Tug: Kurt J Crosby; Support: Bob Did they try to recover the fairings? Half fairings recovered from water ~730 km below Bob Were these fairings new? No, both fairings are flight proven This was: – 168th Falcon 9 launch – 106th booster flight proven Falcon 9 – 110th booster reflight – 32nd booster reflight in 2022 – 134th booster landing – 60th consecutive landing (record)– 34th launch for SpaceX in 2022 (a record)– 93rd SpaceX0 launch from SLC- – 97th orbital launch attempt of 2022 (94th successful) Where to watch Official replay

How did it go?

SpaceX has successfully launched the Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbit (KPLO) into lunar orbit aboard a Falcon 9 Block 5. Taking off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, the 678 kg spacecraft will explore lunar geography .

What is KPLO?

The KPLO spacecraft was built and developed by the South Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and is Korea’s first lunar spacecraft. Aimed at researching lunar resources (such as ice, helium, uranium, silicon, aluminum, etc.) as well as demonstrating Korea’s ability to build and operate a lunar spacecraft, KPLO is the first phase of the larger Korean Program Lunar Exploration Facility (KLEP). ) designs. Based on the promising success of KPLO, the second phase of KLEP includes a lunar orbiter, lunar lander and lunar rover. This mission is expected to launch in 2025. An artist’s rendering of the KPLO spacecraft (Courtesy: Ministry of Science)

KLPO spacecraft

About a month after launch, the KLPO satellite will reach a 100 km circular polar orbit in low lunar orbit through the lunar capture ballistic method. To reach lunar orbit, the spacecraft has four 30 N main thrusters and four 5 N thrusters for attitude control. To stay in touch with Earth, KLPO has S-band and X-band transponders powered by a 760-watt array of solar panels. The satellite has six instruments: Lunar Terrain Imaging (LUTI). As the name suggests, this instrument will be used to image the lunar surface and locate future landing sites. The instrument has a resolution of ~5 meters. Wide angle polarimetric camera (PolCam). Polarimetry is used to analyze regolith composition remotely. PolCam will be used to investigate the entire lunar regolith, with the exception of that at the poles. KPLO magnetometer (KMAG). As the name suggests, this instrument will be used to measure the strength of the lunar poles. KPLO Gamma-ray Spectrometer (KGRS). Using spectroscopy – the process of looking at emission gaps – this instrument will investigate the composition of the lunar regolith. Delay Tolerance Networking Experiment (DTNPL) NASA ShadowCam. NASA’s ShadowCam will search the lunar surface for evidence of large ice deposits.

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 9 Merlin 1D+ engines at sea level. 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 at idle with an ISP of 313 seconds. Due to the powerful nature of the engine and their large volume, the Falcon 9 first stage can lose one engine immediately off the pad or up to two later in flight and still be able to place the payload into orbit successfully. Merlin engines are ignited by triethylaluminum and triethylborane (TEA-TEB), which ignite immediately when mixed in the presence of oxygen. During static fire and launch the TEA-TEB is provided by the ground handling equipment. However, as the Falcon 9 first stage is capable of propellant landing, three of the Merlin engines (E1, E5 and E9) contain TEA-TEB canisters to re-ignite for boost back, reentry and landing burns.

Second level

The Falcon 9 second stage is the only expendable part of the Falcon 9. It contains a unique MVacD engine that produces 992 kN of thrust and an ISP of 348 seconds. The second stage is capable of multiple burns, allowing the Falcon 9 to place payloads in many different orbits. For missions with multiple burns and/or long coasts between burns, the second stage can be equipped with a mission extension package. When the second stage has this package, it has a gray stripe, which helps keep the RP-1 warm, an increased number of composite pressure vessels (COPV) for pressure control, and additional TEA-TEB. Falcon 9 Block 5 launches on Starlink Group mission 4-25 (Credit: SpaceX)

Falcon 9 Booster

The booster supporting the KPLO mission was B1052, which had supported five previous flights. Hence its designation for this mission was B1052-6. this was changed to B1052-7 after the successful landing. B1052 Missions Launch Date (UTC) Orbit Time (Days) Arabsat-6AA 11 April 2019 22:35N/ASTP-2 25 June 2019 06:3074.33CSG-2 31 January 2019 22301 2301 2019-2019 2019-2019 , 2019-2019. 4536.61 Starlink Group 4-18 May 18, 2022 10:5969.88KPLO August 4, 2022 23:0878.51 After stage separation, Falcon 9 suffered two burns. These burns gently touched the booster on SpaceX’s Just Read the Instructions autonomous unmanned spaceport craft. Falcon 9 lands on Of course I Still You Love after Bob and Doug launch (System: SpaceX)

Falcon 9 Fairings

The Falcon 9 fairing consists of two dissimilar reusable halves. The first half (the half facing away from the transfer lifter) is called the active half and houses the pneumatics for the separation system. The other half of the fairing is called the passive half. As the name suggests, this half plays a purely passive role in the fairing separation process, relying on pneumatics from the active half. Both fairing halves are equipped with cold gas thrusters and a parachute used to gently touch the fairing half into the ocean. SpaceX was trying to catch half of the fairings, however, in late 2020 this program was canceled due to safety risks and a low success rate. At KPLO, SpaceX attempted to retrieve half of the fairings from the water with the Doug recovery craft. In 2021, SpaceX began flying a new version of the Falcon 9 fairing. The new “upgraded” version has vents only at the top of each fairing half, in the space between the halves, whereas the old version had vents spaced equally around the base of the fairing. Moving the vents reduces the chance of water getting into the fairing, greatly increasing the chance of a successful scoop. A Falcon 9 active half fairing (Credit: Greg Scott) Falcon 9 passive half fairing (System: Greg Scott) Half of the fairing takes off Go. Pilot. (Accessed by: Lupi) A passive half fairing unloaded by Shelia Bordelon after the Starlink V1.0 L22 mission (System: Kyle M)

KPLO Countdown

All times are approximate HR/MIN/SECEVENT00:38:00 SpaceX launch manager verifies propellant 00:35:00 RP-1 (rocket grade kerosene) loading in progress00:35:001st stage LOX (liquid oxygen) loading in progress00:35:00 16:002 LOX02nd stage 07:00 Falcon 9 begins pre-launch engine cooling00:01:00 Flight computer command to begin pre-launch final checks00:01:00 Propellant tank compression to flight pressure begins00:00:45 O SpaceX launch manager verifies launch00:00:03 Engine controller series commands to launch 00:00:00 Falcon 9 disembarkation

KPLO launch, landing and deployment

All times are approximate HR/MIN/SECEVENT00:01:12 Max Q (moment of maximum mechanical stress on the rocket)00:02:311st stage main engine cut-off (MECO)00:02:341st and 2nd stage separately00:02:422nd stage engine starts (SES – 1)00:03:15Fairing Deployment00:06:491 Stage Entry Burn Begins00:07:191 Stage Entry Burn Complete00:07:581 Stage Landing Burn Begins00:08:332 Stage Engine Shutdown (SECO)00:09 :011st landing stage00 :34:152nd stage engine restarts (SES-2)00:35:152nd engine shutdown stage (SECO-2)00:40:16 KPLO deploys

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