SpaceX F9 - Transporter 7 - SLC-4E

Launch Date: April 14
Launch Window: 11:47pm PDT (2:47am EDT, 6:48 UTC both on the 15th)
Launch site: SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
Core Booster Recovery: RTLS - LZ-4
Booster: B1063.10
Fairings: Reused
Mass: 100 payloads at 5 metric tons
Orbit: SSO
Yearly Launch Number: 24

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Transporter 7 mission, a rideshare flight to a sun-synchronous orbit with numerous small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers. The Falcon 9’s first stage booster will return to Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg.

This launch will debut a new MVac nozzle extension design aimed at increasing cadence and reducing costs. This new nozzle extension is shorter and, as a result, the engine has a lower specific impulse and therefore performance. Due to this, it will only fly on missions that don't need Falcon 9's full performance capability.

"SpaceX Falcon 9 1.1 Launch Sequence at Vandenberg AFB" by jurvetson is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail

 

[Grendal]

This will be the 8th booster to reach 10 launches, if successful.

 

[Electroman]

YouTube link please ?

 

[Grendal]

YouTube link please ?

Too soon. SpaceX usually posts their plan for a webcast about a day ahead or half a day for Starlink launches.

 

[Grendal]

YouTube link please ?

 

[Dave EV]

Delayed until tomorrow:

"SpaceX is targeting no earlier than Tuesday, April 11 at 11:48 p.m. PT (06:48 UTC on April 12) for Falcon 9’s launch of the Transporter-7 mission to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. "

 

[Grendal]

Delayed again. First post updated.

 

[808?]

Updated link:

 

[HVM]

Skimpy miniskirt:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1647130493723496448

Landing:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1647131755080712194

A shorter second stage nozzle will be used when we don’t need as much performance to get the payload to its final destination. We'll still fly the full-sized MVac nozzles on missions that require a more significant amount of thrust or contain a heavier payload.

 

[HVM]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1647168916261851137

Rideshare deployment sequence complete

 

[ecarfan]

Skimpy miniskirt:

Is this the first time we’ve seen the shorter MVac nozzle?

I wonder why SpaceX bothers to manufacture a different nozzle? I understand that for this mission the performance of the standard size nozzle was not required. Is there a significant cost savings with the shorter nozzle?

 

[HVM]

Yes it is. Also It's easy to forget how large MVac skirt really is.

So maybe there is a good reason to cut down the niobium+manufacturing cost?

 

[Cosmacelf]

SpaceX continues to amaze. They spent the first five years of the Falcon program increasing performance so that they could take on bigger and more lucrative missions. One mission, I remember, was originally purchased to fly on Falcon Heavy, and it got moved to an upgraded Falcon 9 since their performance had almost doubled by then.

And now, they are realizing cost savings since a lot of missions don’t need at the performance. There’s a limit to the number of rideshares they can book.

 

[Grendal]

Is this the first time we’ve seen the shorter MVac nozzle?

I wonder why SpaceX bothers to manufacture a different nozzle? I understand that for this mission the performance of the standard size nozzle was not required. Is there a significant cost savings with the shorter nozzle?

From the looks, I'd say that the smaller nozzle uses around 1/3 the amount of niobium. So 2/3 savings on the price of the nozzle. The market price of niobium is $45 per kilogram. A google search does say that the nozzle is a niobium alloy.

 

[ICUDoc]

Gotta love that glowing niobium!!!