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CAP CANAVERAL, Florida – A SpaceX The Falcon 9 rocket was launched on a record-breaking 8th flight to send a new fleet of the company’s Starlink internet satellites into orbit on Wednesday, January 20, then nailed a landing at sea.
the Falcon 9 rocket took off from historic Pad 39A here at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 8:02 a.m. EDT (1202 GMT) carrying 60 new Starlink satellites for the growing constellation of SpaceX in orbit. The launch came after two days of delay due to bad weather in the recovery area and the need for additional pre-flight checks.
About 9 minutes after takeoff, the Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth, landing on one of SpaceX’s drones in the Atlantic Ocean in a soft landing. The huge ship “Just Read the Instructions” is one of two of the company’s fleet of salvage vessels that catches falling thrusters and sends them back to port.
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Today’s mission was originally scheduled to take off on Monday (January 18), but was postponed for 24 hours to allow for improved weather conditions in the recovery area. SpaceX relies heavily on its fleet of reused rockets, which is why the company wants to make sure every post-launch capture is successful.
On Tuesday, January 19, the company decided it needed another day to put the rocket through additional pre-launch checks, as this flight marked the first time one of the company’s Falcon 9 first-stage thrusters had flown. a record of 8 times.
The delay proved fruitful as the veteran Falcon 9 jumped out of the field on Wednesday for his 8th mission. It landed on “Just Read the Instructions” in the Atlantic Ocean, marking the 72nd landing of a SpaceX rocket.
The rocket featured in this launch is one of two record-breaking boosters from SpaceX’s Falcon 9 fleet. Known as the B1051, this flight-proven thruster is the first in SpaceX’s fleet to perform an 8th flight. It also marks one of SpaceX’s shortest delays between flights, as this particular booster last flew a little over a month ago on December 13th.
To date, B1051 has carried an assortment of payloads, including an unequipped Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station as part of a 2019 flight test, followed by a trio of Earth observation satellites for Canada as well as four different Starlink missions. During its flight on December 13, the rocket was carrying a 15,432 lb. (7,000 kilograms) satellite in orbit for Sirius XM, which will deliver content to Sirius subscribers in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.
Related: See the evolution of SpaceX rockets in pictures
A record launch
Today’s launch marks the 102nd total flight of SpaceX’s double-decker Falcon 9 rocket, as well as the company’s 72nd successful landing. SpaceX has two fully operational drone landing pads – “Sure, I still love you” and “Just read the instructions” – in Florida, which allows it to launch (and land) over rockets.
The company’s first drone, “Of course, I still love you,” was recently refurbished after a busy 2020. He is currently heading to his designated recovery area for SpaceX’s Transporter-1 mission (which is expected to launch later this month). newer “Just Read the Instructions” grabbed its second booster of the year today.
SpaceX’s current iteration of its Falcon 9 rocket entered service in 2018, as it launched a communications satellite for Bangladesh. Known as the Block 5, this upgraded version of its Falcon 9 features a series of upgrades – including a more robust thermal protection system, titanium grid fins, as well as a more inter-stage durable – which facilitates reuse.
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As such, SpaceX has relied heavily on its veteran rocket fleet, having overhauled a total of 50 first-stage boosters in five years. (The California-based aerospace company recovered its first thruster in 2015.) In 2020, the company flew 26 missions, including 22 on reused rockets.
The company lost two boosters in consecutive drone shortages in early 2020, but has since grabbed every booster that landed on SpaceX’s two huge drones. In SpaceX’s rocket fleet, it has eight veteran pilots, as well as a few boosters designed to fly as part of the company’s heavy-lift iteration, the Heavy falcon.
A Starlink mega-stellation
SpaceX aims to make humanity a multiplanetary species. In order to help fund its ambitions on Mars, the company developed a plan to cover Earth with Internet coverage broadcast from a tight-knit menagerie of broadband satellites. This mega-constellation is expected to consist of thousands of satellites, flying close to the planet in a region of space called low earth orbit.
By using a small terminal (no larger than a laptop), ground users will be able to connect to the ever-expanding network, which is currently still in beta testing.
The satellite Internet network would be a means for SpaceX and its CEO, Elon musk, to generate revenue for Mars exploration and necessary hardware, like its massive Starship ship, which is currently in development at the company’s Boca Chica facility in South Texas, and its Super Heavy booster. Musk has estimated that the Starlink service could generate up to $ 30 billion per year, although no firm pricing has yet been announced.
With this launch, the company will have sent more than 1,000 of its initial set of 1,400 quarter-ton flat-panel satellites into space – more than enough for SpaceX to begin rolling out its service.
But the business doesn’t stop there. It has plans for a massive satellite constellation with tens of thousands of satellites flying above Earth and broadcasting high-speed, low-latency internet signals. To date, the Federal Communications Commission has cleared SpaceX to launch up to 12000 broadband. satellites, but the company said it would seek permission to launch up to 30,000 of its Internet-broadcasting satellites.
However, there are still many regulatory hurdles to overcome and more satellites to launch before the service can be offered globally, but early tests are promising. So promising in fact, that SpaceX recently received approval from UK telecommunications company Ofcom to expand its Better Than Nothing beta testing program into the UK. SpaceX has also signed a remote public school district in Virginia as well as its first client in Canada – the Pikangikum First Nation reserve.
Falling rocket fairings
SpaceX flies flight-proven payload fairings (also known as the rocket nose cone) on this flight. The material used protected the stack of Starlink satellites as they flew through the atmosphere.
The two halves represent 10% of the overall cost of the vehicle and their reuse allows SpaceX to reduce costs. To this end, each fairing is able to return to Earth where it will splash in the ocean or land in a giant net attached to a salvage vessel.
SpaceX has two of these moving sensors – GO Ms. Tree and GO Ms. Chief. Both boats were deployed for action this time around and hung around the port of Morehead City, North Carolina, until SpaceX was ready to launch this mission.
The duo will retrieve both pieces from the water and attempt to use them again in the future, company officials said during the live broadcast of the launch.
The next step for SpaceX is a carpooling mission called Transporter-1, which is expected to take off on Friday (January 22).
Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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