SpaceX launches 20 more Starlink satellites using a new first stage
SpaceX early this morning successfully launched another 20 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The first stage was new, having never flown before. It successfully landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic, and is now part of the company’s fleet of Falcon 9 first stages.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
83 SpaceX
34 China
10 Rocket Lab
9 Russia
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 98 to 52, while SpaceX by itself now leads the entire world combined, including American companies, 83 to 67.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
SpaceX early this morning successfully launched another 20 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The first stage was new, having never flown before. It successfully landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic, and is now part of the company’s fleet of Falcon 9 first stages.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
83 SpaceX
34 China
10 Rocket Lab
9 Russia
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 98 to 52, while SpaceX by itself now leads the entire world combined, including American companies, 83 to 67.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Risky, flying a payload on a brand new, never flown booster. Good thing they have Starlink to fly these missions to reduce the risks before paying customers.
I think the use of the new first stage as a Starlink mission is genius. – it is a good thing. This allows SpaceX to get flight hardware from “new and untested” (no flights) to at least a single flight but on the Starlink ledger. – probably at full cost too.
They should build more–to add to the rotation
geoffc wrote: “Risky, flying a payload on a brand new, never flown booster. Good thing they have Starlink to fly these missions to reduce the risks before paying customers.”
Eight years ago it was thought that flying a used booster was the risky move.
”Risky, flying a payload on a brand new, never flown booster.”
The reason the first flight on this booster is risky is because SpaceX didn’t seal the booster properly during its delivery to Florida, and they suffered a water intrusion issue as a result. The preferred course of action would normally have been to use the next new booster in line, but SpaceX isn’t making new boosters fast enough for that anymore. So the next best thing is to take the damaged booster for a test flight before using it for crew.
Flying a Starlink flight first wasn’t the original plan. It’s just the best SpaceX can do right now. I suspect it will be plenty good enough.