On Wednesday evening at 6:30 PM EST, a successful static fire test of the rocket’s first stage was completed. The Falcon 9 stack, including both stages and the satellites enclosed within the payload fairing, rolled out to SLC-40 on Monday. While these four launches alone make for a very busy month, it’s not impossible that an additional Starlink launch could occur before the year is out from either Florida or Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.īefore this especially active finale to the 2021 launch year can occur, Starlink Group 4-3 had to successfully get off the ground. Then, only about 54 hours after Turksat, another Falcon 9 is slated to launch from 39A, this time with the CRS-24 Cargo Dragon spacecraft carrying supplies to the International Space Station. This is to be followed by a Turksat-5B communications satellite as early as December 18 back at SLC-40. A few miles north of pad 40, and following a United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch on December 5, another Falcon 9 is slated to launch NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) no earlier than December 9 from LC-39A. The Starlink Group 4-3 flight is the first of at least four planned SpaceX launches for the month of December. The second stage powered the stack of Starlink satellites, plus a pair of Earth observation satellites for BlackSky Global, toward payload separation into a 53.2-degree inclination orbit and an altitude of approximately 430 kilometers. After flying northeast from Cape Canaveral and separating from the second stage, the booster made a landing on one of SpaceX’s autonomous spaceport drone ships, A Shortfall of Gravitas. The Falcon 9 first stage tasked with the launch was B1060-9. No such delay occurred, and launch went as scheduled on Thursday. If the launch had been delayed for any reason, a backup opportunity existed on Friday, with another greater than 90% chance of acceptable weather forecasted. The 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Space Force Base forecasted a greater than 90% chance of favorable weather for launch. The Group 4-3 mission, carrying 48 Starlink satellites and two rideshare payloads to low Earth orbit, lifted off from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:12 PM EST (23:12 UTC). Musk said the company "learned a lot" on Thursday and teased another test launch in "a few months.Kicking off a busy end to the company’s 2021 launch campaign, SpaceX successfully launched a group of Starlink satellites from Florida on Thursday evening. The rocket flew for nearly 4 minutes and successfully separated from the Super Heavy booster, a key in-flight milestone, before suffering what the company called a "rapid unscheduled disassembly." SpaceX leadership repeatedly stressed the experimental nature of the launch and said any result that involved Starship getting off the launchpad would be a success. SpaceX teams worked to resolve a number of unidentified issues to make a second attempt possible Thursday. The company made a first go at getting this launch off the ground on Monday, but a pressure valve in the Super Heavy booster apparently froze. It's the culmination of years of regulatory work and technological tests for SpaceX and the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas - Elon Musk's SpaceX on Thursday launched its Starship rocket for the first time, but fell short of reaching space after exploding in mid-flight. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
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