[Falcon Heavy] GOES-U Launch Discussion and Updates Thread!
[Falcon Heavy] GOES-U Launch Discussion and Updates Thread!
Welcome to the GOES-U Launch Discussion and Updates Thread! First Falcon Heavy launch of the year!
| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2024-06-25 21:26 |
|---|---|
| Scheduled for (local) | 2024-06-25 17:26 (EDT) |
| Launch site | LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida. |
| Launch vehicle | Falcon Heavy |
| Center | 1087-1 (expended) |
| Booster | 1072-1 (RTLS, LZ1) |
| Booster | 1086-1 (RTLS, LZ2) |
| Customer | NASA / NOAA |
| Payload | GOES-U |
| Mission success criteria | Successful deployment of payload into Geostationary Transfer Orbit |
Livestreams
| Stream | Link |
|---|---|
| NASA | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4HH_fL7QVk |
| Space Affairs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSRo1H73O9g |
| Spaceflight Now | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SBxb5-S8HM |
| NASASpaceflight | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kMlfbo1lts |
| The Launch Pad | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTDhfuRxo7U |
| Everyday Astronaut | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=227WGGFeDoc |
| SpaceX | |
| The Space Devs |
Stats
Sourced from NextSpaceflight and r/SpaceX:
☑️ 1st Falcon Heavy launch this year, 10th overall
☑️ 13th launch from LC-39A this year
☑️ 32 days, 18:31:00 turnaround for this pad
☑️ 65th SpaceX launch this year, 365th overall (excluding Starship tests)
☑️ 67th SpaceX launch this year, 378th overall (including Starship tests)
☑️ 280th consecutive successful Falcon 9 / FH launch (excluding Amos-6) (if successful)
☑️ 325th & 326th Falcon Family Booster landings, 334th and 335th Falcon recovery attempt
Payload info: GOES-U
NextSpaceflight:
GOES-U will provide advanced imagery and atmospheric measurements of Earth’s weather, oceans, and environment, as well as real-time mapping of total lightning activity and improved monitoring of solar activity and space weather.
Resources and articles:
Please post small launch updates, discussions, and questions here! Also feel free to leave feedback or suggestions for the mod team. We’re still a relatively small sub, so feedback from the community is very valuable!"
After not watching Falcon 9 launches for a while and only paying attention to Starship development, it's weird to look at this livecast and think that Falcon Heavy looks kind of small
Haha, yeah. Just the Super Heavy booster is about the same height as an entire Falcon full stack. The wide shot of 39-A with both the Falcon and Starship towers in view really puts the scale in perspective.
Starship is about 80% the width of Falcon Heavy - but all the way around and practically all the way up!
Side booster landings confirmed!
RIP B1087.
o7
RIP center core. You did your job well.
SES-2, SECO-2, and norminal transfer orbit.
SES-3 scheduled for T+04:21:18.
Interesting that they are doing a third burn of Stage 2. They mentioned that Falcon Heavy had some additional performance which would extend the lifetime of the satellite. Is this a partial GEO circularization burn?
BECO and side booster separation!
Liftoff!
NASA webcast is live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4HH_fL7QVk
T-0 pushed by 10 minutes to 2024-06-25 21:26 UTC.
Weather has improved from
30% favourable to 60% favourable60% favourable to 70% favourable.Launch weather is go. Booster fuel load complete, LOX load continues.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters BECO Booster Engine Cut-Off GEO Geostationary Earth Orbit (35786km) LOX Liquid Oxygen MECO Main Engine Cut-Off ~ MainEngineCutOff podcast RP-1 Rocket Propellant 1 (enhanced kerosene) SECO Second-stage Engine Cut-Off SES Formerly Société Européenne des Satellites, comsat operator ~ Second-stage Engine Start
[Thread #46 for this sub, first seen 25th Jun 2024, 21:30] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
Mission Control Audio: "Stage 1, PY, NY, LOX load has started."
Stage 2 RP-1 load has started.
SpaceX and NASA have polled go for propellant load.
Mission Control Audio: "Falcon Heavy tanks are venting for the start of prop load."
Mission Control Audio: "Launch auto sequence has started."
Mission Control Audio: "Max-Q."
Nominal boostback burn of the side boosters, center core MECO, stage 2 separation, M-vac ignition, and fairing separation!
Mission Control Audio: "Stage 1 LOX load complete."
Mission Control Audio: "Stage 2 LOX load complete."
SECO, nominal orbital insertion.
SES-2 scheduled for T+26:19.
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1805329579755946315
Teams completed the launch readiness review, and we are targeting Tuesday, June 25 for Falcon Heavy’s launch of @NASA's GOES-U mission from pad 39A in Florida. Teams are keeping an eye on weather, which is 30% favorable for liftoff
Images
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1805490612831142168
Falcon Heavy is vertical at pad 39A in Florida ahead of Tuesday’s launch of the GOES-U weather satellite
Images
NASA webcast is back for the final burn and deployment.
Edit: SES-3.
Edit2: SECO-3 and norminal orbit insertion.
Edit3: GOES-U separation confirmed!
Edit4: NASA webcast concluded.
