SpaceX

SpaceX reuses Falcon 9 rocket a record-breaking 15th time & performs ‘3 perfect orbital launches within 36 hours!' says Elon Musk

SpaceX reuses Falcon 9 rocket a record-breaking 15th time & performs ‘3 perfect orbital launches within 36 hours!' says Elon Musk
SpaceX had a very productive week, it performed 3 missions within 36 hours. On Friday, December 16, it launched NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) spacecraft to orbit at 3:46 a.m. PT (6:46 a.m. ET) from the  Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, and then launched the SES O3b mPOWER mission at 5:48 p.m. ET (2:48 p.m. PT) from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. – “Congrats to SpaceX Team on 3 perfect orbital launches within 36 hours!!!” said SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Read TESMANIAN’s previous stories about these missions, linked below:

 

 

 

Today, Saturday, December 17, SpaceX launched another Starlink mission from Florida. The company reused a Falcon 9 rocket a record-breaking 15th time. It lifted off at 4:32 p.m. ET (1:32 p.m. PT) from Launch Complex-39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, carrying a batch of 54 Starlink satellites to orbit.

The previously-flown Falcon 9 first-stage booster that performed the Starlink Group 4-37 mission is identified as B1058-15; it has flown 15 times. It previously launched: SpaceX’s first NASA astronaut demonstration mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in May 2020, it then launched the South Korean ANASIS-II satellite, the 21st NASA Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-21) mission to ISS, SpaceX’s first rideshare-dedicated mission known as Transporter-1, then it launched Transporter-3, and ten Starlink missions. Reusing orbital-class rockets has made SpaceX the leader in the aerospace industry. The innovative feat enables the company to increase the pace of spaceflight in a cost-effective manner. Booster B1058-15 was recovered a 15th time in order to be reused; it landed on the ‘Just Read the Instructions’ autonomous droneship, around 8-minutes after liftoff. It marked SpaceX’s 158 landing of an orbital-class rocket and the 132 time it reused a rocket’s first-stage. 

The 54 Starlink Group 4-37 satellites were deployed by Falcon 9’s upper-stage to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) around 15-minutes after liftoff. The mission is SpaceX’s 65th operational Starlink mission. SInce 2019 he company has deployed a total of 3,612, of which around 3,321 are in orbit as of today, according to data by leading astronomer Jonathan McDowell. The satellites that have deorbited burn in Earth’s atmosphere. Phase 1 of the Starlink constellation consists of 4,408 satellites in LEO; SpaceX has nearly deployed most and will begin deploying the next-generation satellites in 2023. SpaceX is arranging Phase 1 Starlink constellation into five orbital shells with different parameters, detailed in the table shown below. The Starlink Group 4-37 batch is the 32nd launch of satellites that will operate in orbital Shell 4. Overall, the Starlink constellation is expected to have at least 12,000 internet-beaming satellites that will be deployed within the next five years. 

》 Author's note: We appreciate your support! Thanks for reading Tesmanian.com. If you have any story suggestions or feedback, feel free to Direct Message me on Twitter: Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo @JaneidyEve Or write your thoughts in the comment section below. Read my most recent stories here: Recent News Stories 《 



 Featured Image Source: SpaceX

About the Author

Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo

Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo

Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.

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