Main Highlights:
- This morning, at 5:45 a.m. PST, a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40, adding 48 new satellites to SpaceX’s network of 2,000 internet-connected devices orbiting the Earth.
- While SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets are powered by the company’s own Merlin engines, other American rockets such as United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V and Northrop Grumman’s Antares are powered by Russian engines.
- Axiom-1 is slated to launch on March 30 and is the first all-private trip to the International Space Station (ISS).
Another SpaceX Starlink mission is on its way up, up, and away. At 5:45 a.m. PST this morning, a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40, adding 48 new satellites to SpaceX’s 2,000-strong network of internet-connected gadgets orbiting the Earth.
This was the booster’s fourth launch, and it landed a few minutes into the mission on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic Ocean. While this trip was not unprecedented for SpaceX — the firm has flown seven Starlink flights this year in addition to three other missions — there was one especially amusing pun thrown into the launch procedure.
It’s time to let the American broomstick fly and hear the sounds of liberty, SpaceX’s launch director stated before giving her launch authorization.
That remark relates to a jab made last week by Dmitry Rogozin, the president of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, following his decision to block the sale of Russian rocket engines to the United States in reaction to the two nations’ increasingly strained relationship. Allow them to fly on something else, maybe their broomsticks, he stated on a state news show.
While SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets are fueled by SpaceX’s own Merlin engines, other American rockets, like United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V and Northrop Grumman’s Antares, are propelled by Russian engines. ULA has said that it has sufficient machines on hand for planned launches, but Northrop Grumman has not published a statement about the ban’s impact on its missions.
SpaceX accounts for the lion’s share of US rocket launches in either event, and their broomsticks are performing admirably, as demonstrated by today’s launch.
The next SpaceX launch will be a crewed mission, not a Starlink mission. The Axiom-1 mission, scheduled to launch on March 30, will be the first all-private voyage to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX already has significant experience with crewed missions, having carried four NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, as well as the Inspiration 4 mission, which had an all-civilian crew orbiting the Earth in a Crew Dragon spacecraft for many days.
About SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (doing business as SpaceX) is a Hawthorne, California-based aerospace manufacturer, supplier of space transportation services, and communications company. Elon Musk launched SpaceX in 2002 to lower the cost of space transportation to allow Mars settlement. SpaceX is the manufacturer of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles and a variety of rocket engines, the Cargo Dragon cargo spaceship, the Starship, and Starlink communications satellites.
SpaceX’s successes include being the first privately run liquid-propellant rocket to reach Earth’s orbit, being the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft, being the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station, being the first private corporation to successfully relaunch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft, being the very first private firm to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station, being the very first private firm to send a spacecraft to the International
SpaceX is constructing a commercial broadband constellation called Starlink. Starlink became the most prominent satellite constellation ever deployed in January 2020. Additionally, the business is building Starship, a privately financed, entirely reusable, ultra-heavy-lift launch vehicle for interplanetary travel. Once operational, Starship is expected to become SpaceX’s principal orbital vehicle, displacing the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon fleets. When Starship makes its debut in 2022, it will have the most considerable payload capacity of any orbital rocket ever built.
