{"id":18833,"date":"2017-08-24T20:05:57","date_gmt":"2017-08-24T12:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-launches-formosat-5-satellite-then-lands-booster-on-pacific-drone-ship\/"},"modified":"2017-08-24T20:05:57","modified_gmt":"2017-08-24T12:05:57","slug":"spacex-launches-formosat-5-satellite-then-lands-booster-on-pacific-drone-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-launches-formosat-5-satellite-then-lands-booster-on-pacific-drone-ship\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX launches Formosat-5 satellite, then lands booster on Pacific drone ship"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_357813\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-357813\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-357813\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/170824-formosat-spacex-630x547.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceX Falcon 9 launch\" width=\"630\" height=\"547\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/170824-formosat-spacex-630x547.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/170824-formosat-spacex-768x667.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/170824-formosat-spacex.jpg 1117w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-357813\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rises from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. (SpaceX via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceX chalked up another successful satellite launch and booster landing today, putting Taiwan\u2019s Formosat-5 Earth observation satellite into orbit in the process.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 11:51 a.m. PT from California\u2019s Vandenberg Air Force Base at the opening of a 44-minute launch window.<\/p>\n<p>Minutes later, the rocket\u2019s second stage separated to send the 1,050-pound Formosat-5 satellite into a nearly pole-to-pole orbit for Taiwan\u2019s National Space Organization.<\/p>\n<p>The satellite, a successor to Formosat-2, is designed to send down high-resolution Earth imagery for five years. Formosat-5 also carries a plasma sensor that will monitor the effect of space weather on Earth\u2019s ionosphere.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"SpaceX FORMOSAT-5 mission: Falcon 9 launch &amp; landing, satellite deployment\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6NCCIKw_FFc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>While the second stage ascended to orbit, the Falcon 9\u2019s first-stage booster flew itself down to a drone ship stationed in the Pacific Ocean. The ship\u2019s name, \u201cJust Read the Instructions,\u201d pays homage to the sentient starships in Iain M. Banks\u2019 science-fiction novels.<\/p>\n<p>The mission marked the 40th Falcon 9 launch and SpaceX\u2019s 12th successful launch in 2017, which has been the California-based company\u2019s busiest year to date. SpaceX now has 15 successful booster landings under its belt, marking a key step in its quest for rocket reusability.<\/p>\n<p>At one time, Seattle-based Spaceflight had planned to send 89 small satellites into orbit as secondary payloads for the Formosat-5 launch, but that plan was canceled months ago due to uncertainties in the launch schedule. The payloads were redistributed onto other flights.<\/p>\n<p>The next Falcon 9 launch, set for Sept. 7, is expected to send the Air Force\u2019s X-37B space plane into orbit for that program\u2019s fifth classified mission. That launch would mark the first use of a Falcon 9 for an X-37B launch; previous launches have used United Launch Alliance\u2019s Atlas 5 rocket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rises from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. (SpaceX via YouTube) SpaceX chalked up another successful satellite launch and booster landing today, putting Taiwan\u2019s Formosat-5 Earth observation satellite into orbit in the process. The company\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 11:51 a.m. PT from California\u2019s Vandenberg Air Force Base [&hellip;]<\/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":[4434,5335,20,316],"class_list":["post-18833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-falcon-launch","tag-formosat","tag-satellite","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18833"}],"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=18833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}