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Launched last night at 12:03 am PT (08:03 UTC) from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Base in California, Falcon 9 delivered another batch of satellites to 22 Starlinks in orbit.
This mission marked the 91st orbital launch of the year for the company. 22 Starlink satellites were inserted into a 53-degree orbital inclination and separated from the second stage over an hour after liftoff.
The midnight launch of the Starlink Group 7-8 mission (Credit SpaceX)
So this is where I normally put the download clip from X, but during the launch last night, the stream didn’t work during the launch and only picked up the mission about 20 seconds into the flight with bad protection and, as of now, there are still problems with X to replay the mission.
So, a quick example, the rocket was launched in time, passed the maximum pressure of the energy (Max Q), and completed the split, at which time the first flight began of the Falcon 9 back, and the 2nd stage continued into orbit.
As for the first step, Booster 1071 put the Starlinks into orbit. It completed its 13th mission after launching 6 Starlink missions, 2 top secret spy satellites, 2 Transporter missions, 1 science mission for CNES, NASA, and CSA, and the SArah-1 mission.
B1071 successfully re-launched with “The truth is I still love you” eight and a half minutes after launch. The booster had 27 days since its last mission, faster than average thanks to that mission landing in landing zone 4 instead of a droneship. The launch site had a turnaround time of only ~6.5 and a half days, making it one of the fastest, if not the fastest among the four launch for SpaceX from Vandenberg. Shortening that time will allow them to increase their promotion next year.
Next comes the Falcon Heavy OTV-7 (X-37B spaceplane) mission, which has not been confirmed by SpaceX, but the Space Systems Command public affairs in a press release indicated a launch time of 8:14 pm ET (01 :14 UTC) with a 10-minute launch window on December 10.
Questions or comments? Email me at rangle@teslarati.com, or Tweet me @RDAnglePhoto.