#lc39a

Apollo-era Launch Complex 39 captured from orbit on eve of Apollo 11 golden anniversary (July 10, 2019).

Maxar Technologies' WorldView-3 satellite captured these views of Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39 Monday, July 8. Both Apollo-era launch pads are now home to different launch vehicles. SpaceX launches their Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets from LC-39A as well as their Crew Dragon spacecraft. The company hung a giant American flag from their Crew Access Arm in commemoration of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which departed for the moon from that very pad. The transporter/erector strongback that the rockets are assembled and transported to the pad on can be seen in the horizontal position adjacent to the service tower. NASA will utilize LC-39B for their Space Launch System, which WorldView-3 captured with the SLS Mobile Launch atop it. The ML was moved from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the pad last week for a final series of validation checks before hosting the first SLS flight in early 2021.

Crew Dragon inaugurates ‘new era of spaceflight’ as first commercial crew program vehicle arrives at ISS. (March 3, 2019)

Sporting a sleek, modern look and twenty-first century touchscreen displays, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the International Space Station early this morning, March 3. DM-1 is the first American crew-capable spacecraft to arrive at the station since STS-135, the final space shuttle mission in 2011.

After approaching the station along the velocity bar - known as V bar for flying along the station’s flight path - Crew Dragon approached to within 150 meters before briefly pausing. This milestone, known as Waypoint 1, gave astronauts the ability to order the capsule to retreat, demonstrating controllability in the event of a docking abort.

Dragon then proceeded to Waypoint 2, 20 meters in front of station for the final go/go no decision from ground controllers. With Dragon’s docking light reflecting off the skin of the station, the capsule was illuminated during its final approach to PMA-2, the docking port at the forward part of the Harmony module. 

Soft capture between the capsule’s docking system and the International Docking Adapter occurred at 5:51am EST. Latches firmly attaching the two spacecraft occurred 13 minutes later at 6:04am.

External cameras on the International Space Station captured this view of Crew Dragon docked to PMA-2 following docking.

Crew Dragon performed the first fully-automated docking to the International Space Station. Previous Cargo Dragon spacecraft would approach to within 30 meters of the outpost before being grappled by the robotic Canadarm2 and berthed to one of the station’s berthing ports.

The last vehicle to use PMA-2 was the space shuttle Atlantis during STS-135. One of the two International Docking Adapters was installed in August, 2016 to upgrade the PMA’s hardware to allow for Commercial Crew vehicles. 

Dragon launched from the newly-upgraded LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida just 27 hours earlier. Liftoff occurred on schedule at 2:49am EST. SpaceX spent the three months in-between DM-1 and 39A’s previous launch in November 2018 to finish renovating the Apollo-era pad, installing thermal shielding on the side of the service tower and painting the structure. Modifications to bring the pad’s hardware into the 21st century were started in 2015.

“This day belongs to all of us”

Hatches between the two vehicles were opened at 8:07am EST, with Expedition 58 Flight Engineer David Saint-Jacques and Commander Oleg Konoenko entering to take air samples. Two hours later, Flight Engineer Anne McClain joined her crew mates for an official welcome ceremony for the new spacecraft.

“Today, we welcome a brand new spacecraft to space station, a great new addition to the quiver of tools we have to further space exploration,” stated Saint-Jacques.“This is the first day of a new era for the next generation of space explorers.”

Expedition 58 Flight Engineer Anne McClain introducing views to Crew Dragon occupants ‘Little Earth’ and ‘Ripley.’

McClain added “Our sincere congratulations to all Earthlings who have enabled the opening of this next chapter in space exploration. Congratulations to the teams at SpaceX and Boeing, who have been working diligently to define what this new era of commercial spaceflight will look like. And congratulations to all nations, private space firms, and individuals, who wake up every day driven by the magic of exploration. This day belongs to all of us.”

In a move reminiscent of the Apollo-era television broadcasts, the astronauts then led viewers on a tour of Crew Dragon’s interior.

“On behalf of Ripley, little Earth, myself and our crew, welcome to the Crew Dragon,” she said. “Congratulations to all of the teams who made yesterday’s launch and today’s docking a success. These amazing feats show us not how easy our mission is, but how capable we are of doing our things. Welcome to the new era in spaceflight.”

SpaceX plans for Dragon to remain at the station until Friday morning, after which it will return to Earth and splash down in the Atlantic ocean off the coast of Florida.

Click here to watch the Expedition 58 crew officially welcome Crew Dragon to the International Space Station.

Footage of Crew Dragon’s final approach and docking to the International Space Station can be seen below.

Mythical Beasts and Where to Find Them: Falcon Heavy makes its first appearance.

After nearly seven years of development and repeated delays, SpaceX is in the final prelaunch stages of their first Falcon Heavy rocket.

The photos above show the massive booster in the Horizontal Integration Facility of LC-39A, the first time the integrated vehicle has been seen.

Both of the rocket’s side boosters have flown missions before; #23 sent the Thaicom-8 satellite to GTO in May, 2016 while #25 lofted the CRS-9 Dragon to the ISS in July of that year. The core booster, #33, is making its first flight.

SpaceX had to slightly modify the boosters to accommodate the increased aerodynamic, acoustic, and thermal conditions that will be experienced in flight. Elon Musk himself stated earlier this year that development of the three-stick rocket was more challenging than he thought at first, which led to the flight’s multi-year delay.

“Falcon Heavy is one of those things that at first it sounded easy,” Musk said. “We’ll just take two first stages and use them as strap-on boosters. And like, actually no, this is crazy hard, and required a redesign of the center core, and a ton of additional hardware. It was actually shockingly difficult to go from a single core to a triple-core vehicle.”

Falcon Heavy’s first flight will be a demonstration mission to validate the vehicle’s flight profile and technologies. As such, there will be no commercial or government payload atop the vehicle, but one of Musk’s own Tesla Roadsters.

“We will probably fly something really silly on Falcon Heavy because it is quite a high risk mission,” Musk said in March.

When Falcon Heavy launches, it will become the world’s most powerful rocket. Standing over 230 feet tall, 27 Merlin 1D engines will provide a combined thrust of more than 5.1 million pounds at liftoff. The Heavy will be able to place 63,800 kilograms into Low Earth Orbit, exceeding the capability of any rocket currently in service.

SpaceX is expected to roll the vehicle to the launch pad in early January for further testing, including propellant loading and a static fire. No launch date has been set but the company hopes to fly sometime in mid-January.

Falcon Heavy arrives at pad for fit checks ahead of maiden launch

What will soon become the world’s most powerful rocket made its inaugural public appearance yesterday, December 28, when SpaceX rolled their Falcon Heavy to LC-39A.

While the rocket’s inaugural flight is still scheduled for January, integration and for checks must be performed to verify that the new vehicle’s systems correctly interface with the facilities at the launch complex. SpaceX will still need to perform a static fire of the three core’s combined 27 Merlin 1D engines before the stack is green lighted for flight.

This will be the most powerful rocket to launch off the historic LC-39A since the Saturn V moon rocket and, at 5.1 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, the most powerful rocket in the world when it enters service. Currently, this distinction is held by ULA’s Delta IV Heavy, which, at 2.1 million pounds of liftoff thrust, can place just under half of the Heavy’s payload capacity into orbit.

Falcon Heavy’s demo mission will launch Elon Musk’s own Tesla Roadster into a solar orbit at roughly the distance to Mars. Since the vehicle is performing a test flight, no commercial or government payloads are able to be carried, leaving SpaceX free to choose their own ballast.

Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster is seen inside the Falcon Heavy’s payload fairing shortly before encapsulation. Photo: SpaceX.

Falcon Heavy soars on maiden voyage, launches Starman and Tesla into deep space. (Feburary 6, 2018) SpaceX made history February 6 with the long-awaited flight of their Falcon Heavy rocket. Seven years after it was first announced, the three-core booster rose above LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center with over 5.1 million pounds of thrust. The rocket’s maiden voyage tested both the vehicle’s flight profile which offered significant complexities compared to a single-core Falcon 9. Interactions between the three cores during both ascent, max Q, and booster separation could only be determined in flight. Additionally, three cores landing in near-unison on both ground based landing pads and the droneship had never been attempted before.

Falcon Heavy launches from LC-39A as seen from the NASA Causeway four miles south of the pad. P/c: For All Mankind Lifting off at 3:45pm EST after over two hours of wind-based delays, Falcon Heavy performed as expected as the rocket pierced the Florida sky. Both side boosters jettisoned two and a half minutes into flight and performed a flawless, jaw-dropping double landing in unison at LZ-1 and LZ-2. Six sonic booms – three per booster – heralded the return of the boosters just eight miles south of where they began their flight. Once the second stage separated and began firing its engine, the core stage began its descent onto the droneship ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ nearly 300 miles downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. However, the booster ran out of TEA/TEB igniter propellant to relight its engines and did not successfully land. Instead, it impacted the water at around 500 kilometers per hour less than 100 yards away from the droneship. While the cores were performing their landing maneuvers, the second stage was propelling its payload into an initial parking orbit around the Earth. Since Falcon Heavy is a test flight and could not fly a customer’s satellite, SpaceX instead lofted Elon Musk’s own Tesla Roadster into orbit. Riding in the driver’s seat was a mannequin clad in the qualification article for the company’s spacesuit. 

Falcon Heavy’s upper stage camera rig captured this final image of Starman and Tesla as it departed the Earth system bound for deep space. Batteries on he upper stage only lasted for 12 hours. P/c: SpaceX. Together, the Tesla and its ‘Starman’ passenger- as SpaceX calls him – were pushed into a heliocentric orbit with the high point – or apogee just beyond the orbit of Mars and a low point – or perigee – right at Earth’s. Computer simulations based on these orbital parameters show the combined Tesla/Starman/Falcon upper stage to fly in deep space for nearly a million years before the gravitational effects of other planets perturb the orbit. Such a feat demonstrates the Heavy’s ability to launch payloads into interplanetary space for a fraction of the cost of other launch vehicles on the market. This is good news for planetary science or human exploration missions.

Falcon Heavy also successfully demonstrated the ability of SpaceX to operate a heavy-lift launch vehicle that is both reusable and cost efficient. CEO Elon Musk said that the cost of a Heavy launch would be $90 million with full recovery, $95 with side booster recovery, and $150 million for full expendability. By comparison, America’s only other heavy-lift launch vehicle, ULA’s Delta IV Heavy, can put about half the payload to the same orbit for around $350 million. Such a reduction in cost allows the Heavy to fit into the market for direct-insertion geostationary and national security missions, both of which require heavy-lift capability and extended maneuvering of the vehicle’s upper stage. Musk stated in a post-launch news conference that multiple customers are lined up to use the Heavy and will eventually have the vehicle certified for national security missions. “We’ll be doing several Falcon Heavy launches per year. If there’s a big national security satellite due for launch in three or four years we’ll probably have a dozen or more launches done by then. Click here to see Falcon Heavy’s long road to the launch pad in our archive.

Check out the SpaceX launch webcast of the Falcon Heavy mission below.