{"id":10622,"date":"2022-03-19T22:12:42","date_gmt":"2022-03-19T14:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-stretches-rocket-reuse-record-with-another-starlink-launch\/"},"modified":"2022-03-19T22:12:42","modified_gmt":"2022-03-19T14:12:42","slug":"spacex-stretches-rocket-reuse-record-with-another-starlink-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-stretches-rocket-reuse-record-with-another-starlink-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX stretches rocket reuse record with another Starlink launch"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Falcon 9 rocket climbs away from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with 53 more Starlink internet satellites. Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX flew one of its Falcon 9 rocket boosters for a record 12th time early Saturday, delivering 53 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit and closing out the first quarter of 2022 with 11 missions.<\/p>\n

The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:42:30 a.m. EDT (0442:30 GMT) Saturday, following a delay of 1 hour and 19 minutes to wait for thunderstorms to clear the area.<\/p>\n

Nine liquid-fueled Merlin 1D engines powered the rocket through clouds over Florida\u2019s Space Coast, as the Falcon 9\u2019s guidance system steered the vehicle northeast over the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

Two-and-a-half minutes into the flight, the Merlin main engines shut down and the first stage jettisoned, clearing the way for ignition of the rocket\u2019s single second stage engine.<\/p>\n

The first stage flipped around to descend back into the atmosphere tail first, using a subset of its Merlin engines to slow down for an on-target landing on the drone ship \u201cJust Read the Instructions\u201d positioned in the Atlantic a few hundred miles east of Charleston, South Carolina.<\/p>\n

The landing punctuated the 12th flight for this booster, numbered B1051 in SpaceX\u2019s inventory. That sets a new record for SpaceX\u2019s rocket fleet.<\/p>\n

The booster debuted in March 2019 with the unpiloted test flight of SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon spacecraft, which paved the way for subsequent SpaceX launches with astronauts. The booster has launched from all three of SpaceX\u2019s active pads in Florida and California.<\/p>\n

Since the Crew Dragon test flight in 2019, B1051 has launched a mission with three Canadian Radarsat Earth-imaging satellites, SiriusXM\u2019s SXM 7 radio broadcasting satellite, and nine Starlink flights, including Saturday\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n

When the current version of the Falcon 9 rocket \u2014 known as the Block 5 \u2014 launched for the first time in 2018, SpaceX officials said the booster could fly 10 times before requiring major refurbishment. After watching how ground teams refurbished and reused Falcon 9 boosters \u2014 and now running on a record of 120 straight successful Falcon rocket launches \u2014 SpaceX is now pushing the limits of the rocket\u2019s life expectancy.<\/p>\n

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A Falcon 9 rocket streaks through clouds over Cape Canaveral in this long exposure photograph. Credit: Michael Cain \/ Spaceflight Now \/ Coldlife Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The mission Saturday resumed SpaceX\u2019s practice of launching Starlink satellites on paths northeast from Florida\u2019s Space Coast. Since the beginning of the year, SpaceX has launched Starlink missions to the southeast in hopes of better odds that weather and sea conditions would be more favorable for landing of the Falcon 9 booster on an offshore drone ship.<\/p>\n

SpaceX said it would fly Starlink missions to the southeast in winter months, placing the rocket landing platform in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of the Bahamas. The trajectory requires the Falcon 9\u2019s second stage to perform an in-flight steering maneuver to ensure the rocket does not fly over Bahamian territory.<\/p>\n

The steering maneuver, or \u201cdog-leg,\u201d used up some of the Falcon 9\u2019s lift capacity, limiting its cargo to fewer than 50 Starlink satellites on launches heading southeast. With the change back to launching toward the northeast, the Falcon 9 can carry a full load of 53 Starlink satellites.<\/p>\n

While the Falcon 9 rocket\u2019s first stage returned to Earth for landing, the second stage fired its single engine to reach a preliminary transfer orbit. Another burn about 45 minutes after liftoff aimed to place the Starlink satellites into an orbit at an altitude between 189 miles and 197 miles (304-by-318 kilometers), with an inclination of 53.2 degrees to the equator.<\/p>\n

A live view from a camera on-board the Falcon 9\u2019s upper stage showed retention rods releasing around 59 minutes after launch, allowing the 53 Starlink satellites to fly free of the rocket.<\/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 for SpaceX.<\/p>\n