Update 6:50 pm EST : A new Falcon 9 rocket was launched from Florida on Thursday evening, just above the launch window. The rocket was seen leaping into its first stage flight without any problems, leaving the GPS III payload into a parking orbit. The first stage then returned to Earth and landed safely on the drone. In 2020, it was the twentieth launch of SpaceX.
Review of engine data from this launch is pending, NASA and SpaceX will clear the Falcon 9 for flight and proceed with the crew-1 mission on November 14th.
Original post 3:35 pm EST: SpaceX has not launched a new rocket since June, when it launched the GPS III satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket for the U.S. space force. Since then, the company has launched several commercial missions and its own Starlink satellites on a variety of previously launched rockets, all of which have been successful.
However, on October 2, when the company attempted to launch the first phase of the new Falcon 9 – it was for another GPS satellite, GPS III-04, which was scrapped in T-2 seconds. Later, Space X Hans Koenigsman explained During the launch attempt in early October, two of the rocket’s nine first-stage engines caught fire, causing the engines to shut down automatically.
This problem was detected using a small lacquer used in a metal-treatment process, which should have been removed before the flight, but was not. Now the company believes that the problem has been solved, which is a good thing because the company has three major missions coming up for the US government, all of which have decided to fly on new rockets.
First Up is the second attempt to launch the GPS III-04 satellite, which is due out on Thursday evening. A Falcon 9 rocket takes off from the Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:24 PM EST (23:24 UTC). The four-ton satellite will be deployed into a transfer orbit of 20,000 km.
SpaceX will go ahead with its second crew launch, including the Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker. That mission is now scheduled for November 14th.
Finally, SpaceX has another mission for NASA before November 21, the launch of the Earth-observing Sentinel-6 spacecraft from the Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Despite the Lacquer problem, SpaceX was able to fly its flight-proven rockets because those early stages had already proven not to affect the construction problem. It should also be noted that the Space Force and NASA entered into an agreement with SpaceX to fly their missions in the early stages of their use for future missions.
Lifts are provided for this evening’s GPS III mission Current weather forecast Supports 60 percent chance of favorable conditions – Space X will try to land in its first phase Of course I still love you Droneship. The launch webcast of the company below should start 15 minutes before the launch window opens.
Trevor Mahalman lists the picture for RS
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