{"id":10541,"date":"2022-04-29T23:10:04","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T15:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-launches-falcon-9-booster-for-second-time-in-three-weeks\/"},"modified":"2022-04-29T23:10:04","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T15:10:04","slug":"spacex-launches-falcon-9-booster-for-second-time-in-three-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-launches-falcon-9-booster-for-second-time-in-three-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches Falcon 9 booster for second time in three weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SpaceX fires a Falcon 9 rocket into the sky over Cape Canaveral with 53 more Starlink internet satellites. Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX continued throttling up its launch rate with another Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Friday, completing a rapid recycle with a Falcon 9 first stage booster flying for the second time in 21 days.<\/p>\n

The mission Friday \u2014 designed Starlink 4-16 \u2014 was be the 151st launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since SpaceX debuted its workhorse vehicle June 4, 2010, and the 43rd Falcon 9 flight primarily dedicated to hauling Starlink internet relay stations into orbit. The launch was SpaceX\u2019s 17th mission of the year, and the sixth Falcon 9 launch in April, SpaceX\u2019s most ever in a single month.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has ramped up its launch cadence this year. Elon Musk, the company\u2019s founder and CEO, has said SpaceX aims to complete 60 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy flights in 2022, nearly double the 31 missions accomplished last year. The launch rate is sustained by SpaceX\u2019s reuse of rocket boosters and payload fairing shells. Just one of the 17 Falcon 9 flights so far this year has used an all-new rocket.<\/p>\n

The booster that flew on Friday\u2019s mission \u2014 tail number B1062 \u2014 landed on SpaceX\u2019s drone ship \u201cA Shortfall of Gravitas\u201d in the Atlantic Ocean after launching with Axiom\u2019s Ax-1 mission April 8. The drone ship returned the rocket to port for inspections and minor refurbishment, then SpaceX integrated the booster stage with a new second stage and rolled the rocket into the hangar at pad 40.<\/p>\n

Inside the hangar, SpaceX technicians mated the rocket with its payload of 53 Starlink satellites, already encapsulated inside the Falcon 9\u2019s nose shroud. SpaceX rolled the fully assembled Falcon 9 to the pad just north of the hangar Thursday, then raised it vertical for final launch preps.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s launch marked the fastest turnaround between flights of the same Falcon booster, breaking the previous record of 27 days.<\/p>\n

After a smooth countdown, the Falcon 9 fired its Merlin main engines and climbed away from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 5:27:10 p.m. EDT (2127:10 GMT) Friday. Chugging kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants, the Merlin 1D engines powered the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket through the stratosphere on a trajectory northeast from Florida\u2019s coastline.<\/p>\n

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Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amid the fading rumble from the Falcon 9\u2019s rocket engines, the first stage shut down and jettisoned, then arced to an altitude of nearly 400,000 feet before coming down for a propulsive vertical landing on the drone ship \u201cJust Read the Instructions about eight-and-a-half minutes after launch.<\/p>\n

Like most recent Starlink missions, the Falcon 9\u2019s upper stage placed the 53 Starlink satellites into a near-circular orbit at an average altitude of 192 miles (310 kilometers) for deploying of the 53 flat-packed spacecraft, each weighing a bit more than a quarter ton.<\/p>\n

The second stage ignited its single vacuum-optimized engine for two burns to place the Starlink satellites into the correct orbit for separation. Deployment of the Starlink satellites occurred south of Australia about 59 minutes into the mission.<\/p>\n

The Falcon 9 released the satellites in an orbit with an inclination of 53.2 degrees to the equator, one of five orbital \u201cshells\u201d used in SpaceX\u2019s global internet network.<\/p>\n

The Starlink satellites will extend solar arrays and use on-board ion thrusters to reach their operational orbit at an altitude of 335 miles (540 kilometers), where they will enter commercial service and begin beaming broadband signals to consumers.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has now launched 2,441 Starlink satellites to date, including spacecraft that were decommissioned or suffered failures. More than 2,100 of those satellites are in orbit and functioning as of Friday, according to a list maintained by Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist who tracks spaceflight activity.<\/p>\n

That makes the Starlink fleet the largest satellite constellation in the world, by a factor of nearly five over the internet satellite fleet owned by rival OneWeb.<\/p>\n

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SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket heads downrange with the Starlink 4-16 mission. Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX is filling its current generation network with 4,400 satellites. Ultimately, SpaceX intends to launch as many as 42,000 internet satellites, but final figure hinges on market demand for the Starlink service, which offers high-speed, low-latency connectivity.<\/p>\n

SpaceX says the service is best suited for customers in remote, hard-to-reach areas, such as rural communities, isolated homes, islands, and ships. Customers can sign up for Starlink service online by paying a reservation fee and paying $599 for an antenna and modem. SpaceX charges $110 per month for consumer-grade Starlink service.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has partnered with the U.S. military to demonstrate Starlink connectivity to airplanes. Delta Air Lines has also conducted \u201cexploratory\u201d tests of the Starlink system for possible future use on passenger aircraft, according to the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

The air carrier JSX announced April 21 it will outfit 100 of its private jets to use SpaceX\u2019s internet service for in-flight WiFi. The first Starlink-equipped JSX aircraft should be flying later this year, the company said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh-speed, low-latency internet is critical in our modern age, and during air travel is no exception,\u201d said Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX\u2019s vice president of Starlink commercial sales, in a press release. \u201cWith Starlink, we\u2019re able to provide an internet experience similar to or better than what passengers experience at home. We are creating a future that when all customers walk on to the plane, the internet just works \u2014 no hassles, no logins. By being the first air carrier to adopt Starlink, JSX is setting this new standard for air travel.\u201d<\/p>\n