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Update July 25, 9:25 am ET: Both rockets were successfully launched at this time this morning. While the launch of Ariane 5 is still underway, the SpaceX Falcon 9 has completed its mission in just over an hour. The rocket booster was able to land on the company's drone-ship in the Pacific, despite poor weather conditions at the site. At first, there was some confusion as to whether she had survived, thanks to poor lighting on the boat, but SpaceX later received a visual confirmation that the booster had landed successfully. Moreover, SpaceX could not catch the nose cone of its rocket. The company's recovery boat, Mr. Steven, saw the structure falling from the sky but could not catch it.
Original Story: Early Wednesday morning, rocket enthusiasts will have the chance to watch two stars at about the same time. Around 7:30 am ET, SpaceX is expected to launch one of its Falcon 9 rockets off the California coast, while European launcher Arianespace will launch its Ariane 5 rocket from its South American spaceport in French Guiana. If all goes as planned, the vehicles will be launched at approximately 15 minutes interval
The two rockets will travel in very different directions. Ariane 5 will launch to the east on the Atlantic Ocean, while the SpaceX Falcon 9 will launch south into the Pacific. But thanks to the live broadcast, viewers will be able to see both missions back-to-back on their screens. Of course, this will only happen if the weather is good in both places, there are no problems with the rockets, and no boat or capricious aircraft comes to interfere.
Here's what goes up and down tomorrow and where do these flights look
SpaceX
The launch of SpaceX tomorrow will be the company's seventh mission for long-time customer Iridium. SpaceX has signed a contract with Iridium to launch 75 satellites for the company's Iridium NEXT constellation, which provides global telecommunications coverage. SpaceX launched these probes in batches of 10 (with the exception of the sixth mission, which sent five satellites). After this seventh flight, SpaceX has more than a group of satellites to launch, and his work for Iridium will be completed
The SpaceX Falcon 9 is expected to take off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California South at 07:39 ET. After launch, SpaceX hopes to recover as many rockets as possible at this time. The rocket booster will attempt one of the company 's signature landings on a SpaceX drone in the Pacific Ocean. And a little later, SpaceX will also try to catch the nose cone of the Falcon 9, or payload fairing, the bulbous structure that surrounds the satellites at the top of the rocket.
SpaceX has been trying to catch the fairings of its rockets for months, but it has not yet managed to get out of it. To recover these structures, the company equipped them with parachutes to help slow down their fall to the Earth. Then, once they get closer to the surface of the ocean, SpaceX tries to catch them with a huge net attached to a boat called Mr. Steven. SpaceX has just expanded the network on Mr. Steven, which has allowed him to multiply his original size by four. We will see if this is the case for this flight, although this is also the first time that SpaceX is trying to catch a fairing at night.
No matter what, all this should make a dramatic mission tomorrow, and Iridium has the perfect thing to make the experience even more interesting: a launch playlist. Iridium has organized a Spotify soundtrack intended to "reflect what the viewers of the SpaceX webcast are viewing or are somehow related to the story of Iridium (including metaphorically)," according to L & # 39; business. Sign in to Spotify, select the Iridium-7 launch soundtrack in playlists and click Play when the countdown is at 10 minutes and 30 seconds. The songs are also pretty, like "Intergalactic" of the Beastie Boys and "I Want to Break Free" of Queen
Arianespace
Ariane 5 of Arianespace should take off at 7:25 am ET, about 14 minutes before the departure of SpaceX. This is the fourth launch of an Ariane 5 this year, and the rocket will carry four satellites in orbit. They will join 22 similar satellites in the space constituting the Galileo constellation, which provides global navigation services for Europe.
This mission also marks the final launch of a version of the rocket called Ariane 5 ES. This is a variant that has already been used to launch Galileo satellites. But after this flight, all future Galileo satellites will be launched on the next Arianespace rocket, the Ariane 6, currently under development. The first flight of this vehicle is scheduled to take place in 2020.
Coverage of the Ariane 5 flight by the European Space Agency will start at 7am ET, while SpaceX coverage of the launch of Iridium will begin 15 at 20 minutes before takeoff. . Come back in the morning to get a double dose of live rocket launches on your computer screen.
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