SpaceX launched its latest batch of Starlink satellites and an orbital transfer vehicle for an Italian space firm from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California earlier today. The launch was SpaceX’s seventh launch of the year, and it used a Falcon 9 first stage booster for the seventh time as well. Its success leaves SpaceX with an average close to two launches per week in 2023, in a strong start to the year in which the firm is aiming to conduct up to 100 launches, according to its chief Elon Musk.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Soars To The Sky In A Strong Start to 2023
So far, 2023 has been an eventful year for SpaceX. The most noticeable launch so far was of the Falcon Heavy, SpaceX’s largest rocket that uses 27 engines at the same time to deploy heavier payloads. Despite being tested in 2018, the Falcon Heavy would fly only twice before taking a three-year break. After this, the rocket launched a payload for the U.S. Space Force in November 2022 and then flew again from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at the start of the third week of January.
Today’s launch took place from California, and since it was in the morning, it provided clear views of the rocket from liftoff to landing. The launch was SpaceX’s 206th mission overall, as well as the seventh launch of 2023. Additionally, since it was in California, rare views of the Falcon 9 soaring above the clouds led to a great start. Such views are common from Vandenberg, with another launch, which saw the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Delta IV Heavy launch from the same site in September last year.
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The mission flew a batch of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites and an orbital transfer vehicle (space tug) for the Italian firm D-Orbit. This tug had satellites from American, German and New Zealand space companies as well as from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne ( École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne -EPFL). It was D-Orbit’s sixth mission with SpaceX, and the firm had also launched another batch of satellites earlier this month. The launch also saw SpaceX reuse the fairings of the Falcon 9 second stage, with one fairing resued for the fifth time and the other used for the third time.
The Falcon 9 landed on SpaceX’s drone ship roughly nine minutes after liftoff, marking its seventh successful landing. SpaceX has gradually increased the tolerance of its rockets as the Falcon program has matured, and has also flown rockets for more than ten times after it refurbishes them after pre-planned durations.
At the same time the Falcon 9 landed, the second stage also reached its nominal parking orbit. This happened when the second stage was traveling roughly at 27,773 kilometers per hour and an altitude of 156 kilometers. The parking orbit was followed by an orbital insertion close to an hour after liftoff, courtesy of a small second stage Merlin 1D engine burn. Finally, D-Orbit’s payload deployed three minutes after the orbital insertion.
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