Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight NowĪbout 15 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage released 54 Starlink satellites over the North Atlantic Ocean traveling at a velocity of some 17,000 mph. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launches on the Starlink 4-34 mission. It was the 40th space launch attempt overall from Florida’s Space Coast this year, including launches by SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and Astra.
This flight marked SpaceX’s 42nd Falcon 9 launch so far in 2022. Teams initially targeted another launch attempt Saturday, but SpaceX announced Saturday evening the mission would be delayed to Sunday night. It was a similar story Friday night as SpaceX loaded propellants into the Falcon 9, but stopped the countdown just inside of T-minus 60 seconds.
Similar weather conditions Wednesday night forced officials to call another scrub before tanking, and SpaceX stopped the countdown at about T-minus 30 seconds Thursday night as weather remained “no go” for launch. Lightning flashes lit up the sky over Florida’s Space Coast throughout the evening. The mission finally got off the ground after five days of delays, which began Tuesday night when the launch team called off a countdown just before starting to load propellants into the Falcon 9 rocket. The Falcon 9 took off powered by nine kerosene-fueled Merlin 1D engines, firing into a nighttime sky as it soared northeast from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. EDT Sunday (0018:40 GMT Monday) to begin SpaceX’s Starlink 4-34 mission. Liftoff of the 229-foot-tall (60-meter) Falcon 9 rocket occurred at 8:18:40 p.m. SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Sunday night after five days of weather delays, hauling 54 more Starlink satellites to orbit as the company continues its push toward completing more than 60 missions this year.
0 kommentar(er)
