Launching a day late due to bad weather, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit late Monday from Cape Canaveral. An attempt to recover the first stage with a landing on an offshore drone failed, ending a series of 24 successes in a row.
Another Starlink launch, with another 60 satellites on board, is planned early Wednesday at the nearby Kennedy Space Center, as SpaceX continues to build a globe-wide constellation designed to provide Internet access to its customers. worldwide.
What impact, if any, the crash could have on Wednesday’s flight is not yet known.
SpaceX webcast
Monday’s flight began in a spectacular start at 22:59 EST, when the nine engines of the Falcon 9 rocket ignited with a burst of fire, 229 pushing the 229-meter-high amplifier from pad 40 to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Generating £ 1.7 million, the engines propelled the rocket on a northeasterly trajectory, accelerating rapidly as they consumed propellants and the vehicle lost weight.
After exiting the dense lower atmosphere, the first stage, making the sixth flight, separated and headed for landing on an offshore drone.
As usual, the amplifier started three of its engines to slow down before plunging into the lower atmosphere, but the stop, seen in the downlink videos, does not seem normal. A camera on the droneship later showed the brightness of a “burned” landing to one side, but the rappelling never appeared and probably fell into the nearby ocean.
William Harwood / CBS News
“Unfortunately, we failed to stop the landing today,” said SpaceX’s launch commentator, who described the loss as “stupid.”
It was the first failed recovery for SpaceX since the sixth Starlink mission in March 2020. Since then, the California missile maker has made 24 consecutive recoveries in a row before Monday’s crash.
But the failure of the landing did not affect the outcome of Monday’s mission. The second stage of the Falcon 9, powered by a single vacuum engine, fired twice as long as planned to reach the planned orbit about 45 minutes after takeoff. The 60 stellar links were launched to fly alone about 20 minutes later.
SpaceX has now launched 1,145 Starlinks. The company has regulatory approval to launch more than 12,000 satellites, creating a network of relay stations that provide two-way internet connectivity for customers around the world.