The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, using the first stage making its eighth flight, launched an additional 60 Starlink internet relay satellites into orbit early Thursday after launching from the Space Center Kennedy, the fourth rocket builder in California this year Starlink.
Originally expected to take off at the end of January, the rocket was held back again by undisclosed technical issues, the most recent Sunday to come when the countdown was less than 90 seconds from construction. . But the rocket finally went live at a historic 39A cap at 3:24 am EST on Thursday and the hard journey began with a blast of flame and rock going down.
The launch came just nine hours after another SpaceX rocket, a prototype of the company’s high Starship platform, tested a flight of the Texas coast, climbing to a height of about six miles as expected before dipping back into tail- first landing. Minutes after a touchdown, the rocket was destroyed in a sudden explosion.
SpaceX
This was the third mishap in a series for the Starship test program, but the rocket was able to land for the first time. A few hours later, the Falcon 9 canceled the 20th successful Starlink event at SpaceX, its sixth time so far this year and the 109th place overall.
Putting on a spectacular display if it was short overnight, the 229-foot-high elevation fired northeast on top of a long jet of blazing flame, disappearing sharply from the low clouds covering Florida Space Coast.
Two and a half minutes after a lift, the first stage was well traveled, the second to reach the eight-plane milestone, shut down and crashed away, flying itself to a sharp spot. landing on a ship that came ashore hundreds of miles from Cape Canaveral. This was SpaceX’s 75th successful launch, its 53rd at sea.
The second stage of the Falcon 9, meanwhile, fired its Merlin engine at idle level twice to reach the 167-mile-high design height. The 60 Starlinks will use their onboard ion transfer systems to reach their 341 mile operating orbit.
SpaceX webcast
With the launch on Thursday, SpaceX has now put 1,205 Starlinks into orbit since the launch of flights in May 2019. Space analyst Jonathan McDowell estimates that 63 have entered its orbit. -again and 17 no longer appear to be moving. But the company has a management license to launch thousands of relay stations in six orbital plans to provide uninterrupted internet access to subscribers from anywhere in the world.
While the planned network is far from complete, SpaceX offers an initial beta service in selected areas and promises to “continue expansion to near-global coverage of the world’s population in 2021.”
Data speeds range from 50 to 150 megabytes per second and the company warns of “short periods with no connection at all. “But” as we launch more satellites, install more ground stations and improve our network software, data speeds, latency and uptime will greatly improve. “