{"id":11040,"date":"2023-03-04T01:02:54","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T17:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-launches-starlink-satellites-from-california-after-delays\/"},"modified":"2023-03-04T01:02:54","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T17:02:54","slug":"spacex-launches-starlink-satellites-from-california-after-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-launches-starlink-satellites-from-california-after-delays\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches Starlink satellites from California after delays"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Starlink 2-7 mission. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 51 more Starlink internet satellites from California on Friday after a delay of several days to wait for liftoff of a higher-priority crew mission from Florida.<\/p>\n

NASA, SpaceX\u2019s customer for the astronaut mission, wanted time to review data from previous Falcon 9 flights before giving the green light for the launch of a four-man crew to the International Space Station. The requirement bumped the Starlink launch from California until after the Crew-6 mission took off from Kennedy Space Center early Thursday.<\/p>\n

With the astronauts on their way to the space station, SpaceX was clear to launch the Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 10:38:50 a.m. PST (1:38:50 p.m. EST; 1838:50 GMT) Friday.<\/p>\n

The Falcon 9 rocket ignited nine Merlin main engines and climbed away from Space Launch Complex 4-East, SpaceX\u2019s launch site on the West Coast. The kerosene-fueled main engines produced 1.7 million pounds of thrust as the rocket arced south-southeast from Vandenberg over the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

Two-and-a-half minutes into the mission, the booster stage of the Falcon 9 shut down and separated from the rocket\u2019s upper stage, which ignited a single engine to continue the flight into orbit. The reusable booster, flying for the 12th time, extended grid fins and fired a subset of its engines for two braking maneuvers before settling onto a drone ship in the Pacific west of Baja California.<\/p>\n

The vessel will return the rocket to Southern California for refurbishment and reuse.<\/p>\n

The upper stage placed the 51 Starlink satellites into a low-altitude transfer orbit, then released the payloads about 15 minutes after liftoff. The mission, known as Starlink 2-7, marked the 15th SpaceX launch of the year, and the 76th SpaceX launch primarily dedicated to deploying satellites for the Starlink internet network.<\/p>\n

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

The Starlink 2-7 mission Friday aimed to deploy the 51 Starlink satellites into an orbit between 138 miles and 207 miles (222-by-333 kilometers) above Earth. The satellites will extend their solar arrays and switch on krypton-fueled ion thrusters to raise their orbits to an altitude of 354 miles (570 kilometers), where they will become part of Group 2 of the Starlink constellation.<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s first-generation Starlink fleet is spread out into five groups, or orbital shells, between 335 miles and 354 miles in altitude. The first-generation Starlink shells are inclined at different angles to the equator, with some satellites orbiting between 53 degrees north and south latitude, and others in orbits flying from pole-to-pole.<\/p>\n

SpaceX began launching satellites into its second-generation Starlink constellation, called Gen2, in December, and debuted a larger, more capable version of the Starlink satellite design on a launch Feb. 27. But the Starlink 2-7 mission from Vandenberg continued filling out the first-generation Starlink fleet with the older satellite design, known as Starlink V1.5.<\/p>\n

The 51 Starlink internet satellites on-board the rocket Friday brought the total number of Starlink spacecraft launched to 4,053.<\/p>\n

The Federal Communications Commission granted SpaceX approval Dec. 1 to launch up to 7,500 of its planned 29,988-spacecraft Starlink Gen2 constellation. The regulatory agency deferred a decision on the remaining satellites SpaceX proposed for Gen2.<\/p>\n

The FCC previously authorized SpaceX to launch and operate roughly 4,400 first-generation Ka-band and Ku-band Starlink spacecraft that SpaceX has been launching since 2019.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Starlink 2-7 mission. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 51 more Starlink internet satellites from California on Friday after a delay of several days to wait for liftoff of a higher-priority crew mission from Florida. NASA, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11040"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}