The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket went into life and flew off Cape Canaveral Thursday night, lifting a Turkish communications satellite into orbit to start another busy year for the California rocket company.
The launch set the stage for Monday’s return to Earth of an unmanned Dragon cargo ship carrying research samples and equipment from the International Space Station and an expected test flight with a prototype Starship platform from Boca Chica, Texas, SpaceX.
Last year, SpaceX launched 26 Falcon 9 rockets, including two Crew Dragon pilot missions that took six astronauts to the International Space Station, two unexplored Dragon cargo ships to the lab and 14 Starlink flights. sent 833 internet relay satellites to orbit.
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The company is expected to attempt 40 or more Falcon 9 aircraft in 2021, including another NASA Crew Dragon flight to the station and, possibly, a fully commercial flight carrying four astronauts neo-NASA.
The company began their 2021 launch mission at 9:15 pm ET Thursday when the nine Merlin engines running a previously-fledged Falcon 9 were taken to life at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Generating 1.7 million pounds of effort, the 229-foot-high rocket exploded from pad 40 and climbed away to the east, weaving through a vastly clear sky and providing a spectacular spectacle for cargo. -resident and tourists.
SpaceX
The first stage, making its fourth flight, propelled the rocket out of the low atmosphere before it crashed and flew itself down to land on a SpaceX spacecraft. was located hundreds of miles from Cape Canaveral. This was SpaceX’s 71st successful surge revival and 49th place on offshore droneship.
The second stage, meanwhile, continued the flight into space, making two firings of their single-engine engines before releasing the Turksat 5A communications satellite 33 minutes after take-off.
The 7,500-pound relay station, built by Airbus Defense and Space for Turksat, was launched into a highly elliptical “motion” orbit and will use on-board plasma ammunition over the next four months to the top operating system 22,300 miles above the equator.
Going around in a gray phase with Earth’s orbit, the 42 satellite respondents will provide commercial broadband data relay and direct TV broadcast services across Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. A second satellite, Turksat 5B, is expected to launch later this year.