CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a full stack of 60 Starlink internet satellites into orbit on Tuesday afternoon (May 4) and then stuck its landing at sea to top off a successful mission.
The veteran Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Pad 39A here at
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 3:01 p.m. EDT (1901 GMT), marking the
company's 13th launch of the year.
SpaceX launched its own version of the
"fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy," the Falcon 9, on Star Wars Day
(aka "May the Fourth"), a global celebration of all things "Star
Wars." The 229-foot-tall (70 meters) rocket is named after the Millennium
Falcon — the iconic ship in the "Star Wars" franchise piloted by Han
Solo. It's payload? A full stack of 60 flat-paneled broadband satellites called
Starlink.
"And liftoff! May
the force be with us," a SpaceX launch commentator said during a live
webcast of the mission.
Approximately nine
minutes after liftoff, the rocket's first stage returned to Earth, touching
down on SpaceX's drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You," for its
ninth successful landing.
The launch was originally part of a planned SpaceX doubleheader,
as the company worked towards a launch of its massive Starship at its South
Texas facilities. That flight was pushed back to no earlier than Thursday (May
6), while the Falcon 9 was able to get off the ground.
Onlookers were treated
to quite the spectacle as the rocket blasted off as part of a rare daytime
mission.
SpaceX is continuing the rapid launch pace set
last year, as the Hawthorne, California-based rocket builder celebrated its
13th launch so far in 2021. Every single one of those launches have been on
reused rockets, and most have carried SpaceX's own Starlink satellites. That's
because the company has been working to fill its initial internet constellation
of 1,440 broadband satellites.
That milestone has already been achieved, but SpaceX isn't
slowing down; the company currently has permission to launch as many as 30,000 Starlink
satellites, with an option for even more.
Forecasters at the
45th Space Wing's Weather Squadron predicted favorable conditions at launch and
the weather did not disappoint. It was nothing but clear blue skies over the
space coast as the Falcon roared to life and climbed to orbit.
The only concern going
into Tuesday's launch was recovery weather and liftoff winds at the launch
site. Neither of those proved to be an issue.
Rapid reuse
The booster used in
Tuesday's launch, called B1049, is not only one of SpaceX's fleet of
flight-proven boosters, but also one of the most experienced. The veteran flier
now has nine launches and landings under its belt as the company has plans to
push its Falcon 9 rockets to the limit. It's only the second booster in
SpaceX's fleet to reach this milestone. (The other is B1051.)
This frequent flyer made its debut in 2018, carrying the Telstar 18V satellite before trekking across the
country to launch 10 Iridium NEXT satellites in 2019. Its subsequent
missions have all contained Starlink payloads.
Tuesday's flight marks
the seventh load of the broadband satellites that this particular booster has
carried into space. SpaceX has been using its previously flown boosters with
the most miles to transport its own satellites into space.
This is the 117th overall
flight for Falcon 9, and the 63rd flight of a used, refurbished booster. In
fact, every single SpaceX launch so far in 2021 has been on a flight-proven
rocket.
When the upgraded Falcon 9 debuted in 2018, SpaceX Founder and
CEO Elon Musk told
reporters that the company expected each Falcon 9 to fly 10 times with few
refurbishments in between flights, and as many as 100 times before
retirement.
According to Musk, the company has learned a lot through the
refurbishment process, including that there doesn't seem to be a hard limit on
the number of flights that any given Falcon 9 can fly. Following the launch of
the Crew-2 astronaut
mission to the International Space Station for NASA, the SpaceX CEO did
indicate that the company would push the Falcons to the limit and keep flying
them on Starlink missions until they break, which could well surpass the 10
flights previously predicted.
Having a fleet of
flight-proven rockets at its disposal allows SpaceX to keep up with its rapid
launch cadence. However, company officials have stressed that while losing a
booster is unfortunate, the main objective of each mission is always to deliver
the payload safely to its intended orbit. Anything beyond that is a
bonus.
SpaceX has yet to
launch the same rocket 10 times, but according to Musk, that historic flight
should happen in the very near future.
Constellation expansion
SpaceX launched its
massive internet constellation, to help provide internet coverage to the world,
in particular those in remote and rural areas. To that end, company engineers
designed a fleet of flat-paneled broadband satellites to fly over the Earth,
beaming down internet coverage to users who can access the service via a
compact user terminal.
With Tuesday's launch
success, SpaceX has launched nearly 1,600 Starlink satellites into orbit,
including some that are no longer operational. This goes beyond the company's
initial quota, which means we could see an official commercial rollout of the
Starlink internet service sometime this year.
Currently, Starlink is still in its beta-testing phase with
users around the world putting the burgeoning broadband service through its
paces. The company has also opened up its website to begin taking preorders,
although service won't begin right away. Prospective users can go to the
company's website and reserve the service with a $99 deposit right now.
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