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THIS is
TONIGHTS SCHEDULED LAUNCH TIMELINE REPORT from
CAPE CANAVERAL March 6/7 Falcon 9 • SpaceX CRS 20
Launch time: 04:50 GMT on 7th (
11:50 p.m. EST on 6th)
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the 22nd Dragon spacecraft mission on its 20th operational cargo delivery flight to the International Space Station. The flight is being conducted under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.
Delayed from Oct.15 2019 / Feb.25 / March 1 / March 2 2020
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NASA LIVE VIEW PLAYBACK WEBCAM)*--->
https://youtu.be/21X5lGlDOfg NASA TV coverage of the Falcon 9 launch begins at 11:30 p.m. EST (0430 GMT).
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SPACE X LIVE VIEW PLAYBACK WEBCAM)*--->
https://youtu.be/1MkcWK2PnsU SpaceX’s webcast will begin at approximately 11:35 p.m. EST (0435 GMT).
THIS LAUNCH & CYGNUS DEPLOYMENT WAS A SUCCESS
03/06/2020 09:58SpaceX is targeting launches March 6 and March 11 for its next two missions after swapping an upper stage for its next Falcon 9 rocket with another stage already being readied for liftoff at Cape Canaveral.
The launch targeted for March 6 from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station will send a Dragon supply ship toward the International Space Station with nearly three tons of cargo, crew provisions and experiments, including a new mounting platform for external research payloads outside the station’s European Columbus lab module.
Liftoff is scheduled for 11:50 p.m. EST on March 6 (0450 GMT on March 7) on SpaceX’s fifth Falcon 9 flight of the year.
SpaceX teams a few miles to the north at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A will prepare a separate Falcon 9 launcher for liftoff as soon as March 11 at 10:40 a.m. EDT (1440 GMT). That mission will loft approximately 60 more satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink Internet network, which is expected to take up the bulk of the company’s 2020 launch manifest.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket is expected to return to landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station around eight minutes after liftoff of the space station resupply mission March 6. The booster is expected to attempt a landing on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean after the March 11 launch.
The March 6 mission will mark the 20th and final flight of a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule to the space station under a multibillion-dollar commercial resupply services contract awarded by NASA to SpaceX in December 2008. It will also be the last flight of SpaceX’s first-generation Dragon cargo freighter, which first flew in orbit on a test flight in 2010.
NASA said Tuesday, Feb. 26, that the launch of the Dragon cargo mission — designated CRS-20 or SpaceX-20 — was delayed from March 2 allow time for SpaceX to replace the upper stage on the Falcon 9 rocket with another stage already undergoing preparations for a subsequent launch from Cape Canaveral.
Read our Full Story.https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/02/26/spacex-swaps-upper-stage-for-next-falcon-9-launch/VIEW IMAGEhttps://photo.24liveblog.com/2471884153841728385/20200306145808_282484.jpeg03/06/2020 09:58The Falcon 9 booster for SpaceX’s next mission fired up briefly on a Cape Canaveral launch pad Sunday in a routine pre-flight test before a scheduled launch Friday night to kick off the final flight of the first version of the company’s Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station.
Nine Merlin 1D main engines at the base of the Falcon 9 booster fired up at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT) Sunday at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad. Hold-down clamps kept the rocket firmly on the ground as the engines throttled up to produce 1.7 million pounds of thrust for several seconds.
The test-firing is a customary step in SpaceX’s launch campaigns, providing an opportunity to check the readiness of the Falcon launcher and exercise the SpaceX launch team.
SpaceX drained the rocket of its kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants after Sunday’s test-firing, and teams planned to lower the Falcon 9 horizontal and return it to a nearby hangar for attachment of a Dragon cargo capsule this week.
Read our Full Story.https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/03/02/spacex-test-fires-rocket-preps-for-final-flight-of-first-generation-dragon-capsule/03/06/2020 10:06Weather forecasters from the 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base predict a 60 percent chance of favorable conditions for tonight's launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral scheduled for 11:50 p.m. EST (0450 GMT).
The primary weather concern is with ground winds that might be too strong for launch.
Clouds currently over Florida's Space Coast are expected to clear as a cold front clears the area later today. But the frontal passage will bring strong northerly winds to the area, forecasters said.
At launch time, forecasters expect a few clouds at 28,000 feet, northerly winds at 25 to 30 mph, good visibility and a temperature of 56 degrees Fahrenheit. There's a low risk of upper level winds being a problem for tonight's launch attempt, and a moderate risk of conditions exceeding constraints for a landing of the Falcon 9's first stage back at Cape Canaveral around eight minutes after liftoff.
If the launch is delayed to Saturday night, winds are forecast to weaken slightly. There's a 90 percent chance of favorable weather at Cape Canaveral on Saturday night, with the prime concern again ground winds.
03/06/2020 14:26The 213-foot-tall (65-meter) Falcon 9 rocket is standing vertical this afternoon on Cape Canaveral's Complex 40 launch pad as SpaceX preps for liftoff at 11:50 p.m. EST (0450 GMT).
03/06/2020 16:58An Airbus-owned, German-built outdoor science deck is set for launch Friday night from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule, heading for the International Space Station to make the orbiting research outpost more accessible for commercial space experiments.
Read our Full Story.https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/03/06/space-station-to-receive-new-outdoor-deck-for-science-experiments/VIEW IMAGEhttps://photo.24liveblog.com/2471884153841728385/20200306215835_891446.jpeg03/06/2020 17:02Forecasters predict a 60 percent chance of acceptable weather conditions for tonight's Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral, which is timed for 11:50:31 p.m. EST (0450:31 GMT).
The primary concern is with ground winds, which are predicted from the north at 25 to 30 mph, just below the limit for a Falcon 9 launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral.
Officials are also watching upper level winds, but conditions aloft are trending more favorable for a launch tonight.
03/06/2020 20:27SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will go from Cape Canaveral to low Earth orbit in less than 10 minutes tonight with a Dragon capsule heading for the International Space Station carrying more than 4,300 pounds of supplies and experiments.
Liftoff remains set for 11:50 p.m. EST (0450 GMT) from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad.
Landing of the Falcon 9's first stage booster back at Cape Canaveral's Landing Zone 1 is expected around eight minutes after liftoff.
See a timeline of all the key events during tonight's launch and landing.https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/03/06/launch-timeline-for-spacexs-20th-space-station-resupply-mission/03/06/2020 21:46Tonight's launch will mark the start of the final flight of SpaceX's first-generation Dragon cargo craft.
The Dragon cargo mission — SpaceX’s 20th operationally resupply launch to the space station — is set to deliver 4,358 pounds (1,977 kilograms) of supplies, experiments and other equipment to the orbiting research outpost. Bartolomeo, a new outdoor experiment platform from Europe, makes up about one-quarter of the cargo mass on the Dragon capsule awaiting liftoff tonight.
With a successful launch Friday night and a rendezvous with the space station early Monday, SpaceX will have delivered more than 94,000 pounds (around 43 metric tons) of cargo to the research complex on 20 missions, including a test flight in 2012. One of the operational resupply flights suffered a launch failure in 2015.
The 20 Dragon missions have returned about 74,000 pounds (33 metric tons) of cargo from the space station back to Earth.
The Dragon commercial cargo missions were conducted under a $3.04 billion resupply services contract with NASA.
SpaceX plans to begin resupply missions using its next-generation Dragon 2 spacecraft in October. The Dragon 2 was developed to ferry astronauts to and from the space station, but the new capsule comes in dedicated crew and cargo configurations.
The Dragon cargo capsule flew for the first time in 2010, and reached the space station in May 2012 to culminate a public-private partnership between NASA and SpaceX to develop the Dragon and Falcon 9 launcher. NASA paid SpaceX $396 million to help fund the development of Dragon and Falcon 9, and estimates SpaceX contributed another $450 million to the effort a decade ago.
By any measure, the investment paid off.
SpaceX received a NASA Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, contract in 2008 to resupply the space station on a series of Dragon missions, and the company won a NASA competition in 2014 to develop an upgraded Dragon spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the station.
The commercial cargo and crew transportation agreements were designed to give NASA a way to get astronauts, experiments, space parts and other equipment to the space station after the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.
Northrop Grumman is NASA’s other commercial cargo transportation provider, and Boeing joined SpaceX as the other contractor the commercial crew program.
Although NASA was the anchor customer for the Falcon 9 launcher, SpaceX has won billions of dollars in launch contracts with commercial satellite companies and the U.S. military over the last decade.
SpaceX began regular cargo transportation flights to the space station in October 2012. Since the initial contract award in 2008, NASA has extended the CRS agreement with SpaceX from 12 missions to 20 flights.
SpaceX launched its last new first-generation Dragon spacecraft in August 2017. Since then, the company has reused Dragon vehicles that were refurbished after splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
The Dragon spacecraft being readied for Friday’s launch — designed CRS-20, or SpaceX-20 — previously flew to the space station twice on the CRS-10 and CRS-16 missions in February 2017 and December 2018, according to SpaceX.
NASA awarded a second Commercial Resupply Services contract to SpaceX in 2016. Orbital ATK — now part of Northrop Grumman — and Sierra Nevada Corp. also received CRS-2 contracts to resupply the space station through the mid-2020s.
SpaceX plans to use a cargo-carrying variant of its next-generation Dragon 2 spacecraft for the CRS-2 missions. The Dragon 2’s human-rated configuration, known as the Crew Dragon, completed an unpiloted test flight to the space station in March 2019, and could fly with astronauts for the first time as soon as May.
The Dragon 2’s first regular cargo mission is scheduled for launch in October.
Northrop Grumman launched its first CRS-2 mission using upgraded versions of its Antares rocket and Cygnus supply ship last November, and Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space plane is scheduled to fly to the space station for the first time in 2021.
The Dragon 2 spacecraft has a different aerodynamic shape than the first-generation Dragon. It can also dock automatically with the space station, without requiring station crews to capture it with the research lab’s Canadian-built robotic arm.
The cargo version of Dragon 2 will launch without seats, cockpit controls and other life support systems required to sustain astronauts in space. The cargo version will also launch without the SuperDraco escape thrusters fitted to human-rated Dragon capsules.
While SpaceX and NASA do not initially plan to reuse Dragon 2 capsules for crew missions, the cargo variant will be qualified to fly to the space station and back to Earth up to five times, officials said. The first-generation Dragon capsule was capped at three missions.
Beginning with the CRS-21 mission late this year, the new Dragon 2 cargo capsules will splash down under parachutes in the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida, rather than the current recovery zone in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California, SpaceX officials said last year.
SpaceX will refurbish the Dragon cargo vehicles at Cape Canaveral, rather than at the company’s facilities in Texas and California, officials said.
The Dragon 2 will be able to carry heavier cargo loads to the space station. But the Dragon 2’s primary arrival mode, using docking rather than capture and berthing with the robotic arm, comes with a limitation.
The hatches through the space station’s docking ports are narrower than the passageways through the berthing ports currently used by Dragon cargo vehicles.
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus supply ship and Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser space plane are designed to berth to the space station, offering transportation for bulkier items.
VIEW IMAGEShttps://photo.24liveblog.com/2471884153841728385/20200307024639_338862.jpeghttps://photo.24liveblog.com/2471884153841728385/20200307024639_939312.jpeg03/06/2020 22:10T-minus 1 hour, 40 minutes. The Falcon 9 countdown continues ticking toward a launch time of 11:50:31 p.m. EST (0450:31 GMT).
SpaceX's launch conductor will verify all members of the launch team are ready to proceed with final 35-minute automated countdown sequence at 11:12 p.m. EST (0412 GMT), followed by the start of filling the rocket with super-chilled, densified RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants at 11:15 p.m. EST (0415 GMT).
Liquid oxygen loading into the second stage will begin at T-minus 16 minutes, at 11:34 p.m. EST (0434 GMT), followed by final chilldown of the rocket's nine Merlin first stage engines, a final pre-flight engine steering check, switching of the rocket to internal power, and pressurization of the Falcon 9's propellant tanks leading up to liftoff.
03/06/2020 22:21T-minus 90 minutes. The Falcon 9 booster powering tonight's launch previously flew Dec. 5 and landed on SpaceX's drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. On that flight, it carried SpaceX's previous Dragon resupply mission into the sky on the way to the International Space Station.
The booster, designated B1059, is powered by nine Merlin 1D engines, which will generate 1.7 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.
VIEW IMAGEhttps://photo.24liveblog.com/2471884153841728385/20200307032125_909640.png03/06/2020 22:50T-minus 60 minutes. Teams are watching ground winds at Cape Canaveral, which have steadily increased throughout the evening. Winds were the primary concern in the most recent official weather forecast issued by the 45th Weather Squadron, which indicated a 40 percent chance conditions could prevent liftoff tonight.
03/06/2020 23:02T-minus 48 minutes. All weather parameters are currently observed "go" at this time.
03/06/2020 23:07T-minus 43 minutes. Today's launch is timed for precisely 11:50:31 p.m. EST (0450:31 GMT), roughly the moment Earth's rotation brings pad 40 at Cape Canaveral under the International Space Station's ground track.
The precise timing is necessary to allow the Dragon capsule to rendezvous with the station Saturday. The space station's robotic arm is scheduled to grapple the approaching cargo craft around 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT) Monday.
03/06/2020 23:19Fueling of the Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral should have started a couple of minutes ago. But SpaceX is not currently providing a way for media to confirm the status of tonight's countdown, as the company typically does before launches.
Invalid dateAlthough there's been no official confirmation that fueling has started, vapors visible at the Falcon 9 launch pad suggest all is on track in the countdown.
03/06/2020 23:35NASA TV's live coverage of the launch is underway
03/06/2020 23:35Here's the mission patch for tonight's launch with the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo craft.
VIEW PATCH IMAGEhttps://photo.24liveblog.com/2471884153841728385/20200307043554_727596.jpeg03/06/2020 23:36Propellants are pumping aboard the 213-foot-tall Falcon 9 at pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
RP-1 kerosene and liquid oxygen are now being pumped into the Falcon 9 rocket. The liquid oxygen is chilled to near minus 340 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 206 degrees Celsius).
03/06/2020 23:38T-minus 13 minutes and counting. Here's a view of the Falcon 9 on the launch pad tonight.
VIEW IMAGEhttps://photo.24liveblog.com/2471884153841728385/20200307043801_234367.png03/06/2020 23:38The Falcon 9 rocket stands 213 feet tall and measures 12 feet in diameter. At liftoff, its nine Merlin 1D first stage engines will generate about 1.7 million pounds of thrust.
Fully fueled for launch, the Falcon 9 contains more than a million pounds of kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants, with a total launch weight of 1.2 million pounds.
03/06/2020 23:38Liquid oxygen loading into the Falcon 9's second stage started a few minutes ago. This is the final propellant tank to be loaded during today's countdown.
A single Merlin engine on the upper stage will consume the liquid oxygen with kerosene fuel.
03/06/2020 23:39Here are some statistics on today's launch:
82nd launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010
90th launch of Falcon rocket family since 2006
2nd launch of Falcon 9 booster B1059
67th Falcon 9 launch from Cape Canaveral
51st Falcon 9 launch from pad 40
20th SpaceX CRS mission to the space station
22nd flight of a first-generation Dragon spacecraft
5th launch by SpaceX in 2020
33rd time SpaceX has launched a previously-flown booster
4th orbital launch based out of Cape Canaveral in 2020
03/06/2020 23:40RP-1 kerosene fuel is fully loaded on the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket at this time, according to SpaceX. The kerosene stage on the first stage is nearly full.
03/06/2020 23:40T-minus 10 minutes.
03/06/2020 23:43T-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.
03/06/2020 23:44T-minus 6 minutes. The first stage kerosene tank is full in preparation for liftoff at 11:50:31 p.m. EST (0450:31 GMT).
03/06/2020 23:45T-minus 5 minutes. The Falcon 9's propellant tanks are pressurizing in preparation for retraction of the strongback structure at the Complex 40 launch pad.
03/06/2020 23:46T-minus 4 minutes. A steering check of the Falcon 9's upper stage engine should be complete at this time.
03/06/2020 23:47The strongback structure at pad 40 has retracted to a position around 1.5 degrees from the Falcon 9 rocket.
03/06/2020 23:48T-minus 3 minutes and counting.
03/06/2020 23:49First stage liquid oxygen loading has been completed.
03/06/2020 23:49T-minus 2 minutes. The Falcon 9 rocket is on internal power, and the second stage liquid oxygen tank has been topped off for launch.
03/06/2020 23:49Final gas closeouts have started.
03/06/2020 23:50T-minus 90 seconds and counting. Everything on track for liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket at 11:50:31 p.m. EST (0450:31 GMT).
03/06/2020 23:50T-minus 60 seconds. The Falcon 9's autonomous flight termination system is ready for launch.
In the final minute of the countdown, the flight computer will command checks of the first stage Merlin engine steering system and the Falcon 9 propellant tanks will be pressurized for flight. Thousands of gallons of water from water nozzles will also be dumped onto the launch pad deck to suppress the sound and acoustics of liftoff.
The command to start the ignition sequence for the first stage will be issued at T-minus 3 seconds, triggering the Merlin engines' ignitor moments before the powerplants actually ramp up to full power.
03/06/2020 23:51Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral carrying a Dragon spacecraft on its 20th resupply mission to the International Space Station.
DUE TO THIS POST WAS EXCEEDING THE MAXIMUM ALLOWED LENGTH OF CHARACTERS PLEASE FOLLOW THE REST OF THE LAUNCH TIMELINE ON PAGE 2*(Page 1 of 2)*
