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A bunch, of principle investigators, a bunch of people have worked on the technology, and developed. It to the point where it's ready to fly to space and let's, take a look at that because the green propellant we're talking about is actually not green there's, a picture of it and what's, interesting about it is tell me why that's so amazing that he's able to hold that like, that yeah that's Milt McKay I was his branch thief at one point when I was at Air Force Research Laboratory, Milt. Along, with Adam Bree and Tom Hawkins and, Mike Tanner L or the principal developers, of the propellant. He's he's, in you, can see a lab coat there he's got gloves on he's got, some. Goggles he's, not being careless that's. The level. Of protection you need to handle this so-called green propellant which, doesn't, have any vapor toxicity. Hydrazine, has tremendous. Vapor toxicity. And so, you have to wear escape suit to handle that to, load a spacecraft you kept it clear out the whole facility this, can be done in sort, of a shirtsleeve, environment as, you as you see there hydrazine, is the common, spacecraft. Propellant. In use today, would. Be impossible to do that this is much more less. Toxic, I should say a lot less toxic it's a lot less toxic, but it wouldn't be a very good rocket, propellant, if you sacrifice performance. And so in. Addition to the, handling, and, safety. Considerations. With this propellant, it. Has better. Fuel efficiency than hydrazine, and it, has substantially. Greater density, than hydrazine, so the overall, energy, density, that propellant, is about 50 percent higher so, I can get 50 percent more energy in. The same size propellant, tank or I can use a smaller propellant, tank to get the same amount of energy so you can't just develop. The propellant, you got to be able to test it in space, talk about how, you're going to do that as we show this animation, right, so I've brought a couple of little little, models, of this model. Of the spacecraft, and this, was developed by Ball Aerospace. Ball. Is the, principal. Company, leading this green. Propellant infusion. Mission you can see the thrusters, on the bottom of my little, model here and the. Solar rays are deployed. Here they'll be stowed, for launch. And. And. So we've got the propulsion system, which is developed by Aerojet, Rocketdyne I've. Got a model of the thruster, is actual size the spacecraft, there was a small. It's. Actually about the size of a dishwasher that would you have in your house this, is an actual size thruster, developed. By Aerojet Rocketdyne so. They took the propellant, developed. By Air Force Research Lab, starting. Back in the 90s and built, thrusters, that utilizes. A propellant and in the most efficient, manner to. Produce the thrust force that you need to propel. The, spacecraft. And so we've designed the demonstration. So the spacecraft, will, do all the maneuvers, that would be necessary in space, controlling. The attitude, pointing. In specific, directions. Changing. The orbit of the spacecraft you can see it there in the on, the monitor that's, it's being manipulated. That's, probably a ball aerospace. And. You. Can see the size of it in comparison. To the person there the thrusters, in this in this viewer on the top so it is quite large and so what what, alternative fuel advantages, are there for future. Missions to the Moon or Mars the, you, know handling and safety. Considerations. With this fuel being much less than commonly. Used propellant, is is a tremendous. Advantage the. Performance, increase is a huge advantage and one. Thing I haven't mentioned is this propellant. Is much more cold tolerant than. Hydrazine, you, can let it go to very. Cold temperatures, it'll, warm back up and be just fine it won't crack your fuel lines or, ruin. Your propellant. Tank and so, there's a number of mission, opportunities.
That, This propellant could satisfy that. Might not be attainable with and, the last question briefly I was surprised how many organizations were involved in this yeah, it was a great partnership a really, excellent example, of of NASA, teaming, with the private industry Ball Aerospace, as, I said built. The spacecraft. Chris mcclain balls the principal investigator. Aerojet. Rocketdyne did, the propulsion system, three NASA centers, were involved, in characterization. Work on the propellant. And the exhaust. From the propellant, and of course Air Force Research Laboratory not, only developed. And delivered the propellant, but Paul's, uder le there led, the team to design all the fuelling equipment, that would be needed at the payload all. Of these people very anxious tonight to watch this launch get off the ground those are the people I mentioned are here and really. Eager to see this thing go looking, forward to it Jeff she hi thank you very much for being here and explaining all this - great pleasure thanks all right moving, on now let's go out to the pad you can see there that's where the green propellant is currently, loaded right now in its spacecraft, atop a falcon heavy. Rocket, for currently, 22. Minutes, roughly. Before. Launch and everything, is looking good so far, it's warm weather out here in Florida, in this early morning on a Tuesday. Temperatures. Are in the mid. 80s or so, weather, is 80%, go, at this point so, we're looking good in, that regards, another. Pay low going up tonight is a CubeSat, created, by students right, down the road from us here at the Kennedy Space Center, it's, called staying set and it was built by high school students, at Florida's Merritt Island High School named. For the school's mascot the, Mustang, staying. Sat purpose, is to, measure the shock and vibration, of a launch to determine, how durable, cube, SATs must, be built and. We're wishing them well she see the students there from, powering. Spacecraft to, steering them right now spacecraft. On deep-space, missions, must endure long, waits on signals, from earth to, know where it is but. As we'll learn in this video from NASA's, Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
New. Technology, called a deep space atomic clock could, one day allow for self-driving. Spacecraft. How. Do we navigate through space currently. Spacecraft. Flying beyond Earth don't have a GPS to, find their way through space, navigators. On earth send, a signal to the spacecraft, which, receives it and sends, it back. Extremely. Precise, clocks on the ground called atomic clocks measure, how long it takes the signal to make this two-way journey the. Amount of time tells, them how far away the spacecraft, is and how, fast it's going the. Farther out in space the spacecraft, is the, longer, it takes to receive and send the signal. What humans, are sent to another planet like, Mars a two-way. System that sends a signal from earth to a spacecraft, back, to earth and then, to the spacecraft again would, take an average of 40 minutes imagine. If the GPS on your phone took 40 minutes to calculate, your position you, might miss your turn or, be several exits down the highway before it caught up with you if. Humans, travel to the Red Planet it would be better if the system was one-way allowing, the Explorers to immediately, determine, their current, position rather than waiting for that information to come back from Earth NASA. Is testing new technology, that would allow future explorers, to do just that the deep space atomic clock, is the first, demonstration, of an atomic clock that can be used for navigation in deep space it. Will allow a spacecraft, to calculate, its own trajectory instead. Of depending on earth if, a spacecraft, had one of these clocks on board it could receive a signal from one of those big antennas, on earth and quickly. Measure its speed and position the. Deep space atomic clock could one day let astronauts, navigate, safely and accurately to, Mars and beyond. This. Technology, demonstration, is the first step in making one-way space navigation a, reality. And. A. Deep space atomic clock is scheduled, to launch into space tonight, to demonstrate, its capability. And this, is a full-scale. Model. Deputy. Principal investigator, for this demonstration thank, you for bringing a little, show-and-tell here, so what do we have here I mean this is it's. Not that big for an atomic clock this. Is a 3d, printed model of our deep space atomic clock demonstration. Unit so, this, is a model, obviously this one's not going into space tonight but it is an accurate representation of the size of the, unit that we are sending out, on the orbital, testbed spacecraft, tonight so, how do these, atomic. Clocks help, us navigate in, deep space so. Atomic clocks keep. Time just like any clock keeps time and navigating. A spacecraft, throughout deep space it's fundamentally. A problem of measuring that time we, send a signal from. The earth to the spacecraft and back again right, now that's the way we have to operate because, measuring. That signal time accurately, enough can only be done by these refrigerator-sized. Atomic, clocks that are in the Deep Space Network today but. This clock measures. Time as accurately, and with the same level of stability as, those atomic clocks in the deep space network but, as you can see a much smaller package than something, the size of your refrigerator so something that now we can conceivably, put on a spacecraft and launch into space can't, put it on my wrist but, you could put it on the spacecraft and this would increase its. Stability, for time and its measurement, where it's going how. It gets there will, this help us on future, missions that, we will go to in the you know to the Moon or Mars, this. Technology. Lets us navigate spacecraft. More efficiently, and more flexibly, we, can use our existing deep space network more, efficiently, but it also gives us a really cool application, we, can now send a signal direct, from the earth to the spacecraft, collect, that signal onboard and then put navigators, like me here on the earth out, of work because the spacecraft can navigate itself, we like to call it self-driving.
Spacecraft, Or onboard autonomous, navigation that's. Fantastic, and there, are some benefits to us here on earth for having this absolutely, so this clock, has, the stability that's about 50 times better, than, the, onboard. Clocks on the GPS satellites, today the rubidium and cesium clocks, so, you. Use GPS, to find your way here I'm sure I did the same thing I use it every day if you have a 50 time improvement, in the stability, of your clock on your GPS satellite. Your GPS signal, you, will see a better ability to navigate yourself, using, GPS every day fantastic. And so when, this gets up into space what. Will you be looking for how you communicate. To find out if it's working correctly so we'll be doing a year-long demonstration. Experiment. So this is the first time that well, it's the world's first ion based atomic, clock so it's the first time this technology has ever been flown so, I'm just excited to turn the thing on. We'll. Run a suite, of tests to check out the health and status of the clock and then. We will run, an experiment, where we collect GPS, data that's, time tagged with our clock and we, estimate the orbit and the, clock error that's being introduced, over time and we look at the statistics. That to see how, does this clock drift over, time, relative to a perfect clock and just, to give you a teaser if it performs the way it does in the ground laboratory, I turn this clock on today just, let it run it, would take about ten million years for it to drift off by one second, incredible. Accuracy, even the Swiss would be jealous oh so. When, this gets out there will, that give better. Navigation. For future, astronauts, yes, absolutely, in addition to being able to do that self-driving, spacecraft, thing which is a critical, technology, for sending humans to places like Mars in that scenario now, they can navigate their, own ship in real time they're not waiting for directions, to come from the Earth from someone like me so, they can do real-time, course corrections, that helps them land more safely, with, less uncertainty, in their path and then once they're on the surface of the Moon or Mars wherever, they're going maybe some were even further away you, could use this clock technology, to build a GPS like navigation, system, at those destinations, so just imagine having, GPS, on Mars be pretty cool be fantastic, I wouldn't want to get lost on that planet absolutely. Just. A few minutes before launch you excited oh I'm so excited. Jill. So good thank you thank you for bringing the clock the. Model and for, explaining it to us thank you very much all right great having you all right, now we'll go back out to the pad and get, another check on the SpaceX Falcon heavy. Rocket as, you can see there in the shot there's. A two, pre, flown boosters. On either side, of this, particular. Falcon, heavy it's the first time it, will go up into space. At night so, we should get quite, a show and, we understand, that the, stage 2 RP on RP one load up is complete. And closed out and so. Things are looking good for this count as we continue, on and. Now we want to move over to the, last two experiments, and technology. Demonstrations, that we're going to be, explaining. Today and this is the. One, that.
Nicky Fox is joining us here for Nikki thank you so much for, being here you are the director, of NASA's heliophysics, division. And, you always come dress, for the occasion space, boxes. Wait. I've, been like this all day so yes the Rockets right behind is weird, with 13 minutes away it's just an amazing time, we talked about better propellant. We've talked about better navigation, but your, experiments. Aim to give us better protection. For, spacecraft explain, how you plan, to do that that's. Right so we have two experiments, that are flying, up today. But one of them is a little, technology, demonstration. It is for small payloads, and it. Is they're basically looking at the effect of radiation on, technology. That we fly every day on spacecraft and so we're taking them to the most dangerous, area, that we can get to easily and of course that's our Van Allen radiation belts. And we're looking at all of the so. That's of course where spacecraft, get damaged and this poor little one is getting crippled, by all the radiation, that is hitting it and that, radiation of course is some of it's coming from the Sun and some of it's coming from outside our solar system and so each of these little technology, payloads, is looking at different, aspects. Of that so, we can better. Plan. For, spacecraft better, plan for our missions, that are going to take our astronauts. To the moon to Mars and beyond and to make sure that we can mitigate any, problems that they would see with that hardware and so this technology how does it absorb, what's happening, out there this assault on spacecraft. From the Sun we're, very lucky we're actually riding along with the Air Force DSX, demonstration. Space experiment. Of course nASA has the two Van Allen probes that have been out working in the radiation, belts force about six and a half years and so, they can tell us what the environment is, like and then, these little test birds are going to tell us what the environment is doing to our electronics, it's a beautiful partnership amazing. The fourth payload is the enhanced, tandem, beacon, experiment. What, is that and how does that work they are two little cube sets and. They, are sending beacon, tones so they're basically sending, signals, out from space down, to ground stations, here on earth and so, there. Is a this layer this sort of twinkling, layer that you see there and that's, you have the terrestrial, weather forcing. Up from, below meeting, space weather coming down from above and that atmosphere sometimes, gets very disturbed, and it gets it gets like irregularities. In it we call those bubbles, and they. Can actually corrupt, those signals they can change them and so, we are sending these little beacon tones and we. Will tell us a lot about how that atmosphere, is interfering. With these signals that has profound effects for us on our ability to do communications. And, navigation. Just like Jill said nobody goes anywhere without their GPS I can't, go anywhere without my phone and so, I a really, critical for me that that GPS, is really accurate so I don't. Get totally lost I would be lost without my phone literally, and figuratively, and, these, beacons are are, they gonna be able to figure out where that bubble is formed and then start sending. Signals through it they will we will send the signals through we have another mission a gold which, is taking images basically.
Of Those bubbles and so then we can see how those those, tones. Those beacon tones are changed, by, those irregularities, in that area also, a partnership with cosmic to a six spacecraft, that are launching our NOAA is launching, those this evening and they. Are every now and again lending, us six little beacon turns to go with our two to really give us a full up robust experiment, excellent. And I hear you've got some help from University. Of Michigan student I have some students the University of Michigan yes they helped build the, that keeps us NASA's keeps that program is an amazing, experience, for our early career students. And new. Postdocs, that can, actually get to build technology, and put it into space and so, some of those those, students are actually staying on and they're going to do the mission ops they're going to track those spacecraft bring, down the data and we invite them to help, us look at the data also. It's. An incredible, opportunity for them and it's a great time to be a Helio physicist, Nicky Fox thank you for being here we appreciate the. Shirt as well thank, you enjoy, the launch this evening thank you very much all right time now to turn our focus back to the countdown everything, looking good t-minus. 9 minutes in 25, seconds, and counting. We, here at NASA are going to step aside and let SpaceX. Take you through the rest of the countdown Jesse, and Alex are live from SpaceX, headquarters, in Hawthorne California where, their countdown coverage, is already, underway. Smc, 2.0. That. Means speed to, quickly implement the best solutions, to new problems, partnerships. To forge the relationships, necessary, for the mutual benefit, of the US and our international allies, innovation. To, capitalize, on the most advanced, cutting edge technology. In the world culture. To inspire, the necessary, risk-taking, that will propel, us into the future and. Enterprise. To, share our vision of accelerated. And affordable, space systems, for the Department, of Defense initially. Founded in 1954. To develop the first intercontinental. Ballistic missile, SMC. Has produced unprecedented. Unparalleled. National, defense space technology, for over 60, years during. This time we've been called on to support manned space ante, satellite and, missile, defense programs, while continuously, increasing. Our space capability, that's where we came from but. A more important, question is where, are we going. Humans have always been explorers, we, venture to discover that which is unknown and. Smc we push the boundaries of the known and fight every single day to enhance, our technological capabilities. Launching, the, limits of the sky we, are the Pathfinders, to the high frontier, and we, are building, the future of space. The. SpaceX, team continues. To countdown, for launch for, the nighttime launch, of kalkan heavy I remember. Watching the night launch of Saturn 5 on the Apollo 17 mission in, December. 1972. And it, turned night into day, we're. Expecting, the same tonight from 27. Merlin engines we're, currently at t-minus seven, minutes 28 seconds, and counting, fuel. Loading, is continuing. We're about to wrap up fuel loading on the three first-stage, boosters, over the next minute, liquid. Oxygen loading is continuing, that'll, wrap up between three and two minutes before liftoff, on all the stages, we've. Had the report the last satellite has gone on internal, power just, a moment ago everything's. Looking good on the satellites, now, a major activity, coming, up here and another two and a half minutes is retract.
Of The, strong, back we'll, see the clamps open up around the second stage the strong back will recline about two degrees in, preparation. For launch we're. Also just, inside, t-minus, seven minutes we've, begun showing, in the 27, merlin, 1d engines. Now. What's going to happen in the first four minutes of flight of the Falcon Heavy, well. First light the two side boosters and then, the center car the. Flight computer, on Falcon, Heavy will check the power on all the engines then. Command, a release from the ground hold downs at t zero so we lift off at t-minus, zero right. After we lift off we're at full power of over 5.1. Million. Thrust. 40. Seconds into flight we decrease power on the two side boosters in preparation. For maximum. Aerodynamic loads. On the vehicle, once. We get through this period, kalkan heavy will throttle back up the power on the two side boosters. We. Now are two minutes into flight and we're again reducing, thrust on the two side boosters this. Time it's to decrease forces, on the rocket structure, especially. That structure, that holds the side boosters to the center core, the. Acceleration. Is building every second as we burn propellant, and we're lightening the rocket so, we need to throttle, down the side boosters by. Physically, turning off engines, to keep the loads below, the maximum allowable. Two. And a half minutes into flight we fully turn off the side boosters called. Beco booster, engine, cutoff then. We'll use high pressure gas separation, system that's mounted on the top and bottom of the center core that. Will unlock the two side boosters and push them away. Now. Once we're clear the side boosters the, center core will throttle up to full power and burn, another minute. Finally. It just past three and a half minutes after liftoff the, center core shuts down main, engine cutoff and the second stage separates, now. From this point on it's, like a falcon 9 mission, other, than we do happen to have three, first stage rockets, returning, to, earth at, both Cape Canaveral and the drone show, meanwhile. On the way into orbit the fairing will separate the second stage engine will undergo a series of four burns, eventually, delivering, all 24, satellites to, their intended orbits, now. It's a demanding, sequence, of events for the Falcon Heavy tonight. But, from this point on everything, is looking good we're, at four and a half minutes, we're getting ready to recline, the strong back so, let's watch and listen to, the final countdown. HR contain negative while offload is closed out. And, positive, wire locks let us close out. Stock, buy clothes clothes though. And, stage, one lock photos closed down. And, vehicles, on internal power. And, stage, 2 locks what is closeout. I got, close a complete. And. The vehicle. This. Is the mission director go for launch. Hey, my 30 seconds. T-minus. 15 seconds. And, nine. Eight. Seven. Six, five four. Three. Two. People's. Mitchell gun range. T+. 25. Seconds, in the float under the thrust Oh over, five million pounds. Kalkan healthiest head into space we're, getting ready to throttle, down for. Passing. Through the period of maximum dynamic, pressure. We've. Heard call out a throttle, Beckett 24 sidecar, we're. Through max Q. Vehicles. Supersonic. Everything. Continuing, to look good on the merlin 1d engines. We're. Throttling, back up on the, side boosters to full power a. Minute. 15 seconds, into flight performance. Looks not Oh.
Currently. The next event coming up in about two minutes will hear call out of chilling, of the impact D engine that, allows liquid, oxygen to the top of the turbo pump to, get the second stage engine ready to chill for ignition, in just a couple of minutes. We're, two minutes into flight we've, begun to decrease. This on the side boosters to minimize, acceleration. And loads on the Falcon heavy structure, we've, turned off one engine on each of the side boosters to decrease that load now. Our next major event coming up here in about 10 seconds, shutdown. And separation. Of the side boosters. The. View should be the side booster, cameras on two sides in the center core in the middle booster, shut down. Over. The cheering in the background it's, going on with, a lot of people here. Separated. They're, getting ready for their bond back to. Cape Canaveral you, can see and whooping wait these. The. Singapore continues, under full power everything. Looking, good on the falcon, heavy. Next. Event coming up in about 15 seconds, will be shutdown of the center core followed, by stage separation and, ignition, of the second stage engine. Good. Views are the two side boosters under, the thrust of three engines and each slowing. Down their velocity, and coming, back towards Cape Canaveral. We. Have shut, down on the center core stage. Separation confirmed. Yeah. Successful. Separation, and, ignition. We're. Coming up on shutdown, of the two side boosters. And. We've heard the call outside, booster, boost back shut down the, center core you can see is not doing a boost back it's headed downrange to the drone ship here. Comes ferry separation. So. So far four minutes 17 seconds, into flight second. Stage looking, good headed to low Earth orbit, carrying the 24, satellites the. Side boosters have done their first boom coming back to Cape Canaveral the, center core has, separated. And is beginning its long coast downrange, to the drone ship in, the Atlantic Ocean, so at 4 minutes 35, seconds, and counting everything. Looking, good out Falcon heavy. Now, those side boosters are making, their way back their grid fins on all, three boosters should, be deployed and those, are helped guiding them to, their landing, zones as. A reminder, today, we will be attempting to recover, all three of these first stages and all. Three boosters are currently making their way home in, just. A few minutes the side boosters will execute and entry burn followed by a landing, burn and the center core will do the. Complete. The same burns just a few minutes later both. Burns are used to slow the stages speed down rapidly. Before landing. At. The time of separation the, side boosters were traveling slow enough to turn around and make their way back to land and are side-by-side landing. Pads the, center core is going too fast to efficiently return to the Cape so we're using our autonomous, drone ship of course I still love you as we mentioned earlier as a, reminder our drone ship is positioned, twice as far offshore than normal so we may not get visuals, of landing tonight also. Coming up in a few minutes be, the call out for second engine cutoff. So. Coming up in about a minute here, we're gonna look for that side burst side. Booster reentry burn to begin. Shortly. After that that should end about 20 seconds later.
You. Can see both of those boosters, on the infrared camera on the left side of your screen. Again, about 30 seconds, until we expect those side boosters entry, burn to begin so, keep an eye on the left side of your screen. In about ten seconds, we should see those side boosters reignite. For their entry burn. Side, booster and Sherbourne startup and. We have confirmation, that the entry burn has begun in, about 15 seconds from now we expect that to end. And that, entry burn has completed. Note. That second, engine cutoff and the center core will be landing almost at the same time so we're gonna have a few events in succession, at about, t plus 8 minutes and 21 seconds. Publicise. Buster fds is saved. Stage. Two FTL, say that terrible guidance. In. About twenty seconds we're gonna look for that side booster landing, burn to begin on both booster side boosters transonic. Ten, seconds, away. So. I drew secured Lenny when startup. You've. Heard the call out for side booster landing when startup and then you see on your screen. See it coming. For. Landing. What an iconic theater. We've also at the same time of the leaders and sex engine cutoff at the same time. As we, mentioned earlier the, center core entry and landing is going to be risky, during, entry will face more heating and dynamic pressure than we've ever experienced, on Falcon 9 or heavy flight before why. You ask because we have to lift the second stage higher and faster than other Falcon, Heavy flights, in order, to have enough, performance in it to execute for burns into, all the different orbits, so, coming up at t + 9 minutes in 39 seconds, we should see the center core entry burn ending. We. Have the confirmation. Looks. Like that was the confirmation for it to begin so, we're a little bit off the timeline. And. We adjust heard the confirmation, that Center core entry burn has shut down and now, that the entry burn is complete the center core is moving back about 20%, faster than it was at the end of the Falcon Heavy to Arab Sanergy preferred HK palace expecting. Now. We're coming up we're just about a minute away from that center core landing burn beginning and as we've been mentioning, just will be the most difficult landing, that we've had to date. This. Will be a 3 engine burn that, Center that Center engine will start up first and then two outer engines, will start up as well for that landing burn. Now. We're just thirty seconds, away from that Center core landing and it's no surprise that we, do, not have a live view of that center core as it's coming down but it looks like we got a live view of our own ship there of course I still love you. If, you're just now tuning in we're just about ten seconds away from that Center core landing burn beginning. And. We have confirmation that these center core landing burn has begun. Let's. See that coming down on of course I still love you. As you can see on our screen it. Looks like our center core did not make it on, our junk stuff of course I still love you tonight, again. As we've been mentioning this. Was the most challenging landing. That we've had today and, this is, this. Is our secondary mission so our primary mission we just heard the call out for a good orbit, of our second, stage so. We are actually just moments away from our first deployment of the evening for Occulus ASR, which, was developed by students, at Michigan Technological University. We. Will be passing beyond, the Bermuda ground station, so there's a chance that telemetry, may cut out a few seconds before deployment, in which case we won't be able to see the saddle a actually, deploy on camera, or get confirmation, of a successful, deployment until telemetry, is restored. And we're, just about 30 seconds, away from that deployment so, we'll listen into the nets for that confirmation. Looks like we still have that live view. Might. Have a chance to see this deployment, live, on camera. Again, we are waiting for the oculus satellite. Deployment. And. As. We expected, looks like we lost that live view so. We will wait to get some confirmation, of that deployment, and we will update you guys in. A few minutes later on in the webcast we. Are now in between ground stations, for the next few minutes with nothing, to see so, we are going to take a quick break but, we will be leaving you with an animation that shows you where we are throughout the coast days we. Will be back around t plus 20 minutes for our next set of deployments, and it's worth noting that since we won't apply our ground station coverage, again until t plus 21, minutes we are going to miss that first Peapod, one cube set of acquired, adventures see you back here in about 6 minutes a. Great. Job by our friends there at SpaceX covering, the launch of the Falcon Heavy as it lit up the night sky for, the first time here.
On Florida, Space Coast and of course watching, the boosters come back was just as impressive here live, at the Kennedy Space Center there. Were some big booms that were heard and Wow, it was impressive. Now the work is not done the, NASA missions, and their host satellites, will deploy, over, the course of the next three hours the. SpaceX, team will stay live until the final satellite, deploys now. For NASA related, deployment, and other post launch updates, visit. WWN. Asag of forward. Slash spacex, and follow, along on our social media channels we. Hope you enjoyed our coverage of the launch of a Falcon Heavy from Florida Space Coast I'm, Darryl nail and for all of us here at NASA and the Kennedy Space Center have. A good night and keep, looking up. Welcome. Back to the webcast, for the STP, to Falcon, Heavy mission, we're t+ 20 minutes and 7 seconds and counting right. Now is we left the webcast, we were waiting, to see the Occulus, satellite, deploy, we, didn't have confirmation, when we lost signal, over Bermuda that was normal, losing signal you'd, do it when you pass beyond line of sight we. Also should have had a minute, and a, half or so ago the, first Peapod, number. One open up and deploy to. Cube sets for the naval research laboratory, but. We're waiting until we react wire signal, over the Ascension, Island tracking, station, around, the equator in the middle of the Atlantic so. That we can understand, whether or not the Occulus. Satellite, deployed and how, p-pod, one deployed. Also. While. We're waiting for acquisition. Of signal from Ascension just to recap, we. Had a great. Launch of Falcon, Heavy the. Two side boosters did, their choreographed, landing at landing zones going into the. Center core is you've heard from the people and may have seen a shot on the screen I've. Missed, the drone ship we. Knew this was going to be the toughest reentry, we, are getting data back so the team will understand, over, the next hours, and days how, things of god it. Looks like now we're beginning to reacquire, signal, over Ascension, Island. We're. Waiting to hear call out how. The first, two satellite, deploys have gone. It. Appears we have confirmation, that the oculus satellite, was separated, and Peapod. Number one opened, up deploying. The Naval Research Laboratory satellites. There's. A view from space and, if you remember the view just before we left on the bottom, the left was. The oculus, satellite, had a light coloring, to it and it's no longer there, now. We're going to cover the last of the eight p-pod, satellites, that are coming up for deployment and that's going to take about 30. Minutes to get through this sequence the. Next deployment comes, up just before t plus 25, minutes. Now. These eight deployers, will open, and they'll, release 11 satellites, now. If you've watched our coverage from other launches, like iridium you, know that the one camera we have on top of the payload attach fitting cannot. See all sides of the dispenser, holding the satellites, because. Of the positioning, right there as you see on your screen of the one camera we. Won't be able to see all of the CubeSat deployments. Today in, particular. The next three pea pods 2 3 & 4 on the back side we, won't be able to pick those up. However. As the second stage does maneuver, in orbit in the sunlight, we might be able to pick up a glint, of the Sun off of the cube sets as they move away from the second stage. Now. The next deployment coming, up just before 25 minutes is known, as Falcon sat-7, this. Is an optical, telescope for. The United States Air Force Academy. The. CubeSat when, it is ejected will eventually deploy a rigid, boom that holds a membrane, that acts like a lens in a telescope, and once. That membrane, is rigid, it. Will allow imaging. Of the Sun. So. This is a deployable optical, telescope, for the Air Force Academy however. As I said we won't be able to see it we'll have to wait for call out to confirm the separation. A bone. Acquisition. Of signal. We've, heard a call-out Gabon, has acquisition. Of signal as we, are approaching the African.
Coastline The, next ground station, beyond ascension island is picking, up the, signal from Falcon, Heavy, second-stage. Coming. Up on deployment. In about five seconds. He, thought to deploy confirmed. And. There's the call-out from the avionics engineer, always. A little bit tense as you're waiting for them to confirm that, the signal indicates, that the door is open inside. Of each of the deployers, is a spring, that pushes, at the cube sets. And. What, we have is confirmation, that the, Air Force Academy deployable. Optical. Telescope, should. Be in orbit on its own now. Now. We've got about two hundred and thirty five seconds, until we get to the next deployment. We're coming up just about a minute away from the third Peapod opening. Inside. This deployer is a single, cube set it's. Known as armadillo. From the University, of Texas, now. Armadillo, is an acronym that bear with me it, stands for Atmospheric related. Measurements, and detection, of submillimetre, objects, quite. A mouthful. Primary. Goal is to, use a dust detector, to, characterize, the space debris environment. Focusing. On submillimetre, debris, that, can't be seen by earth-based, telescopes. Now. This satellite. Deployer. Is mounted, on the opposite, side of the dispenser, so, again we'll only have verbal call-out when, it separates. He, bought three to play confirmed, and. Confirmation. Peapod number three has opened, armadillo. Should be on its way into orbit, in the vacuum, of space. Next. Up will be a quick. Turnaround only. About a hundred 45 seconds, until we get to the next deployment. Okay. We're just over 50 seconds, away from the deployment, of Peapod. For. This. Time we're going to have to cube so it's coming out of the deployer again, it's, on the back side of the dispenser, does the last one on the, backside of the p-pods, satellites. Are called p-set, and bricks. At peace. That's an amateur communication. Satellite, and bricks. At is a small satellite that has a micro, propulsion, system to, perform experiments. With attitude, control satellites. Are out of the United States Naval, Academy. Teapot, forward, to play confirmed and we have confirmation, over, the next, PK. Peapod, number four has deployed, the. Same time we now have acquisition. Of signal overheard, abhi stock known as HBK. In Africa. And. We've got about a hundred sixty, five seconds, until Peapod. Five opens. Up. Alright, Peapod five is going to be opening up here in just about, 50. Seconds. This. Peapod is holding cube set called prometheus for, special, ops command now. Hopefully we might be able to get to see some of these now that they're deploying from the dispenser, on the, side of the camera, currently. On the map you can see we're passing, over Africa, in, contact, with the hartebeest duck ground station, we'll, be losing signal here shortly from Gabon in West, Africa. Now, in this view the Peapod dispenser, is located. Probably. At about the 2 o'clock position around, the dispenser, at, the very top so you've got to look up there and we might see something going by however. We're also starting to get a Sun flare off of, the camera. Keep. Out 5 deploy confirmed we've. Heard the confirmation. Peep out five is. Deployed. So. We're through five we've got three more p-pods, to go the last one we'll be deploying at, t. Plus 50. Minutes so we've got another 16, minutes to get through this sequence. So. The next one coming up should be deploying, in about 285. Seconds, a little. More than four and a half minutes almost. KABOOOM, also, signal, expected. Voracious. Acquisition. Of signal. We're. A little more than a minute away from the next deployment over. Africa, in. Fact the next two feet pods that will open and deploy satellites, are in support of the NASA enhanced. Tandem, beacon, experiment, and they're, built by the University, of Michigan this. Mission explores, bubbles, in the electrically, charged layers of Earth's upper atmosphere.
Now. These bubbles, can disrupt key communication. And GPS, signals, that, we rely on here, on the ground they. Currently appear, and evolve unpredictably. And are difficult to characterize from, the ground so. The two satellites, that will be deployed over the next several minutes they're, going to help try to understand, that problem and find, ways to work around it. As. You can see on the map we're currently over, East Africa, downlinking. Through the Mauritius, ground station. Again. Looking up around 2 o'clock at the top of the stack trying. To see if we can spot the, CubeSat, coming out of the deployer. You've, got six to play confirmed. We've. Got confirmation over. The net pea pod six, deployer. Has opened, we should have you. Tend to be can experiment satellite, injected, I was, looking for it on the screen but I didn't spot it the, white objects, you've seen coming off to the right hand side those. Are not the cube sets. Now. The second stage is now maneuvering, to get in position for the next deployment that's going to come up in about five, minutes from, now. You. You.
2019-06-27 14:41
