{"id":12279,"date":"2020-08-07T18:56:13","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T10:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-closes-out-busy-week-with-launch-of-more-starlink-satellites\/"},"modified":"2020-08-07T18:56:13","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T10:56:13","slug":"spacex-closes-out-busy-week-with-launch-of-more-starlink-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-closes-out-busy-week-with-launch-of-more-starlink-satellites\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX closes out busy week with launch of more Starlink satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Falcon 9 rocket takes off from pad 39A at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center at 1:12 a.m. EDT (0512 GMT) Friday. Credit: Stephen Clark \/ Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With a Falcon 9 rocket launch Friday, SpaceX added 57 more satellites to the Starlink broadband fleet and deployed a pair of piggyback commercial Earth-imaging reconnaissance satellites for BlackSky, wrapping up a busy week that began with SpaceX\u2019s return of two NASA astronauts to Earth and the first low-altitude test flight of the company\u2019s next-generation Starship vehicle.<\/p>\n

The 59 commercial satellites took off at 1:12:05 a.m. EDT (0512:05 GMT) on top of a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.<\/p>\n

Nine Merlin 1D engines flashed to life with a deep rumble to hurl the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) rocket into the sky with 1.7 million pound of thrust. After pitching to align with a trajectory toward the northeast from Florida\u2019s Space Coast, the Falcon 9 soared into the stratosphere trailing a brilliant orange exhaust plume before shutting down its first stage engines two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff.<\/p>\n

Seconds later, the first stage booster dropped away from the Falcon 9\u2019s second stage to begin a guided descent toward SpaceX\u2019s drone ship parked in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n

The Merlin engine on the second stage ignited two times to maneuver the Starlink and BlackSky satellites to a near-circular orbit nearly 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth. Meanwhile, the Falcon 9\u2019s first stage booster flew to a propulsive landing on SpaceX\u2019s rocket recovery vessel, a football field-sized platform positioned nearly 400 miles (around 630 kilometers) downrange from the Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n

Two BlackSky Earth-imaging satellites, each with a mass of about 121 pounds (55 kilograms), deployed from the top of the stack of Starlink spacecraft more than an hour into the mission. BlackSky booked the launch for its satellites through Spaceflight, a Seattle-based rideshare broker, utilizing room in the Falcon 9 rocket\u2019s payload compartment made available by SpaceX.<\/p>\n

Read our earlier story for background on BlackSky and SpaceX\u2019s rideshare launch service offering.<\/p>\n

BlackSky is deploying a fleet of Earth observation satellites designed to monitor changes across Earth\u2019s surface, feeding near real-time geospatial intelligence data to governments and corporate clients. The two microsatellites on Friday\u2019s mission are designated Global 7 and Global 8, but they are actually the fifth and sixth operational satellites in the BlackSky fleet, which the company could eventually number more than 50 satellites, depending on customer demand.<\/p>\n

The BlackSky satellites were built by LeoStella, a joint venture between Spaceflight Industries and Thales Alenia Space, a major European satellite manufacturer. LeoStella\u2019s production facility is located in Tukwila, Washington, a suburb of Seattle.<\/p>\n

The satellites have electrothermal propulsion systems that use water as a propellant. Each of the current generation of BlackSky Global spacecraft can capture up to 1,000 color images per day, with a resolution of about 3 feet (1 meter).<\/p>\n

With the piggyback payloads away, the Falcon 9\u2019s upper stage spun up for release of the 57 Starlink satellites at 2:45 a.m. EDT (0645 GMT). Live video beamed back to Earth from the Falcon 9 rocket showed the flat-panel satellites flying free of the upper stage as they soared nearly 250 miles over the Pacific Ocean near Baja California.<\/p>\n