Tag Archives: SpaceX

SpaceX Launches Double Satellite, Deploys 46 Satellites in Record Time; Crew to Return Tomorrow [Watch Live]

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US private space agency SpaceX completed the flawless deployment of 46 Starlink internet satellites into low-Earth orbit within a span of just six hours on Monday, heralded as the Elon Musk-owned firm’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket embarked on its mission from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

SpaceX and NASA are targeting as early as Monday, March 11 at 11:05 a.m. ET for Dragon to autonomously undock from the International Space Station. After performing a series of departure burns to move away from the space station, Dragon will conduct multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison the trunk, and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of Florida almost 19 hours later at approximately 5:50 a.m. ET on Tuesday, March 12.

Live webcast coverage of Crew-7’s return to Earth will begin on X @SpaceX about 15 minutes prior to undocking.

Watch live.

Aboard the spacecraft will be Crew-7 NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, who flew to the space station on Dragon when Falcon 9 launched the spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, August 26.

The company confirmed in an official statement that the first batch of 23 satellites blasted off at 4:35 am IST, marking the 11th successful flight for the first-stage booster. Notably, this booster has previously supported missions such as Crew-5 and GPS III Space Vehicle 06. Shortly after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth, executing a flawless vertical landing on the SpaceX drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” in the Atlantic Ocean.

Spacex

SpaceX launches 60 Starlink satellites June 3, 2020 / SpaceX

SpaceX confirmed the deployment of the initial 23 Starlink satellites via Twitter approximately an hour after liftoff.

Subsequently, the second set of 23 Starlink satellites launched at 9:39 am Indian time, marking the 17th flight for its first stage booster. This booster has a notable history, having supported missions like Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich and DART. Following separation, the first stage is slated to land on the droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

These accomplishments come on the heels of SpaceX’s recent launch of 23 Starlink satellites. With over 5,000 operational Starlink satellites currently in orbit and approval to launch up to 12,000, SpaceX continues to push the boundaries of satellite internet connectivity.

In 2024 alone, SpaceX has already completed 22 orbital missions, with plans to conduct a staggering 144 launches by year’s end.

Starlink satellite link is global now, declares SpaceX chief Elon Musk

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Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Monday announced that Starlink, the satellite Internet division of his rocket company, is now active on all the continents, including Antarctica, connecting the entire world on one internet provision at a speed of around 50-200 Mbps.

On the microblogging site Twitter, Musk wrote, “Starlink is now active on all continents, including Antarctica. Another batch with lasers reaches orbit” he said after the deployment of 54 Starlink satellites was confirmed by the company.

Recently, a report said that the McMurdo Station in Antarctica has nearly 1,000 people living and working there during the summer and they already have satellite internet, which is not reliable in rough conditions.

There is currently a 17 Mbps link for everyone, according to the US Antarctic Program. But with Starlink, the internet service will be better and not patchy like earlier, the report had said.

The McMurdo Station blocks scientists from using Netflix and video calls, with the exception of Skype or FaceTime sessions once a week at a public kiosk or mission-critical communications.

Spacex Founder Elon Musk’s BFR Mega Plan Not Practical in 50 Years

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Speaking at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia, SpaceX founder Elon Musk revealed the hysteric side of his vision to transport passengers from New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes and sending humans to Mars in 2022 and not beyond as estimated.

“Most of what people consider to be long-distance trips could be completed in less than half-an-hour,” Musk said. Thundering applause to his vision was all that mattered instantly as global media went crazy to give the news headline status and now that the brouhaha subsided, the other side of the story is emerging.

Cost and benefit analysis has shown that the idea is as crazy as the initial failures that had beset SpaceX in its inaugural years.

Here is the time schedule making rounds for the flight at a maximum speed of 27,000 km/hr (17,000 mph) across the world:

* New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes
* Los Angeles to New York in 25 minutes
* Los Angeles to Honolulu in 25 minutes
* London to Dubai in 29 minutes
* New Delhi to Tokyo in 30 minutes

However, airlines industry has remained reluctant to respond as the aviation history is replete with many mega plans going bust before or after take off. The grounding of Concorde supersonic planes is not out of memory of many air travel experts.

Much before the birth of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Concorde aircraft flew for 30 years from 1976 to 2003 at a cost of $7000 for New York-London flight in 3.5 hours but crashes and safety concerns had cemented its commercaial viability assigning the aircraft to museums now. What Elon Musk is proposing is to bring down the time ten times down but leaving the big safety concern to what he aptly termed Big F**king Rocket.

Other concerns to such aviation plan have not come forth as analysts are still counting on its viability. What one could surmise at this point is that this hysteric plan is beset with flaws of unforeseen hurdles.

First of all, global cities are not in seas as rockets of SpaceX are designed to land on seas and not on landscape. The travel from cities to launchpad is not in Musk’s BFR plan still.

Secondly, safety concerns are given a go-by as SpaceX history is not without failures and no insurance company would come forward to foot the bill as crashes would frequently block any take offs.

Thirdly, the plan is commercially unviable as $2900 for any Trans-Atlantic flight may make the whole idea a luxury or once-in-lifetime experience for many. It may perhaps end up as a tourist attraction than a regular aviation mode.

Finally, Elon Musk is alone in his vision and not backed by other global billiionaires and not certainly by Branson-likes who would go planned to carry out such mega space projects. For now Musk should focus on Mars travel in 2022 than earth-bound unsafe space travel.