plus 2 minutes 36 seconds capped by the jettison of the payload fairings just before the 3 minute Mark T plus 6 minutes and 12 seconds the first stage entry burn begins lasting about 22 seconds in total after slowing down the vehicle it'll set up the landing burn to begin just before the 8 Minute Mark and first stage booster B 1062 is set to make its 23rd Landing t+ 8 minutes and 22 seconds into flight the Marland vacuum engine on the second stage will cease firing 2 plus 8 minutes 39 seconds SEO 1 it'll enter into a coast phase until t plus 54 minutes 47 seconds at which point there will be a brief 2cond burn helping to circularize the orbit for starlink satellite to P in at t+ 1 Hour 3 minutes 41 seconds well we've got a view of it thanks to our friend Pete Carson with Max Q Productions figure we take a look at our Celestial neighbor if he can possibly bring it back for just a second get a great view of Jupiter with eyes on the red spot as well welcome back to that in a minute if Pete's able to reestablish that shot e taking a bit of a step back here still looking at Jupiter but you can see its moons both above and below it of course Jupiter going to be a hot spot as NASA is preparing to launch the Europa Clipper mission coming up in mid October they'll be launching on a falcon heavy rocket it's an important reason why the uh polar daon Mission also needs to launch as soon as weather permits so that they can turn over that path from a falcon 9 configuration to a falcon heavy over at pad 39a e for currently T minus 8 minutes 25 seconds in counting just a little more than a minute away from the chill down of the nine Merlin 1D engines taking a look at our chat here I want to thank the now more than 5,500 of you who are joining with us live appreciate you spending part of your Wednesday morning with us here also want to thank uh jet janville apologies Chad if I mispronounced your last name appreciate the $2 Super Chat sending some love to uh Mr Elon Musk Michael mcroy with a $2 Super Chat and some kudos to Pete Carston with Max C productions for a cool shot of Jupiter and a welcome to techy techie G joining us with Channel membership at the pad leader level welcome aboard techie glad to have you with us as we prepare to see the Falcon 9 rocket take flight coming up in just a little more than seven minutes let's go ahead and take a moment to talk about this particular launch vehicle of course the Workhorse rocket for SpaceX stands at 70 M or 229 ft tall with the payload fairings up top has a diameter of 3.66 M or 12 ft majority of that made up by the 2/3 of the rocket at the base the Falcon 's first stage of course this particular first stage booster flying for a 23rd time tail number 1062 in the SpaceX Fleet as you can see in the image on your right the base the first stage features the nine Merlin engines which burn rocket great kous and liquid oxygen producing 1.7 million pounds of thrust around the engine compartment are black carbon fiber Landing legs that will be used to land the first stage on the Drone ship a short fall of Gravitas above the first stage is the inner stage this is a composite structure consisting of an aluminum honeycomb core surrounded by carbon fiber in that image on the right you can see the Deployable Hypersonic grid fins these are titanium winglets that provides stability and steering for the Falcon 9 as it comes back through the atmosphere tail first like a big old Dart heading towards the Drone ship at the top of the inner stage are three mechanical latches that attached to the Falcon 9's second stage and a first stage main engine cut off high pressure heum is used to release those latches automatic pushers ensure clean separation the second stage engine nozzle is also housed safely inside the interstage adapter until stage separation speaking of that second stage the upper stage of the Falcon 9 powered by a single modified Merlin engine called a Merlin vacuum engine or an mvac engine it's equipped with a large nozzle which is optimized for the burns and the vacuum of space it produces more than 22,500 lb of thrust and will be fired twice on today's flight placing the 21 Starling satellites into their intended orbit as is the case with the first stage the upper stage of the Falcon 9 also Burns kerosene and locks following the deployment of the Starling satellites it will ignite for a third time for a deorbit burn driving the upper stage back into the atmosphere where it will burn up helping to eliminate the risk of creating any unnecessary space debris on this Mission finally at the top of the rocket are the payload fairings containing the 21 Sterling satellites fairings are made up of a carbon composite material here 13.1 M or 43 ft tall 5.2 M or 17.1 ft in diameter two abs of the payload fairings will be recovered little further down range where the first stage lands on the Drone ship and they gently splash down under parachutes now T minus four minut n seconds and counting the strong back retract sequence is underway clamp arms opening up and the transporter erector will be reclining back a degree and a half away from the Falcon 9 rocket note just for housekeeping here that the uh countdown clock for us at the upper right hand corner that is ours that is in real time what is coming through the SpaceX feed is coming in on a looks like about a 8C delay so we'll be making our call outs in real time of course since our cameras are in sync with reality we're now tus 2 minutes 56 seconds in counting this point the first stage locks tank should be full stage one locks load is complete here that call for stage one lock load being complete and about 30 so seconds the same will be true on the Falcon 9's second stage taking a look at the live chat want to thank Bob Harley for for a $3 Super Chat thank you Bob notorious Cho with a $2 super chat some excitement yeah yeah yeah stage two lock load is complete with that call out you just heard the Falcon 9 is now fully loaded with 1 million pounds propellent that extra bit of venting you're seeing beginning here those are the ground gas closeouts want to thank gas launch close out has started well reasons or Super Hawk for a very generous $20 Super Chat saying P out Jupiter and its moons is worth this plus so much more great camera work of course giving kudos to Pete appreciate it Pete and thanks to QC part-time paranormal for a $5 Super Chat as well we are now less than a minute to lift off of this Falcon 9 rocket should be hearing the call that the vehicle is in startup momentarily Falcon 9 is in startup good call out there from SpaceX control the countdown is now shifting to the Falcon's onboard flight computers the propell tanks are being pressurized and with that have the go for launch from the SpaceX launch director we are 30 seconds away from liftoff the first of what SpaceX plans to be a falcon 9 starlink double header both Fitz coasts and here we go in 10 n 8 7 6 5 4 3 two one Ed ignition and liftoff liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket on the starlink 8-6 mission the Falcon IR has cleared the tower I great VI for tracking team here fcon I now traveling faster than the speed of sound make up into max Q coming upon a few different events in Fairly rapid succession here ver be first stage manag and cut off for Mo t plus 2 minutes and 26 seconds it'll be followed a few seconds later by stage separation second stage engine starter scs1 plus 2 minutes 36 seconds and then fairing separation just before the 3 minute Mark for the call for mvec chill down they are thermally conditioning the Merlin vacuum engine prior to its ignition now 2 minutes into [Music] flight about 10 seconds to Mo there you see Mo stage separation there goes the Merlin vacuum engine you see all those events happening on the SpaceX feed on the right hand side of your screen from the onboard cameras in the falcon9 rocket here go the payload fairings fairing separation confirmed taking a look at the bid box from our tracking camera here at the Press site little bit of a jellyfish effect here our Michael Kane behind the tracking camera tonight doing an excellent job now coming up into the fourth minute of flight both vehicles are on a nominal trajectory good call from SpaceX there so far everything falling along the plan now a little less than 2 minutes away from the start of the first stage entry burn beginning the Falcon 9 will really clam on the brakes and begin to slow itself down set up the landing burn Edge burn begins at t plus 6 minutes and 12 seconds lasts about 22 seconds in total if the clouds aren't too much of an issue we may be able to see the entry burn from our ground cameras here but can't be a little tricky we are able to snag it course bring that to you continue to follow a nominal trajectory good call from SpaceX there now a little more than 5 minutes to flight for both stages on a nominal trajectory good call now more than 6 minutes into flight less than 10 seconds away from the start of that entry burn in real time looking for about 6 minutes 12 seconds on the SpaceX feed stage one ENT your bur start up stage one FTS has saved the start of that entry burn if you take a look at the speedometer in the bottom leftand corner of your screen you can see the Falcon 9 now slowing down quite rapidly stage one andry burn shut down see the dot in the center of the big box there that is the Merlin vacuum engine as it continues its up following a nominal trajectory not about 156 km in altitude The Landing burn set to begin at t+ 7 minutes 59 seconds stage one transic booster now traveling below the speed of sound Contin it's descent towards the Drone ship Landing burn is just now beginning in real time we'll see that in the Box in leftand corner or the left side of the screen in just a few seconds stage one Landing burn should see some views the Drone ship on the right stage one Landing leg deploy oh dear booster 1062 was tipping over and uh fire was continuing quite prominently and it appears to have been a fail booster Landing go a rare failure by initial visual accounts from SpaceX uh stepen in the back if we can rack that if at all possible let's try to get that up we'll get that in work for folks as quickly as we can so we can get another uh look at that the last time that a booster failed with a landing connected to the Drone ship a shortfall of Gravitas that was back on February 16th of 2021 that was the starlink 19 version one satellites that was booster B10 59.6 ending that particular run just reviewing our statistics on booster history here believe that will have been the most recent booster failure upon Landing for SpaceX of course the slightly more recent issue that we saw with the booster that was back on December 23rd 2023 when booster 1058 was returning from its 19th flight however it successfully landed on the Drone ship but tipped over due to rough seas and Bell Mid recovery so as it was coming back to Port naal but it was successfully able to land on the Drone ship so yes the February 16th 2021 date will have been the most recent bull booster Landing failure snapping a run of 267 successful Landings in a row for SpaceX an unfortunate setback for the company any mishap is certainly something you never want to see and of course SpaceX will go through and thoroughly look at all the data that was gathered during the entry and Landing Burns and obviously the touchdown on the booster we'll wait to see if there's any word from SpaceX on the status of the Drone ship a shortfall of Gravitas as well so far SpaceX has not issued a statement regarding the landing failure the last comment from them was uh just acknowledging the launch let's go ahead and bring in this replay here this is starting from the SpaceX feed just after the 8 Minute Mark you can see the landing burn started right on time as the booster was making its descent towards the Drone ship a shortfall of gravitz it appears to hit right on the center of the Drone ship you can see here an almost purple tinted flame as booster immediately begins to fall over away from the cameras we've got it on Loop so we're going to watch this at least a couple more times just to see as much detail as we possibly can it's hard to tell exactly what might have caused that terminal failure for this particular booster what was the flight leader for SpaceX unlike most booster Landings where once it touches down on the Drone ship the engines cease firing it appears there was a continuous fire and it cause an imbalance of the booster of course much more information is going to be coming from SpaceX in the hopefully not too distant future we'll get at least a an early statement from the company the other immediate question of course is whether or not SpaceX will proceed with the other Starling flight that it had on tap for tonight that was starlink 9-5 set to launch from vanderberg space Force Base at 258 a.m. Pacific given where this mishap happened during this Mission another question that will need to be resolved is if the FAA needs to have any say on this last time SpaceX had an inflight mishap of course was on another starlink flight but that was concerning the Falcon 9's second stage given that this booster was touching down in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean far from any people SpaceX could make an argument that this was not an issue of Public Safety but certainly an unfortunate time An Occurrence for this mission is now SpaceX is going to have to dig into what happened and if there is any potential broader impactor or not the immediate knock on effects of course could potentially be some of the upcoming missions that they have not to say that we know for sure that there will be any direct impact of course we don't at this point this just immediately happened but SpaceX does have a number of key missions coming up in the next few days to weeks to the next month of course got the Polaris Dawn Mission which is set to launch potentially as early as was Friday SpaceX also has the crew 9 flight coming up no earlier than September 24th and then of course the Europa Clipper mission on a falcon heavy rocket that's coming up in October so a lot of interested parties of course will be wanting to know all about this and I'm sure SpaceX is quite eager to dig into the data and get a full understanding of what went wrong here we do actually have a statement from SpaceX now in the last 60 seconds spasic says and I'll quote them here after a successful ascent Falcon 9's first stage booster tipped over following touchdown on the uh shortfall of Gravitas drone ship teams are assessing the booster flight data and status this was the booster 23rd launch as you can see here as We're looping back through this video though as it was coming coming down and making its touchdown on the Drone ship the landing gear seemed to clearly fail almost immediately as that fire continued to burn from a non-engineers perspective the rate of descent just based off of what and covering a number of Falcon 9 flights rate of descent appeared to be pretty typical for a falcon 9 first stage booster but again if you missed it just reading spacex's statement that just came out in the last couple of minutes now and I quote after a successful Ascent Falcon 9's First Age booster tipped over following touchdown on the a shortfall of Gravitas drone ship teams are assessing the boosters flight data and status this was the boosters 23rd launch end quote of course the second part of the mission the deployment of the Starling satellites that part seems to be still on track so there were no apparent issues with the FAL 9 upper stage and now t+ 20 minutes 30 seconds into flight as far as the upper stage is concerned it will continue in this parking orbit until t+ 54 minutes 47 seconds there will be a brief 2cond burn of that upper stage engine to circularize the orbit setting up for these Starling satellites to be deployed at t+ 1 Hour 3 minutes and 41 seconds in its statement SpaceX made no mention of the California launch from vanderberg space Force Base so at this particular moment in time it appears as though that launch may still be moving forward although that's something that we'll continue to watch over the next uh hour or so that Rockets to lift off at 258 a.m. Pacific that's 558 a.m. eastern 0958 UTC again if SpaceX is in fact moving forward with that mission if SpaceX decides to hunt on launching again so soon this morning they do have another backup launch opportunity for the uh starlink 9-5 Mission from the West Coast Opportunities exist until or the launch window I should say opens at 10:41 p.m. tomorrow evening again if you're just joining us we are covering the breaking news here on the starlink 8-6 mission of an exceedingly rare failure for SpaceX on a booster Landing you see it right here on your screen booster 1062 on the SpaceX Fleet meeting a fiery end upon landing on the Drone ship a short fall of grav has a fire continue to rage and the landing legs seem to collapse on the far side of the booster from the perspective of the Drone ship camera that you see here the booster tips over immediately before the SpaceX feed cuts out for for for you can see taking a look back at the pad here the strong back has been brought upright for as you mentioned before of course the Polaris Dawn mission was initially set to launch this morning however because of weather forecast for the end of the mission splash down areas around the State of Florida teams decided to stand down from that launch opportunity both today as well as tomorrow they're targeting happen targeting before this anomaly no earlier than Friday August 30th so depending on the data review of course as was the case with the upper stage mishap from a different starlink Mission SpaceX will share the information that is gathered from the booster failure here with the polaron crew as they continue to make an assessment as thoroughly as they possibly can for that next launch attempt and so we'll be watching closely for when that mission is rescheduled both in terms of cooperation with the weather as well as any relevant data that has crossover to the Polaris mission or we go to the mission staff just want to thank a few folks for your support this evening we certainly appreciate it uh Tim H with a $5 Super Chat saying all things considered still a great track record it has been a uh quite the run for SpaceX up to this point with it successful booster Landings up until now and Jeff Hansen with a $5 Super Chat as well one of our wonderful channel members saying RP b162 you served us well yes as we remarked during our coverage this was the 23rd flight of this particular first stage booster so let's look at our mission stats as we had a successful liftoff and enfor not so success not so successful Landing of that booster but this was the 23rd flight 23rd and final flight of B 1062 this was the 367th Falcon 9 launch to date the 82nd Falcon 9 flight of 2024 how did I miss that for oh just for the typo there this is the 310th Falcon booster reflight or the launch of a booster that has flown at least once this a spacex's 85th launch of 2024 including a falcon heavy Mission and two Starship flights this was spacex's 120th orbital launch within the last 365 days the 202nd from pad 40 and the 257th overall orbital launch from this pad as well taking a look at the bar chart here this is where SpaceX stands on the year so far moving on to some recovery stats this was I'll throw in obviously the asterisk of having the map upon Landing but this was the 81st touch down on the Drone ship shortfall of Gravitas this was the 268th Drone ship of landing and the 342 overall booster Landing attempt finally some industry stats this was the 60th orbital launch from Florida the 89th from us soil the 998th from a US rocket company and the 156th orbital launch from around the world been six orbital launch failures so far made to update that to seven we'll have a discussion after our live cover wraps up about how we want to classify this particular Mission but here's where our high chart stands so far with the US continue to lead at 98 Launches on the year about 63% of the pi China bringing it in with 24% we have Russia at nine Japan with four India with three Iran with two the European Space Agency in North Korea with one piece and with that we're going to go ahead and conclude our live launch coverage this evening want to thank briefly Tanya Stevens for a $2 Super Chat who says I was I sought from Deerfield Beach for about 3 seconds presume she's referring to the booster land well not sure it means the the booster Landing or the lodge itself more likely the lodge itself appreciate your support though and want to thank our friends P Carson's with Max Q Productions Chuck Briggs Chuck and Jen cnj images for your support tonight thanks to our Michael Kane for doing some launch photography and stepping behind the tracking camera tonight thanks to our space flight out editor Stephen young for running the technical operations of the broadcast to our wonderful moderators in the live chat Stephanie B and chisty Lee for helping hold things down there most of all thanks to you for wherever you're watching again we will continue to monitor the vanderberg launch that will be presumably our next live launch coverage coming up in just a little bit here of course you will stand by in case that there are any updates to that that come down in the next hour or so sure to keep an eye on our social channels for any relevant updates and we'll keep our launch schedule updated as well Bravo's here at space flight now well Robins Smith remember be good to yourselves be good to other s and we will see you next time folks and until then bye-bye for for for for for for for for