On Sunday morning (July 17), SpaceX launched one of its Falcon 9 rockets for the 13th time, and nailed the landing.
A Hawk 9 SpaceX carries 53 Starlink The Internet satellites lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:20 a.m. EDT (1420 GMT) on Sunday.
This was the 13th launch for the Falcon 9’s first stage, tying the rocket reuse record. SpaceX Set up last month and installed 10 days ago. The booster also helped lift SpaceX Demo-2 Crew test flight to the International Space Station, the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, the SXM-7 communications satellite and nine Starlink missions, SpaceX representatives said in a statement. Job description (opens in new tab).
Related: SpaceX’s Starlink megaconstellation begins in photos
And this booster could fly again: Within nine minutes of liftoff, it came down for a vertical landing on the SpaceX droneship, which was positioned off the coast of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean, read the instructions.
53 Starlink satellites will pass Falcon 9’s upper stage seven minutes later, after 15.5 minutes, one step. Tweet (opens in new tab) From the company.
The fairing halves that protect the satellites as they ride into orbit made their third flight today, marking the 50th SpaceX mission to use the revised fairing halves, according to the company’s mission broadcast. Exhibits were destined to be fished out of the water for future work.
Sunday’s flight continues a very busy 2022 for SpaceX. Today’s flight is the 31st Falcon 9 mission this year, already equaling the company’s 2021 launch tally.
Starlink is SpaceX’s largest constellation of broadband satellites. The company has Launched more than 2,800 Starlink spacecraft To date, to low-Earth orbit, many more will soar: SpaceX has permission to launch 12,000 Starlink satellites, and has applied for approval to launch 30,000 additional spacecraft beyond that.
By Mike Wall “outside (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Carl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @MichaelWall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
