SpaceX once again pulled off a launch and landing.
There are two classes Falcon 9 The rocket was launched today (April 1) at 12:24 pm EDT (1624 GMT) from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying 40 aircraft into orbit for various clients.
These devices are a diverse group, namely “cubesats, microsats, picosats, non-deploying hosted payloads and an orbital transfer vehicle that carries aircraft to be deployed at a later date,” SpaceX write in a description of today’s missionknown as Transporter 4.
Select: The growth of SpaceX rockets is in the pictures
Payments will be charged immediately within 90 minutes of release, if everything goes according to plan.
The first landing of the Falcon 9, meanwhile, has returned to Earth to directly touch the SpaceX droneship Just Read the Instructions, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of miles from Earth. Florida beach.
This was the seventh start and landing for this first level of Falcon 9. The booster also helped launch the Crew-1 and Crew-2 astronaut missions in the The space station (ISS) in November 2020 and April 2021; the SiriusXM satellite phone in June 2021; the CRS-23 cargo will sail to the ISS in August 2021; and one SpaceX team Starlink satellite satellites, as described in the Transporter 4 mission.
As amazing as seven launches and landings, it’s a far cry from a SpaceX story. Less than two weeks ago, the first Falcon 9 was launched was released for the 12th time, successfully sending Starlink 53 satellites into orbit. The booster came down for the droneship to land that same day.
Transporter 4 is the fourth small -scale “rideshare” mission launched by SpaceX. The first missionary in the group, Transporter 1, It has a record 143 satellites and orbit in January 2021.
Transporter 4 isn’t the only missionary to leave the world today. About four hours before the launch, a Rocket Lab Electron vehicle released two orbit satellites for BlackSky in Virginia.
And there’s more to come today: At 5 pm EDT (2100 GMT), NASA will begin a “blue cloth training” for its. Artemisa 1 moon mission, a serious attempt to help pave the way for a start a few months from now.
Mike Wall is the author of “Outside“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; edited by Karl Tate), a book about exploring alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or at Facebook.
