CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a new group of 60 Starlink internet satellites into orbit on Wednesday afternoon (April 7) to complete a landing at sea to complete a successful mission.
Veteran Falcon 9 rocket took off at 12.34pm EDT (1634 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 here at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, which was the company’s 10th launch of the year.
“Falcon 9 was successfully taken away from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station carrying our stack of Starlink satellites around the orbit,” Jessie Anderson, a SpaceX production engineer, said during a live webcast of the launch.
About nine minutes later, the rocket’s first phase returns to Earth and hits SpaceX’s drone “Of course I still love you” for its seventh successful landing.
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SpaceX continues the rapid launch pace set last year as the rocket builder in Hawthorne, California, celebrated its tenth launch so far in 2021. Most of the launches were SpaceX’s own Starlink satellites, as the company was closer to its initial fill. internet constellation of 1 440 broadband satellites.
Although the constellation could eventually be tens of thousands of satellites that are strong, as SpaceX has permission to launch as many as 30,000, with an option for even more.
Forecasters at the 45th Space Wing’s Weather Squadron predicted favorable conditions during the launch and the weather did not disappoint. It was nothing more than a blue sky over the space coast today when the Falcon 9 rocket climbed to an orbit.
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Seven flights
The amplifier for today’s launch, called the B1058, is one of SpaceX’s fleet of proven trucks. The veteran aircraft now has seven lances and landings under its belt and rises rapidly as one of the naval leaders.
B1058 made its debut almost a year ago, as it became the first NASA iconic worm logo. “The worm is back,” former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said tweeted at that point.
The iconic red worm logo was created in the 1970s and used for some time before the space agency relied solely on its other iconic symbol – the NASA meatball.
While the meatball is still the main logo, NASA has chosen to show the worm at its crew positions. The once bright red writing is now dark and sooty, due to the many journeys to space and back.
B1058 was the first commercial rocket delivered by astronauts to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s commercial crew program. This is the historic first flight, the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission, which took off on May 30, 2020 from Road 39A at the Kennedy Space Center here in Florida. It was the first time astronauts have hit U.S. soil since the end of the 2011 shuttle program.
Thereafter, the booster flew a second time in July 2020, delivering a communications satellite into space for South Korea’s army.
The booster also delivered the first upgraded Dragon cargo capsule to the space station in December 2020 and made history again in January as the booster to deliver the most satellites in one payload in orbit. That driving mission, called Transporter-1, landed 143 small satellites in space. (The previous record was held by the Indian Space Agency for the launch of 104 small satellites in 2017.)
This is the 113th overall flight for Falcon 9, and the 59th flight of a used, refurbished booster. In fact, every SpaceX launch so far in 2021 has been on an aircraft-proven rocket.
The mission is also the fifth consecutive successful landing for SpaceX, after the company lost one of its six-time kites on February 15 when the rocket lost an engine during the flight and subsequently failed to land on the drone. dozen catch line.
SpaceX attributed the deviation to the shutdown of one of the engines. The first phase of the rocket is powered by nine Merlin 1D engines and is designed to complete its mission, even if one of the engines shuts down prematurely.
Unfortunately, the rocket could not slow itself down to land on the drone as expected. Industry officials stressed that while the loss of a booster is unfortunate, the main goal of every mission is always to deliver the payload safely on its intended course. Anything beyond that is a bonus.
With a fleet of proven missiles at its disposal, however, SpaceX can keep up with its rapid launch cadences.
Constellation Extension
With today’s launch success, SpaceX has launched a total of more than 1,400 Starlink satellites into orbit, including some that are no longer in operation. This almost fills the company’s initial quota, as some were missing. And there are many more launches, as the company has sought tens of thousands of approvals.
SpaceX has launched its massive internet constellation, with one main goal: to connect the world. To that end, the company’s engineers have designed a fleet of flat-panel broadband satellites to fly across the earth, radiating Internet coverage to users around the world – especially those in rural and remote areas who would otherwise have no connection.
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Starlink is currently in beta testing with users in the US, Canada, UK, Germany and New Zealand having access to the service. SpaceX is taking pre-orders in preparation for the launch of its full commercial services later this year. Prospective users can now start booking the service with a $ 99 deposit by logging on to the company’s website.
SpaceX is not the only company striving to connect the world. OneWeb, Amazon and Telstar have all planned their own constellations. However, OneWeb is currently the only other service with real satellites in space.
The London-based company launched 36 of its satellites on a Russian Soyuz last month while completing its planned constellation of 650 satellites. (To date, OneWeb has launched five of its planned 19 missions.)
Parachutes
Both of the disk halves that appear in today’s mission have flown before, and with any luck, they will be flying again soon.
That is, if they land intact. Using parachutes on board, the clamp-like hardware will gently splash into the Atlantic Ocean and be pulled out of the water by SpaceX’s latest boat, a bright pink and blue vessel named Shelia Bordelon.
Shelia Bordelon, who is participating in his second mission, will use a crane on board to retrieve the hoods. It is unclear whether this boat will be a permanent member of the Navy and whether she will only help in the short term.
SpaceX is officially pulling off its twin catchers – GO Ms Chief and GO Ms Tree – and will rely on other repair vessels to retrieve the parachutes in the future.
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