Falcon 9 takes off from Vandenberg

By DAVE MASON NEWS-PRESS MANAGING EDITOR

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 soared under a blue sky Tuesday morning from Vandenberg Space Base and into low Earth orbit.

The rocket carried 49 Starlink satellites, which SpaceX deployed almost 90 minutes after the launch. Designed by SpaceX, the satellites are providing internet access to remote and rural areas in 46 countries, including SpaceX’s latest customers: Peru and Nigeria.

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER

NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The streets of Old Town Goleta lack sufficient lighting — particularly Alondra, Nectarine, Mallard, Mandarin and Gato.

Pedestrians walk down those streets at night with little light, and carrying a flashlight (or using your cell phone’s flashlight) seems to be a necessity. The News-Press confirmed that by walking down all of those streets during recent months.

If not for Christmas light decorations around one resident’s tree, Alondra Drive would be mostly in the dark. The streetlights there offer little light, as shown by the News-Press photo running with this story.

City officials and members of the Goleta City Council spoke about what the city plans to do to increase lighting.

“I will work with staff and the community to build on the investment of over 1,400 new LED streetlights that have been added across Goleta in the past few years, to ensure they are located more equitably and in a manner that increases safety,” Councilman James Kyriaco, whose district includes Old Town Goleta, told the News-Press. “I have heard from neighbors in Old Town that they would like additional street lights added, particularly on the north side of Hollister, and I will work with staff to prioritize this going forward, in a way that is consistent with neighborhood input as well as available resources.”

Currently the city does not have a current capital project in the works to add more lighting for Old Town streets, the News-Press learned.

But Goleta Public Works Director Charlie Ebeling told the News-Press, “The city of Goleta is interested in improving the safety of all its facilities, including roadways.

“While cities and counties are not obligated to provide street lighting, streetlights can improve safety,” he said.“Typically, streetlights are provided in suburban residential areas and in some commercial areas. Streetlights are also often provided at intersections, pedestrian crossings and in some cases, bike paths.

“The installation of streetlights is guided by the city’s adopted standards and by engineering judgment of licensed civil engineering and traffic engineering professionals,” Mr. Ebeling said. “When installing new or additional street lights in an existing neighborhood, the Department of Public Works works closely with the residents of the neighborhood through community meetings and workshops.“Community concerns often range from desiring street lights for pedestrian safety to concern regarding light pollution and meeting ‘Dark Sky’s’ standards,” the public works director said. “Dark Sky standards include only installing lights where needed, not casting light onto neighboring properties and not casting light up into the sky. Additional concerns with street lighting are loss of parking in cases where a streetlight does not fit behind a sidewalk or in a parkway strip.”

“In general, street lights located on wooden power poles are owned by Southern California Edison, and standalone streetlights are owned by the city,” he said. “The city-owned street lights have been converted to LED.”

Mr. Ebeling said the public works staff has reviewed the streetlights in the neighborhood on the northside of Hollister Avenue in Old Town Goleta.

“Almost all the streetlights are located at intersections,” he said. “Many of the roadway segments between intersections are lighted by outdoor lights on private property.

“The city does not currently have a Capital Improvement Project that includes adding street lighting to the Old Town Goleta residential neighborhood,” Mr. Ebeling said. “However, public works staff do look for opportunities with all projects

The Falcon 9 also carried Italian company D-Orbit’s spacetug, which had its own payloads — from Munich-based HPS, U.S. company EBAD, the Swiss institute EPFL and the New Zealand company StardustMe, according to Kate Tice, SpaceX quality system engineering manager. Ms. Tice listed the companies as she narrated the webcast of the launch at SpaceX.com.

D-Orbit’s payload included tech demo experiments and cremated human remains for customers in the U.S., Germany, New Zealand and Switzerland.

Tuesday’s mission was SpaceX’s seventh for this year and the second one in 2023 from Vandenberg.

The flight was originally scheduled for Sunday, then postponed to Monday, then finally rescheduled for Tuesday.

The rocket took off without any problems at 8:15 a.m. Shortly before the launch, Ms. Tice said, “Teams are tracking no issues with the vehicle.”

After the classic countdown of 10, 9, 8, etc., Falcon 9 took off.

“Go, Falcon. Go, Starlink,” a SpaceX announcer said calmly.

Thirty seconds in the launch, Falcon 9 was up to 477 kilometers per hour. Then at almost a minute in launch, SpaceX announced the Falcon 9 had become supersonic.

The webcast showed the speed at 1,144 kph.

“Falcon 9 is now traveling faster than the speed of sound,” Ms. Tice said. (The speed of sound is 1,234.8 kph.)

About 15 seconds later, Ms. Tice added, “We heard the call for maximum dynamic pressure, the largest amount of stress exerted on the vehicle.” That’s known as “max-q.”

Soon three events, one after another, set the stage for separation of the second stage, which was confirmed by SpaceX at 2 minutes, 37 seconds.

The webcast split into two views, with the first stage on its own and continuing to climb in altitude on the left, and the second stage on the right.

“On the left-hand side, you can see the fins, which will help to steer the vehicle back down for a precise landing” on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Pacific Ocean, Ms. Tice said.

The ship is called Of Course I Still Love You.

At nearly six minutes, the first stage started to make its descent back to Earth.

“There’s a stunning view there of the globe in the background,” Ms. Tice noted.

Around 6 minutes, 30 seconds, three engines were ignited on the first stage to help slow it down during its re-entry into the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the second stage continued its ascent and orbit. Seven minutes into the flight, Ms. Tice reported, “Things are looking good for both the first and second stages.”

At around 8 minutes, 30 seconds, the first stage landed on the drone ship.

That marked the seventh landing of this Falcon 9 first-stage booster. email: dmason@newspress.com