The company's Falcon 9 performed three flawless launch mission this weekend within 40 hrs.
Sunday, June 19, 2022 SpaceX launched its 3rd mission this weekend and 26th mission of this year, carrying Globalstar FM15 satellite to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The instantaneous launch of Falcon 9 Commenced at 12:27 a.m. ET, 4:27 UTC.
At T+10 minutes - followed by a nominal liftoff and stage seperation - the first stage landed on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, which stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. The Falcon 9 first stage booster "B1061-9" supporting this mission previously supported the launch of Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, one Starlink mission, Transporter-4, and Transporter-5,
Meanwhile the Second Stage continues to coast phase - completes 2 course correction burn- for about 110 minutes, at T+01:51:21, SpaceX confirmed the successful payload deployment at an altitude of 1126 km.
The mission with mystery; SpaceX did not show any views of the upper stage until the second burn (SES-2), it is clearly notable that the upper stage contains rideshare payload adapters which looks like the Starlink adapter used on Transporter missions. Experts says that SpaceX won a contract in 2020 to build missile warning satellites based on the Starlink bus. They *could* have deployed one or more test satellites before the second burn.
These mysterious payloads can be the test payloads to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
The Space Development Agency awarded $193.5 million to L3Harris and $149 million to SpaceX to build four satellites each to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
The contracts announced Oct. 5 are for the first eight satellites for a potentially much larger constellation of sensor satellites the Space Development Agency is calling Tracking Layer Tranche 0.
The awards mark the first time the U.S. military has announced an order of satellites from SpaceX, which opened a factory in Seattle several years ago to produce thousands of small satellites for its Starlink broadband megaconstellation.
Read more about: L3Harris, SpaceX win Space Development Agency contracts to build missile-warning satellites
Globalstar is a Louisiana-based provider of Mobile Satellite Services (“MSS”) with a full product suite supporting both one-way and two-way communications beyond the range of traditional cellular services. In 2022 the company cancelled all launch manefests with Russian Soyuz launch vehicle (which launched 24 second-gen satellites of Globalstar between 2010-2013) amid ongoing conflict and sanctions, and the launch contract has been signed with SpaceX. Globalstar FM15 is the 25th satellite of Second generation Globalstar constellation.
The Globalstar global mobile communications network offers global, digital real time voice, data and fax via a constellation minisatellites. The constellation operates in a 1410 km orbit inclined at 52 degrees. with a launch mass of approximately 700 kg and an end-of-life power of 1.7 kW, Globalstar satellites will be fitted with 16 transponders from C- to S-band and 16 receivers from L- to C-band. Starting in 2010, Globalstar satellites were launched by 6 to 8 at the same time and will have a lifetime of 15 years. These satellites initially deployed into a 920 km, 52° phasing orbit, from where they will raise themselves to the operational 1410 km, 52° orbit. while the current payload is deployed much higher altitude than soyuz fregat, which saves additional fuel, and eventually increases the satellite's lifetime in orbit)
LAUNCH, LANDING, AND DEPLOYMENT
All times are approximate
HR/MIN/SEC EVENT
00:00:00 Lift-Off
00:01:12 Max Q (moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket)
00:02:31 1st stage main engine cutoff (MECO)
00:02:35 1st and 2nd stages separate
00:02:43 2nd stage engine starts (SES-1)
00:02:54 Fairing deployment
00:08:10 1st stage entry burn begins
00:08:36 1st stage entry burn complete
00:09:36 1st stage landing burn begins
00:09:58 2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO)
00:10:00 1st stage landing
(the non-listed payloads deployed between this timeline)
01:04:32 2nd stage engine restarts (SES-2)
01:04:36 2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO-2)
01:47:12 2nd stage engine restarts (SES-3)
01:47:20 2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO-3)
01:53:21 Globalstar FM15 deploys