SpaceX successfully launches 60 more Starlink satellites
Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched 60 more Starlink satellites.
The launch was significant in several ways. They reused the first stage for the fourth time, landing it successfully. They reused the fairing for the second time.
And with this launch, the Falcon 9 has now flown more than the Atlas 5, and has the most launches of any active American rocket.
This flight marks a major point in U.S. launch operations, as Falcon 9 reaches 84 flights to its name and officially takes the mantle from Atlas V as the most flown, currently operational U.S. rocket.
Atlas V began flying on 21 August 2002 and has 83 flights to its name after 18 years — for an annual rate of 4.6 launches. Falcon 9 began flying on 4 June 2010 and will reach 84 flights in just under 10 years with a flight rate of 8.4 launches per year.
That SpaceX overtook the Atlas 5 so quickly indicates exactly how successful SpaceX has been in grabbing market share from all its launch competitors.
I have embedded the video of the launch below the fold.
The leaders in the 2020 launch race:
6 China
6 SpaceX
5 Russia
The U.S. now leads China 10 to 6 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:
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Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched 60 more Starlink satellites.
The launch was significant in several ways. They reused the first stage for the fourth time, landing it successfully. They reused the fairing for the second time.
And with this launch, the Falcon 9 has now flown more than the Atlas 5, and has the most launches of any active American rocket.
This flight marks a major point in U.S. launch operations, as Falcon 9 reaches 84 flights to its name and officially takes the mantle from Atlas V as the most flown, currently operational U.S. rocket.
Atlas V began flying on 21 August 2002 and has 83 flights to its name after 18 years — for an annual rate of 4.6 launches. Falcon 9 began flying on 4 June 2010 and will reach 84 flights in just under 10 years with a flight rate of 8.4 launches per year.
That SpaceX overtook the Atlas 5 so quickly indicates exactly how successful SpaceX has been in grabbing market share from all its launch competitors.
I have embedded the video of the launch below the fold.
The leaders in the 2020 launch race:
6 China
6 SpaceX
5 Russia
The U.S. now leads China 10 to 6 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.
https://spaceweather.com/
It just gets worse for astronomers.
Shoot them down. They are polluting the skies.
I wonder if software could be used to filter out the Starlink reflections based on their known positions, thus clearing up the pics.
Would not help amateur astronomers like me, but, I also do not try to observe stuff until later at night, when any satellites , if in my field of view, would be in the planet’s shadow, and thus not be visible.
I am not as upset about this.
Astronomers are always fighting advances. They hate street lights. They hate low flying aircraft. I get it.
When we have hundreds of a large starships in LEO, ground-based astronomy is going to have a huge problem to cope with, whether they are sunlit or not. One solution might be to require everything in such a “fleet” to be in an equatorial orbit (as geosynchronous sats already are) that could be avoided by ground-based astronomers. Each observatory would have a known band of declinations that would be unusable because of interference. Of course, equatorial orbits require significant additional energy to attain for launch sites more than a few degrees from the equator.
When we reach the point where we have that many spacecraft in orbit, I hope we have many more space or lunar based observatories.
killing the long duration earthbound astronomy. what happens when no one can even launch without avoiding this cluster net of satellites. all for earth-everywhere internet??
I guess Wayne isn’t looking at this link….
https://youth.be/O-d8BJ2iljc
Chris bad link
Space is very large.
Talgus. That’s the issue to which I was referring. Using software to remove the starlink reflections. We know when and where the satellite s will be.
@sippin bourbon: Chris bad link
Ha! Looks like an autocorrect error in the url. Should have been:
https://youtu.be/O-d8BJ2iljc
Within 10 years of the deployment of the satellites, assuming the virus doesn’t wipe out all life on earth, we will have large mirror telescopes in orbit and around the far side of the moon for Parallax depth and better detail.
After the establishment of a lunar base and manufacturing, lenses the size of houses will be pushed out of orbit to be placed behind large rocks in the astroid belt and above/below the solar plane.
With radar, it will not only give early warning detection of oncoming comets, but give detailed view of planets around other stars. The universe itself will be maped in exquisite detail.
In a few years, astronomers will be able to do their work from their home computer linked to thousands of telescopes mounted across the surface of the moon.