SpaceX F9 - Starlink Group 4-14 - SLC-40

[Grendal]

Launch Date: April 21
Launch Window: 11:16 am EDT (8:16 am PDT, 15:16 UTC)
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
Core Booster Recovery: ASDS - JRTI
Booster: B1060-12
Fairings: Reused
Mass: 53 satellites - 15.6 tonnes
Orbit: LEO

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the 42nd group of satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network, a mission designated Starlink 4-14.

If successful, this will be SpaceX's 16th launch this year and booster B1060 will be the second booster to have 12 launches.

 

[Grendal]

 

[Grendal]

Webcast:

 

[Grendal]

 

[Grendal]

Complete success again. Though payload deployment is later. That should easily be successful.
Listen in on the mission audio for confirmation:

 

[HVM]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1517201888495607810

Did you say crush core?

 

[HVM]

Mission Control audio: "Starlink deploy confirmed"

 

[Electroman]

I was wondering if this is a good time for SpaceX to demonstrate a sub-orbital launch from Florida to some place in Atlantic some 1000 miles away on a drone ship landing, with an intact 2nd stage demonstrating the ability to move cargo at rocket speeds.

 

[HVM]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1517218742291382272

https://twitter.com/x/status/1517234009226596352

 

[HVM]

 

[lvl2EV]

View attachment 796245

This right here.. is incredible.

 

[MyJoule]

So I wonder if the short broadcast was more due to Kate needing to be working on quality for the Dragon Crew launch coming up and less about the availability of videos of the deployment? Anyway, Glad that SpaceX is so successful, these launches still amaze me.

Very cool image of the Crew 4 capsule and rocket awaiting launch with the Starlink launch in the background!. Thanks HVM for posting it!

 

[Grendal]

I was wondering if this is a good time for SpaceX to demonstrate a sub-orbital launch from Florida to some place in Atlantic some 1000 miles away on a drone ship landing, with an intact 2nd stage demonstrating the ability to move cargo at rocket speeds.

That's not possible for a number of reasons. Primarily because the weight and balance would be significantly off. Secondly, the large weight at the top would likely crush the nearly empty booster when you try and land it. Those are my WAG extrapolated from a lot of comments of real rocket scientists and engineers. I personally thought the booster could survive the in flight abort test and those same type of people told me there was no chance. The reasons for that were similar to this sort of thing. The second stage was still attached after the IFA causing a massive imbalance. F9 is designed from the ground up to do what it does. Changing things around would not go very well.

 

[scaesare]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1517201888495607810

Did you say crush core?

You think? That didn't look like a particularly violent landing to me, and the legs always flex a bit, and the booster doesn't seem to be particularly listing.

Unless, of course, the normal "flex" we see is always the crush cores deforming, and not the pressurized gas cylinders absorbing some of the impact force, as I had assumed...

 

[bxr140]

I was wondering if this is a good time for SpaceX to demonstrate a sub-orbital launch from Florida to some place in Atlantic some 1000 miles away on a drone ship landing, with an intact 2nd stage demonstrating the ability to move cargo at rocket speeds.

In addition to @Grendal's response, there's really not a lot of upside to the exercise. Besides the fact that we are SOOO far away from PTP travel that a demonstration like this doesn't really prove any points or move any needles, as soon as Starship starts returning (and certainly as soon as it starts being reused) it basically envelopes any PR that a ballistic F9 mission could accomplish.