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.
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 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
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.
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 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
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?