SpaceX is going to fly for a new fleet record Wednesday morning, currently set for No Earlier Than 5:13 AM EST Wednesday morning from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Booster B1067 will fly for the 24th time, which will establish it as the sole Fleet Leader.
The mission can be watched live on SpaceX's channel on X, linked here, beginning five minutes before the launch. Alternatively, it can be watched on Spaceflight Now's channel on YouTube, beginning an hour earlier, 4:13 AM EST. NASASpaceflight's channel on YouTube will also cover the launch starting at 4:13. Following stage separation, B1067 will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG) drone ship, which will be stationed SE of the cape in the Atlantic.
SpaceX says that in the event of problems, there are backup windows available until 7:11 AM Wednesday and starting at 5:37 on Thursday, 12/5.
This is the first of another group of three launches spread between the two Florida and one California launch pads. Following the Starlink 6-70 mission are the Starlink 9-14 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, SLC-4E at 10:05 PM EST Wednesday night and the SiriusXM-9 satellites from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center, 11:10 AM EST Thursday morning.
The fourth mission of B1067, launching the Crew-4 flight to the ISS, April 27, 2022 and landing on ASOG as it will for this launch. Screen captures from the video stream.
I hereby proclaim the Falcon Booster the Small Block Chevy of the rocket world!
ReplyDeleteGood one!
DeleteThe launch woke us. It seemed particularly loud, actually rattled things. Cold, dense air? Another SpaceX record broken.
ReplyDeleteI was up at launch time, but didn't get the desire to get out of bed and go outside. I head the rumble, at the usual point in the mission (around MECO plus a bit more delay) but it wasn't as loud as we've had a few times. That also might be from being in the bedroom rather than near the back patio doors that will rattle.
DeleteAnother apparently perfect mission!
ReplyDeleteNah, after dinner I will walk out and look towards Vandenberg...
ReplyDeleteCould not find any data, anyone know if they also are getting the same # of launches from the engines?
ReplyDeleteIf so that is truly remarkable I think. Then if both body and engines, leaves me really amazed, quite the technological feat.
Just going from memory, I'd say the majority reuses the engines on every flight. The only exception is I've seen a couple where one or two engine bells had to be replaced because of something happening during recovery. That's usually due to the one thing they can't really predict about where to land: ocean waves. Landing when a big wave lifts up the drone ship or drops it below the expected level is a risk.
DeleteJust seems remarkable longevity, particularly dealing with coking from the hydrocarbon fuel. They got to be hitting totally new ground, no pun intended, I mean no engines have run repeatedly for so many real condition cycles.
DeleteSo your implying bent engine bells? That would make sense. Bottoming out as the deck comes up hard on top of a wave right before landing leg contact? Those bells must be butter soft and delicate from being annealed every engine firing. Probably does not take much to bend an area of cooling tubes above the impact area, then its back to refurb.