Falcon 9 Block 5 | CSG-2 (Auto Orbit w/ Landing)

Craft celebrating the launch of the 1st converted FH to Falcon 9 flight carrying the Italian Space Agency's CSG-2 mission into Sun-synchronous orbit

Mission - CSG-2 :

The Cosmo-Skymed Second Generation 2 (CSG-2) is a Earth observation satellite that will be accompanying the original COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) constellation 180 degrees from the CSG-1 satellite. The CSG system aims to provide data to both civilian and military customers. CSG-2 has a design life of seven years with an addition two years built into its timeline. The second generation satellites also have improvements over the original constellation to meet customer’s needs.

Where is the satellite going? :

Drop-off & Satellites operational Orbit:

Sun-synchronous orbit; 619 km in altitude at a 97.86º inclination

Rocket: 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+ sea level engines. 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 in a vacuum with an ISP of 313 seconds. Due to the powerful nature of the engine, and the large amount of them, the Falcon 9 first stage is able to lose an engine right off the pad, or up to two later in flight, and be able to successfully place the payload into orbit.

The Merlin engines are ignited by triethylaluminum and triethylborane (TEA-TEB), which instantaneously burst into flames when mixed in the presence of oxygen. During static fire and launch the TEA-TEB is provided by the ground service equipment. However, as the Falcon 9 first stage is able to propulsively land, three of the Merlin engines (E1, E5, and E9) contain TEA-TEB canisters to relight for the boost back, reentry, and landing burns.

Second Stage

The Falcon 9 second stage is the only expendable part of the Falcon 9. It contains a singular MVacD engine that produces 992 kN of thrust and an ISP of 348 seconds. The second stage is capable of doing several burns, allowing the Falcon 9 to put payloads in several different orbits.

For missions with many burns and/or long coasts between burns, the second stage is able to be equipped with a mission extension package. When the second stage has this package it has a grey strip, which helps keep the RP-1 warm, an increased number of composite-overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) for pressurization control, and additional TEA-TEB.

Falcon 9 Booster

The booster supporting Starlink CSG-2 is Booster 1052. As B1052 has previously supported two flights, CSG-2 will change its designation to B1052-3. B1052 was recently converted from a Falcon Heavy side booster and previously flew on the Arabsat-6A and STP-2 missions. More specifically, B1052 was the position y (py) side booster for Falcon Heavy.

Following stage separation, the Falcon 9 will conduct 3 burns. The first burn will be the boostback burn, changing the boosters course to return to land. The second is the reentry burn, slowing the booster and allowing it to safely enter the atmosphere. Finally, the landing burn, which will softly touch down B1052 on SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1).

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Craft Notes:

1. FULLY AUTOMATED LAUNCH, LANDING & DEPLOY SEQUENCES.
   a. Set Launch Inclination (in this case : Polar)
   b. (Throttle 100%)
   DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING POST THIS

2. Multiple Pad and Rocket Camera setups

3. Preprogrammed Vizzy for Launch and circulation phases (619 x 619 km orbit)
4. Landing back at LZ-1
5. Preprogrammed deployment of Payload.

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Credits:

Predecessor Craft & Vizzy by iSpace - Beta Auto-Reuse [v2][0.9.610+]

Modifications to Rocket, Space-craft and Vizzy by OrbiteX

Additional Note:

Launch tower also provided if you are interested, you would just have to change the colours and change it from its transparent configuration.

For this launch, the tower is in a transparent config and would not needed to be touched.