SpaceX returns to the launch pad, and there are a few things to watch for - Ars Technica

Enlarge / This first-stage booster previously landed three times. Can it make four on Wednesday's launch attempt?

SpaceX

SpaceX has targeted Wednesday afternoon for the next launch of its Falcon 9 rocket from a pad at Kennedy Space Center. This mission will launch the sixth batch of operational Starlink satellites, bringing the company closer to offering initial broadband Internet access to North America.

However, the Starlink-6 launch—set for 3:37pm ET (19:37 UTC)—is notable for reasons beyond the simple extension of the company's Starlink network.

Can they land it?

SpaceX has gotten pretty darn good at landing first stages back on Earth, as they have now done it 50 times. However, the company failed to successfully land the first stage on an autonomous drone ship the last two times it attempted to do so.

On February 17, after the Starlink-4 launch, the first stage received incorrect data about wind conditions near the landing location and missed the drone ship. Then, on March 18, one of the rocket's nine Merlin 1D engines failed during launch, and although the Starlink-5 satellites made orbit, this precluded a fully controlled return of the first stage.

So what had become seemingly routine—drone ship landings—now takes on an added bit of intrigue with the Starlink-6 launch.

It is notable that SpaceX pushed up this week's launch from Thursday to Wednesday, citing a "more favorable weather forecast for launch and landing." Launch conditions on Wednesday are more favorable (90-percent chance of "go" weather) than Thursday, but seas, too, should be considerably less choppy in the landing zone offshore. This increases the chance of success.

Engine-out issue

This particular first stage has flown three previous missions, beginning in March 2019 with the first commercial crew demonstration mission. SpaceX will be keen to get this core back to see if it can fly the core a fifth time to collect more data about pushing the limits of booster reuse.

The Starlink-5 mission last month, which suffered an engine-out failure, marked the first time SpaceX had attempted to fly a Falcon 9 first stage five times. Although the company has not publicly commented on the cause of the failure, one source suggested it was caused by a processing issue, not a fundamental problem with the hardware.

Closing out the investigation into this engine failure is important to SpaceX and NASA, with the first human launch on the Falcon 9 coming as early as May 27. Flying Starlink-6 successfully would likely help with that.

This is also probably the penultimate launch before the Crew Dragon mission. SpaceX has another Falcon 9 rocket in preparation for the Starlink-7 mission, likely to launch sometime in May from a nearby launch pad at Space Launch Complex-30. Needless to say, these two launches need to be flawless for the Crew Dragon flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to remain on schedule.

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2020-04-21 16:29:00Z
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