SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 - SARah 1 - Launched June 18, 2022
Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of the launch of SARah 1
Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 - SARah 1
Written: August 9, 2022
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Saturday, June 18 a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the SARah-1 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The instantaneous launch window is at 7:19 a.m. PDT, 14:19 UTC.
The Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission previously launched the NROL-87 and NROL-85 missions. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will return to land on Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
SpaceX successfully launched the SARah 1 radar satellite for Bundeswehr on their Falcon 9 Block 5. SARah 1 satellite and other more secretive rideshare satellites were placed into a 750 km Sun-Synchronous Orbit.
SARah 1 is joined by several other ride share satellites; however, none of these have been announced. SARah 1 is a secret mission, so no video beyond the 1st stage is shown.
This was the third launch of the B1071-3 booster, which successfully touched down on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) 8 minutes after launch.
B1071-3 did not perform a static fire test after refurbishment and waiting for a west coast launch out of SLC-4. SpaceX has omitted this safety precaution many times so far. It is not required to perform a static fire test inhouse missions like Starlink, that was to save money and time before the launch.
SpaceX is the first entity ever that recovers and reflies its fairings. After being jettisoned, the two fairing halves will use cold gas thrusters to orientate themselves as they descend through the atmosphere. Once at a lower altitude, they will deploy drogue chutes and parafoils to help them glide down to a soft landing for recovery.
Falcon fairings halfs have been recovered and reused since 2019. Improved design changes and overall refurbishment procedures have decreased the effects of water landings and led to an increased recovery rate of fairings.
The fairings are a new pair Type 3.2. Both fairings survived the landing. Active fairings are equipped with four pushrods to separate the two fairing halfs.
Fairings used to have evenly spaced venting ports that have been redesigned a number of times by having first ten, then eight and now having their venting ports built as close pairs along the fairing edge. This prevents saltwater from the ocean from flooding and sinking the fairing, and makes refurbishment toward the next flight easier.
There are two models: Type 3.1 fairing with 4x2 venting ports, thermal steel tip, lowered protrusion and no acoustic tiles and the Type 3.2 with payload protecting acoustic tiles.
After lift-off from Space Launch Complex 4E, SLC-4E, Falcon 9 took a southward trajectory as it climbed through the atmosphere. The first stage’s nine Merlin-1D# Engines cut off around the T+2 minutes 20 seconds mark, with stage separation and a 1st stage 150° flip maneuver following within seconds after MECO. The 1st stage performed a 44 second long and flat boost back burn to put it on a course back to the launch site.
While B1071-3 flew back towards the launch site, Falcon 9’s second stage and its single Merlin Vacuum (MVac) engine placed the SARah-1 satellite into orbit. SARah-1 will operate in a circular orbit inclined at 98.4 degrees to the equator, with an altitude of about 750 kilometers above the surface of the Earth.
Unlike most recent Falcon 9 launches from Florida, the SARah-1 flight’s booster did not need a drone ship sent out to the Pacific to recover it. Instead it flew a return to launch site (RTLS) profile, with the booster touching down on the concrete pad at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) back at the Cape.
After the boostback burn was completed, B1071-3 positioned itself for atmospheric entry before conducting an entry burn to protect the stage from excess heating — a technique of fighting fire with fire — by using rocket thrust as both a heat shield and to slow the stage down. The final landing burn - timed to counter the gravity drag - began shortly before touchdown, slowing the booster to a midair hover and a soft landing at LZ-4.
SLC-4 is Falcon 9’s launch and landing site at VSFB. The entire complex is composed of two launch sites: SLC-4E (East) and SLC-4W (West). SLC-4E is used as Falcon 9’s launch site. It was first used for Falcon 9 in September 2013 on the CSA’s CASSIOPE mission. Since then, it has been used 20 more times, with SARah-1 the 24th SpaceX launch from the pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
SLC-4W was unused for Falcon 9 launches. It was instead converted from a Titan launch site to a landing pad in the mid to late 2010s. Now named LZ-4, it was first used in a first-stage, West Coast Return to Launch Site (RTLS) landing in October 2018 on the SAOCOM-1A mission. Since then, it has been used six times.
The Payload from the past
The development contracts were signed in 2013 back in the days when Falcon 1 was the only active asset to SpaceX. The launches of the SARah satellites were planned in 2018 and 2019. But satellite-related technical problems, efforts to improve encryption on the spacecraft, and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic pushed back the first SARah spacecraft launch until 2022.
Another delay was the grounding and destruction of the heavy Antonov cargo planes caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. An-225 Mriya was the only 6 engine cargo plane built to carry the Buran Space Shuttle, and was making a existence by flying heavy cargo worldwide for all purposes. The Antonov cargo fleet was grounded.
SARah 1 was driven to Bremen, sailed by ship on ARC Defender to Baltimore, USA and driven cross-country by truck all the way to Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, a 25 day journey which was documented by SpaceX.
SARah 1 is the first of three radar imaging satellites the German government ordered from industry in 2013. OHB, based in Bremen, is the lead contractor on the SARah program and is building the second and third satellites in the series. Airbus teams in southern Germany manufactured the first and largest satellite in the program, named SARah 1, which awaits launch Saturday from California.
The SARah 1 satellite is a radar reconnaissance satellite that is built by Airbus Defense and Space and operated by the German armed forces, called Bundeswehr. The satellite is set to replace the aging SAR-Lupe constellation, which, as the name implies, is a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) constellation that the German government and defense ministry currently uses for reconnaissance.
The SAR-Lupe constellation will be replaced by the SARah1, SARah 2, and SARah 3 satellites; the first satellite, SARah 1, will be equipped with a phased array antenna which will increase the resolution of the SAR constellation, past that of SAR-Lupe. SARah 2 and SARah 3 will be two “reflector antenna” satellites, meaning they will fly in formation with SARah 1 to increase the resolution of the constellation.
SARah 1 is equipped with two large solar cells and batteries to provide power to the spacecraft. It is unknown what kind of propulsion the satellite uses.
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