00:00Five, four, three, two, one.
00:21Beginning of the travel.
00:34Stage one propulsion nominal.
00:40Tens across the board with Electron's launch off the pad for Synspective's 10 out of 10 mission from LC-1.
00:48We're now 42 seconds in the flight and approaching our first critical milestone, max Q, or maximum aerodynamic pressure.
00:55This is the point where Electron experiences peak aerodynamic loading on its way through Earth's atmosphere and on the way
01:01to space.
01:02Let's listen in now for confirmation from Mission Control that we've cleared max Q.
01:08Electron is supersonic, approaching max Q.
01:24HVB discharge holding nominal.
01:26Cleared max Q.
01:30And there's the call.
01:32Max Q is behind us as Electron continues its way onward to low Earth orbit for Synspective.
01:37Electron is now more than 20 kilometers above Earth and traveling at more than 2,500 kilometers an hour,
01:46thanks to the thrust coming out of those nine Rutherford engines at the bottom of the first stage.
01:51Coming up shortly will be a rapid sequence of events for Electron.
01:55Main engine cutoff, followed by first and second stage separation, and then second stage Rutherford ignition.
02:02First up, with main engine cutoff, or MECO, those engines will shut down simultaneously to slow the velocity of Electron
02:09just a touch.
02:10This very brief coast lowers the dynamic forces at play for stage separation when the second stage is separated from
02:16the first stage.
02:17That separation event creates a bit of distance over the couple of seconds before the Rutherford engine on stage 2
02:22lights up to continue on with the mission.
02:24Let's watch and listen now.
02:29Let's watch and listen now.
02:47Beautiful execution there by Electron with a nice clean MECO, stage set, and nominal second stage engine start.
02:54Very soon we're expecting fairing separation when Electron's nose cone splits and falls away to expose the Strix satellite to
03:03space for the very first time.
03:05Let's watch this together.
03:06You should be able to see the jettison happen on your screen.
03:13Fairing jettison confirmed.
03:18Fairing jettison confirmed, and you're looking at Synspector's Strix satellite attached there to Electron's kickstage.
03:24Ascending closer towards its operational orbit at 552 kilometers above Earth.
03:30Believe it or not, each one of those fairing halves weighs less than 50 kilograms, thanks to its carbon composite
03:36construction.
03:37Light enough for a single person to move around on their own, though they'd have a bit of difficulty at
03:42the speed Electron is moving right now.
03:44More than 8,300 kilometers an hour at climbing more than 141 kilometers above Earth.
03:50The second stage will continue on that way for just under six minutes longer, until it's time to separate the
03:56kickstage and Strix satellite into orbit.
04:22Stage 2, propulsion holding nominal.
04:24Stage 2, propulsion holding nominal.
04:36T plus 4 minutes 30 seconds into the mission now which means we're about halfway through the burn
04:41time of this Rutherford engine on Electron's second stage because the runtime for this engine
04:47is a lot longer than what it took on the first stage the batteries powering the motors that
04:52drive Electron's electric pumps are draining close to depletion but we still need batteries
04:57to keep the engine running so what we do next is perform something called the battery hot swap we
05:03essentially disconnect and get rid of the old battery packs that are literal dead weight for
05:07the vehicle and connect over to a fresh battery pack that will keep the engine firing all the
05:13way through to our next stage separation event it's the silver battery packs on the right that
05:18will fall away so let's keep a close eye on the screen here to see that moment in real time
05:41guidance is nominal 200 seconds remaining
06:05h3b discharge holding nominal approaching hot swap in roughly 30 seconds
06:10h3b discharge holding nominal approaching hot swap in roughly 30 seconds
06:40h3b discharge holding nominal
06:40Hot Swap successful.
06:44Hot Swap confirmed, and that's a nice continuous burn
06:47coming from the Stage 2 engine there with that maneuver complete.
06:50We've got another three minutes or so
06:52until the second stage's final actions for this mission,
06:55which would be to separate the kickstage with its Strix satellite
06:58and set it on a course for payload deployment within the hour.
07:06HVB discharge holding nominal.
07:21T-plus 7 minutes and 17 seconds on the clock.
07:25Electron's second stage is firing beautifully as we expect.
07:28Still a couple more minutes to go for this phase of the mission
07:32to get the kickstage and Strix satellite into position for payload deployment.
07:36The mission will be delivered first to a staging orbit
07:40where the kickstage will spend some time coasting around Earth
07:43before it can align itself on a circular path
07:46that meets inspectors' constellation requirements.
07:49Yep, we have a single engine burn lined up for the kickstage
07:52to move out of that phasing orbit,
07:53which will take place around 40 minutes
07:56after its separation from the second stage.
07:58After that, we got a second Curie engine burn
08:00to line up the payload for release
08:02to its exact 552-kilometre target,
08:05all while moving at a nominal orbital velocity
08:07somewhere above 27,000 kilometres an hour.
08:11But first up before that, of course,
08:13is the final separation event for this mission.
08:16Much like what we did with the first stage,
08:18we'll be shutting off the Rutherford engine with SECO,
08:22or second engine cutoff,
08:24before the kickstage is separated from stage 2
08:26to set us off into a staging orbit for the mission.
08:30SECO should be coming up shortly now.
08:33Let's watch and listen.
08:45Guidance is in terminal, 20 seconds remaining.
09:07SECO confirmed.
09:11Stage separation confirmed.
09:17Beautifully done by the Rutherford engine
09:19with a nice clean shutdown on the second stage.
09:22Off goes the kickstage,
09:23now on its way to prepare
09:24for our 10th satellite deployment
09:26for Suspective's LEO constellation.
