Everylaunchisanexcitinglaunch, buttoday's launchrepresentssomeparticularlymemorablemilestonesforSpace X First, today's launchwillbethefirsttimewe'rereflying a Falconnineboosterforthefourthtime.
Thisboosterpreviouslyflewon a radiumsevenSal, comeone A and P s andsixfollowingtoday's flightwillbeattemptingtorecoveritfor 1/4 timeonourdroneship.
Ofcourse, I stillloveyououtintheAtlanticOcean.
Second, thisisthefirsttimewe'llbeflying a recovered.
Thechiefengineerheld a technicalpoleat T minusonehour, andthelaunchdirectorheld a propellantloadandlaunchGonogopoleat T minus 38 minutes.
Falconninehasbeenloadingpropellantssince t minus 35 minutes, andcurrentlyourrocketgradekerosene, orwhatwecallour P one, isnearlyfullyloadedonthefirststage, andthesecondstageisalreadyfullyloaded.
Finally, at T minus 4.5 minutes, thetransporterErectorwillretractawayfromtherocketslightly, andthat'llprovideclearanceforFalconninetoliftoffofthelaunchpad.
Nowlet's take a lookattheweatheranditlookslikewehavesomegreatweatherthismorningoverthereinCapeCanaveral, there's a verysmallchanceofshowersandsomecloudswithonly a 20% chanceoflaunchviolation.
Sowewillcontinuetomonitorthisallthewaydownto T minuszerotoensurethattheweatherremainsgoodforlaunch.
TheRedmondteam, alongwiththeircounterpartsacrossthecompany, haveimplemented a numberofupgradesfortoday's mission, includingdoublingthenumberofsteerablephaseor a broadbandbeams, a 400% increaseindatathroughputpersatellite, andtheinclusionof a new K a banandtennissystembetweenthesatelliteupgrades, thefirstreflightofof a faringtodayandthisbeingthe 1st 3 flightorsorry, the 1st 4thflightof a Falconnine.
There's a tonofcoolstuffhappensontoday's tensionwithliftoffjust a fewminutesfromnow, 4.5 minutesfromliftoff, Falconnineismovingintothefinalstagesofthecountdown.
Comingupnextis a rapidsuccessionofeventsstartingoffwithmainenginecutofforwhatwecallmico, followedimmediatelybystageseparation.
That's theseparationofthefirstagefromthesecondstageandthensecondsafterwillbethelightingofoursecondstageengine, whichwecallsecondenginestartupor S E s onethatiscominguphereinabout 45 seconds.
We'vegot a greatviewthismorningwithsomeprettyclearblueskies, theearthinthebackground.
Ifyou'rejustnowjoiningus, weare 30 secondsawayfrommainenginecutoff, stayedseparationand S E s one.