SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket completed its first mission of 2021 by sending the Turksat 5A communications satellite into orbit – despite Armenia’s call to cancel the launch.
Hundreds of Armenian activists gathered at the firm’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, last October, hoping the company owned by Elon Musk would sever ties with Turkey.
Protesters held signs claiming that the satellite would be used to kill ‘civilians’ by targeting Armenians with unmanned aerial vehicles amid the deadly conflict between the two nations.
It would appear that their voices are unheard of, as SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 with the satellite at the wheel on Thursday night.
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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket completed its first mission of 2021 by launching a Turkish-owned Turkish 5A communications satellite into orbit – despite calls from Armenian activists to cancel the launch. It seems their voices are unheard of, as SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 with the satellite at the wheel on Thursday night.
The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan is over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is mostly controlled by ethnic Armenians.
Fighting erupts periodically around Nagorno-Karabakh’s borders, often deadly, especially in 2016 and July 2020.
Since recent fighting broke out in October, dozens have been killed and wounded in apparent shelling by both sides – with each country blaming the other.
Armenian activists took to the streets to protest SpaceX’s ties with their enemy and also sent regular emails with the subject ‘What if Elon was Armenian’.
Hundreds of Armenian activists gathered around the firm’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California in October, hoping that the company owned by Elon Musk would sever ties with Turkey.
In the email, obtained by TechCrunch, activists explained that Armenians worldwide, an ethnic and national group, ‘suffered under the authoritarian rule and regional influence of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’ – and the word ‘genocide’ is shown several times in the message. .
TechCrunch exchanged emails with a person listed as the originator of the campaign saying, “There are calls for sanctions against Turkey by the US and other NATO countries.”
“SpaceX is strongly encouraged to take all these factors into account and to decide for itself whether it wants to continue to assist Turkey in the light of such overwhelming and clear evidence of criminal activity.”
‘At least Elon Musk and SpaceX can stop the launch to see what these investigations lead to. While this could be a loss of profit for SpaceX, it will be a huge leap forward in advancing the world. ‘
According to Space.com, SpaceX plans to launch another Turskat satellite into space later this year.
The Turskat 5A satellite is currently drifting in an orbit that, according to its Turkish owners, will improve communication capabilities in Turkey, along with parts of Asia, Europe and Africa.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 took off from Cape Canaveral on Thursday at 21:15 ET, after a 45-minute delay – the cause has not yet been announced.
After the mission, the Falcon 9 booster falls back to earth to land on the drone Just Read The Instructions sits in the Atlantic Ocean.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 moments before it took off for its first 2021 mission
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 took off from Cape Canaveral on Thursday at 21:15 ET after 45 minutes delay – the cause has not yet been announced
SpaceX had a busy launch season in 2020 – it has been selected in 29 successful missions – but 2021 will be twice as exciting for the firm that plans to launch its Falcon 9 rockets more than 40 times in orbit.
Musk’s firm also plans to launch its latest Starship prototype, Serial Number 9 (SN9), only this weekend, according to airspace restrictions.
SN9 would try the same mission as its predecessor Serial Number 8 (SN8) which completed an 11 km test flight at high altitude on 8 December.
The massive rocket reached its flight target, but exploded on the launch pad the moment it hit.
Musk, however, considers the launch a success and says that the prototype, although destroyed, has collected a wealth of data that will take SpaceX one step closer to sending humans to Mars aboard the rocket.