SpaceX launches another 49 Starlink satellites
Capitalism in space: SpaceX tonight used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch 49 Starlink satellites into orbit.
The first stage successfully landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, completing its 10th flight. SpaceX now has three four first stages that have completed at least ten flights. (The correction comes from a comment by one of my readers below.)
The 2022 launch race:
3 SpaceX
1 Virgin Orbit
1 China
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Capitalism in space: SpaceX tonight used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch 49 Starlink satellites into orbit.
The first stage successfully landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, completing its 10th flight. SpaceX now has three four first stages that have completed at least ten flights. (The correction comes from a comment by one of my readers below.)
The 2022 launch race:
3 SpaceX
1 Virgin Orbit
1 China
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.
Watching their launches in real time NEVER gets old……..
Was there person in Dec 1972 for the last crewed Apollo moon launch.
Core 1051 – 11 flights
Core 1049 – 10 flights
Core 1058 – 10 flights
Core 1060 – 10 flights
So yes, 3 at 10, but also one at 11. So 4 at 10 or more flights.
1061 trails at 5 flights, and 1062 at 4 flights.
Nice infographic of all the flightworthy cores…
https://i.redd.it/2fkiiwfzknc81.png
Packs a lot of data into a small space.
As Eric Berger noted, this was SpaceX’s eighth rocket launch in 50 days. That’s better than a launch a week.
Pretty amazing cadence.
Geoffc: Nice graphic. Indicates that SpaceX now has a fleet of 18 reliable boosters, with a number unused but ready to go if needed, and all capable of launching hundreds of times. Essentially, the company no longer needs to spend much getting a Falcon 9 ready for launch, making those launches incredibly cheap when compared to past launch costs.
Alas, they still need to make a lot of second stages, but they are smaller and simpler than first stages. But a much smaller cost than a full booster that is discarded.
Consider… They launched 32 times last year, so while they introduced only 1 or 2 new first stages, they built 32 second stages!
And this year is looking like more! So the factory is not idle at all, which is also good for keeping costs manageable. (Building one core every 2 years (cough SLS cough) is a recipe for cost overruns).
“Elon Musk’s Starlink Is Causing More Streaks to Appear in Space Images”
“Photo-bombing Starlink satellites are increasingly complicating ground-based observations”
https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-s-starlink-is-causing-more-streaks-to-appear-1848385218