Posted on 07/17/2016 7:09:07 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine
Forecasters predict mostly clear skies and light winds at the surface and aloft for Monday’s launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a resupply mission to the International Space Station, favorable conditions for the booster’s liftoff and landing at Cape Canaveral.
The official launch weather forecast released Friday by the U.S. Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron calls for a 90 percent of acceptable conditions for liftoff at 12:45:29 a.m. EDT (0445:29 GMT) Monday.
A weather axis draped over Central Florida will lift north over the weekend, setting up generally good weather Monday.
“This will result in moderate temperatures and morning showers over the spaceport, but mostly clear afternoons as sea breeze storms move inland,” Air Force forecasters wrote. “The main weather threat on launch day will be cumulus clouds and flight through precipitation with these showers. Maximum winds will be from the northeast at 30 knots at 36,000 feet.”
The predicted conditions also look good for a landing attempt by the Falcon 9’s 15-story first stage booster about 10 minutes after liftoff. Using engine power and aerodynamic grid fins, the first stage will head for a vertical rocket-assisted touchdown at Landing Zone 1, a former Atlas launch pad leased from the Air Force by SpaceX.
The landing target sits just north of the eastern tip of Cape Canaveral, a few miles south of the Falcon 9’s Complex 40 launch pad near the northern perimeter of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The Falcon 9 booster’s return to landing at Cape Canaveral will mark the second time SpaceX has tried recovering a first stage onshore. All other first stage landing attempts have occurred on a barge positioned several miles offshore in the Atlantic or Pacific.
A Falcon 9 rocket returned to Cape Canaveral for the first time Dec. 21 a few minutes after blastoff with 11 Orbcomm communications satellites, putting on a first-of-its-kind display of light and sound that played out like a launch in reverse, with the brilliant exhaust from the booster’s center Merlin engine appearing as a bright ball of orange falling toward the beachfront landing zone.
Thundering sonic booms heralded the rocket’s descent, rattling windows for miles around.
A similar nighttime spectacle is expected early Monday.
SpaceX released a statement Friday warning residents on Florida’s Space Coast of the landing.
“As with the return of the first stage from the Orbcomm-2 mission, there is the possibility that residents of northern and central Brevard County, Fla. may hear one or more sonic booms during landing,” the statement said. “A sonic boom is a brief thunder-like noise a person on the ground hears when an aircraft or other vehicle flies overhead faster than the speed of sound.”
The rocket will soar toward the northeast from Cape Canaveral, the trajectory necessary to reach the International Space Station, and return to the Florida coast from the same direction, heading northeast-to-southwest.
“Residents of the communities of Cape Canaveral, Cocoa, Cocoa Beach, Courtenay, Merritt Island, Mims, Port Canaveral, Port St. John, Rockledge, Scottsmoor, Sharpes, and Titusville in Brevard County, Fla. are most likely to hear a sonic boom, although what residents experience will depend on weather conditions and other factors,” SpaceX said.
The rocket recovery attempt at Cape Canaveral early Monday comes nearly seven months after the last touchdown on land. In the meantime, SpaceX has launched six Falcon 9 rockets and tried landing all the boosters at sea.
After two crash landings in January and March, the Falcon 9 boosters nailed three touchdowns in a row following a string of launches April 8, May 6 and May 27. The rocket used on the last Falcon 9 launch June 15 suffered another faulty landing at sea.
SpaceX hopes to fly a used Falcon 9 first stage again later this year. Engineers planned to subject a separate flown Falcon 9 booster stage — one that will not launch again — through a battery of intense testing to confirm the structure can withstand a second mission.
Monday’s launch will be the 27th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket, and the 32nd space launch attempt by SpaceX in its history. It is also the seventh launch of the latest upgraded version of the Falcon 9 with higher-performance Merlin engines, larger fuel tanks, and super-chilled cryogenic propellants.
The Dragon spacecraft mounted atop the 213-foot-tall (65-meter) Falcon 9 rocket is packed with nearly 5,000 pounds of cargo, crew provisions and experiments for the space station’s six residents. The upcoming Dragon mission will be the ninth of 20 commercial resupply missions through 2019 NASA has awarded to SpaceX under a nearly $3 billion contract first signed in 2008.
NASA originally signed SpaceX to 12 missions for $1.6 billion, but in a rare move under NASA contracting, neither the space agency nor SpaceX will disclose the value of several contract extensions that added eight more Falcon 9/Dragon flights to the contract.
SpaceX is also guaranteed at least six additional cargo deliveries, and possibly more, under a separate follow-on resupply contract signed earlier this year, which covers the space station’s logistics needs from 2019 through 2024.
The Hawthorne, California-based space transportation provider is also working on a Crew Dragon capsule to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. Boeing won a similar contract for its CST-100 Starliner crew carrier.
Wow! Stuck the landing!
That was the strangest launch I ever did see. That profile is waaaaaaaaaaaaay different.
Like butter, baby!
As often as I watch these and similar launches, to the point where they look almost routine, I remain in awe of the technology and hard work that make it all possible...
I saw the boost back burn this time from over 200 miles away.
The hosted webcast was pretty good. Loved that ‘Pokemon Go’ bit they did at the end.
Bravo to Space X!
Great launch. The way it is suppose to be. BTTT.
In what way? I think these launches that land the first stage back on land are more vertical than other launches.
You and me both.
Very different when going Northeast. I was still watching it in the distance when suddenly the 1st stage (slowing burn) was low and close on the returning section. Then the last burn was just bright light. It must have been low at that point and visibility is blocked by buildings and trees.
The sound of the lift off and burn arrived at about the separation point...dramatic! The sonic booms on re-entry came at just about landing so that was like a movie soundtrack...NEAT!! Great show start to finish about 9 minutes...
Imagine going hundreds or even thousands of miles to see it...and over in such a short time...we are lucky to have it here. We see big sea turtles on the beach almost nightly and people come from many other countries to see just one...
When the stages separated the exhaust plumes were crazy, for a moment I thought there was a problem. The reentry burns were awesome.
That was almost brighter than liftoff and up high where it could be seen, any sound?
Probably too far away and a rumble 15 minutes later might be missed as a rolling thunder sound.
To imagine that we have more capable computers in our personal ones than they had for early flights is amazing!
How did they ever do it?
Thanks for the reminder to watch. A spectacular show and success! Really inspiring after a crappy week.
Space station as a target is very different from Communication Satellites. Distance and final location are variable in those too.
I say jokingly: lots of coffee and sliderules!
yes, I was confused at separation...that is why the re-entry burn overhead surprised me! I had not been able to follow that section.
I don’t know why but the burns coming back do seem brighter than the one going up. I’ve never heard one from the distance I’m at.
You were joking... but I wonder just how close to true...so much had to be activated from ground, not all preset and onboard automatic changes...less control, but much less error.
Well, the initial lift phase went through scattered clouds from my vantage point to the SW and it made it look like random surging. Then there was mid flight MECO which really freaked me out the first time I saw it but expected it this time. Back on it came though. It was cool when it got high enough that you could tell the exhaust plume was in sunlight.
Then came staging. There was a weird smoke ring as the two flame sources went on widely divergent trajectories. A failure I was wondering. Then I thought the lower one was the first stage but then realized it was the second stage and the first stage was going higher. It winked out and I followed the 2nd stage as it looked to be going horizontal down range.
Suddenly the sky lit up with a big fat flame profile going downward. It went out after a few seconds. Then there was a narrower flame again as it was lower. Trees and distance blocked the end although there seemed to be a brightening on the horizon.
I hope to video the next night launch from the beach.
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