SpaceX creates history by launching 60 Starlink satellites
Science | May 24, 2019 10:20 ISTIt was the third flight for this particular booster, marking just the second time SpaceX has flown a Falcon 9 first stage more than twice.
It was the third flight for this particular booster, marking just the second time SpaceX has flown a Falcon 9 first stage more than twice.
With a mass of 18.5 tonne, the launch is the company's heaviest to date for either the Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rocket. The rocket will boost 60 Starlink satellites, each weighing 227kg, to an altitude of 440km.
After several attempts earlier, SpaceX on Saturday successfully launched a Dragon spacecraft for its 17th resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
The accident may delay SpaceX and the US space agency NASA's plan to launch astronauts to the International Space Station by the end of the year.
SpaceX has suffered a serious setback in its effort to launch NASA astronauts into orbit this year, with the fiery loss of its first crew capsule.
The issue could derail plans to fly astronauts aboard the capsule later this year.
The capsule undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday 2.32 a.m. ET.
The Dragon capsule undocked from the orbiting lab early Friday. Six hours later, the capsule carrying a test dummy parachuted into the ocean, a couple hundred miles off the Florida coast.
It will spend five days docked to the orbiting outpost, before making a retro-style splashdown in the Atlantic next Friday — all vital training for the next space demo, possibly this summer, when two astronauts strap in.
After much delays, NASA has given the green light to Elon Musk-owned SpaceX's Crew Dragon to launch its first unmanned test flight to the International Space Station (ISS) on March 2, the US space agency said.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted that development of Starship will continue in Hawthorne, but prototypes will be built in south Texas.
The commercial cargo vessel will bring home a variety of critical space research, including ISS hardware to extracted for analysis, refurbishment or discarding, NASA said.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched India’s first privately built satellite ExseedSat-1 along with 63 other satellites recently.
The Dragon capsule pulled up at the orbiting lab three days after launching from Cape Canaveral. Commander Alexander Gerst used the space station’s big robotic arm to grab the cargo carrier, as the two craft soared 250 miles above the Pacific.
Besides delivering supplies and hardwares, the Dragon will also deliver science experiments including the Robotic Refuelling Mission 3 (RRM3) and the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI).
The Falcon 9 carried to orbit 64 spacecraft, in particular 15 Micro satellites and 49 cubesats, from 34 different organisations from 17 countries.
Elon Musk said there's "70 per cent chance that he will go to Mars", despite a "good chance" of him not surviving either on his way or after landing.
As part of the preparation, the space agency will first shoot out a test flight on January 7.
Instead of upgrading Falcon 9 for more reusability, SpaceX was now focusing on "accelerating BFR (Big Falcon Rocket)".
Elon Musk-founded private spaceflight company SpaceX on Sunday successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on land after delivering an Argentinian earth-observation satellite from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
