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The next launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is now set for 8:18 p.m. The mission has been delayed five days due to storms around the launch pad. The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket is set to launch SpaceX’s Starlink 4-34 mission. The weather outlook for Sunday night calls for a 40% chance of acceptable conditions for landing. SpaceX’s launch team halted its Falcon 9 countdown Tuesday night just before it began loading propellants onto the Falcon 9 rocket. Lightning lit up the sky over Florida’s Space Coast throughout the evening. Similar weather conditions Wednesday night forced officials to call another pre-tank scrub, and SpaceX stopped the countdown at about T-minus 30 seconds Thursday night as the weather remained “prohibitive” for launch. It was a similar story Friday night, as SpaceX loaded propellants onto the Falcon 9, but stopped the countdown just inside T-minus 60 seconds. The teams initially targeted another launch attempt on Saturday, but SpaceX announced Saturday night that the mission would be delayed to Sunday night. This flight will mark SpaceX’s 42nd Falcon 9 launch so far in 2022. It will be the 40th space launch attempt overall from Florida’s Space Coast this year, including launches by SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and Astra. When lifted off, the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage will release the satellites over the North Atlantic Ocean about 15 minutes after liftoff. The 54 Starlink satellites will have a total payload weight of about 36,800 pounds, or 16.7 metric tons. The Starlink 4-34 mission will be the third of five Falcon 9 missions on SpaceX’s schedule this month. Tom Ochinero, SpaceX’s vice president of commercial sales, said Tuesday at the World Satellite Business Week conference in Paris that the company aims to complete more than 60 launches this year, with a goal of 100 rocket missions by 2023, continuing SpaceX’s dramatic rise. firing rate. The higher launch rate was helped by shorter rotations between missions at launch pads in Florida and California and SpaceX’s reuse of Falcon 9 boosters and payload fairings. Launches carrying satellites for SpaceX’s own Starlink internet network, such as Friday night’s mission, account for about two-thirds of the company’s Falcon 9 flights so far this year. SpaceX began flying 54 Starlink satellites on exclusive Falcon 9 flights last month, one more spacecraft than the company has typically launched on previous missions. SpaceX has experimented with different engine throttle settings and other small changes to increase the Falcon 9’s performance. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sits on pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral space station before liftoff on Starlink mission 4-34. Credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now SpaceX test-launched the Falcon 9 booster for the Starlink 4-34 mission to the launch pad on September 11. A static fire attempt on September 10 was aborted as a strong storm swept over the Cape Canaveral spacecraft. The booster is called B1067 in SpaceX’s reusable rocket catalog and is making its sixth space flight Sunday night. The booster previously launched two astronaut missions to the International Space Station, plus two resupply flights to the station. It also launched Turkey’s Turksat 5B communications satellite. With Starlink mission 4-34 on Sunday night, SpaceX will have launched 3,347 Starlink satellites, including prototypes and test units that are no longer in service. Saturday’s launch will be SpaceX’s 61st mission dedicated primarily to carrying Starlink Internet satellites into orbit. Located inside a launch control center just south of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, SpaceX’s launch team will begin loading supercooled, condensed kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants into the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 vehicle in T-minus 35 minutes . Compressible helium will also flow into the rocket during the last half hour of the countdown. In the final seven minutes before liftoff, Falcon 9’s Merlin main engines will be thermally adjusted for flight through a process known as “chilldown.” The Falcon 9’s range guidance and safety system will also be configured for launch. After liftoff, the Falcon 9 rocket will transfer its 1.7 million pounds of thrust — generated by nine Merlin engines — to head northeast over the Atlantic Ocean. The rocket will exceed the speed of sound in about a minute, then shut down its nine main engines two and a half minutes after liftoff. The booster stage will release from the Falcon 9’s upper stage, then fire pulses of cold gas control thrusters and extend its titanium mesh flaps to help propel the vehicle back into the atmosphere. Two brake burns will slow the rocket to land on the “Just Read the Instructions” drone ship about 400 miles (650 kilometers) down range about eight and a half minutes after liftoff. Credit: Spaceflight Now Falcon 9’s reusable payload fairing will drop during the second stage burn. A recovery ship is also on station in the Atlantic to recover the two halves of the nose cone after they splash down under parachutes. The landing of the first stage on Sunday’s mission will come moments after the Falcon 9’s second stage engine shuts down to deliver the Starlink satellites into orbit. Separation of the 54 Starlink spacecraft, built by SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, from the Falcon 9 rocket is expected at T++ 15 minutes and 21 seconds. The restraint rods will release from the Starlink payload stack, allowing the satellites to fly freely from the Falcon 9’s upper stage into orbit. The 54 spacecraft will deploy solar arrays and run through automated activation steps, then use crypto-fueled ion engines to maneuver into their operational orbit. Falcon 9’s guidance computer aimed to deploy the satellites into an elliptical orbit inclined 53.2 degrees to the equator. The satellites will use onboard propulsion to do the rest of the work to reach a circular orbit 335 miles (540 kilometers) above Earth. The Starlink satellites will fly in one of five orbital “shells” at different inclinations for SpaceX’s global Internet network. After reaching their operational orbit, the satellites will enter commercial service and begin broadcasting broadband signals to consumers, who can purchase Starlink service and connect to the network with a ground terminal provided by SpaceX. ROCKET: Falcon 9 (B1067.6) PAYLOAD: 54 Starlink satellites (Starlink 4-34) LAUNCH LOCATION: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Station, Florida START DATE: September 18, 2022 START TIME: 8:18 p.m. EDT (0018 GMT on September 19) WEATHER FORECAST: 40% chance of acceptable weather. Low risk of upper level winds. Low risk of adverse conditions for recall recovery RECOVERY AID: ‘Just Read the Instructions’ drone ships east of Charleston, South Carolina LAUNCH AZIMUTH: Northeast TARGET ORBIT: 144 miles by 208 miles (232 km by 336 km), inclination 53.2 degrees LAUNCH SCHEDULE:

T+00:00: Take off T+01:12: Maximum aerodynamic pressure (Max-Q) T+02:27: First Stage Main Engine Cutoff (MECO) T+02:31: Gradual separation T+02:36: Second stage engine ignition T+02:42: Fairing jettison T+06:48: First stage combustion ignition input (three engines) T+07:07: Cutoff of first stage inlet combustion T+08:26: First stage ignition on landing (one engine) T+08:40: Second stage engine cut-out (SECO 1) T+08:47: First stage landing T+15:21: Separation of Starlink satellites

SHIPPING STATISTICS:

176th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010 184th launch of the Falcon missile family since 2006 6th release of Falcon 9 booster B1067 151st Falcon 9 launch from Florida’s Space Coast Falcon 9’s 97th launch from pad 40 152nd overall launch from pad 40 118th flight of a reused Falcon 9 booster Exclusive 61st Falcon 9 launch with Starlink satellites 42nd Falcon 9 launch of 2022 42nd launch from SpaceX in 2022 40th orbital launch attempt based at Cape Canaveral in 2022

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