Starlink v1.0 (x60) flight 5 - Falcon 9 - KSC LC-39A - 18.03.2020, 12:17 UTC

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03/15/2020 15:22 Stephen Clark

T-minus 60 minutes. SpaceX intends to recover the first stage after today's launch. The company's drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" is parked roughly 400 miles (630 kilometers) northeast of Cape Canaveral.



The Falcon 9's first stage booster will target a propulsive landing on the football field-sized drone ship at T+plus 8 minutes, 35 seconds.

SpaceX's two fairing recovery ships -- named "Ms. Tree" and "Ms. Chief" -- are also in position in the Atlantic Ocean to try and catch the two halves of the Falcon 9's payload shroud around 45 minutes after launch.

The vessels are equipped with giant nets to catch the fairing shells as they descend under parafoils. On today's flight, SpaceX is reusing the fairing after retrieving the hardware from the sea following a previous mission.

But catching them in the nets prevents the shells from being drenched in salt water. That eases their refurbishment and reuse, SpaceX says.

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 William Harwood‏ @cbs_spacenews 7 мин. назад

F9/Starlink: Good morning; we're now 55 minuts to launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a sixth batch of 60 Starlink internet relay satellites; liftoff from LC39A at the Kennedy Space Center is targeted for 9:22:32am EDT; weather is 90% go

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Похоже, заправка-таки началась

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 Spaceflight Now‏ @SpaceflightNow 2 мин. назад

T-minus 30 minutes. Fueling of the Falcon 9 rocket should be underway at the Kennedy Space Center. But confirmation of that milestone hasn't yet come from SpaceX.

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 SpaceX‏ @SpaceX 3 мин. назад

T-30 minutes until today's launch of Starlink at 9:22 a.m. EDT, 13:22 UTC. Webcast will go live ~15 minutes before liftoff → http://spacex.com/webcast 

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03/15/2020 15:56 Stephen Clark

Venting visible at the base of pad 39A suggests fueling of the Falcon 9 rocket is underway this morning.

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03/15/2020 16:03 Stephen Clark

SpaceX confirms the Falcon 9's second stage is fully loaded with RP-1 kerosene fuel at this time.

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 Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 2 мин. назад

The big T-20 minute vent!

Live from KSC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKxu4s4W0O0 ...

(0:30)

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Пошла муззаставка

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03/15/2020 16:16 Stephen Clark

T-minus 7 minutes. Prevalves leading to the Falcon 9's Merlin 1D first stage engines are opening, permitting super-cold liquid oxygen to flow into the engines to condition the turbopumps for ignition.

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03/15/2020 16:16 Stephen Clark

The Falcon 9's first stage is fully loaded with RP-1 kerosene fuel.

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