Watch live: SpaceX launches 22 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg SFB, California

e e e e good evening everyone and Welcome to our live coverage from the latest Mission from vanderberg space Force Base while Robinson Smith I'll be providing our commentary for the dur of this coverage we're broadcasting from the space flight now news Bureau at NASA's Kennedy Space Center we'll be going once again to see if SpaceX is able to launch the starlink 7-3 Mission we have support for this live launch coverage from our Steph young who's running the technical operations of the broadcast and actually our launch photographers Adam Bernstein Michael Kane taking a well-earned evening off as this is not a cape base launch but they'll be back in action with plenty to shoot next week guarantee that we'll talk about that more as we roll on in the next 25 just under 26 minutes currently as you see here on our slate spaceex is targeting a t0 liftoff at 434 p.m. Pacific 7:34 p.m. Eastern 0043 UTC which is uh see a typo there actually Ste if we could clean that up it should be o34 on the UTC time regardless that is when SpaceX is moving towards for a launch time as they have confirmed that propellant load has begun on the Falcon 9 rocket so they are moving right along towards this hopeful launch you're are with us for either of the previous two attempts I'll tell you that the weather is significantly better this time around as they make their launch temp taking a look at the radar here you can see there's basically no rain no weather system that would impede a launch that's hovering over the pad there that vanderberg space force base if you recall heading into the launch attempts yesterday there was only a 20% chance of favorable weather today it is 80% so significantly better odds from a weather vantage point so if everything is healthy and on track with the vehicle we may yet see this launch this evening like to help support our coverage of the Space Program there's a quick and easy way to do that if you have ready just hit the like button on this stream and you'd like to share it on social media that would be fabulous as well that'll help the YouTube algorithm to do its thing and bring this live coverage to more people as we continue to step through the count we're also powered by Channel membership so if you consider being a channel member comes with a number of perks including access to Our member only videos got a new one in the works so be sure to keep an eye out for that also get discounts at our online shop shop. spaceflightnow.com as well as access to 4K live streams of all the missions launching from the cape and we've got at least two coming up next week from both pads 39a and Pad 40 it's going to be a busy time with some Mary missions for SpaceX last but not least you can also use the YouTube Super Chat feature here on the site if you'd like to join in the conversation if you have a comment or question that's appropriate to be read on the show we'd love to address that for you also help support we do here at space flight now and continue our effort to upgrade our equipment and continually increase the quality of these live streams not T-minus 22 minutes 35 seconds seconds in counting as mentioned we've already passed through the start of fueling so we'll go ahead and Notch off these first few La countdown timelines or countdown events pretty quickly bringing up to speed with where we are in the fueling process of course the count started back at T-minus 38 minutes when the launch director verified their go for Propel load which we know that they did feeling started T minus 35 minutes both with rp1 or rocket grade kerosene as well as liquid oxygen that rp1 was loaded on or starting to be loaded on to both the first and the second stages of the vehicle liquid oxygen is going on to just the first stage T minus 30 minutes that's when the first stage helium load begins that cryogenic helium is loaded onto the pressure vessels on the first stage it's used to pressurize the main propellant tanks during flight then T minus 26 minutes the same process happens on the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket coming up close to where we are now in the countdown T minus 23 minutes it's when the loading of second stage rp1 concludes in a T minus 20 minutes 50 seconds the next Milestone we are just seconds away from that's when the strong back chill down procedure begins happens as they thermally condition the feed lines on the strong back or the transporter erector that event precedes the loading of liquid oxygen onto the second stage of the falcon9 rocket that comes up at T minus 16 minutes moving right along T minus 7 minutes is when the chill down of the nine Merlin engines gets underway it involves fing a small amount of liquid oxygen through the plumbing and turbo pumps it protects those engines from the risk of thermal shock and damage during the startup sequence T minus 6 minutes the first stage kerosene tank should be full then at tus 4 and a half minutes the strong back retract sequence begins from the Vandenberg pad space launch complex 4 East that te will recline about 13° away from the vehicle stays in that position and liftoff T minus three minutes the first stage liquid oxgen tank should be full two minutes out lock load on the second stage will have wrapped up which will finish the fueling process at that point the Falcon 9 is fully loaded with 1 million pounds of propelling coming into the final 60 seconds the control of the countdown is handed over from the ground sequencer to the Falcon's onboard flight computers the propellent tanks are brought up to flight pressure space launch director gives their go for liftoff at 45 seconds out the engine ignition command is issued at T minus 3 seconds then of course of all nine merlands ignite are healthy black computer will give the command for the hold down clamp to release the vehicle but y for t0 this evening at 4:34 p.m. Pacific 7:34 p.m. Eastern 034 UTC we no T minus 18 minutes 36 seconds in counting at this point visually as the bead lines are being chilled along the strong back we'd be seeing the so-called big vent a good visual indication that fueling is underway this chill down procedure will last little less than two minutes from this point and then they'll start locks load on the second stage of the Falcon 9 taking a peek at the live chat want to be sure to thank our wonderful moderators who are popping in helping us to keep things moving in the chat see Stephanie B says good day from Australia good day to you Stephanie and nightbot checking in good to see you both appreciate you being with us and lots of our wonderful channel members joining us as well we're now T minus 16 minutes 53 seconds in counting less than a minute away from the start of lock load on the second stage as we await that fueling Milestone let's go ahead and talk about where this Falcon 9 rocket will be heading once it leaves the pad fingers crossed that today is in fact the day of course the pad in use is space launch complex for East slick 4E over at vanderberg space for space once it launches Falcon 9 will fly in a southeasterly trajectory along the coast of Southern California and the western coast of Mexico as well see that that orange line is the flight path of the first stage booster it'll land down on one of spacex's three drone ships of course the only one that's currently out at the west coast is of course I still love you once this mission is complete this will be the 82nd drone ship Landing for this particular drone ship overall there have been 210 drone ship Landings to date this would be number 21 and the space 66 The Landing this will also be their 271st booster Landing to date couple other place and time markers this is spacex's 297th overall Falcon 9 launch at this point in time also track the 365 rolling total of launches from year to year this will be the 99th launch in the last 365 days and SpaceX is 13th in calendar year 2024 we're now T minus 14 minutes 42 seconds in counting about a minute and a half into the lock load process e e e we're now T minus 12 minutes 50 seconds in counting let's go ahead and talk about the payloads on board this particular mission of course this is starlink flight 7-13 as you saw the 13th batch of these starlinks going into shell 7 and the very creative name there there are 22 Starling satellites on board you can see an image on the left hand side of your screen of them stacked from a previous starlink launch in their flight configuration each of them clocks in at about 1,760 lb or 800 kgr once the solar panels un furl they have a wingspan of about 100 ft or 30 m they use argon Hall thrusters for orbit Maneuvers a change over from the previously used Krypton thrusters of older generation of starlinks who were built in Redmond Washington they'll be deployed at about 180 miles above the Earth's surface 290 kilm altitude at a 53 degree inclination and while we don't have a Rend in or an image from SpaceX of what these starlink V2 minis look like on orbit this image here of one of them in its on orbit configuration comes to us courtesy of heo Robotics snapped last year as they claimed this was the first on orbit picture of a starlink of V2 mini so we appreciate them for giving us a glimpse into that they're also able to capture a picture of an Amazon Project hyper satellite as well which is very much appreciated getting a glimpse into that now T minus 10 minutes 52 seconds in counting little less than four minutes away from the start of the engine chill down sequence will be the next major fueling Milestone as they condition the rocket as we continue to step through the count certainly appreciate the more than 3,300 of you who are watching live if you haven't already you can hit the like button that would be very much appreciated to help bring this live coverage to more folks as we are hopefully getting closer to this rocket actually launching and clearing the way for an open weekend and for all of our friends and viewers watching in the Southern California area hope you're all doing well given the amount of rain and the flooding that we've seen and I've got family in Southern California as well so I know it's been challenging to say the least hopefully you're all starting to dry out at this point that things weren't too bad someone in the comment Taco Chan mentions uh feel free to hit the like button two times appreciate the sentiment but I think if you click it twice it'll unlike the video so respectfully once is more than enough but the sentiment is very well taken so thank you for that we're now T minus 8 minutes 51 seconds in counting less than two minutes away from the start of the engine chill down sequence as we're coming up on that next fueling Milestone it has been far from an uneventful day for SpaceX certainly as is basically always the case for them these days but particularly today it was quite eventful as these four gentlemen returned to Earth their crude Dragon spacecraft splashing down off the coast of Daytona Beach here in Florida ending a more than 20-day stay at the space station and a 47h hour Journey back down to spash down in the Atlantic Ocean this afternoon or excuse me uh that was this morning so smiling faces this is them as they parted their plane over in Houston welcomed back by the team at axium space as they are now getting re acclimated to our 1G Earth gravity having spent more than two weeks in microgravity in fact a little bit of history with this flight the gentleman who is second from the right or third from the left however you want to phrase it there's a commander Michael Lopez alagria the commander of the ax3 mission who is now the first person to fly in a SpaceX crew Dragon twice he will forever go down as the first astronaut to do that retired Nas astronaut who has now completed six distinct flights to space and given that he and Commander Peggy witson rotate duties commanding these private astronaut missions for axium space it'll join the seven Mission Club very small circle probably sometime next year we're now T minus 6 minutes 20 seconds in counting little more than a minute through the process of thermally conditioning the engines coming up in just a couple seconds the first stage kerosene Lo be complete and in about a minute we should be getting visuals from SpaceX so of course as soon as we have those available we will bring them into the live stream here the next part of the process will be the strong back retract to T minus 4 minutes and 30 seconds e now T minus 4 minutes 40 seconds in counting as you see we now have visual of the rocket and the weather is significantly better than it was a day ago What A Difference A Day Makes right coming up on the strong back retract sequence beginning transporter erector will recline about 13 degrees away from the falcon9 rocket for now T minus 3 minutes 22 seconds in counting you see the strong back reclining there away from the Falcon 9 rocket barely clear skies in Southern California from this Vantage Point Pogo bleed our T minus 2 minutes 31 seconds in counting less than 30 seconds second stage liquid oxygen loading should be complete which point the Falcon 9 will be fully fueled and ready to go less than two minutes now to flight stage two locks close up and here the call out that stage two lock load is complete starting to see that venting for ground gas Clos he you hear the call out for that venting is moving basically perpendicular to the rocket suggest that there's a little bit of a breeze out there but hopefully nothing that is too much for the rocket it doesn't appear to be coming up on one minute to lift off Falcon is start up should be hearing the call up from the launch director that we are go for launch in about 7 Seconds LD is go for launch and there's that good call out we are go for launch coming up in just over 30 seconds T minus 30 seconds we're going to go ahead and let SpaceX take us through the final 20 seconds let's listen in stage one pressing for play T minus 15 seconds T minus 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ignition and lift off of Falcon 9 go starlink go Space X chamber pressure is nominal vehicle is pitching down range power and Telemetry nominal and after struggling with weather throughout the week is suic Falcon 9 rocket is on its way supporting the starlink 7-13 mission vehicle now traveling faster than the speed of sound a little over a minute into flight Max q that call up for Max Q the point of greatest aerodynamic pressure on the rocket greatest stressor it will feel as it continues to climb nine healthy Merlin 1D engines continue to burn now a minute 30 into flight mvac chill has begun the call out for mvac chill they're thermally conditioning the upper stage engine before it's burn coming up we're going to have a few different events in Rapid succession t plus 2 minutes 26 seconds will be moo main engine cutoff followed 3 seconds later by stage separation and then the MC engine start 2 minutes 30 seconds into flight some great views of the United States as the Falcon 9 continues to climb stage one they all down we go stage separation confirmed stage two ignition all good call outs all good visuals that we're seeing from both the first and second stages of the Falcon 9 rocket stage two propulsion nominal you can see the Hypersonic grid fins now deploying on the Falcon n first stage as it's preparing to make its way back down toward the Drone ship of course I still love you fairing separation confirmed and with those fairings gone these Starling satellites now exposed to the vacuum of space for the the first time on this flight you can see that fairing half falling back down that's incredible the fairing havs will slowly drop down to the Pacific Ocean under parachutes where they will be recovered and refurbished again for flight not sure if the one we just saw was the one but coming into this Mission we did hear from spacex's John Edwards that one of the fairing halves was making its 14th flight on this mission which fun fact does not make it a flight leader there's actually one with 15 flights under its belt now coming up on four minutes into this Mission both vehicles continue to follow a nominal trajectory the next Milestone that we're about to cross will be at t plus 6 minutes and 8 seconds when the first stage entry burn begins you can see the Falcon 9 first stage has reached its apy as its altitude is now starting to drop reached a height of 117 kilometers before it started making its descent once that entry burn starts you'll also see that speedometer drop pretty quickly as it starts to pump the brakes making its way down toward the Drone ship waiting for it in the Pacific Ocean we now coming up on five minutes into def flight still a nominal burn on the second stage Merlin vacuum engine its burn will last until t Plus 8 minutes and 38 seconds when that engine will cease firing it'll go into a parking orbit until t plus 53 minutes and 28 seconds when it will reignite for a quick 1second burn setting up for the starlink separation at a t plus 1 Hour 2 minutes and 22 seconds one our channel members Joe Howard chuckling at his uh reference to the movie Airplane there stage one entry burn startup you see the start of that entry burn and as promise you see this pedometer is plummeting rapidly as the Falcon 9 slows down making its way toward the Drone ship of course I still love burn shut down there's the conclusion of that entry burn both vehicles continue to follow a nominal trajectory there some great views as the Falcon 9 first stage comes back down through looks like some STS has saved the call at the flight termination system has been deactivated or safed a little over seven minutes into flight coming up the landing burn will begin just shy of a minute from now or a little less than a minute at t plus 7 minutes and 58 seconds stage two at FTS say safed he that similar call out that we just heard on the Falcon 9 first stage but for the second stage everything moving nominally with this Mission so faric that call up simply means that the falcon9 first stage traveling now below the speed of sound coming up on the start of Landing burn now less than 10 seconds away stage one Landing burn terminal guidance you saw that green flash of the tab the igniter for that engine as it's making its way down to where the Drone ship which is just come into view the landing legs will be deploying soon stage one Landing confirmed and touchdown this particular booster now completing its 14th flight to date this is booster tail number 1071 in the SpaceX Fleet and hear that call out for seal orbit insertion as the second stage injury engine cut off and as previously mentioned now that the vehicle is in a good Park orbit it'll continue on that Coast until till t+ 53 minutes 28 seconds for that 1 second burn of that Merlin vacuum engine setting up for a starling satellite deployment at t+ 1 Hour 2 minutes and 22 seconds because SpaceX cuts off its visuals right after booster Landing these days unfortunately we can't stay with you through satellite deployment so we'll go ahead and wind things down here but before we do we do have a number of things to talk about Lots coming up as mentioned this week we're going to be very busy here on the Space Coast turning our attention first over to launch complex 39a here at nasis Kennedy Space Center where you see a Falcon 9 rocket horizontal and SpaceX yesterday completed a wet dress rehearsal or a tanking test of the Nova sea Lander from intuitive machines on Valentine's Day SpaceX is preparing to launch the im1 mission this will be the second and latest in the commercial lunar payo services or clipse program robotic missions that will head to the Moon bringing on board not only several NASA science instruments but a number of commercial payloads as well so instead of NASA building the Landers as in as they do for Mars or previously for the moon they're now a commercial customer of previously uh astrobotic with its Paragon Lander and now intuitive machines with its Nova sea Lander coming up later this year we'll also see if they are ready which it seems like they're trending towards that Firefly Aerospace is working on its blue ghost Lander which is set to launch later this year there's also another intuitive machines launch on this schedule and astrobotic will be back for another bite at the Apple with its Griffin Lander significantly larger than its paragan Lander and a mission much more challenging heading to the moon's South Pole and with a much more expensive payload NASA's Viper Rover so lots of excitement with the moon starts this coming week with this im1 Mission believe there may be another fueling test there may be another up to three more fueling tests actually as I'm being reminded by Stephen uh those coming up over the next few days as they want to make sure they are fully prepared for and understand all the fueling processes involved with this bit of a unique circumstance as is the reason why you're seeing this Mission launch from PAD 39a as the Nova sea Lander needs to be fueled as close to liftoff as possible giving it the best chance of reaching the moon on its planned trajectory and course then over at spacex's other pad on Florida Space Coast space launch complex 40 over cap canaval space force station there is a mission for the US space force a national security Mission named ussf 124 which is actually scheduled also to launch on the 14th on the opposite end of the day so be sure to keep an eye out on our launch schedule over at spaceflightnow.com for any updates and changes to those as they are both Dynamic and complex missions and a launch date slip is certainly not out of the realm of possibility but be sure to stay with us and if you haven't already subscribed to the channel That is a good time to do so and also a good time to become a channel member so you can see both of those launches in stunning 4K before we go ahead and do our traditional close with the update on the mission stats want to thank some folks for their support of our coverage this evening Mark Casada with a $10 Super Chat thank you so much Mark who says love this stuff Christopher Jones with a $2 Super Chat thank you so much Christopher Mitchell Wilbur with a $10 Super Chat as well one of our wonderful channel members who says really appreciate this channel good job as always thank you Mitchell we certainly try another Channel member Nelson Rees with a generous $20 Super Chat who says will Robin Smith is the goat of space launch coverage well I don't know that I necessarily deserve such accolades but I will I will humbly accept them else thank you Kalisa Lee also with a very generous $20 Super Chat thank you Kalisa one of our wonderful channel members who says fantastic job as always thank you will mods and all space FL now for bringing us this awesome coverage appreciate all you do thanks for always being a strong supporter of ours kistia and Nelson Reay is also marking one month of Channel membership the message of let's go space enthusiasts yes indeed and as space enthusiasts to bring everyone up to speed on where things stack now that we have some new la Mission stats start with SpaceX as we always do or whatever launch company is launching on a given day that we're doing one of these streams this is the 14th flight of Falcon 9 booster 1071 this is the 297th Falcon 9 launch to dat it was spacex's 12th falcon9 flight of 2024 their 12th orbital launch of this year as well this is spacex's 99th orbital launch within the last 365 days their 65th orbital launch from slick 4 East the 133rd overall orbital launch from this pad as well and the fifth launch from Vandenberg in 2024 moving on to some recovery stats this was spacex's 82nd landing on the Drone ship of course I still love you the 200 11th SpaceX drone ship landing and the 271st Falcon booster Landing for SpaceX to date finally rounding it out taking a global look at the space industry and the stats as they stand now this was the fifth orbital launch from California the 13th orbital launch from us soil the 14th orbital launch from a US rocket company bringing in rocket lab with their four of aind mission from New Zealand and this was the 27th oal launch globally this year want to see a breakdown of that we got you covered with our wonderful new pie chart here to break down the launches and their various representative countries the US continues to lead the way as it has for all of 2024 so far with 14 launches 52% of the orbital Launches on the year China with a 30% coming in at the second spot with eight launches so far India was actually the first orbital launch of the year it's tied with Japan and now Russia has entered into the launch conversation with its first launch of a soyu rocket that happened earlier this morning and Iran completing our pie chart with two Launches on the year or about 7% of the orbital launch es for this calendar year so far should say this very young calendar year so far as we have plenty more left to go and lots we know coming up including the moon mission I just mentioned and of course we've got a crew launch later this month another crew rotation Mission the quartet of the crew 8 SpaceX Mission heading up to the International Space Station no earlier than February 22nd time of course dependent on the launch of the im1 mission which is occupying pad 39a so we will watch that closely and see when that actually gets on the books again be sure to check back on our launch schedule it's always being updated new things being added regularly that'll give you the latest information on all the launches and so we do have one more vote of support here this evening roskin with a $5 Super Chat thank you so much Ross who says appreciate the coverage this evening well thank you so much for your support and that'll go ahead and do it for us on a Friday night as we all head into what is hopefully a wonderful and relaxing weekend for everybody want to first off thank the moderators in the live chat Stephanie B and thought we had another one in here earlier but I do not see them well we'll thank the the mik bot robot as well Stephanie is actually a person so she gets more of the accolades also want to thank Stephen young our editor for running the technical aspects of the show and most importantly want to thank you for being with us for a wonderful night and finally getting starlink 7-13 mission often on its way so for all of us here at space flight now I hope you have a wonderful weekend thank you for your time and attention and we look forward to seeing you for more launch coverage next week until then be good to yourself be good to others and we will see you next time good night