SpaceX completes Starlink/BlackSky Falcon 9th launch
Capitalism in space: SpaceX tonight successfully launched 48 Starlink satellites and 2 BlackSky commercial Earth observation satellites using its Falcon 9 rocket.
This was the 27th successful launch by SpaceX, extending its record this year for the most launches in a year by any private company ever. The first stage made its ninth successful flight, landing successfully on the drone ship in the Atlantic. The fairings were new, but were expected to be recovered and reused.
The leaders in the 2021 launch race:
45 China
27 SpaceX
20 Russia
5 Europe (Arianespace)
China’s lead of the U.S. in the national rankings is now 45 to 42.
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Capitalism in space: SpaceX tonight successfully launched 48 Starlink satellites and 2 BlackSky commercial Earth observation satellites using its Falcon 9 rocket.
This was the 27th successful launch by SpaceX, extending its record this year for the most launches in a year by any private company ever. The first stage made its ninth successful flight, landing successfully on the drone ship in the Atlantic. The fairings were new, but were expected to be recovered and reused.
The leaders in the 2021 launch race:
45 China
27 SpaceX
20 Russia
5 Europe (Arianespace)
China’s lead of the U.S. in the national rankings is now 45 to 42.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
” The fairings were new, but were expected to be recovered and reused.”
Compare and contrast the tone of this sentence, where ‘new’ items are disdained, with the rocket business up until, oh, very recently.
[I understand the intent; just amused by the reality the sentence reflects.]
I hope they will be deployed over me. Something has changed and Starlink performance has been bad this week (without snow). It’s not only that I’m noticing, since I’m downloading giant installers to get some VM clusters running; that would be just bandwidth (and, really, 5MBytes/s is not that bad – but 50KBs last night? Ugh. “docker pull apachepulsar/pulsar” is contraindicated). Connections are dropping, too. First world problem.
Blair Ivey,
I noticed that the term “flight proven” lasted only a couple of years.