Blastoff! SpaceX Launches Classified Space Force Mission, Nails Falcon 9 Landing

LD, go for launch. You heard LD is go for launch. Let's sit back and watch as Falcon 9 takes USSF-432 to space. T-minus 10, 9, 6, 5, 4, lift off of Falcon 9. Go space sets, go USSF-432. Vehicle is pitching downrange. M1D, chamber pressures are nominal. At T-plus 30 seconds and counting, Falcon 9 has successfully lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The vehicle is now throttling down the engines to prepare for max-q. That's the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure during ascent. Max-q occurs when the combination of speed and air pressure put the greatest stress on the vehicle. Falcon 9 will pass through this milestone within the next 10 seconds. And there's that call out for Max Q. So Falcon 9 has now passed through the point of max aerodynamic pressure. The Merlin engines are free to throttle back up. Coming up next are several major events in quick succession. These will be main engine cutoff, stage separation, second engine start, and fairing separation. Main engine cutoff or MECO is when all nine engines on the first stage shut down. This will be followed by stage separation when the first and second stages are pushed apart. Immediately after, the second stage MVAC engine will ignite and continue pushing the payload to orbit. This is known as Second Engine Start 1, or SES-1 for short. Then, the two fairing halves will separate and fall away. They are no longer needed to protect the payload once in the vacuum of space. As a reminder, we will be attempting to recover the booster on Of Course I Still Love You. And, as we mentioned at the top of the program, we will not be displaying any views of stage 2 or fairing separation. We're standing by now for that series of events, which again will be MECO, stage separation, and SES-1 in the next few seconds. Main engine cutoff. Stage separation confirmed. MVAC startup. And we just heard confirmation of successful main engine cutoff on the booster, stage separation, and second engine start one of the MVac on stage two. Coming up next will be fairing separation. Fairing separation confirmed. Great news, successful fairing separation. As a reminder, both sides of the fairing are flight proven. One is flying for its 30th time and the other for its 16th. If you're just joining us, you're watching live coverage of the USSF 432 mission. To recap, Falcon 9 lifted off on schedule at 4.48 p.m. Pacific time from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, and it had a successful stage separation. So up next is booster landing. The booster has started its journey back to Earth. You can monitor its real-time altitude and speed with your on-screen telemetry. In order to make its way back to Earth today, Falcon 9's first stage has two burns to execute. First will be the entry burn. This helps to slow the vehicle down as it re-enters the upper part of Earth's atmosphere. Following the entry burn, the booster will initiate a landing burn, which will slow the vehicle down even further for its landing on SpaceX's drone ship, Of course, I still love you. That entry burn is slotted to begin just past the t plus six minute mark, so a little under two minutes from now. During this upcoming entry burn, Falcon 9 will be decelerating by firing its Merlin engines in the direction that it's moving. This process causes the rocket to fly through the engine's exhaust gases, which deposits a layer of soot on the vehicle's surface. This is what gives SpaceX's flight-proven vehicles their characteristic look. And that soot actually comes from the carbon-based fuel, RP-1, that Falcon 9 uses. With each flight, it builds up a little bit more on the outside of the vehicle. It's a great way to identify some of Falcon 9's frequent flying first stages. We're still about a minute away from the beginning of entry burn. As we approach that burn startup, keep an eye on the booster engine graphic, which will be on the lower right-hand corner of the screen. That displays the real arrangement of the nine M1D engines. There's an outer ring of eight secured in place by a structure called the octoweb and a center ninth engine. The graphics will light up as the engines ignite. You've also seen that the booster is equipped with four hypersonic grid fins. These are positioned near the top of the first stage, and they're used for steering as it returns to Earth. These are the primary aerodynamic control surfaces for the first stage during atmospheric reentry and descent. Grid fins are also a critical part of Falcon 9's reusability system. Reusability is key to lowering the cost of spaceflight, enabling more investments in critical space infrastructure. And the Falcon 9 first stage supporting today's mission will be performing this entry burn for the eighth time. Stage one FTS is saved. Stage one entry burn started. Entry burn has started up on the first stage. You can see three of those M1D engines have lit. This will last about 23 seconds total, and it is again slowing the vehicle down in preparation for its final burn and landing. Stage one entry burn shutdown. And we just heard confirmation that entry burn has concluded, so that completes the first of two burns in the return journey back to Of Course I Still Love You. The booster still has the landing burn left to complete. During its descent, Falcon 9 is not only using its titanium grid fins and M1D engines, but also nitrogen gas thrusters for stability and control. If you look closely, you may spot white puffs coming from the booster, and those are cold nitrogen gas bursts that help with attitude control. We have just under a minute prior to landing burn startup. The Merlin 1D engines on Falcon's first stage that are performing the entry and landing burns achieve around 190,000 pounds of thrust each during ascent and descent. They provide the initial power to lift Falcon 9 out of the lower, thicker part of Earth's atmosphere. Compare this to the single MVac engine on Stage 2, which is equipped with a much wider nozzle and optimized to operate in space, and that produces 220,500 pounds of thrust in vacuum. This upcoming landing burn will be the final burn that the booster needs to reduce the remaining speed of the vehicle for a gentle and precise landing. Stage 1 landing burn. Stage 2 has entered terminal guidance. And that callout means that the booster is now performing the final burn prior to landing. Keep an eye out for landing leg deploy just prior to touching down on the drone ship. Stage one landing leg deploy. Stage one landing confirmed. And another successful landing for Falcon 9. As mentioned at the top of the program, we will not be showing any stage two or deployment views today at the request of our customer. So with the successful recovery of Falcon 9's first stage, we will be bringing today's live mission coverage to a close.