45th Space Wing supports SpaceX launch, retrieval of booster
NewsMay 02, 2017
CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. The U.S. Air Force?s 45th Space Wing supported SpaceX?s successful May 1 launch of the NROL-76 spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 39A at NASA?s Kennedy Space Center.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is carrying a classified national-security payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO); this latest mission is SpaceX’s first launch for the NRO.
The nine Merlin main engines powering the flight shut down approximately two minutes 18 seconds into flight, and the lower part of the rocket separated from the Falcon 9’s second stage a few seconds later. A single Merlin powerplant on the upper stage then ignited and throttled up to full thrust to propel the mission's payload -- said to be a reconnaissance satellite -- into orbit. SpaceX’s live webcast of the launch stopped transmitting the second stage’s trip into orbit at three minutes post-launch; the NRO requested the information blackout during the rest of the launch sequence in a bid to keep the satellite’s final orbit and purpose secret.
Long-range tracking cameras followed the 14-story first-stage booster’s journey back to Earth. The rocket landed around nine minutes after liftoff, settling on a concrete pad around 9 miles (15 kilometers) south of where the Falcon 9 took off. SpaceX intends to inspect the rocket, which was an all-new vehicle Monday, and ready it for another mission.
