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The morning news on March 25 Beijing time reportedlySpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched a new batch of 60 Starlink Internet satellites into orbit and successfully landed at sea, bringing the company’s latest successful mission to a perfect end.The Falcon 9, which has been recycled many times, was launched from Cosmodrome 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida at 4:28 a.m.
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Approximately 9 minutes later, the first stage of the rocket returned to Earth, completing the sixth successful landing. SpaceX’s unmanned spacecraft “Of course I still love you” (Of course I still love you) provides a landing pad for rocket recovery in the Atlantic Ocean.
This mission is the fourth Starlink satellite launch mission conducted by SpaceX this month. Currently, the company is gradually improving its Internet satellite constellation project, which initially plans to place 1,440 satellites. In the end, this constellation may have tens of thousands of satellites, because SpaceX has the right to launch up to 30,000 satellites and may choose to launch more satellites in the future.
The weather in Florida was slightly cloudy on the day of the mission and flames from the Falcon 9 rocket lit up the sky. Meteorologists from the 45th Weather Squadron predicted that the weather conditions at the time of launch were ideal. The only weather concern was the possibility of cumulus clouds, but the final weather conditions did not disappoint.
SpaceX production director Andy Tran (Andy Tran) said: “This mission is the sixth booster rocket landing and the 78th landing of all boosters.”
Tran stated that this launch coincides with the 15th anniversary of the first SpaceX launch. On that mission 15 years ago, the company’s Falcon 1 rocket flight ended in failure. He also added: “So far, the Falcon 9 has flown successfully more than 100 times, and the first stage of the rocket has recovered 78 times. Since the first flight failed, we have made great progress.”
On today’s launch mission, the rocket booster is called the B1060. It is one of the six thrusters on the Falcon 9. The thruster has completed 6 flights and can be described as “experienced” with 6 missions. Including 4 Starlink satellite launch missions. Additionally, this amplifier launched a GPS III satellite for the US Army in June 2020 and a communications satellite for Turkey in January this year.
In fact, this is the first time that the US military has allowed SpaceX to recover rockets. In previous military launch missions, SpaceX discarded the thruster after delivering the payload. Recently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has also followed this approach, allowing SpaceX to repurpose its rockets for crew missions. The next Crew-2 mission will launch after April 22. This will be the first manned aviation flight in human history using salvaged and reconditioned rockets, and this mission will also utilize a reusable Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Wednesday’s launch mission is SpaceX’s ninth mission since 2021 and the booster’s third mission this year. The last time it carried out its mission was February 4, and it took engineers less than 50 days to prepare for it to fly again.
Currently, the company already has a fleet of flight-tested rockets available for use, allowing SpaceX to keep up with its rapid rate of launch. But company officials emphasized that while the recovery of momentum is an added benefit, the company’s main goal remains to transport all payloads carried by the rocket into space.
This launch is Flight 112 performed by all Falcon 9 rockets and mission number 58 performed by all B1060s. So far, every SpaceX launch in 2021 has been carried out on a flight-tested rocket, which also marks SpaceX’s fourth consecutive successful landing. On February 15, the company lost a rocket that had flown six times, because one of the rocket’s engines stopped working during the flight and was subsequently unable to land on the unmanned ship.
Later, SpaceX said that the cause of this abnormal phenomenon was the wear of the engine cover, which caused the hot gas to leak in places that it should not. This caused one of the Falcon 9’s engines to shut down during flight. The rocket was originally designed with this problem in mind. I should have been able to complete the task without a motor. However, he was unable to slow down and land on an unmanned ship, but was only able to dive headfirst into the depths of the sea.
In 2018, SpaceX launched an upgraded version of the Falcon 9 rocket. At the time, the company claimed that they expected the first stage of each Falcon 9 would be able to fly about 10 times, during which there was little need for refurbishment, and could fly more sooner. of retirement, up to 100 times.
SpaceX’s other booster is very close to achieving this milestone, with its ninth launch and landing last week. B1051 is the leader of the fleet and may carry out a historic mission in the near future.
Constellation contest
Following this successful launch, SpaceX has successfully put more than 1,300 Starlink satellites into orbit. In the future, the company will launch more satellites. Currently, the company has begun seeking approval for the launch of tens of thousands of satellites.
The main objective of the establishment by the company of this huge constellation of satellites is to connect the world. To achieve this goal, SpaceX has designed a fleet of flat-screen broadband satellites that will fly over the earth to provide Internet coverage to users around the world. Especially those in rural and remote areas, traditional broadband Internet operators cannot provide access services in these areas.
The Starlink project is still in the testing phase and SpaceX is working hard to perfect its initial constellation. Some users in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany and New Zealand can already try this service. SpaceX is accepting pre-orders and is preparing to launch a comprehensive commercial service later this year. Now users can register on the company’s website and pay a deposit of $ 99 to reserve this service.
However, SpaceX is not the only company offering similar services, OneWeb, a London-based company, is preparing to launch its own products. If all goes well, a Russian Soyuz 2.1b rocket will take 36 OneWeb satellites into space later on Wednesday US time.The company launched its most recent mission in December last year.
OneWeb plans to carry out 9 flights, sending a total of 650 Internet satellites into space. So far, the company has completed 5 launch missions. In addition to SapceX and OneWeb, Amazon and Telstar also have satellite internet plans, but the two companies have yet to release any hardware.
This morning, SpaceX’s newest unmanned spacecraft, Shelia Bordelon, also made its debut, pulling the rocket’s payload fairing out of the water. When the ship, painted bright pink and blue, sailed to Port Canaveral and docked at the SpaceX dock, SpaceX fans were very excited. It is unclear whether the ship will permanently join the fleet or simply provide short-term assistance.
