Subj : SpaceX to launch Transporter-4, first of six missions for Falcon 9 in To : All From : NasaSpaceFlight Date : Fri Apr 01 2022 14:00:04 SpaceX to launch Transporter-4, first of six missions for Falcon 9 in April Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2022 12:56:12 +0000 Description: SpaceX is set to launch Transporter-4, the fourth dedicated smallsat rideshare mission under their rideshare The post SpaceX to launch Transporter-4, first of six missions for Falcon 9 in April appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com . FULL STORY ======================================================================SpaceX is set to launch Transporter-4, the fourth dedicated smallsat rideshare mission under their rideshare program. Transporter-4 with its batch of 40 payloads is set to launch on a flight-proven Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) on April 1 at 12:24 pm EDT (16:24 UTC). Transporter-4 will be SpaceXs 12th overall flight, second Transporter mission, and the fifth launch from SLC-40 of the year. Space Launch Delta 45 predicts a 70% chance of violation of the weather constraints on April 1st. The weather improves to a 50% chance of violation on April 2nd and a 30% chance of violation on the 4th. Rocket and program overview: As the first quarter of 2022 comes to a close, SpaceX has launched an unmatched 11 times in just 13 weeks . This launch pace is kept by their ability to reuse first-stage boosters while using three different launch sites. On Transporter-4, SpaceX will once again be using a flight-proven Falcon 9 first stage booster. The booster used on this mission will be B1061-7, the fifth time a booster has supported seven flights. B1061 previously supported the SpaceX Crew-1, Crew-2 , SiriusXM-8, SpaceX CRS-23, NASAs IXPE , and the Starlink Group 4-7 missions. For Transporter-4, B1061 will have a turnaround time of 57 days. Following B1061s sixth flight on the Starlink Group 4-7 mission , it was taken off of the Droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG) and transported to SpaceXs Hangar X facility at Roberts Road. From there, it underwent refurbishment and inspections. On March 26, with its second stage attached, it was transported to the Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) at SLC-40. At the HIF, the 40 encapsulated payloads were attached to the second stage.From there, the rocket which was already placed on the Transporter Erector (T/E) was rolled out ahead of its launch. Now becoming a normal occurrence, the static fire was skipped for this mission. The Crew-1 mission with booster 1061 lifts off from LC-39A in November 2020. (Credit: Brady Kenniston for NSF) Since the introduction of the smallsat rideshare program in 2019, SpaceX has launched 336 satellites on their Transporter missions. The first dedicated mission was Transporter-1 in January 2021 where Falcon 9 (B1058-5) launched a record 143 satellites including 10 Starlinks to orbit. See Also Transporter-4 Updates SpaceX Missions Section L2 SpaceX Section Click here to Join L2 In June 2021, Transporter-2 took 88 satellites including three Starlinks to orbit. The most recent Transporter mission was Transporter-3 in January 2022. On this mission, B1058-10 successfully launched 105 satellites, this time with no Starlink satellites. Transporter-1 was not the first time SpaceX launched a dedicated rideshare mission. In December 2018, Falcon 9 launched the Spaceflight SSO-A mission with 64 satellites on board. The rideshare program allows customers frequent, low-cost access to space. SpaceX currently offers a base cost of $1.1 million for a satellite up to 200 kg. They also partner with several launch scheduling companies. With these missions, SpaceX can deliver multiple payloads to the popular Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) in one launch. SpaceXs rideshare offering provides increased access to space for small satellite operators seeking a reliable, affordable ride to orbit pic.twitter.com/frnWnKYC9B SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 24, 2021 For future missions, Transporter-5 is scheduled for June 2022 and Transporter-6 in October 2022. Launch: Launch preparations begin at T-38 minutes with the Launch Director (LD) conducting the Go/No-Go poll to begin propellant loading. Once the Go is given, at T-35 minutes the auto-launch sequence begins and propellant loading starts with RP-1 and Liquid Oxygen (LOX) flowing into first stage while the second stage is only loaded with RP-1. Stage two completes RP-1 loading at T-22 minutes, and LOX load begins at T-16 minutes. At T-7 minutes, the Falcon 9 first stage begins to chill its engines with liquid oxygen to ensure there are no thermal shocks to the engines at ignition. At T-1 minute, the Falcon 9 enters startup, when the flight computers take control of the countdown. At the same time, the propellant tanks on both stages begin pressurizing for flight. Falcon 9 high-tails it to a polar orbit, carrying a record 143 satellites! This is the first in SpaceXs new rideshare program, dubbed Transporter, where customers can get their payload to orbit for a very reasonable price. Mission overview: https://t.co/wE9Q1NRaaY pic.twitter.com/yAnIICylFe Stephen Marr (@spacecoast_stve) January 24, 2021 At T-3 seconds, the nine first-stage Merlin 1D engines are commanded to ignite. Once the engines are verified to be healthy and producing full thrust, the hydraulic hold-clamps release the rocket, allowing liftoff. A few seconds later, Falcon 9 will then begin a pitch maneuver to an azimuth that will reach a 97.95-degree inclination. For a Falcon 9 launch heading in the south-southwest from Florida, SpaceX uses the Polar Corridor thatallows launches from CCSFS to reach polar orbits. With populated islands to the south, rockets have to complete a dogleg maneuver to avoid them essentially flying around them. Stage one will then shut down its nine engines at T+2 minutes and 30 seconds. Four seconds later, the second stage will separate from the first stage and the MVac engine will ignite for the first of three burns. At T+3 minutes 1 second, the payload fairing separates, exposing the 40 payloads to space. The fairings will then splash down and be recovered by support ship Doug. After a short coast, the first stage will begin its entry burn at T+8 minutes and 40 seconds. The roughly 29-second burn will slow down the stage to protect itself from the stresses of atmospheric reentry.The first stage will land on the dronshipe Just Read The Instructions ~532 km downrange. If successful, this will be the 112th landing overall and the 38th consecutive successful landing of a Falcon rocket. Falcon 9 (B1062-2) lands on JRTI following the GPS-III SV05 mission. (Credit: SpaceX). At T+9 minutes 59 seconds, the MVac engine will shut down as it reaches its initial orbit. This orbit will measure 640 km x 655 km. Falcon 9 will then deploy three of its payloads shortly after reaching orbit. Once they are deployed, Stage 2 will coast for 11 minutes before Second Engine Start (SES)-2. This burn will last two seconds. After another 40 minute coast, Stage 2 will burn its engine for the third time for just one second to place itself into its final orbit of 490 x 510 km at an inclination of 97.4 degrees. Starting at T+1 hour and 14 minutes, the rest of the payloads will be deployed. The deployment sequence will last for 12 minutes. Payloads: The largest satellite onboard is the Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) German hyperspectral satellite. With a mass of 980 kg, EnMAP will be used to monitor and characterize Earths environment on a global scale. Once in operation, it will be used to provide unique data that will be used to address environmental changes. EnMAP in final processing before its delivery to Florida (Credit: OHB/H) EnMAP was originally supposed to launch on the Indian PSLV rocket but was moved to the Falcon 9. It will operate for five years in a 650 km orbit. Also onboard, Satellogic Inc. will launch four updated uSat Mark IV satellites and their new Mark V satellite. These Earth-imaging satellites will see in both visible and infrared light will increase uSats constellation size to 27 satellites. The flight will also carry a transfer stage the D-Orbit ION Satellite Carrier Vehicle (SCV) 005 Almighty Alexius. Almighty Alexius is a free-flying, self-propelled CubeSat deployer to carry hosted or deployable payloads. It is the fifth ION-SCV, having been used previously on the Vega VV16 in September 2020 and all previous Transporter missions. An example of payload configurations on a Transporter mission. Several 15-inch and 24-inch diameter ports are available, as well as a custom-fit top adapter. Credit: SpaceX Almighty Alexius will carry eight total payloads four Kleos Space CubeSats, three CubeSats from the University of Chile, and a passive payload for Spacelust called Upmosphere. As another one of many multi-launch partners for the smallsat rideshare program, Exolauch once again has ports for their customers. Exolaunch is a German-based launch service and separation system provider for smallsat payloads. On the CarboNIX separation ring, the NanoAvionics microsatellite bus MP42 will be launched for their customer OQ Technology. The EXOpod CubeSat deployer will carry the ARCSAT satellite for the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. Another EXOpod will also carry a single 12U CubeSat for Omnispace. Spaceflight, Inc. has several ports on Transporter-4. One such payload is Lynx 05 for Lynx Global Inc. to test communications with mobile phones. Three more payloads are the HawkEye 360 Hawk-4A, 4B, and 4C transportation-monitoring satellites. Payloads for our upcoming fourth dedicated smallsat rideshare mission Transporter-4 were encapsulated into Falcon 9s fairing late last week. On this flight are 40 spacecraft, including cubesats, microsats, picosats, hosted payloads, and an orbital transfer vehicle pic.twitter.com/9I8huWOt1F SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 28, 2022 Other customers to be launched on Transporter-4 come from a wide range of companies and countries. These include GNSS Navigation and Occlusion Measurement Satellites (GNOMES)-3, Albania-1, BDSat, RROCI, Pixxel, 12 Swarm Spacebees, and more. April schedule April will be a busy month for SpaceX. Following this mission is Axiom-1 currently targeting liftoff on April 6 at 12:05 pm EDT. Axiom-1 will utilize B1062-5 with Crew Dragon Endeavour on a 10-day mission to the International Space Station. It will be the first all-private mission to the station. The classified NROL-85 mission will follow 11 days later and will use B1071-2 and SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base. On April 20, the SpaceX Crew-4 mission will launch using B1067-4 and the brand-new Crew Dragon Freedom . With a launch time of 6:37 am EDT, it will carry a crew of four to the ISS for SpaceXs fourth operational mission to the orbiting lab. With both Axiom-1 and Crew-4, SpaceX will launch two crew missions in just two weeks. The fifth mission planned for SpaceX is the Starlink Group 4-14 mission. Using B1058-12, it will launch from SLC-40. SpaceXs sixth and final planned mission in April is the Nilesat 301 mission. Targeting April 30th, it will launch from SLC-40 on an unknown booster. Lead image: Falcon 9 on the pad for Transporter 4. Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF) The post SpaceX to launch Transporter-4, first of six missions for Falcon 9 in April appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com . ====================================================================== Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2022/04/spacex-transporter-4-launch/ --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64) * Origin: tqwNet Science News (1337:1/100) .