Featured Image Credit: SpaceX
Lift Off Time
January 10, 2022 – 04:50 UTC
January 09, 2022 – 23:50 EST
Mission Name
OneWeb 16
Launch Provider
(What rocket company launched it?)
SpaceX
Customer
(Who paid for this?)
OneWeb
Rocket
Falcon 9 Block 5 B1076-2; 44.40 day turnaround
Launch Location
Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, USA
Payload mass
~6,000 kg (~13,000 lbs)
Where did the satellites go?
Polar low-Earth orbit. Initial orbit 600 x 590 km at 96.55 degrees, final orbit of 1,200 km
Did they attempt to recover the first stage?
Yes
Where did the first stage land?
Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1), Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
Did they attempt to recover the fairings?
Yes, the fairings were recovered by Doug
Were these fairings new?
TBD
This was the:
– 196th Falcon 9 launch
– 132nd Falcon 9 flight with a flight-proven booster
– 136th re-flight of a booster
– 2nd re-flight of a booster in 2023
– 162nd booster landing
– 88th consecutive landing (a record)
– 2nd launch for SpaceX in 2023
– 109th SpaceX launch from SLC-40
– 5th orbital launch attempt of 2023
Where to watch
How Did It Go?
SpaceX successfully launched 40 OneWeb internet communication satellites atop its Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket. Lifting off from Space Launch Complex 40, at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in Florida, the OneWeb 16 mission placed satellites into a polar orbit, which will be raised thereafter to a 1,200 km polar orbit. OneWeb 16 boosted the number of satellites launched to 534.
What Is OneWeb?
OneWeb is a planned satellite internet constellation with the goal of providing internet coverage to the entire globe. Similar to SpaceX’s Starlink, the OneWeb constellation aims to deliver semi-low-latency internet to locations where ground-based internet is unreliable or unavailable.
OneWeb plans to have 648 satellites in its constellation, providing them with the 600 satellites needed for global coverage and an additional 48 on-orbit spares in case a satellite fails. These satellites are in a 1,200 km low-Earth polar orbit, which is significantly lower than the global internet services available today. The current satellite internet solutions orbit 35,786 km above the Earth, in geostationary orbit. However, the orbit of OneWeb’s satellites is still significantly higher than the ~550 km orbit that SpaceX’s Starlink satellites use. OneWeb is expecting the final 648 satellite constellation to provide download speeds of roughly 50 Mb/s.
The constellation consists of 18 orbital planes, with 36 satellites in each plane. However, in May 2020, OneWeb submitted an application to the FCC, requesting to increase its constellation size to 48,000 satellites. OneWeb has also announced that the second generation of the OneWeb network will be a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), like GPS.
What Is A OneWeb Satellite?
Each OneWeb satellite has a compact design and a mass of 147.5 kg. The satellites are each equipped with a Ku-band antenna, operating between 12 and 18 GHz. One interesting note is that these satellites will use a slightly abnormal frequency, eliminating interference with satellites in geostationary orbit.
The OneWeb satellites were built by OneWeb Satellites, which is a joint venture between OneWeb and Airbus.
The satellites are designed to deorbit after 25 years safely. However, this leaves many concerned as this orbital region is already the most crowded with space debris.
OneWeb’s Return
In March 2020, OneWeb filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and laid off most of its employees. However, OneWeb was able to maintain operations for the 74 satellites they currently had in orbit. In November 2020, the UK government and Bharti Enterprises invested over a billion US dollars into OneWeb with the goal of finishing the constellation.
As if these issues weren’t enough, in wake of new European sanctions at the start of the year OneWeb was unable to launch their satellites on the Soyuz vehicle–the rocket that launched the first 13 OneWeb missions. In lieu of this, on April 20, 2022, OneWeb announced launches atop the GSLV Mk III and Falcon 9.
What Is 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 that supported the OneWeb 16 mission is B1076-2. As the name implies, the booster had supported one previous mission.
B1076’s missionsLaunch Date (UTC)Turnaround Time (Days)CRS-26November 26, 2022 19:20N/AOneWeb 16January 10, 2023 04:5044.40
Following launch, the Falcon 9 booster conducted three burns. These burns softly touched down the booster on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1), at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Falcon 9 Fairings
The Falcon 9’s fairing consists of two dissimilar reusable halves. The first half (the half that faces away from the transport erector) is called the active half, and houses the pneumatics for the separation system. The other fairing half is called the passive half. As the name implies, this half plays a purely passive role in the fairing separation process, as it relies on the pneumatics from the active half.
Both fairing halves are equipped with cold gas thrusters and a parafoil which are used to softly touch down the fairing half in the ocean. SpaceX used to attempt to catch the fairing halves, however, at the end of 2020 this program was canceled due to safety risks and a low success rate. On OneWeb 16, SpaceX attempted to recover the fairing halves from the water with their recovery vessel Doug.
In 2021, SpaceX started flying a new version of the Falcon 9 fairing. The new “upgraded” version has vents only at the top of each fairing half, by the gap between the halves, whereas the old version had vents placed spread equidistantly around the base of the fairing. Moving the vents decreases the chance of water getting into the fairing, making the chance of a successful scoop significantly higher.
An active Falcon 9 fairing half (Credit: Greg Scott)
Falcon 9 passive fairing half (Credit: Greg Scott)
Half of the fairing being taken off Go. Navigator. (Credit: Lupi)
A passive fairing half being unloaded from Shelia Bordelon after the Starlink V1.0 L22 mission (Credit: Kyle M)
OneWeb 16 Countdown
All times are approximate
HR/MIN/SECEVENT00:38:00SpaceX Launch Director verifies go for propellant load00:35:00RP-1 (rocket grade kerosene) loading underway00:35:001st stage LOX (liquid oxygen) loading underway00:16:002nd stage LOX loading underway00:07:00Falcon 9 begins engine chill prior to launch00:01:00Command flight computer to begin final prelaunch checks00:01:00Propellant tank pressurization to flight pressure begins00:00:45SpaceX Launch Director verifies go for launch00:00:03Engine controller commands engine ignition sequence to start00:00:00Falcon 9 liftoff
OneWeb 16 Launch, Landing, and Deployment
HR/MIN/SECEVENT00:01:12Max Q (moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket)00:02:181st stage main engine cutoff (MECO)00:02:211st and 2nd stages separate00:02:282nd stage engine starts00:02:341st stage boostback burn starts00:03:211st stage boostback burn ends00:03:34Fairing deployment00:06:201st stage entry burn starts00:06:361st stage entry burn ends00:07:271st stage landing burn start00:07:561st stage landing00:08:322nd stage engine cutoff (SECO-1)00:55:142nd stage engine starts (SES-2)00:55:172nd stage engine cutoff (SECO-2)00:58:49Deployment of first and second OneWeb satellites00:59:12Deployment of third and fourth OneWeb satellites01:00:13Deployment of fifth and sixth OneWeb satellites01:00:34Deployment of seventh and eighth OneWeb satellites01:01:05Deployment of ninth and 10th OneWeb satellites01:02:40Deployment of 11th and 12th OneWeb satellites01:04:27Deployment of 13th and 14th OneWeb satellites01:14:21Deployment of 15th and 16th OneWeb satellites01:14:37Deployment of 17th OneWeb satellite01:15:40Deployment of 18th and 19th OneWeb satellites01:17:29Deployment of 20th and 21st OneWeb satellites01:18:00Deployment of 22nd and 23rd OneWeb satellites01:19:13Deployment of 24th and 25th OneWeb satellites01:19:52Deployment of 26th and 27th OneWeb satellites01:29:39Deployment of 28th and 29th OneWeb satellites01:30:41Deployment of 30th OneWeb satellite01:31:05Deployment of 31st and 32nd OneWeb satellites01:32:10Deployment of 33rd OneWeb satellite01:32:18Deployment of 34th OneWeb satellite01:33:13Deployment of 35th and 36th OneWeb satellite01:34:38Deployment of 37th and 38th OneWeb satellite01:35:17Deplyoment of 39th and 40th OneWeb satellite
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