A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched one day late due to bad weather, propelled 60 more Starlink Internet satellites into orbit Monday afternoon from Cape Canaveral. The attempt to recapture the first stage with a landing on an offshore droneship failed, ending a series of 24 hits in a row.
Another Starlink launch, with another 60 satellites on board, is scheduled for early Wednesday at the nearby Kennedy Space Center as SpaceX moves forward to build a worldwide constellation designed to provide Internet access to customers. all the world.
It is not yet known what impact the landing mishap could have on Wednesday’s flight.
SpaceX webcast
Monday’s flight began dramatically at 22:59 EST when the nine engines of the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket ignited with a burst of fire, 229 pushing the 229-meter-high reinforcement of block 40 of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Generating 1.7 million pounds of momentum, the engines fed the rocket in a northeasterly trajectory, accelerating rapidly as they consumed propellants and the vehicle lost weight.
After exiting the dense lower atmosphere, the first stage, which made its sixth flight, parted and headed for the landing with an off-shore droneship.
As usual, the booster fired three of its engines to slow down before plunging back into the low atmosphere, but the stop, which is seen in a video linked down, did not seem normal. A droneship camera later showed the glow of a “burned” landing to one side, but the reinforcement never appeared and presumably fell into the nearby ocean.
William Harwood / CBS News
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to attack the landing today,” said the SpaceX launch commentator, who described the loss as “a nuisance.”
It was SpaceX’s first unsuccessful booster recovery since the sixth Starlink mission in March 2020. Since then, the California rocket builder has carried out 24 consecutive recoveries before Monday’s setback.
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 fast as expected to reach the planned orbit about 45 minutes after takeoff. The 60 Starlinks were launched to fly just about 20 minutes later.
SpaceX has released 1,145 star links. The company has regulatory approval to launch more than 12,000 satellites, creating a network of broadcast stations that provide two-way Internet connectivity to customers around the world.