SpaceX has begun counting right down to the New Year, with the launch of the primary of three rockets deliberate to shut out 2024.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 of the corporate’s Starlink satellites lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Saturday (Dec. 28). The mission launched at 8:48 p.m. EST (5:48 p.m. PST native time or 0148 GMT on Dec. 29) from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E).
The satellites have been on observe to be deployed into low Earth orbit about 65 minutes later, as to plan. It was SpaceX’s 132nd Falcon launch this 12 months, with two nonetheless scheduled over the following two days — a industrial communications satellites mission and one other batch of Starlink satellites.
“We’re now focusing on 134 launches — two shy of our final aim — to complete 2024 robust,” wrote Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s vice chairman of launch, on the social media community X. “Here’s to an superior final couple of days in 2024 and an excellent higher 2025!”
Saturday’s Falcon 9’s first stage got here again to Earth safely, touching down on the droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” within the Pacific Ocean about eight minutes after liftoff.
It was the sixteenth touchdown for this explicit booster, in response to an organization mission description. Twelve of its 16 flights up to now have been Starlink missions.
It was SpaceX’s 88th launch this 12 months of Starlink broadband web satellites, with only one failing as a result of an higher stage liquid oxygen leak.
“Ultimately, there is just one quantity that really issues. ZERO failures. Our precedence is – and can stay – security and reliability above all else,” wrote Dontchev.
The Starlink megaconstellation — the largest ever assembled — at present consists of almost 6,700 energetic spacecraft, in response to satellite tv for pc tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell.
