SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on its record-breaking 14th mission Saturday, Oct. 8, sending two business communications satellites into orbit.
The Falcon 9topped by Intelsat’s Galaxy 33 and Galaxy 34 satellites, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station in Florida on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT).
The Falcon 9 first stage returned to Earth and landed on SpaceX’s A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship about 8.5 minutes after launch. The robotic ship was stationed within the Atlantic Ocean, a couple of hundred miles off the coast of Florida.
Associated: 8 Methods SpaceX Reworked Spaceflight
This was the 14th launch and touchdown for this explicit booster, in accordance with a SpaceX mission description (opens in a brand new tab). The rocket has beforehand helped launch the GPS III-3 and Turksat 5A satellites, the Transporter-2 rideshare mission and 10 SpaceX jackpots. Stellar Hyperlink Web satellites.
Fourteen missions is the document for a Falcon 9 first stage, the primary put final month in a launch that launched the BlueWalker 3 communications satellite tv for pc and 34 Starlinks.
The Galaxy 33 was deployed roughly 33 minutes after liftoff and the Galaxy 34 adopted swimsuit 5 minutes later, SpaceX confirmed through Twitter (opens in a brand new tab).
The duo” are the following satellites in Intelsat’s complete Galaxy fleet renewal plan, a brand new technology of know-how that may present Intelsat Media prospects in North America with high-performance media supply capabilities and unparalleled headend penetration. cable networks,” Luxembourg-based Intelsat stated. written in an announcement (opens in a brand new tab). “It’s important to Intelsat’s U.S. C-band compensation technique.”
Saturday’s launch was the third for SpaceX in 4 days. On Wednesday, the corporate launched the Crew-5 Astronaut Mission for NASA in addition to a set of 52 Starlink satellites.
Saturday’s flight was initially scheduled to launch Thursday night (October 6), however the Falcon 9 launched an computerized abandon shortly (opens in a brand new tab) earlier than scheduled takeoff. Abortion was brought on by small helium leak, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk stated through Twitter on Thursday (opens in a brand new tab). SpaceX then pushed the launch again to Saturday to carry out further car checks.
Mike Wall is the creator of “The low (opens in a brand new tab)(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a guide in regards to the seek for extraterrestrial life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in a brand new tab). Observe us on twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a brand new tab) Or on Fb (opens in a brand new tab).