Posted on 12/21/2020 11:24:06 AM PST by Red Badger
ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 19 (UPI) -- SpaceX launched the company's second spy satellite mission for the U.S. government Saturday morning.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 9 a.m. EST from Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The payload fairing separated about 2 1/2 minutes after liftoff.
The reusable Falcon 9 rocket landed at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station about 8 1/2 minutes after liftoff -- the fifth time for this particular booster and the 70th time for a Falcon 9 to date.
SpaceX aborted a previous launch attempt Thursday due to a slightly high pressure reading in an upper stage liquid oxygen tank on the rocket. The countdown stopped at 1 minute, 53 seconds before launch.
Andy Tran, a SpaceX avionics production supervisor, said during a live broadcast Thursday that the rocket and the payload were in good condition despite the abort.
The company's first launch of a U.S. spy satellite, NROL-76, was in May 2017 for the National Reconnaissance Office, which is part of the Department of Defense. Most such missions have been conducted in recent years by United Launch Alliance.
The government says very little about classified missions such as the launch on Sunday, except that the rocket is carrying a "national security payload designed, built and operated by the agency ... to provide intelligence data to the United States' senior policymakers, intelligence agencies and the defense department."
SpaceX's live stream of Sunday's launch didn't include footage of the satellite's deployment due to its classified nature.
The National Reconnaissance Office's mission is to provide information for intelligence requirements, research and development, and to assist in emergency and disaster relief.
I watched the launch online via the SpaceX web stream.
After the booster stage landed back on land, they mentioned that eventually more and landings on land would further their goal of getting to a 24 hour turn around for boosters.
Imagine, launching one day, landing the booster back on land, loading new cargo on it and launching it again the next day.
Now that is incredible.
This was probably the best web cast of the launch in regards to the 1st stage and its subsequent landing. SpaceX had to turn off the cameras dealing with the 2nd stage/faring release so they spent the time showing the 1st stage return along with detailing the speed and altitude of this stage which is normally attuned to the 2nd stage/payload. Always get a kick watching these.
Range safety dictates if its going to be a land or water landing for the 1st stage out of Florida — will always be a dry landing @ VAFB due to earth rotation and most launches out of there are going into a polar/sun-synch type of orbit. I do recall the commentator talking about the 24 hour turn around as the refab facility is within a couple hundred meters of the landing pad. Cool times we live in!
Falcon 9 first stage returns
Wonder how many other uses they have plans for it to do besides send up satellites ?.
What I find to be really nice is the fact that the main rocket aka the booster takes off and lands back at the site within 10 minutes. Having watched this several times I am convinced that Elon’s team can make the Starship project work as planned.
Mars here we come!
26 launches this year. Did NASA ever launch this many in a year?
I doubt it.......Government workers.................
More info for Swallwell to trade.
That landing never gets old.
Yes, it’s like every 30’s - 50’s sci-fi novel come to life....................
And the funny thing is that it looks just like some of the sci fi movies from the early days...including the way the thrust looks coming down. It almost looks poorly faked some days.
The days that several of them landed at the same time—all in a row—it was simply amazing.
While useful for Earth orbit and Solar System explorations, we will never reach the stars with chemical rockets.......
We have to walk before we run.
I also believe we will have to build a base on the moon where we can start our trips to the stars. Gravity is expensive.
A large ship could be built in low gravity and moved in space with a lot less energy.
Yes. The Moon’s gravity well is only 1/6 as deep as Earth’s................
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