Watch live: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 20 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg, California

for

good evening everyone and Welcome to our

live coverage of the latest Mission from

vanderberg space Forest base it's been a

while since we've been able to say that

it's good to be

back in the Golden State getting ready

for a falcon9 launch

well Robinson Smith I'll be providing

our commentary for the duration of this

coverage we're broadcasting from the

space flight now news Bureau here at

Nasa Kennedy Space Center Stephen young

is running the technical operations of

the

broadcast of course being that this is a

West Coast based Mission our launch

photographers Adam Bernstein and Michael

Kane are off getting some well earned

rest but rest assured they'll be back in

Action before you you know it as we are

tracking a starlink launch from here in

Florida coming up in just a few days but

we'll have more on that just a moment

for now we are T-minus 30 minutes 31

seconds and counting to the launch of

the starlink 8-2 mission we do have word

from SpaceX that propellant load is in

fact underway on tonight's Mission which

means they are committing to the planned

launch attempt of the t0 liftoff time

see that right there on your screen 9

:30 p.m. Pacific 12:30 a.m. eastern

04:30 UTC for our friends joining from

around the

world this will be spacex's 33rd

dedicated starlink Mission so far in

2024 like to help support our coverage

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domain love to talk about it as we step

on through the next oh 27 minutes 35

seconds or

so going back to the memberships uh want

to welcome a few new channel members who

happened to pop in to the community as

we were getting things going so welcome

to Robert Slayton Larry Barker Larry

Baker excuse me and David Mills all

joining at the pad leader level welcome

aort we're glad to have you with

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Channel membership with pad leader level

welcome to all four of

you and for the generosity of some of

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space flight now memberships thanks so

much kisty really appreciate that bit of

generosity to kick us off in a good way

psychon not not only gifting a space

flight now membership but also joining

with Channel membership himself at the

pad leader level welcome aboard psycho N

I know we've seen your handle pop up a

number of times in these streams so glad

you're joining the member community that

is great to see and to Oscar the

roselina fan 2022 has been a member for

two months saying thank you for two

months I hope ready rocket launches

you're in Panorama City certainly hope

that the launch goes off tonight as it

was a long night last night hoping and

waiting for what it end up being a scrub

so fingers crossed there in a better

configuration this time

around also want to

welcome Aldo Castleton joining us at pad

leader level of Channel membership and a

thanks to both Wicked code and to

Trinity AKA mam t two of our

pre-existing wonderful channel members

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memberships a

peace as an independent news

organization we are very appreciative to

our

members helping create new members so

thanks to all of you for that and lastly

for now thanks to ad and welcome aboard

to channel membership joining us at the

P leader

level and with all that for now let's

turn back to the mission at

hand starlink

8-2

Mission we're about 10 minutes into the

process of propellant load for this

Falcon 9 flight from Vanderburg space

Force Base

again SpaceX looking for a t0 liftoff at

9:30 Pacific 12:30 a.m. eastern 0430 UTC

let's go ahead and talk about the

countdown for that mission some of the

Milestones that have passed and what is

still yet to come in this fueling

process the countdown for a falcon 9

begins of course with the poll being

taken to start propo that comes up at

the team minus 38 minute Mark we do know

that of course the go-ahead for fueling

was given which began a little more than

10 minutes ago with a couple of

Events first was uh propellant loading

with both rp1 or rocket gr kerosene on

the first and second stages of the

Falcon 9 rocket at the same time liquid

oxygen is also loaded on board the first

stage at the T minus 30 minute mark it

begin loading cenic helium into the

pressure vessels on the falcon9 first

stage that helies used to pressurize the

main propellant tanks during flight same

process comes up at about the T-minus 26

minute Mark so just about 2 minutes ago

is when that

began T minus 23 minutes the loading of

the second stage kerosene tank

concluded or is about to conclude I

guess we're just a minute away from that

wrapping

up at about tus 20 minutes and 50

seconds strong back chill down process

begins or folks who have been with us

for a cape base launch you'll know that

as the big

vent happens as the feed Lin being

chilled and prior to Second Stage liquid

oxygen loading which Speaking of that

comes up at about T-minus 16 minutes

before

liftoff the T-minus 7 Minute Mark the

chill down of the N9 Marland entrance

gets under way it evolves flowing a

small amount of liquid oxygen through

the plumbing and the Turbo pumps and it

protects the engines from the risk of

thermal shock and damage during the

startup

sequence about 6 minutes prior to

liftoff the first stage kerosene tank

should be full then at tus 4 and a half

minutes we'll see the strong back

retract sequence

begin starts with the clamp arms

underneath the payload fairings opening

up and then the transporter erector with

a strong back will recline about 13

degrees away from the Falcon 9 a little

bit different here in Vandenberg

compared to the cap based launches

3 minutes out the first stage liquid

oxygen load is complete and at T minus 2

minutes second stage locks load has

wrapped up at which point the Falcon 9

rocket is fully fueled with 1 million

pounds of propellant in the final 60

seconds control of the countdown is

handed over from the ground sequencer

the Falcon 's onboard flight computers

the propell tanks are brought up to

flight pressure SpaceX launch director

gives their go for liftoff at 45 seconds

out ENT ignition Comm command is issued

at T minus 3 seconds and if all nine

Merlin engs ignite and are healthy the

flight computer will give the command

for the hold down clamps to release the

Falcon 9 or t0o

liftoff coming

up once again at 9:30 p.m. Pacific 12:30

a.m. eastern 0430 UTC or in 21 minutes

and 50 seconds

well there wasn't a launch today here in

FLA Florida but there was some action

that we spotted over near the Press site

NASA's Kennedy Space

Center take a look at some video that I

was able to capture you see a pair of

payload fairings that were cruised on by

the Vehicle Assembly Building which

will'll come into frame in just a moment

here you can tell these payload fairings

have some age on them so more than

likely flight proven fairings although

SpaceX doesn't publ

the tail number of the fairings or how

many times they've flown so it's a

little hard to track the history of them

we believe these fairings will be used

in an upcoming starlink Mission which is

set for this

weekend this is a good video because it

gives you a set of scale and for had

just a a temporary Focus issue there got

right back to

it can see in the background some of the

buildings of importance here at the uh

Kennedy Space Center those small ones

just to the left of the

VAB it's near the area where they work

on the

X-37B space plane and just behind the

VAB on the left hand side from this

perspective is the C3 PF the build where

they were working on Starliner Boeing's

spacecraft that'll bury astronauts to

the International Space Station Now set

to launch on May

17th and that building now immediately

behind the

fairings is a launch control

center where they have the firing

rooms and you can see actually just in

the back background and I didn't I

didn't even notice this when I was

shooting it this evening but you can see

the crawler transporter

to hanging out in the background

there is getting ready to move the base

of the mobile launcher 2 which will be

used for future Artemis missions

starting with the Artemis

4light now is going to be using a

slightly larger version of the SLS

rocket which instead of the itum

cryogenic propulsion stage or of the

upper part of the rocket that will be

retired and instead they'll use What's

called the exploration upper

stage and so because the rocket is

taller they need a taller mobile

launcher and that is currently in the

works by a company called Beal

unfortunately the mobile launcher 2 is

years behind schedule and quite notably

over budget

but they seem to have gotten their

finances in order and have gotten the

schedule in a little bit of a better

place so the work has been progressing

fairly steadily

now just to the right of this fr frame

is the pad where actually mobile

launcher 1 is sitting at right now

that's pad 39b where the space launch

system rocket

launches previously of course the space

shuttle we're now tmin 17 minutes 20

seconds and counting just a little over

a minute away from the start of second

stage liquid oxygen load on the Falcon

and

rocket e

we're now tus 15 minutes 57 seconds of

counting taking a look back at the live

chat for a moment here want to thank uh

Nick trins for our $10 Super Chat thank

you so much Nick really appreciate that

giving a shout out to Nikki Gracie and

Dad down in Santa Pao

California hope the family is doing well

want to welcome both Dave rich and media

Zoo for joining at the mission

specialist and launch director levels

respectively Channel membership really

appreciate that from the both of you and

welcome aboard we're glad to have you

with us and a thanks to uh k h another

one of our wonderful channel members

gifting $20 Super Chat really appreciate

that KH who I think was a gifted Channel

membership just this evening if I'm not

mistaken KH says thank you to this

community so

kind we've talked about the timeline of

events for the fueling process of the

Falcon 9 let's go ahead now and pivot to

the flight of this vehicle and where it

will be going once it leaves the

LaunchPad

Starling g-2 Mission similar flight

pattern to

the missions heading to the seventh

shell of the starlink constellation

after lifting off from slick 4E or space

launch complex 4 East and federber space

Force Base the Falcon 9 rocket will fly

in a southeasterly trajectory along

coast of California and Mexico

following stage separation first stage

booster is going to land on the only

drone ship that is out there on the west

coast that is of course I still love

you if successful this Mission will Mark

the 89th Landing of a booster on this

particular drone ship as well as the

306th Falcon booster Landing to date

on board this Falcon 9 rocket of course

batch of starlink

satellites taking a look at what those

starlinks look like in launch

configuration there are 20 of them on

board this particular Mission each of

them clocking in at about

1,760 lb or about 800 kilog with their

solar panels infilled they have a

wingspan of about 100 ft or 30 m they

use argon Hall thrusters for inorbit

Maneuvers as opposed to the previously

used Krypton Hall thrusters they were

built in Redmond Washington which is

near Seattle and they'll be deployed at

about 180 Mi or 290 kg in altitude at a

53 Dee

inclination if you haven't already had a

chance to pop over to our website

spaceflightnow.com and read the preview

article on this launch we'll note that

there are only 20 starlinks in total on

this flight however 13 of those have the

direct sell capability something that

SpaceX has been rolling out over the

course of this year a little by little

until this will bring the total number

of announced direct to cell starlinks up

to

25 so far

well we don't have a great uh image from

SpaceX of what the starlink V2 minis

look like and they're on orbit

configuration we do have this image from

hoo robotics to give you an idea of what

a starlink V2 mini looks like on orbit

you see the solar panels stretching out

to either side of the satellite main

body

this photo was captured last

year claiming to be the first direct

observation of a starling V2 mini on

orbit at T minus 11 minutes 28 seconds

in

counting as was the case with our most

recent launch from the

cape this is a fair fairly young booster

as compared to some of

the quotequote oldtimers for the SpaceX

Fleet this booster only launching for

the fourth time on this flight let's go

ahead and take a moment talk about the

history of this particular booster till

number 1082 in the SpaceX Fleet it's

first couple flights similar to the one

it's about to embark on right now they

were both Starling commissions the first

was back on January 3D of this year that

was starlink mission 7-9

that was followed up a month later the

starlink 7-14 mission on February 15th

of this

year and then most recently was a

national security mission for this

booster that was on April 11th launching

the ussf 62 flight sending up the

weather system followon microwave

satellite a flight booked through the US

space systems command it's the first of

this military satellite

program we're now T minus 10

minutes and

Counting now Less Than 3 minutes away

from the start of the engine Shi down

sequence

e

e e

we're now T minus 8 minutes 9 seconds in

counting taking a look at the live chat

here I want to thank the more than n uh

excuse me 17,000 of you who are watching

with us live if you haven't already be

sure to hit the like button allow some

more folks to find their way into this

live

coverage we are now less than eight

minutes to the plan lift off of the

falcon9 rocket also want to thank a few

more folks directly for your support

this evening thanks to Steve Nelson for

a $5 Super Chat really appreciate that

Steve thanks to Don Carley with a very

generous $50 Super Chat my goodness done

thank you so much for supporting us at

That level that is very kind of you

sir thanks to the Jones family ranch for

also a very generous $20 Super Chat

really appreciate that Jones family

ranch who says Sierra Madre Middle

School eighth graders are watching for

the launch from the Catalina ENT

Camp well if that group of eighth

graders can hear me hello to Sierra

Madre Middle

School I hope you're all having a

wonderful n conclusion to your eighth

grade Year and best of luck in high

school it's a fast for a year so

remember to have

fun and when you're ready to graduate

consider going to Northwestern my alma

Mo because that's a great school

too also want to welcome Susan Mo Sharky

joining us with Channel membership at

the Pao level really appreciate that

welcome aboard we're glad to have you

with

us some Joker named Adam Bernstein

photography gifted five space flight now

memberships and all seriousness thanks

Adam

of course for those who are not familiar

Adam as one of our launch

photographers and uh because this is

over in California he wasn't able to

make the jaunt out to the Golden State

for a launch tonight so he's got the

evening off joining with us virtually

thanks to uh clist one of our other

Wonder channel members you're giting a

$20 Super Chat thank you clisa and I

will Echo her sentiment saying hit the

like button hearts are great but likes

are what pushes the stream up and makes

easier for people to find it that is

very

true Edward Pearson gifting a very

generous $50 Super Chat thank you so

much Edward really appreciate your

supporting at that level and same to Jim

Edgar also gifting a $50 Super Chat

really appreciate that Jim good to see

you again this even evening Jim says Jim

uh Chris Jim and Nick are watching from

Seattle

Washington and my best homage to frasia

Crane Hello

Seattle finally to cool corn for a $2

Super Chat saying I get a nice view of

the rocket in my

backyard is certainly one of the

benefits of being near to a pad speaking

of near to a pad we now have views of

this one and you can see as I mentioned

the tanks are pressing for strong back

retract SpaceX

booster looking

fairly unfl proven even though it's

flown already three times but far less

Sy than some of the others that we've

seen

recently still very clearly make out

that SpaceX blue

lettering that call you just heard they

are preparing for the strong back

retrack strong back lower has

started which is now in motion starts

with the clamp arms underneath the

payload fairings opening up and then

here in vandenbberg the strong back will

recline about 13 degrees away from the

Falcon 9 rocket as opposed to the degree

and a half that we're used to out here

in

Florida there you see the strong backer

The Transporter erector now in motion

we're now T minus 3 minutes 15 seconds

in

counting and for our friends watching in

the area of California or if you've got

any kind of visibility on the rocket

just letting you know in real time the

well the clock that you see there at the

base of the window you're looking at

complete right now that is the SpaceX

feed which is coming in on a slight

DeLay So in real time we're about 11

seconds ahead of that so again real time

we're about T minus 2 minutes 33 seconds

and counting so just look at the clock

at the bottom of the screen subtract

subtract 11

seconds and if you've got inperson

visibility in the rocket that's what

you're going to want to watch

for so don't want you to miss your

opportunity

coming up on the conclusion of fueling

of the falcon9 rocket the next we're

expecting to hear his second stage locks

load

complete meantime want to welcome or uh

thank Becky haes for a $5 Super Chat and

thanks to Mighty HTV for giting five

space l now memberships really

appreciate that from the both of

you and hello to Heidi Hayden saying

hello from Evanston Home of my alma

Northwestern thank you Heidi and go

cats stage two locks load

complete and with that call out the

Falcon 9 is now fully fueled and ready

for

flight we about a minute and a half away

from the plan liftoff for the starlink

ground gas 8-2 mission

[Applause]

again just as a reminder in real time it

is T minus 53 seconds in

counting falet 9 is in startup

and the next call we're expecting is go

for

launch go for

launch and with that looks like we're

going to see a falcon fly in just about

35 seconds from now on the SpaceX clock

again for those watching in real time

you are now 20 seconds away we're going

to go ahead and step back for a moment

listening to the final countdown from

SpaceX and we'll be back with you just

on the other side of

liftoff tus 15

seconds T minus 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ignition and lift off Falcon 9 go

starlink go Space X

entertainment pressure is nominal

and had a good lift off nominal of the

Falcon 9 rocket so far coming up on a

minute into

flight vehicle is supersonic hopefully

folks there in Southern California

getting a great view of Falcon 9 in

Flight is now traveling faster than the

speed of

sound and with that call the rocket is

passed through Max Q the point of

greatest aerodynamic pressure on the

vehicle coming up in the next minute

we're going to hit a few different

milestones in Fairly rapid succession

first will be first stage main engine

cut off or Mo at about t plus 2 minutes

and 31 seconds that'll be followed 3

seconds later by St

separation and then second stage engine

start

scs1 that'll be capped off by fairing

deployment just after the 3 minute Mark

that call out you just heard from SpaceX

for mvac chill they are thermally

conditioning the Merlin vacuum engine on

the Falcon 9 second stage in preparation

for the start of its

burn coming up in less than a

minute e

Mo State separation

confirmed and back

conition and all good call outs from

SpaceX and events you see here on your

screen and there go the Hypersonic grid

fins deploying there on the falcon9

first stage

fairing separation

confirmed with that the Starling

satellites are now exposed to the vacuum

of space for the first time on this

flight can see a little bit of the glow

of the lights from the California

coastline there from the cameras on the

falcon9 first stage it's up in the Box

in the upper left hand side of the

screen now trajectory

so far all appears to be going smoothly

with this Falcon