The used SpaceX rocket launched a new fleet of Starlink Internet satellites into orbit and returned to Earth to land in the ocean on May 18.
From NASA’s Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket with 53 Starlink satellites soared into the morning sky in Florida. The lift-off was at 6:59 AM Eastern Standard Time (1059 AM Greenwich Mean Time), about 39 minutes behind SpaceX’s original plans, Space’s news portal reported.
“Falcon 9 has successfully carried 53 Starlink satellites into space,” SpaceX production manager Jessie Anderson said in a live webcast.
The launch marked SpaceX’s third Starlink mission in the five days following the May 13 and May 14 missions.
Approximately nine minutes after takeoff, the Falcon 9 rocket returned to Earth and landed smoothly in the lack of gravity of the SpaceX drone ship, the Atlantic Ocean. The dashcam captured a stunning video of the entire descent. According to Anderson, the SpaceX booster landing number was 121.
According to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, Starlink is SpaceX’s broadband constellation and currently consists of more than 2,300 satellites. The number has been increasing rapidly recently. SpaceX has already launched 21 missions in 2022, 14 of which are dedicated to Starlink at the start of Wednesday.
However, Starlink’s population can become really huge in the not too distant future. Reuters reports that the next-generation version of the constellation could eventually consist of up to 30,000 satellites.
Wednesday’s mission was fifth in the first stage of this particular Falcon 9. SpaceX previously launched the Arabsat-6A mission with rocket boosters and the Space Test Project-2 flight for the US Space Force (both as one of the two side boosters of the Falcon Heavy rocket). The same is true for the COSMO-SkyMed 2nd Generation FM2 satellite to Italy and previous Starlink flights.
Such reuse is a priority for SpaceX and its founder and CEO, Elon Musk. He considers quick and repetitive re-flights as an important breakthrough needed to make ambitious exploration feats such as the settlement of Mars economically feasible.
https://financialtribune.com/articles/sci-tech/113575/spacex-falcon-rocket-launches-53-starlink-satellites-into-orbit SpaceX Falcon Rocket launches 53 Starlink satellites into orbit
