Screenshot from SpaceX Webcast of the Ovzon-3 launch. Darkness is slowly falling until we launch
Mission Rundown: SpaceX Falcon 9 - Ovzon-3
Written: January 4, 2024
Swedes in Space? Yes really.
Ovzon-3 is Swedish Ovzon AB first geostationary-orbiting telecommunications satellite. Ovzon AB has offices in Sweden and the United States, and is dedicated to the demands for increased mobile broadband connectivity in regions of conflict or crisis.
Lift Off took place on Wednesday, January 3, 2024 at 18:04 EST - 23:04 UTC from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The Falcon 9 rocket will be composed of booster B1076-10, the 297th second stage and old reused fairings containing the Ovzon-3 satellite weighing in at 1800 Kg
The Falcon 9 didn’t perform a static fire test of the engines. This has been omitted many times due to Falcon 9’s increasing reliability. Only after engine swabs and issues with the importance of the payload does a static fire test become necessary.
B1076-10 will have made its tenth flight after launching its next mission:
Graphic from Flight Club showing a Falcon 9 ascent profile with booster separation, boostback, reentry and landing burns, while the second stage continues until SECO. Fairing jettison and their recovery area is located out of sight to the east
After separating from the second stage, the booster B1076-10 will do a boost back burn, and return to Landing Zone LZ-1 only 9 Km from the launch site.
After refurbishment of the booster, it will be designated as B1076-11. The second stage will after payload deployment be in a 269 km x 47 193 km x 26,83° orbit for at least a few years before atmospheric drag slows it down. There wasn’t a mission extension package onboard the second stage or enough fuel to deorbit it directly.
Ovzon 3 will use a geostationary transfer orbit and be released from the rocket’s 2nd stage at an apogee of 47,368 km, Ovzon 3 will utilize its internal electric propulsion system. Over a span of 3-4 months, it will gradually transition from the transfer orbit to its designated geostationary orbit position, or ‘parking lot,’ at 59.7 degrees east.
The fairings are both reused, flying for the ninth and fourteenth time with no known previous missions flown together. Bob will recover them 760 km downrange.
The Ovzon-3 payload
Ovzon-3 is a small geostationary satellite, and will feature multiple high-performance steerable beams to meet challenging communication requirements. In addition, the proprietary on-board processor developed by Ovzon enables such new functionalities as single-hop communications between very small terminals, reduced latency and more efficient use of the bandwidth.
The Ovzon AB service is based on complete end-to-end proprietary components and patented technology. Ovzon-3 will significantly increase service performance, lead to new types of services, enable the use of even smaller terminals, expand coverage areas and increase the amount of available bandwidth.
As a result, Ovzon AB is to offer a revolutionary mobile broadband service via satellite that combines high bandwidth satellite communications services with mobile terminals.
The Ovzon-3 geostationary satellite is privately funded and developed by the Swedish company geostationary satellite. Ovzon-3 is a communications satellite which will cover 1/3 of the earth via its steerable spot beams, meeting the demand for better mobile broadband coverage in under-served regions.
Ovzon AB selected Maxar Technologies to build the satellite, using Maxar’s mid-size SSL-500 spacecraft platform. Ovzon-3 will have a ‘wet’ mass at liftoff of approximately 1,800 kg and will be deployed in a geostationary transfer orbit.
Photo from Maxar of Ovzon-3. At least 4 major beam reflectors, one rollout solar cell panel similar to IROSA used on ISS and a slim box design as only visual aides of its design
Once released at an apogee of 36,000 km, the Ovzon 3 satellite will use its internal electric propulsion system to gradually transition from the transfer orbit to its designated geostationary orbit position at 59.7 degrees east over a period of 3-4 months.
Ovzon 3 was initially planned to be launched in 2021, directly to geostationary orbit by a Falcon-Heavy (Block 5). However this was changed to an Ariane-5 ECA+ in August 2019, with plans to deliver the payload into a geostationary transfer orbit in early 2023.
In September 2022 the flight plan changed again, with the launch vehicle now being the regular SpaceX workhorse Falcon 9.
The rocket launch
A typical Falcon 9 mission begins with the countdown that has a traditional 35-minute long propellant load sequence which begins with RP-1 (a refined form of kerosene) loading on both stages and liquid oxygen (LOX) loading on the first stage only.
Loading of RP-1 on the second stage wraps up first at the T-20 minute mark followed by the usual “T-20 minute vent” as the oxygen purging begins on the pipelines of the Falcon 9 Transporter/Erector (T/E) that supplies fluids and power to the vehicle. LOX load on the second stage begins about four minutes after that at T-16 minutes.
Engine chill commences at the T-7 minute mark with a small flow of LOX going into the turbopumps on all nine Merlin engines on the first stage. RP-1 loading on the booster then wraps up about a minute later at the T-6 minute mark.
LOX load on the first and second stages ends at around the T-3 minute and T-2 minute mark respectively, and the rocket takes control of the countdown at the T-1 minute mark.
Engine ignition is commanded at T-3 seconds allowing them to achieve maximum thrust and pass final checks before committing to launch and if engine checks look correct, the ground clamps release the rocket for liftoff at the expected T0 time.
After liftoff, Falcon 9 climbs away from the launch site, pitching downrange as it maneuvers along its pre-programmed trajectory. Approximately 62 seconds into the flight, the vehicle passes through Max-Q — the point of maximum dynamic pressure, where mechanical stresses on the rocket are the greatest.
The nine first-stage engines continue to power Falcon 9 for the first two minutes and 28-30 seconds of the mission, until the time of main engine cutoff (MECO), at which point all nine engines shut down nearly simultaneously.
Stage separation normally occurs 3-4 seconds later, with the ignition of the second stage’s Merlin Vacuum engine coming about seven seconds after staging.
While the second stage continues onward to orbit with its payload, the first stage coasts upward to apogee — the highest point of its trajectory — before beginning its trip back to Earth. The booster refines its course toward the landing area before attempting to softly touch down on the deck of one of SpaceX’s three drone ships.
Two or three burns are required to secure the safe return and landing of a Falcon 9 booster depending on the chosen landing site. A boost back burn nullifies the horizontal speed from about 7000 km/h plus to a 1000 km/h negative if a return to launch site is chosen.
Normally a free fall trajectory is chosen which requires a re-entry burn designed to break the speed into the denser atmosphere. The Merlin 1D# engines start in a 1-3-1 sequence with the center engine 9 starting 4 seconds before lighting up engine 1 and 5 in a burn lasting 14-16 seconds ending with a 2 second center engine solo burn.
The re-entry burn last 20-22 seconds and the booster is now falling and steering through the denser atmosphere with the 6x8 feet grid fins. A last landing burn performed by the Merlin 1D# center engine is timed to the last millisecond securing the aiming and breaking of the boosters speed. Booster landings have been performed over 250 times.
Using a drone ship for booster recovery allows SpaceX to launch more mass in a payload on Falcon 9 than it would be able to launch on a return-to-launch-site mission.
In the meantime, the second stage carries on with the primary mission. After stage separation and Merlin Vacuum engine ignition, the payload fairing halves are jettisoned, thereby exposing the satellite to space.
Much akin to the Falcon 9 first stage, the fairing halves can be recovered and reused, using a system of thrusters and parachutes to make a controlled descent into the ocean where they will be picked up by a recovery vessel.
Second-stage engine cutoff (SECO-1) takes place just over eight and a half minutes into the flight. Other engine burns to modify or increase the deployment orbit will follow if the mission requires it, such as on this commercial mission which used a second burn before deploying the Ovzon-3 satellite.
The Ovzon-3 satellite are deployed into a geostationary transfer orbit. The satellite will raise itself into a more stable orbit, where it will undergo checkouts before heading into its final operational orbit.
After spacecraft separation, the second stage will perform a deorbit burn for proper disposal, and ensuring that reentry takes place in the Pacific Ocean.
When the second stage comes in contact with a ground control station. The deorbit burn and a subsequent blow out command is given in sequence to brake and empty the second stage propellant tanks. A GTO orbit takes 9-10 hours before the second stage re-enters the atmosphere and crashes into the Pacific Ocean.
The rocket vehicle
The Falcon 9 Block 5 is SpaceX’s partially reusable two-stage medium-lift launch vehicle. The vehicle consists of a reusable first stage, an expendable second stage, and, when in payload configuration, a pair of reusable fairing halves.
The Falcon 9 first stage contains 9 Merlin 1D# sea level engines. Each engine uses an open gas generator cycle and runs on RP-1 and liquid oxygen (LOx). Each engine produces 845 kN of thrust at sea level, with a specific impulse (ISP) of 285 seconds, and 934 kN in a vacuum with an ISP of 313 seconds.
Due to the powerful nature of the engine, and the large amount of them, the Falcon 9 first stage is able to lose an engine right off the pad, or up to two later in flight, and be able to successfully place the payload into orbit.
The Merlin engines are ignited by triethylaluminum and triethylborane (TEA-TEB), which instantaneously burst into flames when mixed in the presence of oxygen. During static fire and launch the TEA-TEB is provided by the ground service equipment. However, as the Falcon 9 first stage is able to propulsively land, three of the Merlin engines (E1, E5, and E9) contain TEA-TEB canisters to relight for the boost back, reentry, and landing burns.
The Falcon 9 second stage is the only expendable part of the Falcon 9. It contains a singular MVacD engine that produces 992 kN of thrust and an ISP of 348 seconds. The Falcon 9 can put some or many payloads in different orbits on missions with many burns and/or long coasts between burns, the second stage is able to be equipped with a mission extension package.
When the second stage has this mission extension package it has a gray strip, which helps keep the RP-1 warm in sunlight, an increased number of composite-overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) for pressurization control, and additional TEA-TEB.
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.
The Falcon 9’s fairing consists of two dissimilar reusable halves. The first half (the half that faces away from the transport erector) is called the active half, and houses the pneumatics for the separation system. The other fairing half is called the passive half.
Comparison of Type 1 and 2 with measurements based on pixels - Type 2 are 5-6 inches thicker
As the name implies, this half plays a purely passive role in the fairing separation process, as it relies on the pneumatics from the active half.
SpaceX used boats with giant suspended nets to attempt to catch the fairing halves, however, at the end of 2020 this program was canceled due to safety risks and a low success rate. After launching Ovzon-3, SpaceX will attempt to recover the fairing halves from the water with the recovery vessels Bob or Doug.
There are three known types of 34 x 17 foot fairings used by SpaceX to protect payload during ascent through the atmosphere. The first type had 10 evenly spaced ventilation ports in a circle on the bottom part of the fairings. This type was not aerodynamic enough to carry a parachute and ACS - Attitude Control System.
The aerodynamic balance during descent must have made them prone to stalling, or they burned up too easily. ACS gas tanks, flight orientation computers and ACS thrusters must have helped with these problems during development of type 2 fairings.
The second type is a slightly thicker fairing with only 8 evenly spaced ventilation ports in a circle on the bottom part of the fairings. The ventilation ports release the pressurized Nitrox gas during ascent, but let seawater in which makes it harder to refurbish the fairings after recovery from the ocean.
In 2021, SpaceX started flying a new “upgraded” version of the Falcon 9 fairing. The third type has 8 ventilation ports in pair’s near the edge of the fairings.
Some old type 2 fairings have been rebuilt and reused in Starlink launches. That have been a test program to develop the type 3 fairings to prevent saltwater from the ocean from flooding and sinking the fairing, and makes refurbishment toward the next flight easier.
Lately it’s apparent that the fairings are actively aiming for the droneship in order to speed up the recovery process and cut corners of the time table. The fairings are breaking their speed during reentry and before deploying the parachute at altitude or the last moment.
Another solution is a ‘vertical’ boost lifting the fairings apogee so the ballistic trajectory is changed aiming for a landing nearer the droneship. It’s equivalent to raising the angle on a water hose giving the water stream an higher arc but giving it a shorter reach.
It’s not clear whether or not the cold gas nitrogen thrusters alone are capable of doing a ‘boost back’ or a ‘push up’ so the fairings can alter their forward momentum mid-flight. Every landing within 50 km of the ASDS seems to be an aimed fairing landing.
The Ovzon-3 won’t be utilizing this ‘push up’ fairing recovery program, which seems not to be in use anymore due to the danger of a wayward fairing half landing to close.
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