SpaceX launches three commercial plus more Starlink satellites
Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched three commercial Earth reconnaissance satellites plus another 58 Starlink satellites.
They have now put 653 Starlink satellites into orbit.
The first stage, which was flying a record sixth time, successfully landed on its platform in the Atlantic. They also caught one of the fairing halves, and are retrieving the second half out of the ocean. Both fairings were also reused.
The leaders in the 2020 launch race:
19 China
13 SpaceX
9 Russia
4 ULA
The U.S. now leads China 21 to 19 in the national rankings.
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Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched three commercial Earth reconnaissance satellites plus another 58 Starlink satellites.
They have now put 653 Starlink satellites into orbit.
The first stage, which was flying a record sixth time, successfully landed on its platform in the Atlantic. They also caught one of the fairing halves, and are retrieving the second half out of the ocean. Both fairings were also reused.
The leaders in the 2020 launch race:
19 China
13 SpaceX
9 Russia
4 ULA
The U.S. now leads China 21 to 19 in the national rankings.
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.
And it was SpaceX’s 100th launch!
Really amazing just how routine SpaceX is making it.
They might cram in two dozen flights in 2020 if they keep this up.
Richard M beat me to that comment. They’ve made it so routine that landing a first stage on a relatively small rocking boat doesn’t even seem all that special anymore.
SpaceX has matched Blue Origins achievement of flying the same rocket 6 times.
The fact that BO’s has only been sub-orbital, with long breaks in between for R&D work is important when compared to an orbital class booster that is delivering actual payloads.
We have discussed the old school NASA methods vs SpaceX methods, in terms of R&D.
It seems BO is on their own system as well, but I am not sure how to classify it. Slow and deliberate, yes, but exceedingly so, and with lower aims. I keep hoping to see some big leap forward, for no other reason that wanting to see more success, and greater competition.
Soyuz has the record in number of launches, 1680. But that’s during 55 years. And with about half the payload to LEO, expended, compared to a landed F9.
If I recall, one of SpaceX’s goals is to get 10 flights per booster?
Does anyone know if that is still part of the plan?
I can see them using the booster till it fails if all they are sending to orbit is their own satellites. If they are not risking anyone else’s stuff why stop at 10?
Thats like saying your only going to drive your truck for 100,000 miles then retire it. If it runs fine, drives good and still looks like a truck why not go for 200,000 miles or more?
The Falcon 9 is basically a pickup truck to space.
They are testing the semi now.
For their own launches, (Starlinks), as opposed to contracted by NASA, why are they not selling ad space on the sides of the rockets? Or on the on the video feeds?
sippin_bourbon – “For their own launches, (Starlinks), as opposed to contracted by NASA, why are they not selling ad space on the sides of the rockets? Or on the on the video feeds?”
My guesses on the lack of ads on the sides of the rockets would be a combination of “not enough potential income to worry about,” “detracts from whose rocket this is,” and “wouldn’t look pretty”. Pretty much the same reason commercial airlines don’t often paint advertisements on their jets.
For the video feeds, those are themselves an ad for SpaceX. Selling ads inside your ad dilutes the message.