[ad_1]
Friday morning update : The Falcon 9 rocket took off Friday morning from Florida, and placed its probe in a good orbit. After this first mission, the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket is currently undergoing an extended mission of four orbits before returning to Earth. This experimental flight should help demonstrate the ability of the upper stage to perform a direct insertion into the geostationary orbit.
The next launch of SpaceX is scheduled to take place in three weeks
: When SpaceX launches its 15th mission refueling at the International Space Station, perhaps as early as Friday morning at 5:42 am ET (09:42 UTC) , the company plans to fly the Block 4 version of its Falcon 9 rocket for the last time.
Two launches in July were already known to fly on the latest and presumably final revision to the Falcon 9 rocket – the block variant 5. But at a press conference on Thursday, the company's director for the Dragon spaceship program, Jessica Jensen, confirmed that there will be no more Block 4 flights after the impending launch of the space station
. optimized for reusability, flew once when it made a successful flight in May. Since then, SpaceX has been working through its inventory of previously flown rockets. The booster scheduled for the first time Friday was launched just over two months ago, on April 18, sending NASA's TESS satellite to chase the planet into a lunar resonance orbit. This 10-week turnaround was remarkably fast for a Block 4 booster, but SpaceX says its Block 5 should be able to fly much faster.
Indeed, SpaceX has the intention of stealing every first floor Block 5 that it builds at least 10 times, which would be extremely important because SpaceX has up to 10 times. now re-used only one of its Falcon 9 rockets. In addition, the company hopes to reduce the time between the launch of a Falcon 9 thruster, now several months, to a few weeks or less.
Because SpaceX does not intend to steal the Friday booster again, it will be spent in the ocean. However, the second stage of the rocket will make a much longer "coast" in space before taking off after four revolutions around the Earth. This is probably another test of the ability of the second stage engine to fire after a longer period of dormancy in the space.
At Thursday's press conference, Jensen said that SpaceX was still working with a thermal panel on the Dragon spacecraft. This could delay the launch, but she said the employees were proceeding for the moment as if the launch was to take place on Friday morning.
Source link
