Featured Image: NASA
Lift Off Time | November 29, 2023 – 18:04 UTC | 10:04 PST |
|---|---|
Mission Name | 425 Project Flight 1 |
Launch Provider | SpaceX |
Customer | Korean Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) |
Rocket | Falcon 9 Block 5, Booster B1061-17; 41 day turnaround |
Launch Location | Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E), Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, USA |
Payload mass | ~ 800 kg |
Where is the spacecraft going? | Low Earth orbit |
Will they be attempting to recover the first stage? | Yes |
Where will the first stage land? | Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4), at ~400 m (~1,300 ft) from the launch pad |
Will they be attempting to recover the fairings? | The fairing halves will be recovered from the water by GO Beyond |
Are these fairings new? | The fairings are likely flight-proven |
This will be the: | – 278th Falcon 9 launch – 84th Falcon 9 mission of 2023 – 250th booster landing – 88th launch for SpaceX in 2023 – 292nd SpaceX mission – 58th SpaceX launch from SLC-4E – 192nd orbital launch attempt of 2023 |
Where to watch | Official livestream |
What Does All This Mean?
SpaceX will launch 425 Project Flight 1 alongside the EIRSAT-1 CubeSat atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA
425 Project Flight 1
425 Project Flight 1 is the first of five launches for the South Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), which will take one reconnaissance satellite featuring an electro-optical infrared (EO/IR) telescope to orbit. Four more synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites will be launched by 2025. The project is lead by the Korean Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), assisted by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), Hanwha Systems and Thales Alenia Space.
DAPA spokeswoman Park Geun-young stated this satellite and the following four satellites will be launched to low Earth orbit between 600 and 700 km, giving the South Korea’s military the ability to observe North Korean key military facilities every two hours with 30-50 cm resolution imagery.
Additional Payloads
The Falcon 9 will also launch EIRSAT-1, Ireland’s first satellite. It is a 2U CubeSat which carries a gamma-ray detector and an experiment of thermal coatings for other spacecraft. It has been developed by University College Dublin in partnership with the ESA Education office.
What Is Falcon 9 Block 5?
The Falcon 9 Block 5 is SpaceX’s partially reusable two-stage medium-lift launch vehicle. The vehicle consists of a reusable first stage, an expendable second stage, and, when in payload configuration, a pair of reusable fairing halves.
First Stage
The Falcon 9 first stage contains nine Merlin 1D+ sea-level engines. Each engine uses an open gas generator cycle and runs on RP-1 and liquid oxygen (LOx). Each engine produces 845 kN of thrust at sea level, with a specific impulse (ISP) of 285 seconds, and 934 kN in a vacuum with an ISP of 313 seconds. Due to the powerful nature of the engine, and the large amount of them, the Falcon 9 first stage is able to lose an engine right off the pad, or up to two later in flight, and be able to successfully place the payload into orbit.
The Merlin engines are ignited by triethylaluminum and triethylborane (TEA-TEB), which instantaneously burst into flames when mixed in the presence of oxygen. During static fire and launch the TEA-TEB is provided by the ground service equipment. However, as the Falcon 9 first stage is able to propulsively land, three of the Merlin engines (E1, E5, and E9) contain TEA-TEB canisters to relight for the boost back, reentry, and landing burns.
Second Stage
The Falcon 9 second stage is the only expendable part of the Falcon 9. It contains a singular MVacD engine that produces 992 kN of thrust and an ISP of 348 seconds. The second stage is capable of doing several burns, allowing the Falcon 9 to put payloads in several different orbits.
For missions with many burns and/or long coasts between burns, the second stage is able to be equipped with a mission extension package. When the second stage has this package it has a grey strip, which helps keep the RP-1 warm, an increased number of composite-overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) for pressurization control, and additional TEA-TEB.
Falcon 9 Booster
The booster supporting the 425 Project Flight 1 mission is B106-17; as the name implies, the booster has supported 16 previous missions.
| B1061’s missions | Launch Date (UTC) | Turn Around Time (Days) |
|---|---|---|
| Crew-1 | November 16, 2020 00:27 | N/A |
| Crew-2 | April 23, 2021 09:49 | 158.39 |
| SXM-8 | June 6, 2021 04:26 | 43.78 |
| CRS-23 | August 29, 2021 07:14 | 84.12 |
| IXPE | December 9, 2021 06:00 | 101.95 |
| Starlink Group 4-7 | February 1, 2022 18:13 | 56.51 |
| Transporter-4 | April 1, 2022 16:24 | 56.92 |
| Transporter-5 | May 25, 2022 18:39 | 54.09 |
| Globalstar FM15 | June 19, 2022 04:27 | 24.41 |
| Starlink Group 3-3 | August 12, 2022 21:40 | 54.72 |
| EROS-C3 | December 30, 2022 07:38 | 139.42 |
| Starlink Group 2-7 | March 3, 2023 18:38 | 63.46 |
| Starlink Group 3-5 | April 27, 2023 13:40 | 54.79 |
| Starlink Group 2-10 | May 31, 2023 06:02 | 33.68 |
| Starlink Group 7-1 | August 22, 2023 09:37 | 83.15 |
| Starlink Group 7-5 | October 21, 2023 08:23 | 59.95 |
| 425 Project flight 1 | December 1, 2023 18:19 | 41 |
Following launch, the Falcon 9 booster will conduct up to three burns. These burns aim to softly touch down the booster on Landing Zone 4.
Falcon 9 Fairings
The Falcon 9’s fairing consists of two dissimilar reusable halves. The first half (the half that faces away from the transport erector) is called the active half, and houses the pneumatics for the separation system. The other fairing half is called the passive half. As the name implies, this half plays a purely passive role in the fairing separation process, as it relies on the pneumatics from the active half.
Both fairing halves are equipped with cold gas thrusters and a parafoil which are used to softly touch down the fairing half in the ocean. SpaceX used to attempt to catch the fairing halves, however, at the end of 2020 this program was canceled due to safety risks and a low success rate. On Transporter-9, SpaceX will attempt to recover the fairing halves from the water with their recovery vessel GO Beyond.
In 2021, SpaceX started flying a new version of the Falcon 9 fairing. The new “upgraded” version has vents only at the top of each fairing half, by the gap between the halves, whereas the old version had vents placed spread equidistantly around the base of the fairing. Moving the vents decreases the chance of water getting into the fairing, making the chance of a successful scoop significantly higher.
425 Project Flight 1 Countdown
All times are approximate
| HR/MIN/SEC | EVENT |
|---|---|
| 00:38:00 | SpaceX Launch Director verifies go for propellant load |
| 00:35:00 | RP-1 (rocket grade kerosene) loading begins |
| 00:35:00 | 1st stage LOX (liquid oxygen) loading begins |
| 00:16:00 | 2nd stage LOX loading begins |
| 00:07:00 | Falcon 9 begins pre-launch engine chill |
| 00:05:00 | Dragon transitions to internal power |
| 00:01:00 | Command flight computer to begin final prelaunch checks |
| 00:01:00 | Propellant tanks pressurize for flight |
| 00:00:45 | SpaceX Launch Director verifies go for launch |
| 00:00:03 | Engine controller commands engine ignition sequence to start |
| 00:00:00 | Falcon 9 liftoff |
LAUNCH AND LANDING
All times are approximate
| Hr/Min/Sec | Event |
|---|---|
| 00:01:05 | Max Q (moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket) |
| 00:02:19 | 1st stage main engine cutoff (MECO) |
| 00:02:22 | 1st and 2nd stages separate |
| 00:02:30 | 2nd stage engine starts (SES-1) |
| 00:02:35 | 1st stage boostback burn begins |
| 00:03:01 | Fairing deployment |
| 00:03:29 | 1st stage boostback burn ends |
| 00:06:13 | 1st stage entry burn begins |
| 00:06:29 | 1st stage entry burn ends |
| 00:07:22 | 1st stage landing burn begins |
| 00:07:24 | 1st stage landing |
| 00:08:31 | 2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO-1) |
| 00:50:52 | 2nd stage engine starts (SES-2) |
| 00:56:55 | 2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO-2) |
