Falcon 9 broke 100th flight reusability record (+ flight record)

We have updated the article with information on the success of the flight.

A significant flight to Elon Musk’s SpaceX took place Tuesday night from Wednesday. At 3.13 am of our time, the Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, along with 60 Starlink satellites, as well as from the SpaceX workshop.

For the rocket itself, it was the turn of the 100s. The first stage of the Falcon 9, which the company “puts into service” today, also becomes the “most experienced” of the company fleet. It was his seventh year – a personal best for the Falcon 9 rocket.

Remember that if a rocket crosses the boundaries of its reusability, SpaceX never leaves commercial cargo on board. During these missions it then brings its own satellites into orbit, which would not frustrate it in case of failure.

This was not the case today as part of the Starlink-15 mission. After its successful completion, SpaceX already has nearly 960 satellites in the sky.

You can also watch the recording of the night flight with a comment (in English) on the SpaceX YouTube channel:

SpaceX also improved its personal best for the number of flights in a calendar year. In 2018 she managed to fly into space 21 times, but over the weekend she surpassed that goal during the Sentinel-6 mission. The night flight was already the 23rd year for Elona Muska this year, and many of these will almost certainly be added.

Only for the first phase deployed today (marked with B1049.7) it was already the fourth start of this calendar year. No one else has so far been able to achieve the same flight rate.

At the same time, it was originally supposed to be the shortest time between two flights (Sentinel-6 and Starlink-15), specifically less than 34 hours to pass between them. Ultimately, however, that didn’t happen, as it postponed the first SpaceX launch attempt on Monday morning.

The second attempt was also postponed Tuesday morning, as the weather was bad in the area where the 1st stage of the Falcon 9 was to land. The old familiar “all good things to the third” was valid.

It spread to Canada

Starlink satellites are set up to create a gigantic constellation of satellites in the sky. Under the banner of the service of the same name, several thousand Starlinks will cover almost the entire world on the Internet.

SpaceX has already launched a public beta test in the United States. He also recently revealed that in mid-November the test was launched in southern Canada, where it had received the necessary clearances from local regulators shortly before.

The aforementioned satellites brought the rocket to a height of about 280 kilometers. Only in the next few weeks will they reach their final orbit at a height of about 550 kilometers above the earth’s surface with the help of their own propulsion.

Recall that observables are also open to the naked eye, but due to SpaceX’s measurements in an attempt to reduce their visibility, the possibilities of tracking them are increasingly limited. You should also be lucky with good weather, especially low clouds. When satellites might be visible and where they should be searched in the sky, you will find out in our instructions.