A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will fly its record-tying twelfth area mission this Friday (Might 6), and you may watch the motion reside.
A two-stage Falcon 9 topped with 53 of SpaceX’s Starlink web satellites is scheduled to elevate off from NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart in Florida Friday at 5:42 a.m. EDT (0942 GMT). Watch it right here at Area.com when the time comes, courtesy of SpaceX, or instantly by way of the corporate.
It is going to be the twelfth launch for this Falcon 9’s first stage, tying an organization reuse file. And the automobile will fly once more after Friday, if all goes in accordance with plan; SpaceX goals to land the booster but once more, on its droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which will probably be stationed off the Florida coast.
Associated: SpaceX’s Starlink megaconstellation launches in images
Starlink is SpaceX’s enormous and ever-growing constellation of broadband satellites. The corporate has launched greater than 2,400 Starlink spacecraft up to now, a lot of them this yr; 10 of SpaceX’s 17 launches in 2022 have been devoted Starlink missions.
And there will probably be many extra such flights to return. The following-generation model of Starlink — which is already offering web service to a wide range of locales across the globe — may include as much as 30,000 satellites, in accordance with paperwork filed by SpaceX.
Because the Falcon 9 launch tally reveals, 2022 has already been a giant yr for SpaceX. Final month was significantly busy; the corporate launched six missions in April, together with Ax-1, the first-ever all-private crewed flight to the Worldwide Area Station, and Crew-4, SpaceX’s newest astronaut flight to the orbiting lab for NASA.
Ax-1 got here again to Earth after a 15-day keep aboard the station, however Crew-4 will probably be up there for about six months — roughly the identical period as Crew-3, which launched in November 2021 and is ready to splash down off the Florida coast early Friday morning.
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a ebook in regards to the seek for alien life. Comply with him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Fb.
