SpaceX successfully launches Italian civilian/military radar satellite
Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch an Italian civilian/military radar satellite.
This was the fifth attempt to launch in five days, with the first three attempts canceled due to weather and fourth canceled because a cruise ship had violated the no-go zone in the Atlantic.
The first stage completed its third flight, landing at Cape Canaveral after sunset. I highlight this last fact because it shows how completely routine these 1st stage landing have become. No one even notices that the first stage has come back to Florida, and did in the dark. Also, this 1st stage had originally been configured for Falcon Heavy as one of its side boosters. This was its first flight after being reconfigured.
As I write this the satellite and upper stage are still linked together, coasting to the orbital point where the upper stage can boost the satellite into a transfer orbit and then deploy it. UPDATE: Satellite has successfully deployed.
The 2022 launch race:
4 SpaceX
2 China
1 Virgin Orbit
1 ULA
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
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Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch an Italian civilian/military radar satellite.
This was the fifth attempt to launch in five days, with the first three attempts canceled due to weather and fourth canceled because a cruise ship had violated the no-go zone in the Atlantic.
The first stage completed its third flight, landing at Cape Canaveral after sunset. I highlight this last fact because it shows how completely routine these 1st stage landing have become. No one even notices that the first stage has come back to Florida, and did in the dark. Also, this 1st stage had originally been configured for Falcon Heavy as one of its side boosters. This was its first flight after being reconfigured.
As I write this the satellite and upper stage are still linked together, coasting to the orbital point where the upper stage can boost the satellite into a transfer orbit and then deploy it. UPDATE: Satellite has successfully deployed.
The 2022 launch race:
4 SpaceX
2 China
1 Virgin Orbit
1 ULA
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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 if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Thanks to the southern trajectory, a lot of the ground cameras were able to get some AMAZING shots, including the stage separation and boostback burn.
The very first F9 “land” landing was done in the dark, way back in 2015.
Beautiful footage, can’t wait to get home and watch it on something larger than my phone!
Scott M: You reminded me that I did not link to the live stream, which is still available to see that incredible footage during launch. I have added it to the post.
You guys were right, the ground camera footage was awesome! Also, the landing of the first stage with the sun set dim in the background was absolutely beautiful. Watching SpaceX doing this never gets old for me.
I’ve never been able to find a good answer on what, if any, penalty there is for violating the range exclusion like this. Apparently if they are outside the 12 mile limit on US territorial waters it’s basically none, but I’d think in this case, even if the ship was that far out, for a known major entity like Carribean Cruise lines to either screw up that large or just say “screw it, our schedule is more important than yours”, there’s got to be some pushback..
With the unprecedented launch cadence on the Eastern Range and the presence of a number of cruise ships at Port Canaveral now, this was bound to happen sometime. I think that folks need to sit down, the Range and the Cruise lines and work this out. The Range has always felt they had carte-blanc on the offshore waters. I am sure that the situation can be improved with dialogue between the parties, I just hope the Range doesn’t climb on their customary high horse and decides to work with the other concerns.
Caribbean Cruise lines schedule is very important. Unexpected delays wreck havoc on not only the passengers but a huge amount of port infrastructure and support personnel. This costs money and hurts the companies bottom line. The Range has never had the ability to make or to take into account these impacts before, ever.
Since there are a number of cruise lines that use the Port maybe they could form a users group together so that there was only one entity the Range had to negotiate with.
Orbital mechanics and weather delay dictated the launch date, time and azimuth. I suspect the cruise ship could have avoided the exclusion are by heading East initially instead of south. In fact, they may have headed south thinking they WERE avoiding it!
Interestingly, Coast Guard is investigating the cruise ship…
https://news.yahoo.com/coast-guard-starts-investigation-royal-191328475.html