SpaceX Starlink Group 4-2/BlueWalker 3 Launch

SCANALYZER The Happening World
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SpaceX plans to launch 34 Starlink satellites into Shell 4, with an eventual 540 km circular service orbit at 53.22° inclination, on 2022-09-11 at 01:10 UTC, which is in the evening of the 10th in western hemisphere time zones. The launch will also carry the BlueWalker 3 prototype communication satellite intended to test direct space to mobile phone communication for the planned AST SpaceMobile constellation. This will be the fourteenth flight of Falcon 9 booster B1058, making it the fleet leader for most flights, with a turn-around time of 65 days since its last flight. The launch will be from Launch Complex 39A in Florida. Weather is currently forecast as 60% favourable for launch.

Here is a pre-flight preview from Everyday Astronaut, which disagrees with SpaceX’s announcement on which first stage booster is being used. I’m going with SpaceX.

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f9flight14

In addition, this successful flight was the first in which the Falcon 9 second stage performed five separate burns:

  1. Initial orbital insertion
  2. Circularisation burn at 513 km BlueWalker 3 orbit
  3. Orbit lowering burn to Starlink deploy altitude
  4. Circularisation burn at 330 km for Starlink deploy
  5. Second stage disposal burn for de-orbit and destructive re-entry

Even though the Starlink satellites’ operational orbit is 540 km, they are deployed in a lower orbit so that any satellites whose control or propulsion systems malfunction will re-enter and burn up in a relatively short time. The working Starlinks raise their orbits using their on-board ion propulsion thruster.

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