SpaceX Falcon 9 - Starlink L04

  SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 - Starlink L04 - Launching February 17, 2020

Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of the launch of Starlink L04

Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 B5 - Starlink L04

Written: July 20, 2021

Lift Off Time	February 17, 2020 - 15:05:55 UTC - 10:05:55 EST
Mission Name	Starlink L04
Launch Provider	SpaceX
Customer	SpaceX
Rocket	Falcon 9 Block 5 serial number B1056-4
Launch Location	Space Launch Complex 40 - SLC-40 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Payload mass	15 600 kg ~ 34 400 pounds
Where are the satellites going?	Low Earth Orbit - 191 km x 374 km x 53° - After testing the Starlink satellites go to its operational orbit - 550 km
Will they be attempting to recover the first stage?	Yes - OCISLY were towed northeast downrange
Where will the first stage land?	Of Course I Still Love You placed 629 km downrange
Will they be attempting to recover the fairings?	Yes - About 40 minutes after liftoff “Ms. Tree” and “Ms. Chief,” will attempt to catch the two fairings
Are these fairings new?	Yes - Type 2.1 lifeboat sized fairings - 34 x 17 feet with 8 vents ports, a thermal steel tip and no acoustic tiles
This will be the:	– 81st flight of all Falcon 9 rockets – 30th re-flight of all Falcon 9 boosters – 25th flight of Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket – 16th re-flight of Falcon 9 Block 5 booster – 50th SpaceX launch from SLC-40 – 42nd crash landing. Soft, hard, deliberate, ups.. – 4th mission for SpaceX in 2020
Where to watch Where to read more	SpaceX YouTube link Want to know or learn more link ask Tim Dodd

Launch debriefing (This is what happend) Strong headwinds high in the jetstreams caused the descending booster to miss the droneship by a hundred meters. Just a few seconds of extra propellant would have made B1056-4 hit OCISLY’s deck softly. But alas it was not in the book. So B1056 went to Davy Jones' locker.

T -00:09:28 Hosts: T   00:00:00 T +00:01:15 T +00:02:36 T +00:02:46 T +00:03:14 T +00:06:51 T +00:08:24 - T +00:08:55 T +00:13:45 T +00:15:05 T +00:15:50 T +00:40:05

SpaceX live feed at 00:31 Lauren Lyons and Jessica Anderson together again Liftoff at 10:00 - Exactly on the Ten minute mark MaxQ at 11:15 MECO 12:36, stage separation 12:39 SES-1 at 12:46 Faring separation at 13:14 Entry burn 16:51 by 3 Merlin 1D# for 25 seconds Landing burn 18:24 by 1 Merlin 1D# for 28 seconds Stage 1 missed the drone ship and crashed SECO-1 at 18:55 in an elliptical orbit SpaceX resumes live feed at 23:45 SpaceX doesn’t show the fast deployment at 25:05 Rap up from SpaceX at 25:50 Both fairing halfs got damaged during landing

JCSAT-18 Kacific-1	Starlink V1.0 L02	Dragon Abort Test Flight	Starlink V1.0 L03	Starlink V1.0 L04
CRS-20	Starlink V1.0 L05	Starlink V1.0 L06	Crew Dragon DM-2	Starlink V1.0 L07

Your car will need a roof box sized antenna

SpaceX is targeting Monday, February 17 at 10:05 a.m. EST, or 15:05 UTC, for its fifth launch of Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

SpaceX will be launching 60 Starlink V1.0 satellites on its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket from the Space Launch Complex (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

This will be the 5th operational launch of SpaceX’s near-global satellite constellation – Starlink, which aims to deliver a fast, low-latency broadband internet service to locations where access has previously been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.

After boosting the second stage along with its payload towards orbit, the first stage will perform an entry burn to slow the vehicle down in preparation for atmospheric reentry. The booster didn’t land 629 km downrange aboard ‘Of Course I Still Love You.’ It fell short due to stronger winds. SpaceX will also attempt to catch both fairing halves with their fairing catcher vessels: ‘GO Ms. Tree‘ and ‘GO Ms. Chief.’ But they both broke during landing.

The thrice-flown Falcon 9 booster B1056 will, after supporting the Starlink V1.0 L04 mission, be redesignated as B1056-4. Tim Dodd’s links got lost in a data move.

CRS-17	May 4, 2019	JCSAT-18/Kacific-1	December 16, 2019
CRS-18	July 25, 2019	Starlink V1.0 L04	February 17, 2020

The Payload

SpaceX plans to offer service in North America by the end of 2020 and estimates that once complete, its venture will make $30-50 billion annually. The funds from which will, in turn, be used to finance its ambitious Mars program.

To achieve initial coverage, SpaceX plans to form a net of 12,000 satellites, which will operate in conjunction with ground stations, akin to a mesh network.

There are now 240 operational Starlink satellites in orbit, give or take a few.

Furthermore, the company recently filed for FCC permission on an additional 30,000 spacecraft, which, if granted, could see the constellation amount to a lucrative 42,000. This would octuple the number of operational satellites in earth orbit, further raising concerns about the constellations' effect on the night sky and earth-based astronomy. For more information on Starlink, watch the Real Engineering video listed below.

Author Alex Crouch link

Coauthor/Text Retriever Johnny Nielsen link