SpaceX launches powerful satellite for SiriusXM from Florida’s Space Coast

Updated: December 5, 2024, 11:32 a.m. EST

T minus 10 987654321 state. And the dog faces the XF. You go and pick up the assortment. The pressures are nominal pressure plus 30 seconds of flight. We enjoy some beautiful views from the vehicle. Here. Falcon Nine successfully launched from Launch Complex 39***. Kennedy’s Nono Kennedy Space Center can be seen below the vehicle. And again today we’re launching SXM nine into orbit. As you may notice, the vehicle tips over horizontally, and this is a *** maneuver known as a *** gravity turn, here heading towards the Max Q in just a few seconds. Max Q, let’s go. We just went through this Max Q moment. As I mentioned earlier, we begin to move horizontally away from the launch pad. We are still rising, but also essentially moving sideways. And as you’ve heard, we’ve just flown through Max Q, which is a damn critical moment in flight as the combined stresses caused by Falcon Nine’s acceleration through the atmosphere and ambient static pressure are at their greatest. And we just heard that for the climb, Ma Chill has begun further cooling some of those engine components in preparation for the full flow of liquid oxygen. You can follow our progress into orbit here by keeping an eye on this phase. A telemetry in the bottom corner of your screen. We’re doing a great tracking shot from the ground here. You can see that we are traveling at over 5000 kilometers per hour. We get a nice view of the rocket’s cloud as we make our way to the thinner parts of Earth’s atmosphere that emerge next. We have a heck of a series of events. These are the shutdown of the main engine, followed by stage separation and the start of the second engine. And then the Faring Separation Manager follows, the cross-stage separation, the recognition is confirmed and off we go. What you just saw was the shutdown of the nine M-One-D engines known as Miko. We then separate the two stages and then highlight the M rear engine that you currently see on your screen. In the meantime, the first stage, which you can now see on the left side of your screen, will change its orientation in preparation to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in an attempted landing on our drone ship out in the Atlantic Ocean. As you can see when the rear thruster lights up on the right side of your screen, we are now accelerating into orbit. The first stage on the left side of your screen is the coastal wall pairing separation confirmed. And there are the two halves of the flight: We now expose the nine SXM payloads to the vacuum of space and follow nominal trajectories. Great news, both stages are on their planned path. You can now see in the telemetry for the first stage that we are slowing down as we reach the peak of the first stage’s trajectory. You should notice that the altitude decreases as the vehicle heads back toward Earth. Next on the first stage is the initial firing. And for this fire, we’re relighting three of the M one D engines, starting with the middle E nine, followed shortly thereafter by the E one and E five engines. This only slows the vehicle as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere, reducing stress and improving the reusability of the vehicle during this entry burn. Falcon Nine slows down by firing its Merlin engines, but we are still moving very quickly towards Earth and this causes the vehicle to fly through Merlin’s exhaust, sometimes referred to as a cloud. This creates a thick layer of soot on the vehicle surface. This is why you can see that some of our flight-tested vehicles look a bit particularly warm and that the soot comes from the carbon-based fuel that Falcon Nine uses. So the entry burning should start in about a minute and usually takes about 20 seconds. And again, the second stage on the right side of your screen moves further into orbit. Now almost 13,000 kilometers per hour at an altitude of about 160 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. We can see that the first stage is now accelerating towards Earth. Its height decreases. You can see these grid ribs on the left side of your screen. These help to aerodynamically control the vehicle as it re-enters the atmosphere. So pay attention. You can see them tilting and steering the vehicle as we head towards the drone ship. Both stages continue to follow nominal trajectories. Great news, things are still looking good for both stages coming up shortly at the entrance. So pay attention to the left side of your screen and the telemetry level 1 stored by FTS. So we are currently in the middle of the entry phase. You can see that we’re quickly slowing down the first phase and we’re sitting down to get to the conclusion of this entry phase. And now, as I mentioned, we’re doing this entry burn to slow the vehicle and reduce re-entry stresses. And this in turn increases the reusability of the vehicle. And of course, reusability is key to reducing the cost of space travel and enabling more investment in important scientific research. The Falcon Nine first stage supporting today’s mission has just completed this entry for the 19th time. The Merlins on this first stage are optimized for sea level, achieving about 100 and 90,000 pounds of thrust during ascent and descent. The M-Back engine on the right side of your screen is optimized to operate in the vacuum of space. And this engine produces just about 202,120,000 pounds of thrust in a vacuum. We have just heard that stage two has entered final guidance, meaning we are nearing the end of our transonics. Meanwhile, stage one has just fallen below the speed of sound. We are now approaching the thicker parts of the Earth’s atmosphere and preparing to land with our drone ship. Second stage approaches its parking orbit. You can see these grid ribs on the left. Now start positioning the vehicle and guiding it to the ship. First stage landing burn. Stage two FTS was saved. Let’s go. We just searched and said that the landing attack has begun on the first stage. As you can see, we’re flying through the clouds and there’s the drone ship waiting in the ocean below nominal orbit and landing as the boy, level one confirmed, and there you have it, the landing marks the 380th successful recovery of a Orbital-class rocket marked by Spacex, including the first landings for both Falcon Nine and Falcon Heavy. Well, this is also an important milestone, because just read the instructions just achieved the 1/100 landing. And in the middle of landing, Baron, we heard that the MVAC engine had successfully shut down and we had a *** nominal orbital insertion. With this confirmation, the coastal phase of the second stage now begins. After this idling phase, we fire up the M engine again for the second time. This should happen around T plus 26 minutes. The payload is then deployed around the T-plus-34 minute mark. So we’re taking a damn short break, but I’ll see you back here in about 15 minutes.

SpaceX launches powerful satellite for SiriusXM from Florida’s Space Coast

Updated: December 5, 2024, 11:32 a.m. EST

SpaceX sent a powerful digital audio radio satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit from central Florida late Thursday morning. With the so-called SXM-9 mission, SpaceX launched the 10th satellite built by Maxar for SiriusXM. The satellite’s high-tech resources allow SiriusXM programming to reach radio devices, including those in moving vehicles. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying this mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 11:10 a.m. The first stage booster supporting this mission was on its 19th flight and successfully landed on a drone ship station in the Atlantic Ocean after the first stage separation.>> Rewatch the launch in the player above

MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. –

SpaceX sent a powerful digital audio radio satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit from central Florida late Thursday morning.

Called the SXM-9 mission, SpaceX launched the tenth satellite that Maxar had built for SiriusXM. The satellite’s high-tech resources allow SiriusXM programs to reach radios, including those in moving vehicles.

The Falcon 9 rocket carrying this mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 11:10 a.m

The first stage booster supporting this mission was on its 19th flight and successfully landed on a drone ship station in the Atlantic Ocean following first stage separation.

>> Watch the launch again in the player above