SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will go from Cape Canaveral to low Earth orbit in 10 minutes Monday with a Dragon capsule heading for the International Space Station carrying more than 5,800 pounds of supplies and experiments.
Liftoff is set for 2030 GMT (4:30 p.m. EDT) Monday from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad.
It will be the 52nd flight of a Falcon 9 rocket, and SpaceX’s eighth launch of the year. Working under contract to NASA, Monday’s launch will be the 14th of least 26 SpaceX resupply missions to depart for the space station.
SpaceX does not intend to recover the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage on Monday’s mission. The booster is already a veteran of one launch in August 2017, when it propelled a previous SpaceX Dragon resupply mission toward the space station.
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 40.
T+0:01:00: Mach 1
The Falcon 9 rocket reaches Mach 1, the speed of sound.
T+0:01:08: Max Q
The Falcon 9 rocket reaches Max Q, the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure.
T+0:02:41: MECO
The Falcon 9’s nine Merlin 1D engines shut down.
T+0:02:45: Stage 1 Separation
The Falcon 9’s first stage separates from the second stage moments after MECO.
T+0:02:52: Second Stage Ignition
The second stage Merlin 1D vacuum engine ignites for an approximately 6-minute burn to put the Dragon spacecraft into orbit.
T+0:09:03: SECO
The second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket shuts down after reaching a target orbit with a low point of approximately 124 miles (200 kilometers), a high point of approximately 223 miles (360 kilometers) and an inclination of 51.6 degrees. The second stage will reignite for a de-orbit burn soon after deploying the Dragon spacecraft, aiming for a destructive re-entry over the Southern Ocean south of Australia.
T+0:10:03: Dragon Separation
The Dragon spacecraft separates from the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage.
T+0:11:00: Solar Arrays Deployed
The Dragon spacecraft’s two solar array wings extend one-at-a-time to a span of 54 feet (16.5 meters).
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts suited up and ventured outside the International Space Station on Sunday on their third spacewalk in eight days to install equipment to help future commercial crew capsules built by Boeing and SpaceX navigate to the complex.
An Indian LVM3 rocket lifted off at 11:30 p.m. EDT Saturday (0330 UTC Sunday) with 36 more OneWeb internet satellites. Once the new 36 satellites complete orbit-raising and commissioning, OneWeb will have 618 active satellites in its fleet, enough for global broadband service.
In this week’s edition of News from the Press Site, Spaceflight Now’s Will Robinson-Smith is joined by Mike Wall, Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com; and Caleb Henry, Director of Research at Quilty Space.
