Elon Musk’s SpaceX has an ambitious plan
to provide low-cost internet to the entire
world — but not everyone is celebrating.
However, Musk has a plan to win them over
will the third launch of SpaceX Starlink satellites.
Hawthorne-based SpaceX is preparing to launch
the first rocket of the New Year from Florida’s
Space Coast on Monday, when the company is
expected to send a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit
with 60 SpaceX Starlink satellites.
The liftoff can be watched live through a
SpaceX webcast beginning shortly before the
launch window opens at 6:19 p.m. EST Monday
from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch
pad.
It will mark the first launch in a packed
slate of missions from Cape Canaveral in 2020,
which could see more than 30 launches by SpaceX
and United Launch Alliance if schedules hold.
The mission will mark the 78th flight of a
Falcon 9 rocket since 2010, and the 81st flight
of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 family, which includes
three launches by the triple-core Falcon Heavy
vehicle.
The upcoming launch, the third of its kind
for the SpaceX Starlink program, will bring
to 180 the number of satellites that so far
make up the constellation of small satellites
that promise to beam high-speed internet access
to every corner of the globe.
In this video Engineering Today will discuss
the next two launches by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
One will try to keep SpaceX Starlink's satellites
from blocking the stars and another will be
SpaceX crew Dragon test.
Let’s get into details.
Falcon 9 was originally scheduled to launch
no earlier than December 30th, SpaceX delayed
its next mission – Starlink-2 – to January
3rd for unknown reasons.
Weather on the new date was unfortunately
forecast to be terrible at SpaceX’s LC-40
launch pad and had a 60% chance of scrubbing
the mission.
SpaceX must have been at least as concerned
about conditions for drone ship Of Course
I Still Love You (OCISLY) in the Atlantic
Ocean.
High seas and thus a pitching drone ship deck
can make booster landings much riskier, as
the company ultimately skipped launch window
for the SpaceX Starlink launch target – January
6th.
The weather team at Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station predicts a greater than 90 percent
chance of acceptable conditions for launch
Monday night.
If the launch is delayed to Tuesday night,
the liftoff time will move around 20 minutes
earlier.
There is an 80 percent chance of favorable
weather Tuesday night, with slightly higher
odds of cloudiness that could breach the cumulus
cloud rule.
The launch Monday will kick off a brisk pace
of launches by SpaceX planned for 2020.
Ultimately, on missions where SpaceX has nothing
to lose by delaying the launch, the company
now puts a successful booster recovery much
higher on its list of priorities.
As recently as March 2018, SpaceX intentionally
expended a new Falcon 9 booster because ocean
conditions would have been extremely risky
to OCISLY and crew and the company (or customer)
had no interest in delaying the launch further
to wait for calmer seas.
The first set of satellites launches on 23
May 2019.
After the launch astronomer Alex Parker said
his “ heart sank” when he saw the first
pictures of satellite train.
Astronomers and scientists have often criticised
the ‘satellite constellation’ for being
too bright.
When the first set of 60 satellites streaked
through the sky, the results ‘ satellite
train’ rang fears of man-made lights outnumbering
the stars in the sky — lights that will
hamper the view of on-ground telescopes trying
to see into the far reaches of the universe.
The Astronomical Society and SpaceX have been
engaged in multiple discussions to find ways
to solve the problem.
Last month, Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX President
and CEO, announced that even though the country
had not anticipated the problem — they were
determined to correct it.
In response to concerns from astronomers,
Shotwell said one of the 60 satellites set
for launch Monday will test a new less-reflective
coating designed to reduce the brightness
of the spacecraft.
The hope is, if successful, the coating will
be enough to allay fears of satellites getting
in the way of astronomical studies.
The bulk of SpaceX’s missions in 2020 will
add satellites to the company’s Starlink
constellation of broadband satellites.
SpaceX plans to operate the initial block
of 1,584 Starlink satellites in orbits 341
miles (550 kilometers) above Earth.
The company already has Federal Communications
Commission approval to deploy up to 12,000
satellites with plans to eventually launch
tens of thousands more and has hinted in additional
regulatory filings that it could seek to operate
up to 42,000 SpaceX Starlink satellites.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk has championed the
go.
The company says it hopes to begin regional
broadband service with the partially-complete
SpaceX Starlink constellation by the middle
of this year, once it has launched 12 Starlink
missions.
Starlink service for Internet consumers worldwide
will come after 24 launches, according to Shotwell.
Also coming up, on a different Cape Canaveral
launch pad, SpaceX is expected to perform
an In-Flight Abort Test of its Crew Dragon
spacecraft, a critical performance measure
before the company is cleared to transport
human astronauts to the International Space
Station sometime later this year.
An exact launch date, which depends on NASA,
has not been announced yet.
if you're not yet hyped about the upcoming
first crewed flight of SpaceX's astronaut
taxi, a new video could help get you there.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk posted the
2.5-minute animation on Twitter on Dec. 29,
2019.
It takes viewers through many of the key phases
of the Demo-2 mission, during which the company's
Crew Dragon capsule will ferry astronauts
to and from the International Space Station
(ISS) for the first time.
SpaceX will be cleared to prep for Demo-2
in earnest after Crew Dragon passes a key
in-flight test of its abort system, which
is designed to get astronauts out of harm's
way in the event of a launch emergency.
The in-flight abort test is currently scheduled
to take place on January.
11 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The capsule that will fly Demo-2 should be
ready to go shortly thereafter, Musk said
in another Dec. 29 tweet: "Crew Dragon should
be physically ready & at the Cape Canaveral,
Florida in Feb, but completing all safety
reviews will probably take a few more months."
In recent months, SpaceX engineers have put
the Crew Dragon through a series of rigorous
safety tests including additional tests of
its parachutes and engines systems.
The last time astronauts launched from U.S.
soil to the International Space Station was
in 2011.
Since then, NASA astronauts have traveled
to and from the space station on board a Soyuz
rocket that takes off in Kazakhstan courtesy
of the Russian Space Agency at a cost now
of about $86 million apiece.
If Demo-2 goes well, SpaceX crew Dragon can
start to fly operational missions to and from
the ISS for NASA.
SpaceX is contracted to fly six of these flights
with the Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon under a
September 2014 deal, which awarded the company
$2.6 billion.
Boeing got a similar, $4.2 billion contract
at the same time.
The aerospace giant will fulfill this deal
with its CST-100 Starliner capsule, which
launched for the first time last month.
That mission, the uncrewed Orbital Flight
Test (OFT), was supposed to dock with the
ISS.
But On Dec. 20, an unmanned flight was sent
into the wrong orbit and failed to dock with
the space station.
With the mission abandoned, the craft was
directed back to Earth where it parachuted
to the ground in New Mexico.
According to a NASA Office of Inspector General
report issued Nov. 14, which noted both programs
are years behind schedule.
The auditor’s office broke down the numbers
and determined the cost per astronaut to fly
with SpaceX would come out to about $55 million
and with Boeing it would be about $90 million.
Both NASA and Boeing officials pushed back
on the figures saying they failed to account
for cargo carrying capabilities and also did
not consider that SpaceX already had a Cargo
Dragon spacecraft to build off.
