The launch of SpaceX’s next 60 Starlink satellites will wait for better weather and sea conditions after the currents become too strong for the company’s rocket landing platform to gain a foothold in the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to launch on Thursday.
After scrubbing Thursday’s launch attempt, SpaceX initially said it would try again to start the mission on Friday afternoon.
But the launching company announced Thursday night that it would not proceed with the countdown on Friday. With the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket out of the Pad 39 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it could take several days for SpaceX to improve enough conditions to move forward, the company said.
For the landing of the first phase booster of the Falcon 9, SpaceX’s drone ship “Just Read Instructions” was dispatched about 400 miles (630 kilometers) northeast of Cape Canaveral. The reusable rocket is designed to be retrieved and reused.
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, said the current at the landing site in the Atlantic Ocean – about east of Charleston, South Carolina – was too strong to keep the drone ship stationed. He tweeted that underwater control thrusters would be upgraded for future missions.
Many tropical weather systems are moving in the Atlantic, including the remains of Hurricane Teddy in the Central Atlantic Ocean and Hurricane Sally off the U.S. East Coast.
SpaceX’s two drones are about the size of each football field, and are designed to hold position when the first phase of the Falcon 9 lands on a pinpoint touchdown with a series of braking maneuvers using rocket thrust. The mobile platforms, which are converted from barges, mark the landing target with bullshit and stylized “X”.
Recovering and using the rocket is crucial for SpaceX’s budget launching cost model, and it’s a key to maintaining the company’s fast-moving launch cadence. Originally scheduled to launch on Thursday, it will carry 60 more satellites into SpaceX’s Starlink broadband Internet network.
SpaceX has previously moved forward with missions despite the mild weather in the sh Fashore recovery area which could bring the risk of a booster landing. With the usability now associated with the company’s launch schedule, recovery is becoming more important.
SpaceX has launched 16 Falcon 9 flights so far this year, and the company is on track to launch more missions in 2020 than last year. The company has a record 21 missions to launch in a single year, which SpaceX achieved in 2018.
Only two of these missions have started with the newly built first phases. The rest have previously launched with flying boosters.
SpaceX plans to launch at least two brand new Falcon 9 boosters next month. To whom 30 Sept. U.S. The Space Force has been tasked with launching a GPS navigation satellite and a crew dragon capsule on October 23 with four astronauts.
The booster on that mission will also be retrieved and reused on offshore drone ships. SpaceX has two operational drone ships based in Port Canaveral, Florida to support rocket landings.
Starting with heavy payloads or missions targeting heavy pay orbits, the Falcon 9 uses a lot of propellant to return to the opposite course and Cape Canaveral for the first phase of the rocket. Most of SpaceX’s most recent Falcon 9 launches require drone ship landing for the first phase.
SpaceX has at least six more Falcon 9 missions for the company’s customers to launch this year. It includes a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station 40 to 30 Sept. 30 Sept. The GPS navigation includes a satellite launch, followed by Crew Dragon launching the Pad 39 for the International Space Station on October 23.
The company’s 2020 Cape Canaveral launch schedule includes a Dragon cargo mission set to launch on the space station on November 15, a Turkest 5 communications satellite scheduled for a liftoff before November 30, and a Rideshare mission with dozens. Small satellites 16 dec.
In addition to the Florida mission, SpaceX plans to launch the Sentinel-6 Michael Freelich oceanography satellite on November 10 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The oceanography satellite is a joint project between NASA, NOAA, the European Space Agency, the French space agency CNES and the European weather satellite agency Umetsat.
Between missions for external customers, SpaceX will continue to launch groups of Starlink satellites on flights every few weeks. SpaceX has launched more than 700 Starlink satellites so far, and the company plans to deploy 1,440 spacecraft to complete the first pay generation of the Starlink network to provide Internet service in the most populous regions of the world.
Email the author.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: StephenClark1.
