Pacific time welcome to the webcast of the Falcon 9 mission carrying the second

flight of 10 iridium next satellites you are seeing a live view of Falcon 9

through the fog at Vandenberg as we prepare for launch in just under 15

minutes launch is currently scheduled for 20 hours 25 minutes 18 seconds

Universal Time or 1:25 18 Pacific Daylight Saving Time I'm John in

Sprecher Falcon 9 principle integration engineer and I'll be bringing you

coverage of the SpaceX launch of iridium next during the webcast this is our

second launch for our iridium customer our first launch for iridium was in

January of this year and as it would happen 48 hours ago that first age

successfully reflow to space carrying Bulgaria sat.1

today's launch is from Space Launch Complex 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base

our West Coast launch site you can see as I said through the fog

we were hoping the fog would have lifted by now but a two-stage Falcon 9 vehicle

which is standing 70 meters tall taller than a 20-story building now the first

stage provides the initial force to get out of the majority of Earth's

atmosphere it carries the second stage of space back up to about a hundred

kilometers or 60 miles the first stage day will return to our drone ship named

just read the instructions now currently in the drone ship it's fairly windy

conditions are marginal I think Elon has been tweeting but we are still go for

landing the second stage on top of the first stage will take the satellites

from the edge of space and accelerate them to the orbital speeds of just over

seven and a half kilometers per second ten times faster than a speeding bullet

at the very top of the stack somewhat obscured by the gaseous oxygen plume is

a 17 foot diameter payload fairing within which are the tenth iridium

satellites next to the rocket you can see structure this is transporter

erector there are two major parts to the transporter erector if the bottom is the

launch mountain that's what the rocket sits upon and provides connections to

the first stage that's that gray area that you see around the engine nozzles

the white area is the strong back it's a vertical tower that provides connections

to the second stage and the spacecraft these connections are umbilicals they

carry power propellant gases electrical commands and telemetry now one reminder

for today's launch unlike our Cape launch is a Kennedy Space Center the

transporter director will recline to the flight position of 77 1/2 degrees before

liftoff now we're currently at t-minus eliminates at 25 seconds and counting we

are still on schedule for an on-time launch at just after 25 minutes after

the hour for the Falcon 9 team we're working no significant issues we began

loading propellants at t-minus 60 minutes fuel is currently loaded on the

second stage and fuel is pretty much loaded on the first

we have a little topping off that we have to do and that will finish at about

t-minus seven minutes liquid oxygen load is underway on both stages is we're

filling the voluminous first and second stages with that ultra cold liquid

oxygen now our mixed Adria activity coming up we'll be opening the pre

valves between the first stage tanks and the engines to chill in the pumps coming

at t-minus seven minutes now it's hard to see on the view but we are flying our

new titanium grip vents these are the dark gray fins you can see right in the

middle of your image these are slightly larger thermally more robust to be able

to survive the heat of reentry the first stage we'll see how they work today on a

spacecraft side the radiant team is already on internal power no significant

issues in work they are ready for launch the range we're launching out of

Vandenberg today that's the air force western range they're providing similar

support is the eastern range one issue which has cleared earlier this afternoon

there was a ship in proximity to the drone ship that ship is now out of the

keep out zone and we're good to land the first stage and finally the weather is

excellent other than the views on the pad where we have fog but we hope to get

some shots from the onboard cameras as we rise out of the fog layer which is so

typical of Vandenberg so right now at t-minus 9 minutes and 45 seconds

everything's going well

you

now today SpaceX is launching ten iridium next satellites this is our

second launch that we have on contract with iridium each of the ten satellites

has a mass of about 600 kilograms and when the solar rays on each satellite

are fully deployed they'll span almost over nine meters in

wingspan now in order to correctly position the satellites the SpaceX team

has to launch right on the second so as I mentioned we have a one-second window

today we do have a backup opportunity tomorrow should we need it now when the

Falcon 9 carries the Iridium satellites into the deployment orbit that will be a

target of 625 kilometers altitude once we're there Falcon 9 will send commands

to each satellite separation system the satellites will be released one at a

time and a spacing of every 100 seconds so the whole sequence will take us 15

minutes from start to finish now once deployed these 10 satellites

will augment the 10 that are already launched earlier this year the final

plan is for a constellation of 75 iridium next satellites which will allow

cross-linking between four other satellites allowing anybody on earth to

contact any other place on earth with a little bit more information on the

Iridium constellation system we had an interview with Matt - the CEO of iridium

will play that video for you now so we are in the iridium snack that's an

acronym for the satellite network operation center this is a Center in

Northern Virginia about 30 miles or so outside of Washington DC where for the

last 20 years we've been running our Iridium satellite constellation and

flying it in controlling the satellites and managing it and we're on launch day

we'll be anxiously awaiting the 10 new satellites that will come off the

dispenser about 100 minutes into the flight

and start phoning home and being managed by these control displays and the people

who man this Center so about an hour into the flight the satellites will

start coming off the dispenser about once every minute and a half until

they're all deployed each satellite will boot itself up if you will it will

deploy it solar panels that will find the Sun that will find the horizon and

start positioning itself and it will start using a secondary data channel to

try to communicate with this facility and this is an example of one of the

screens that the operator uses in the satellite control software this one's

actually setup for one of the new satellites this is set up for SP 125 by

C and you can see all the data points there's there's something like a hundred

thousand different parameters that can be controlled by operators here to make

adjustments to configure it differently and almost two thousand commands or so

that they can send back and forth to move the satellite to turn attributes

off and on and to control all aspects of the satellites I think people know of us

from sort of our services from 20 years ago the big satellite phones but don't

appreciate that satellite devices have gotten to be quite small in fact in many

cases they're built into a truck or a ship or into an airplane that you don't

even see them they're being put on shipping containers or oil and gas

pipelines and on on solar wind farms to bring information

back and make make businesses more efficient I think people know our

humanitarian side they know that we're the first on the scenes when really bad

things happen and we're critical when you're at the North Pole or in the ocean

but they don't appreciate probably that where we've over the years become part

of the communication fabric of the planet really and are integrated into so

many things with other technologies like cell phone technology to do many many

important things and with this launch today and with the new satellites that

we're putting in a space and the whole new network we're just excited about so

many more things that we can do it's almost like an an innovation engine that

really is unique that we can create so many new things from and it's created so

many things over the last 20 years I can't even imagine the kinds of things

we're going to create over the next 20 t-minus five minutes and five seconds

and counting down still heading for an on-time launch currently on the Falcon

nine we have finished loading fuel on both the first and second stage liquid

oxygen is continuing to load that'll lasted to the last two to three minutes

the strong back right now is getting ready to begin moving away from the

rocket the clamp arms will open up and the strong back will recline to the

launch position of seventy seven and a half degrees currently the Iridium

satellite is on internal power working no issues they are ready to go the range

is also ready everything is clear for Falcon 9 launch to head downrange and

for the first stage to land and finally the weather upper altitude winds look

good we've just heard the call out the cradle arms coming open is the strong

back prepares to move away from the Falcon 9 as I say on the weather upper

altitude winds are good load conditions are good their ground level is good and

we just have the traditional Vandenberg fog but hopefully we'll get a view from

the Falcon 9 as we head into space so currently we're coming up t-minus three

minutes in 50 seconds and counting everything continues to go on time we're

going to listen in to the last minutes of the count along with you we'll be

back during the plus count to explain events as they happen on our way to

space strong back lower proceeding nominally wind payout striking the

target stage 2 TBC motions not on

Stage one lock so down

evently onstage - TVC emotional stage - TVC motion nominal

Stage one locks load closeout

Rock LC on countdown 1 please verify range is green rock Rangers green

Stromberg lowers ended strong Beck's locked out 77 and a half degrees

Stage two locks low close out

vehicle some self-aligned gas close out to started

TTIP set up complete

FTS and now it's amts is ready for launch a fps is ready for launch ground

side gaskets are foot balconies and startup Falcon highs and startup stage

two pressing replay LD verify go for launch

LD go for launch

to minus 30

20 stage once pressing for flight 15

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

hooked up with a pocketknife drop a vir tea

zero proposal on flight operation

GC moved to post launch pad operations secure the pad on the high net a copy

Wilco

fuck the exactly

f9 power and telemetry nominal

two plus 53 seconds into flight we've just heard the call-outs that engines

are nominal we've also got good status on the avionics system we're coming up

on maximum dynamic pressure

t plus 1 minute 30 seconds into flight Maryland engines continue to perform

Romilly we've heard a call out of em that D engine chill has begun that

indicates that propellants now are being fed to the front of the turbopump on the

upper stage engine to chill it as we get ready to light the upper stage engine in

just about 45 seconds we're coming up on several major activities all at once

at about t plus 2 minutes and 24 seconds we should have cut off of the nine first

stage engines stage separation ignition to the upper stage engine and right

afterwards re-ignition of three first stage engines for boost back burn let's

listen and watch together

Steve simmer

aha

coming up on t plus three minutes stage separation recognition successful the

first stage booster n-- is underway we're coming up on fairing separation

now around the ten iridium satellites

verax appreciated for three minutes and 23 seconds in the flight you can hear

the applause at SpaceX smaller crowd many of our folks drove up actually to

watch the launch from Vandenberg just about 180 miles up the road from us

first stage grid fins are deploying you can see the new dark gray titanium grid

fins they deploy a little more slowly than the old lighter weight aluminum

fins second stage engine burn continues to look nominal chamber pressure is good

trajectory looks good for the second stage

stick to football for Solano

four minutes into fight you can see the grid fins are fully deployed we're

listening for when the drone ship has what they call a OS acquisition of

signal that will indicate the telemetry from the first stage is being received

by the drone ship the drone ship does not send commands to the first stage

employ four and a half minutes into flight the upper stage engine continues

to perform nominal each one at stage two power it's a tree to pay double

d-plus five minutes into the flight second-stage continues to perform well

carrying ten iridium satellites to a parking orbit the next major event is

entry burn we will light three merlin 1d engines on the first stage that will

slow us down for entry through the atmosphere it's a fairly long burn

should be coming up in about 30 seconds

six minutes into flight you can see the entry burn is underway on the Falcon

nine first stage bringing it back to the drone ship titled just read the

instructions awaiting it in the Pacific Ocean