An upgraded Falcon 9 rocket and its cargo of 10 commercial communication satellites blasted off Wednesday morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base for the campaign to rebuild the innovative Iridium Next constellation.
The two-stage booster, standing 230 feet tall, lifted off at 4:39 a.m. from Space Launch Complex-4 on South Base, climbing into still-dark and foggy skies en route to delivering the Iridium Next satellites.
“Thank you @SpaceX for another awesome flight,” Iridium Chief Executive Officer Matt Desch said on his Twitter account, adding that “all 10 satellites have checked in.”
Fog was a foe for those hoping to see the launch, even hampering images from cameras at the launch site.
“The good news is the weather’s excellent for launch from Vandenberg. The bad news is the excellent weather has resulted in the fog coming in … and we cannot see the Falcon 9,” said John Insprucker, a retired Air Force colonel now working for SpaceX.
Before Wednesday morning, Falcon rockets built by Space Exploration Technologies have carried 55 other Iridium Next satellites into space amid the $3 billion effort to replace the satellites to provide voice and data communication around the globe.
“This historic constellation refresh is one launch away from completion,” Desch said. “We know our partners are just as excited about the new network being finished as we are, and how that will bring the full power of the Iridium Next constellation to life. We’ve come a long way, and we are particularly excited to see the financial transformation enabled by the completion of the Iridium Next system and the associated drop in capital expenditures.”
Wednesday morning’s mission employed a “Block 5” Falcon rocket featuring assorted improvements.
“That’s a name that we have applied here at SpaceX for a collection of upgrades we have made to the Falcon 9 that improve the reliability, the safety and the performance of the launch vehicle,” Insprucker said.
The rocket’s delivery of the satellites occurred approximately an hour after departure with release of each spacecraft every 100 seconds, providing what Inprucker called a clean sweep.
While ground cameras shrouded the rocket’s departure, those on board the Falcon rocket provided clear views of the satellites separating from the dispenser in space.
“Well done everyone. That’s the final spacecraft separation,” a launch team member told colleagues.
While not the primary purpose of the launch, SpaceX also recovered the rocket’s first stage with a landing on a droneship, called Just Read the Instructions, in the Pacific Ocean.
High wind shear and choppy seas made the landing attempt questionable, Insprucker said before the rocket departed.
Later, he confirmed the first stage had successfully touched down.
“It fought off the wind shear, it fought off the sea state and nailed the landing,” Inprucker said.
A separate vessel, now sporting a net four times larger than it previously had, unsuccessfully attempted to catch the payload fairing, or rocket nosecone.
“No one has attempted to catch a fairing out of the air before. It’s super difficult,” Insprucker said before the launch.
“We will continue to attempt that in the future as we learn how to bring fairings back and then reuse them,” Inprucker added.
Recovery of a rocket for future reuse is key to the SpaceX plan to reduce costs of spaceflight and cut down the time between launches.
Wednesday’s liftoff marked the second-to-last for completing the Iridium Next constellation with the eighth and final launch reportedly planned for September to push the total of spacecraft to 75 in orbit.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.