SpaceX launches two Intelsat communications satellites
Using its Falcon 9 rocket SpaceX today successfully launched two Intelsat geosynchronous communications satellites into orbit.
The first stage completed its 14th flight, but was not recovered. This was not a failure, but intended because the rocket needed the fuel to instead get the satellite into its proper geosynchronous orbit.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
52 SpaceX
48 China
19 Russia
9 Rocket Lab
8 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 75 to 48 in the national rankings, and only trails the rest of the world combined 76 to 75.
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Using its Falcon 9 rocket SpaceX today successfully launched two Intelsat geosynchronous communications satellites into orbit.
The first stage completed its 14th flight, but was not recovered. This was not a failure, but intended because the rocket needed the fuel to instead get the satellite into its proper geosynchronous orbit.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
52 SpaceX
48 China
19 Russia
9 Rocket Lab
8 ULA
American private enterprise now leads China 75 to 48 in the national rankings, and only trails the rest of the world combined 76 to 75.
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.
What happens to the second stage? Is there enough propellant left for it to get out of orbit?
Nice launch. The color-commentary was pretty good as well.
George C-
As I understand it, the 2nd stage is (always) brought down in a controlled manner & location, so I would assume “yes.”
My question regarding the 2nd stage– they obviously have cameras on it, why don’t we ever get to see video of it coming down?
“My question regarding the 2nd stage– they obviously have cameras on it, why don’t we ever get to see video of it coming down?”
SpaceX probably assumes there would be little interest in watching the destruction of the second stage, since it results in no tangible achievements beyond prevention of the accumulation of space junk, which is less than glamorous. In situations where the 2nd stage is NOT de-orbited (and this may be one of them) it could be seen as publicizing a negative.
Or possibly they are using the second stage entry and destruction for tests of reentry techniques. Or mass permitting, a secondary payload testing reentry shapes. Cheap and valuable proprietary data if this thought has any validity.