SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Friday afternoon, heading due east over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the BulgariaSat 1 communications satellite into orbit 35 minutes later.
The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket is poised for launch from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:10 p.m. EDT (1810 GMT) Friday at the opening of a two-hour launch window.
Perched atop the rocket is the BulgariaSat 1 communications satellite, a spacecraft made by Space Systems/Loral, ready to beam television programming across Bulgaria and neighboring countries in the Balkans. The rocket will place the satellite into a high-altitude “supersynchronous” transfer orbit.
The timeline below outlines the launch sequence for the Falcon 9 flight with BulgariaSat 1, SpaceX’s second launch with a previously-flown first stage booster.
Data source: SpaceX
T-0:00:00: Liftoff
After the rocket’s nine Merlin engines pass an automated health check, hold-down clamps will release the Falcon 9 booster for liftoff from pad 39A.
T+0:01:10: Mach 1
The Falcon 9 rocket reaches Mach 1, the speed of sound, as the nine Merlin 1D engines provide more than 1.7 million pounds of thrust.
T+0:01:19: Max Q
The Falcon 9 rocket reaches Max Q, the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure.
T+0:02:36: MECO
The Falcon 9’s nine Merlin 1D engines shut down.
T+0:02:40: Stage 1 Separation
The Falcon 9’s first stage separates from the second stage moments after MECO.
T+0:02:47: First Ignition of Second Stage
The second stage Merlin 1D vacuum engine ignites for a nearly 6-minute burn to put the rocket and BulgariaSat 1 into a preliminary parking orbit.
T+0:03:40: Fairing Jettison
The 5.2-meter (17.1-foot) diameter payload fairing jettisons once the Falcon 9 rocket ascends through the dense lower atmosphere. The 43-foot-tall fairing is made of two clamshell-like halves composed of carbon fiber with an aluminum honeycomb core.
T+0:06:19: Stage 1 Entry Burn
A subset of the first stage’s Merlin 1D engines ignite for an entry burn to slow down for landing. A final landing burn will occur just before touchdown.
T+0:08:31: Stage 1 Landing
The Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage booster touches down on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
T+0:08:38: SECO 1
The second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket shuts down after reaching a preliminary low-altitude orbit. The upper stage and BulgariaSat 1 begin a coast phase scheduled to last more than 18 minutes before the second stage Merlin vacuum engine reignites.
T+0:27:08: Second Ignition of Second Stage
The Falcon 9’s second stage Merlin engine restarts to propel the BulgariaSat 1 communications satellite into a supersynchronous transfer orbit.
T+0:28:13: SECO 2
The Merlin engine shuts down after a short burn to put the BulgariaSat 1 satellite in the proper orbit for deployment.
T+0:34:55: BulgariaSat 1 Separation
The BulgariaSat 1 satellite separates from the Falcon 9 rocket in a supersynchronous transfer orbit.
SpaceX is set to resume launches from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral in December with the liftoff of a space station-bound supply ship on top of a Falcon 9 booster, a major step in boosting the company’s flight rate and readying for the debut of the long-delayed Falcon Heavy rocket.
A day-and-a-half after launching from Virginia aboard an Antares rocket, a Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship loaded with nearly 7,600 pounds of experiments and provisions arrived at the International Space Station on Friday. Astronaut Anne McClain captured the Cygnus spacecraft with the space station’s Canadian-built robotic arm at 5:28 a.m. EDT (0928 GMT).
A senior NASA official raised concerns Wednesday that “difficulties” with SpaceX’s development of the huge new Starship rocket could delay the Artemis program’s first moon landing with astronauts from late 2025, a mission that will use a derivative of the Starship vehicle to ferry a two-person crew to and from the lunar surface.
