SpaceX launches another 46 Starlink satellites into orbit
Capitalism in space: Using its Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX tonight successfully placed another 46 Starlink satellites into orbit, launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The first stage successfully completed its seventh flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. The two fairings also completed their third flight.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
39 SpaceX
33 China
11 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
5 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 54 to 33 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 54 to 51.
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Capitalism in space: Using its Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX tonight successfully placed another 46 Starlink satellites into orbit, launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The first stage successfully completed its seventh flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. The two fairings also completed their third flight.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
39 SpaceX
33 China
11 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
5 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 54 to 33 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 54 to 51.
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.
Deja vu, all over again! (I had to check the date.)
-Always enjoy the night launches and the long-range tracking shots.
Question:
The inside of that 1st stage looks a bit charred, is that my imagination or haven’t I been paying enough attention?
Wayne: You haven’t been paying enough attention. All the used stages have a lot of soot on them, placed there when they are coming back down and fire their engines. This places the soot on the rocket, as it is flying into its engine burn.
Wayne, you said “inside”. Is that what you meant?
Elon tweets today that the goal for next year is…100 launches.
Richard M: This tells me that his hope to be using Starship to launch lots of Starlink satellites this soon is fading, and he is thus shifting gears to have Falcon 9 do it.
Yes, I think SpaceX overestimated how quickly they could launch the required number of second-generation satellites with Starship, in order to generate the revenue required to continue Starship development, HLS, etc. Fortunately for them, they have a proven launcher in F9 that is capable of taking up the slack. This is what strong companies do: they adapt.
This is the difference between changing tactics to reach a strategic goal with minimum cost impact, and processing change-orders to maximize the cost to reach someone else’s goal.
Ray Van Dune-
->Yes, “inside” the 1st stage, the interstage zone. Looks more charred than I normally notice.
https://youtu.be/llKid3iYugE?t=339
compared to
https://youtu.be/07RGJ04HRns?t=739
Question:
How far away from the 1st stage, is the 2nd stage, when it ignites?