A Falcon 9 rocket stands on pad 39A before the Starlink 4-17 mission. The rocket coasted halfway around the world before reigniting the Merlin-Vacuum upper stage engine about 45 minutes into the mission, paving the way for separation of the 53 Starlink satellites at T+plus 54 minutes, 30 seconds. The landing occurred just prior to shutdown of the upper stage engine. This booster - tail number B1058 - launched on its 12th mission, becoming the third stage in SpaceX’s inventory to reach that milestone. The booster debuted in May 2020 with the launch of the first test flight of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft to carry astronauts.Ībout eight-and-a-half minutes after Friday’s launch, the booster landed on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” positioned roughly due east of Charleston, South Carolina. Two braking burns slowed down the rocket for landing on the drone ship around 400 miles (650 kilometers) downrange. The booster detached and fired pulses from cold gas control thrusters, then extended titanium grid fins to help steer the vehicle back into the atmosphere. The rocket surpassed the speed of sound in about one minute, then shut down its nine main engines two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket vectored its 1.7 million pounds of thrust - produced by nine Merlin engines - to steer northeast over the Atlantic Ocean. In the final seven minutes of the countdown, the Falcon 9’s Merlin main engines were thermally conditioned for flight through a procedure known as “chilldown.” The Falcon 9’s guidance and range safety systems were be configured for launch at 5:42 a.m. Helium pressurant also flowed into the rocket. Beginning at T-minus 35 minutes, the launch team oversaw loading of kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the Falcon 9 through an automated, computer-controlled sequencer. SpaceX teams at Cape Canaveral rolled the Falcon 9 rocket from its hangar to pad 39A and raised it vertical Thursday. The booster nailed its landing on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, completing its 12th flight to space. EDT (0942 GMT) Friday from the Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX launched another batch of 53 Starlink internet satellites at 5:42 a.m.
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