SpaceX launches 20 Starlink satellites
SpaceX early this morning launched another 20 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its sixteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
70 SpaceX
29 China
8 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the world combined in successful launches, 81 to 44, while SpaceX by itself still leads the entire world, including other American companies, 70 to 55.
To get a sense of how incredible SpaceX’s launch pace this year has been, those 70 launches, completed in only days more than first half of the 2024, matches the American record for launches in a entire year, that was set in 1966 and remained the record until 2022.
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 launched another 20 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its sixteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
70 SpaceX
29 China
8 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the world combined in successful launches, 81 to 44, while SpaceX by itself still leads the entire world, including other American companies, 70 to 55.
To get a sense of how incredible SpaceX’s launch pace this year has been, those 70 launches, completed in only days more than first half of the 2024, matches the American record for launches in a entire year, that was set in 1966 and remained the record until 2022.
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
Bob,
Out of curiosity, do you know what governs the NUMBER of Starlink satellites that are being launched? For instance, many of the prior launches were of 23 satellites while this one was of just 20.
Is it simply a matter of the number of satellites available in time for a given launch?
F,
Starlink missions that consist entirely of now-standard V2-mini birds typically launch 23 at a time from Canaveral and 22 at a time from Vandenberg. But there is a newer and modestly heavier V2-mini version that also supports direct-to-cell service. Probably due to current limits on production capacity, these latter birds have been launched 13 at a time along with 7 standard V2-minis to make a total load of 20 satellites.
Dick Eagleson,
Thank you!!
All those launches back in the 1960’s were mostly spy satellites.
Spy satellites using film reels. The film needed to be recovered and developed and new sats needed to be launched as fast as possible to keep tabs on the Soviet Union.
After digital cameras can into use the launch fever dropped off to nothing.
Thanks to Elon for reviving it.