SpaceX Falcon 9 - Iridium-2 NEXT

  SpaceX Falcon 9 Full Thrust - Iridium-2 NEXT - Launching June 25, 2017

Screenshot from SpaceX - Iridium-2 NEXT - Tim Dodd was too slow to have this shot

Mission Rundown: SpaceX FT - Iridium-2 NEXT

Written: January 26, 2021

Lift Off Time	June 25, 2017 - 20:25:18 UTC - 13:25:18 PDT
Mission Name	Iridium-2 NEXT
Launch Provider	SpaceX
Customer	Iridium communications.
Rocket	Falcon 9 Full Thrust serial number B1036-1
Launch Location	Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
Payload	10 Iridium NEXT Communication Satellites
Payload mass	8 600 kg ~ 18 960 pounds + 1 000 kg dispenser
Where are the satellites going?	Polar Low Earth Orbit - 625 km parking orbit at 86.66° below the 778 x 778 km operational 86.4° orbit
Will they be attempting to recover the first stage?	Yes - JRTI has been towed downrange
Where will the first stage land?	Just Read The Instructions - 326 km down south
Will they be attempting to recover the fairings?	Yes - They tried, the parachutes failed
Are these fairings new?	Yes - Two Type 1 boat hull sized fairings - 34 x 17 feet with 10 evenly spaced ventilation ports in a circle
This will be the:	– 37th flight of all Falcon 9 rockets – 17th flight of Falcon 9 Full Trust “V1.2” booster  – 15 maiden flight of a Falcon 9 FT rocket – 1st flight with titanium grid fins – 4th SpaceX launch from SLC-4E – 13th booster landing overall – 9th mission for SpaceX in 2017
Where to watch Where to read more	SpaceX link hosted by John Insprucker Other link Tim Dodd’s old live videofeed

Launch debriefing (This is what happend)

- T-00:13:17 - T  00:00:00 T+00:01:17 T+00:02:27 T+00:02:36 T+00:02:46 - T+00:03:16 T+00:05:52 T+00:07:12 T+00:09:09 - - T+00:52:15 - T+00:57:21 - - - -

Pre Launch Mission Rundown from 0:00 then Q&A SpaceX live but very, very mute feed at 00:00 Because of technical issues I watched both Webcasts Liftoff at 13:18 - No flight telemetry working MaxQ at 14:35 - The white vapour trail is Max Q MECO at 14:44, stage separation at 14:46 SES-1 at 15:54 Boost back burn at 16:03 by 3 Merlin 1D+ 32 seconds This was a boost brake burn - 1st stage didn’t fly back Fairing separation at 16:34 Entry burn 19:10 by 3 Merlin 1D+ for 20 seconds Landing burn 20:30 by 1 Merlin 1D+ for 31 seconds SECO-1 at 22:27 and coasting Iridium Infomercial at 1:03:19 Q&A with explanations until 1:03:30 SES-2 - SECO-2 taking 3 seconds gave a velocity boost from 26 638 km/h to 27 092 km/h at 1:05:33 SpaceX show deployment at 1:10:39 - T+00:59:01 - T+01:00:41 - T+01:02:21 - T+01:04:01 - T+01:05:41 - T+01:07:21 - T+01:09:01 - T+01:10:41 - T+01:12:21 Deployed 100 seconds apart - maybe 1 second delay Rap up from Tim Dodd at 1:25:50

CRS-11	BulgariaSat-1	Iridium-2 Next	Intelsat 35E	CRS-12
Formosat 5	OTV-5	Iridium-3 Next	Echostar 105 SES-11	KoreaSat 5A

The big bad Polar Bear job continues

SpaceX is targeting the launch of Iridium-2 from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The instantaneous launch window is at 01:25:18 p.m. PDT, or 20:25:18 UTC, on Sunday, June 25.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will deliver 10 satellites to low-Earth orbit for Iridium, a global leader in mobile voice and data satellite communications. This is the second set of 10 satellites in a series of 75 total satellites that SpaceX will launch for Iridium’s next generation global satellite constellation, Iridium® NEXT. The 10 satellites will be delivered to orbit plane 3 and 5 of them will drift into orbit plane 2 and 4 after launch.

Going straight south from Vandenberg Air Force Base past LA. Blue dot was JRTI - bad weather

Maiden flight of the “Bearclaw” titanium grid fins

SpaceX have redesigned the stereable grid fins made from aluminium, because during reentry into the atmosphere they melted, burned away and fragged the shielding covering the outside fluid pipes, power cables, data cables and gave the interstage a hefty sanding, removing paint and structural surface areas.

Seeing on earlier flights how the aluminium grid fins glowed, melted and covered the outside downlink camera with molten aluminium, it must have long been a design feature, SpaceX wished to change on Falcon 9. There is now better flight control of the first stage booster in supersonic speeds, a better glidepath during descent and a more controllable steering in stronger side winds.

The titanium grid fins are slower to open up to their horizontal operating position, where they will control Pitch, Yar and Roll in conjunction with the RCS thrusters, of which you can see one below the Stars & Stripes. Their major function is creating an artificial gravity kick forcing the propellant towards the intake valves, so the engines can reignite without sucking in “air bubbles” from the propellant tanks.

Closeups of the brand new titanium “Bearclaw” grid fins - 8 by 6 feet I think.

Here you also can see that the interstage is at least two inches thicker than the 12 feet thick fuselage on the booster below the interstage. And you can count the screws. Hit the enlargement and on the far right bearclaw you can read SN=003. Source foto. And after the landing it looked like this in the last picture.

If you look for it. You will find it.

By the way this is Tim Dodd's very first live stream. He is way better at it now, too bad the flight suit didn’t get replaced by a newer spacesuit.

Just follow Mythbuster Adam Savage's examples.

Author Tim Dodd link

Coauthor/Text Retriever Johnny Nielsen link to launch list