SpaceX Successfully Launches and Lands Booster for 13th Time with the Starlink 4-19 Mission!

On June 17, 2022 at 12:09pm Eastern Daylight Time. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Launch Complex 39A which is located in the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The vehicle has a successful clean ascent into the blue florida skies. At around maximum dynamic pressure, the vehicle produced a very visible vapor cone. Vapor cones are produced when a vehicle travels from the transonic regieme of flight to supersonic speeds.

Falcon 9 Ascent While Producing a Vapor Cone Around Its Nose

This launch was said to be a very thunderous launch, even more than usual! Many people think that it is because it is carrying the upgraded Starlink satellites, so it liftsoff slower, causing the rumble to last longer, which could create the effect of it being louder. However, sometimes when the atmospheric pressure is right, you can hear the launches much better than usual.

Main engine cutoff or MECO occured at 2:31 into the flight. Main engine cutoff is where all nine Merlin 1D engines on the first stage will shutoff. This makes way for the next event, stage separation, which occured just seconds later. We then had M-Vac or Merlin 1D Vacuum ignition at 2:43 seconds into the flight. The second stage had a long duration burn prior to SECO or second engine cutoff. SECO occured at 8:52 after liftoff.

An important part of this mission was getting this booster back onto the ground, as this was the first booster to achieve thirteen flights! It did just what it was supposed to do! The booster began its landing burn, then deployed the landing legs, and the B1060 was back on the deck of SpaceX's autonomous spaceport droneship (ASDS) ASOG, or A Shortfall of Gravitas.

The deployment of all 53 starlink satellites occured at around T+ 15 minutes and we got a confirmation of deployment via SpaceX's twitter. Unfortunately we didn't get live video feed from the deployment, but now that is becoming common for starlink launches.