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.
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
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.
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
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.