Elon Musk's SpaceX set a new record for the number of rockets launched in a calendar year on Friday, breaking the previous year's total of 31 flights during a frenetic effort to launch its own broadband satellites into orbit.
SpaceX's 32nd launch of 2022, using its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, comes as the company pushes to establish Starlink, a mostly consumer-based service with hundreds of thousands of internet subscribers.
The mission was launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, where the business has a launch facility. So far, SpaceX has sent almost 3,000 Starlink satellites into orbit.
The mission on Friday maintains SpaceX on track to meet its target of 52 orbital missions by the end of the year, virtually doubling its yearly launch cadence with the reusable Falcon 9, which SpaceX claims can be reflown up to 15 times.
The vast bulk of such missions have been and will be in-house Starlink missions.
Musk launched SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of normalising interplanetary travel. In recent months, the business has moved its focus from producing Falcon 9 rockets to managing a fleet of those already built, investing substantially in infrastructure for refurbishing boosters on short timescales.
The same concept has been used to the firm's fleet of reusable Crew Dragons, which are gumdrop-shaped spacecraft that launch atop the Falcon 9 and shuttle humans to orbit and the International Space Station.
Due to the Falcon 9's rapid reusability and the advantage associated with employing in-house rockets, SpaceX has launched Starlink satellites to space faster than competitors in the satellite internet race, such as satellite operator OneWeb.
OneWeb, which is nearing completion of a smaller internet network, has launched its satellites on Russia's Soyuz rocket. After abandoning its Soyuz contract due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the business expects to deploy the Falcon 9 this year.
(Source:www.devdiscourse.com)
SpaceX's 32nd launch of 2022, using its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, comes as the company pushes to establish Starlink, a mostly consumer-based service with hundreds of thousands of internet subscribers.
The mission was launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, where the business has a launch facility. So far, SpaceX has sent almost 3,000 Starlink satellites into orbit.
The mission on Friday maintains SpaceX on track to meet its target of 52 orbital missions by the end of the year, virtually doubling its yearly launch cadence with the reusable Falcon 9, which SpaceX claims can be reflown up to 15 times.
The vast bulk of such missions have been and will be in-house Starlink missions.
Musk launched SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of normalising interplanetary travel. In recent months, the business has moved its focus from producing Falcon 9 rockets to managing a fleet of those already built, investing substantially in infrastructure for refurbishing boosters on short timescales.
The same concept has been used to the firm's fleet of reusable Crew Dragons, which are gumdrop-shaped spacecraft that launch atop the Falcon 9 and shuttle humans to orbit and the International Space Station.
Due to the Falcon 9's rapid reusability and the advantage associated with employing in-house rockets, SpaceX has launched Starlink satellites to space faster than competitors in the satellite internet race, such as satellite operator OneWeb.
OneWeb, which is nearing completion of a smaller internet network, has launched its satellites on Russia's Soyuz rocket. After abandoning its Soyuz contract due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the business expects to deploy the Falcon 9 this year.
(Source:www.devdiscourse.com)
