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CAP CANAVERAL, Florida – SpaceX successfully launched a new Starlink carpooling mission into orbit today (August 18), smoothing a multitude of Starlink internet satellites as well as three small Earth observation satellites before planting a rocket at sea.
The two stages Falcon 9 rocket carrying 58 SpaceX Starlink satellites and a trio of small SkySat satellites for California-based imaging company Planet, took off at 10:31 a.m. EDT (2:31 p.m. GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 here at Cape Canaveral Air Station .
The launch is the second Starlink mission this month and SpaceX’s 14th mission so far in 2020. The company, leveraging its fleet of reusable and flight-proven boosters, also set another record with the launch – flying the same booster for the sixth time. Today’s mission also marks the 40th ebb of a Falcon 9.
The booster featured in today’s flight, designated B1049 by SpaceX, had previously launched three separate Starlink flights, as well as the Telstar 18 VANTAGE and Iridium-8 missions. And now, after making another landing this morning, he’s become the first thief six times. About eight minutes after an on-time takeoff, the booster gently settles onto the deck of SpaceX’s “Of Course I Still Love You” drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Related: SpaceX’s Starlink satellite mega-constellation launches in photos
The road to 100
Today’s flight takes SpaceX to another major milestone beyond the reusability aspect, as it marks the company’s 99th launch. It is important to note that this distinction applies to the Falcon rocket family, including all versions of the Falcon.
SpaceX’s first rocket, the Falcon 1, had a total of five missions, two of which were successful and paved the way for SpaceX’s many accomplishments. Since its debut in 2010, the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 has now flown a total of 90 times – with just two crashes. (The CRS-7 resupply mission for NASA was lost during launch, and the AMOS-6 payload was lost on the mat during a routine pre-flight test.)
The company’s heavyweight, known as Heavy falcon, has flown three times so far, all of which have been successful.
SpaceX was founded in 2002 with one overriding goal: to make life multiplanetary. Founder and CEO of the company Elon musk said SpaceX’s philosophy has always been that a fully (and quickly) reusable rocket is the key to dramatically reducing the cost of spaceflight.
To that end, Musk and SpaceX strive to be reusable. Historically, rockets have been unique material. After a launch, the various parts of a rocket would be discarded and would never be used again. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has since proven that the same first-stage thruster can be launched and landed multiple times.
In fact, the latest iteration of the Falcon 9 is capable of flying 10 times with little renovation in between, and up to 100 times before being retired, Musk said. To date, SpaceX has flown a rocket six times and two more five times.
Related: See the evolution of SpaceX rockets in pictures
Reuse of rockets
The first stage of the Falcon 9 featured in today’s mission is now a six-time record flight, having already launched three separate Starlink flights, as well as the Telstar 18 VANTAGE and Iridium-8 missions.
Earlier this year, it became the second Falcon 9 booster to launch five times and the first to land successfully five times. The first booster to be launched five times, designated B1048 by SpaceX, suffered an anomaly in flight in March. There was residual cleaner trapped inside a part of the engine causing the booster to miss its intended landing on the drone. (The booster did deliver the payload to orbit without any issues, however.)
As a result, SpaceX subsequently tweaked its refurbishment techniques and has now launched and collected three different boosters five times, one of which performed in today’s mission.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 successfully landed on the SpaceX drone “Of course i still love you“approximately eight minutes after take-off, marking the 58th business takeover since the first in 2015.
To land, the booster must perform a series of orbital ballet movements, after separating from its upper stage, to reposition itself for landing. Then, it relies on one of its nine engines to perform a series of three brief burns in order to slow itself down enough to land gently on the deck of a floating platform.
This floating platform is one of two gigantic drones that SpaceX deploys in the Atlantic Ocean to catch its returning boosters. To date, the company has made 58 captures out of 68 attempts. Once the boosters are returned to Port Canaveral in Florida, they are returned to SpaceX’s facilities, where each is carefully inspected and reused to fly again.
It’s because of a series of upgrades – improved engines, a more durable inter-stage (which connects the first and second stages), titanium mesh fins and a more robust thermal protection system – the Falcon 9 received in 2018, allowing it to better withstand the stresses of the launch.
The rapid reuse, coupled with the fact that the company now has two drones to retrieve its first-stage boosters, means the company can launch more frequently. SpaceX was launched a total of four times between late May and late June, and plans to perform a number of launches through the end of 2020.
Related: SpaceX launches 60 Starlink satellites, lands rocket in dazzling nighttime liftoff
Parasols
SpaceX’s Starlink satellites have been a thorn in the side of astronomers since the first launch in 2019. Flat screen satellites caught the astronomical community off guard, appearing as a luminous train of dots walking across the night sky. SpaceX has since tried to dim the brightness, thus minimizing their impact on night sky observations.
To this end, the company began to equip its fleet of Internet broadcast satellites with a special visor. The parasol, as SpaceX calls it, is a deployable visor designed to prevent sunlight from reflecting off the brightest parts of satellites, such as antennas. The company hopes to reduce the overall brightness of the fleet and allow it to appear as dark as possible in the night sky.
A previous Starlink launch in June this year featured a satellite equipped with the experimental visor; today’s mission is the second in which all the satellites carry it.
Fairing recovery
SpaceX has proven that it can reuse the most expensive part of the rocket: the first stage. This material represents 60% of the total price of the Falcon 9. But the company did not stop there. In an effort to further reduce launch costs, SpaceX began recover and reuse its payload fairings.
The shell-shaped material (also known as the rocket nose cone) returns to Earth in two pieces, each equipped with parachutes and software that guides it to Earth, where the company’s two ships – GO Ms. Tree and GO Ms. Chief – wait with taut nets.
However, simply waiting in the ocean with a taut net isn’t always the key to snagging a falling fairing. Their ability to make a capture depends on many factors, including the weather. If both boats fail to catch the fairings, they can pick them up out of the water and bring them back to port. From there, the parts will be prepared for reuse.
The Falcon 9 on that flight was carrying a reused payload fairing half, which had previously flown during the company’s fourth Starlink mission in January. SpaceX has marked the fairings with different symbols to indicate whether they were captured in the air or recovered from the ocean, such as captured by a local launch photographer.
SpaceX is expected to make an attempt to hook up the falling fairings, which will occur approximately 40 minutes after takeoff.
Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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