Wednesday's launch was from Vandenberg SFB at 1:09 PM PDT (2009 UTC or 4:09
EDT, and while
Teslarati did a little piece
on it, I didn't get the big news until
Thursday's Rocket Report from Ars Technica. Sunday morning's launch is set for 1:03 AM EDT or 0503 UTC from
SLC-40 on Cape Canaveral SFS.
The big news was that Wednesday's launch marked the 200th
consecutive successful Falcon family launch (stated that way, I believe
it includes Falcon Heavy as well). (The 200th successful launch, ignoring that
word consecutive, was back in
February).
Falcon family hits 200 consecutive successes. SpaceX’s launch of 51 more Starlink Internet satellites Wednesday from California marked the 200th consecutive successful mission for the company’s Falcon rocket family, a record unmatched by any other space launch vehicle. The string of successes dates back to September 2016, when a Falcon 9 rocket exploded on a launch pad during pre-flight testing at Cape Canaveral, Spaceflight Now reports.
By way of comparison ... United Launch Alliance has amassed a 97-for-97 success record for its Atlas 5 rocket since its debut in 2002. Going further back, the Atlas rocket family, which includes earlier launcher designs with different engines, has a string of 172 consecutive successful missions since 1993. The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology has achieved a record of 141 straight successful space launches since April 2020. This state-owned company manufactures and operates the Long March launch vehicle family.
Look at those numbers again. 200 launches in four months less than seven
years, while the next closest US launch company has 97 in 20 years. The
next closest in the world is quite good at 141 straight launches in three
years. The booster used for Wednesday's mission (B1075) was "only" on
its third flight but SpaceX appears to be working toward having dual Atlantic
and Pacific fleets of boosters. B1075's two previous launches were both
from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Likewise, the fairings on this flight
were both flying for their second time and expected to be recovered by ‘Go
Beyond,’ the newest addition to the SpaceX fleet. Neither ULA nor the
China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology has recovered those boosters.
Teslarati also mentioned that the 12 day turnaround from the last launch at SLC-4E was the fastest it has ever been readied for a new launch. The mission was the 30th of this year in the 19th week, so the average is 1.6 launches per week. To achieve the stated goal of 100 for the year, that works out to 1.92 per week, so they have some catching up to do. The landing of the booster was the 190th successful recovery of an orbital class booster, including both Falcon 9 and Heavy.
They're blazing a trail that looks to not be duplicated for a long, long time.
Wednesday afternoon's launch from SLC-4E at Vandy. Screen capture of SpaceX video. Vandenberg is a pretty place when it's not pea soup fog and you can actually see the place.
I'm retired, and have been for 24 years now. I was a tech type, computers and electronics. Stopped paying attention to it all and enjoyed my retirement. But a year ago my wife and I were camping in the deseert of Soutern Utah and at about 10:00PM we spotted a string of 48 (maybe 50) satellites. Didn't know what they were. They moves across the night sky more or less from South to North and I was genuinely "uncomfortable" (OK, it was scary). About 10-15 minutes later a smaller string of satellites (More than 15, less than 20) passed over more or less from West to East. More apprehensive now. We are in the middle of no where and it was a little spooky. I didn't know at this time they were even satellites never mind "Starlink". Then about 20 minutes later another (maybe the same) string of satellites (48 or so) passed over from South to North. Some days later back where I could look it up on the internet I pretty much assumed it was starlink. Keep in mind that area 51 is not that far from where we were at that time.
ReplyDeleteYup, Starlink. It brings Interwebbies to good little Girls and Boys everywhere! For a $600 initial outlay and $110 a month you can have 200Mbps ANYwhere!
DeleteI'm on it now.
I still haven't seen a Starlink string. OK, I haven't set alarms to remind me to be outside at exactly the right time, but you need to have a pretty dark sky and ours isn't that good. I see satellites pretty much every time I'm out in the first hour after sunset, but bright ones, one at a time.
DeleteI was also a bit floored when I saw the $600 starter set on Home Depot's website. Says "not available in Florida", so that's as far as I've gotten.
I enjoyed Vandyland back in '76 when my team was on a Minuteman III footshot.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful place. You could set your watch by the regularness of the fog rolling in and out...
I got the double pleasure of watching launches at Vandenberg and watching incoming and intercepts at Kwajalein. Vandenberg really was a special place to grow up. Beautiful scenery, cooling winds from the ocean and just a nice place at the time.
DeleteI'd even grit my teeth and enter California in order to watch a launch at Vandy.
You're one up on me, Beans - I'd LOVE to see a re-entry on Kwaj (from a ship offshore, that is...)! Ours was the only one that year ('76) that was on time/on target. Yay, us!
Delete