Another starlink mission adding 60 more starlink satellites to its low Earth orbit constellation. These missions are going to be the next level missions on this planet. That’s a good news for its efforts to blanket the globe in high speed broadband, and todays flight is even better news for its equally important ambition of developing more reusable rocket system since the first stage booster that helped launch today’s falcon 9 rocket made a record breaking 7th trip. On Tuesday night, SpaceX successfully launched another batch of the company’s internet-from-space Starlink satellites to orbit, using a very space-hardened Falcon 9 rocket for the job. This launch marked the rocket’s seventh flight to space and back the first time SpaceX has flown such a seasoned vehicle to orbit.
The Falcon 9 took off at 9:13 PM ET from SpaceX’s launch site at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, with 60 Starlink satellites in tow. After a quick trip to space, the first stage of the Falcon 9 the bulk of the vehicle that contains the main engines and most of the fuel separated from the rest of the rocket and came back to Earth. It then performed one of SpaceX’s signature rocket landings, touching down on one of the company’s drone ships in the Atlantic. Before this flight, the Falcon 9 had boosted two communications satellites to orbit on two separate missions, and SpaceX had also used the vehicle to launch four separate Starlink launches. It wasn’t just the rocket that had flown before either. The rocket’s nosecone, which surrounds the satellites during the climb to space, was also used before previous flights. One half of the nosecone or payload fairing had flow once before, while the other half had flown twice before this launch. By now, SpaceX has made these launch and landing routines a fairly regular sight out of Florida, with each new mission adding numbers to the company’s resume. Last night’s launch was notable for being SpaceX’s 100th Falcon 9 launch ever. It also marked the company’s 23rd launch of this year and the 67th time SpaceX has recovered one of its Falcon 9 boosters following a launch. SpaceX broke its own reusability records of six flights for a reused first stage rocket component, and it also recovered the booster with a controlled landing using its drone flight in the Atlantic Ocean, which means it could potentially break this record with yet another future flight for this same booster.
The space programs are very much necessary for the observation on climate security and many other things. A greater usability as a way to continue to reduce costs every time it flies a component used in a previous mission, it realizes some degree of cost savings versus using all new parts and it is aim by SpaceX. This mission represents likely its most cost efficient flight to date as a result.
Since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, NASA and Russia’s space corporation, Roscosmos, have been locked in a symbiotic relationship. NASA needed Russia in order to get its own astronauts and international partners to the International Space Station. Russia benefitted from NASA’s money one seat on Russia’s Soyuz capsule runs NASA upward of $80 million. That’s been good for the relationship between NASA and Roscosmos. This is the spaceX very successful mission and it is the sixteenth starlink mission thus far and it has now launched nearly 1000 total small satellites for its constellation.
