SpaceX will launch two European navigation satellites tonight (Sept. 17), climate allowing.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying two spacecraft for Europe’s Galileo satnav constellation is scheduled to elevate off from Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station in Florida tonight at 6:50 p.m. EDT (1850 GMT).
SpaceX will webcast the motion dwell through its X account, starting about quarter-hour earlier than liftoff. Nevertheless, the corporate says it is maintaining its eye on the climate, which is incessantly iffy on Florida’s Area Coast. If Mom Nature does not cooperate tonight, there’s one other alternative tomorrow (Sept. 18) at across the identical time.
If all goes based on plan tonight, the Falcon 9’s first stage will return to Earth safely, touchdown at sea on the SpaceX droneship “Simply Learn the Directions” about 8.5 minutes after launch. In line with a SpaceX mission description, will probably be the twenty second liftoff and touchdown for this explicit booster — one shy of the corporate’s reuse document.
Associated: SpaceX launches 2 Galileo navigation satellites to orbit (video)
The Falcon 9’s higher stage, in the meantime will haul the 2 Galileo satellites towards medium Earth orbit, deploying them there about 3.5 hours after launch.
The Galileo constellation — Europe’s equal of the US’ International Positioning System (GPS) — resides at an altitude of 14,430 miles (23,222 kilometers). Thirty Galileo satellites have launched to this point, all however two of them atop Russian-built Soyuz rockets or Europe’s Ariane 5 heavy lifter.
The 2 outliers launched this previous April atop a Falcon 9. Europe signed a Galileo launch cope with SpaceX in late 2023 after its different choices dried up: It lower most house ties with Russia following the February 2022 Ukraine invasion, and the Ariane 5 retired final summer season. (The Ariane 5’s alternative, the Ariane 6, launched for the primary time this previous July.)
The SpaceX launch contract covers as much as 4 Galileo spacecraft, so tonight’s liftoff will presumably fulfill it.
On the April Galileo launch, the Falcon 9’s first stage didn’t attempt to make a protected touchdown; slightly, it ditched into the ocean, missing the gasoline to steer itself again for a vertical landing.
Tonight’s mission will ship the satellites to the identical distant orbital vacation spot. However SpaceX says it discovered sufficient from the primary Galileo liftoff to convey this Falcon 9 house in a single piece.
“Knowledge from that mission knowledgeable refined design and operational adjustments, together with mass reductions and trajectory changes, that may permit us to soundly get well and reuse this booster,” the corporate wrote in mission description.
“This touchdown try will take a look at the bounds of restoration, giving us helpful information on the design of the car in these elevated entry circumstances,” it added. “This in flip will assist us innovate on future car designs to make our autos extra sturdy and quickly reusable whereas increasing into more difficult reentry circumstances.”
