The used SpaceX rocket launched a new Starling Internet satellite into orbit and returned to Earth on Wednesday (May 18) morning to land at sea.
Two-level Hawk 9 Rocket 53 tops the list Starling The spacecraft flew into the Florida morning sky from NASA’s Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Liftoff at 6:59 a.m. EDT (1059 GMT), 39 minutes late SpaceX Initially planned.
“Falcon 9 successfully launched our 53 Starlink satellites into space,” SpaceX Product Manager Jesse Anderson said during a live webcast. It marks the launch of SpaceX’s third Starling mission in five days following the May 13 and May 14 missions.
About nine minutes later, the Falcon 9 rocket landed smoothly and returned to Earth. Lack of SpaceX’s Drone Gravitas Inside the Atlantic Ocean, internal cameras capture stunning video of the entire dynasty. Anderson said the number 121 for the SpaceX booster will land.
Related: SpaceX’s Starling megaconstallation begins with photos
Starlink is SpaceX’s broadband star, which it currently owns More than 2,300 satellites, According to Jonathan McDowell, astronomer and satellite observer. That number has been growing rapidly recently; SpaceX has already embarked on 21 missions in 2022, 14 of which are dedicated to Starling flights as of Wednesday.
But the Starling population will be really huge in the not-too-distant future; The next-generation version of the galaxy could eventually have up to 30,000 satellites Reuters report.
This particular Falcon 9 mission on Wednesday ranked fifth for the first phase. SpaceX used its Arabsat-6A mission and rocket booster to launch Space Test Project-2 aircraft One of two two-sided boosters for the U.S. Space Force Falcon Heavy Rocket); As well as COSMO-SkyMed is the second generation FM2 satellite Italy and earlier Starling flight.
Such reuse is a priority for SpaceX and its founder and CEO. Elon MuskHe sees rapid and repetitive travel as the key turning point needed to make ambitious exploration achievements such as Mars migration economically feasible.
Written by Mike Wall “Out“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; explained by Carl Tate), book on searching for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter Micheldwall. Follow us on Twitter PSpacedotcom Or on Facebook.
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