The company SpaceX launched a recyclable Falcon 9 rocket into space on Saturday from Florida (USA) with a new batch of 52 satellites for the Starlink Internet Network, After finding favorable weather conditions for the mission.
SpaceX said on Twitter that in addition to satellites to provide broadband internet, the missile was attached to a Capella Synthetic Aperture (SAR) radar satellite and another Tyvak-0130.
According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOOA), the latter is a “nanosatellites for astronomical observations of the optical spectrum”.
The launch took place at 6:56 PM EST (22.56 GMT) from Complex 39 A at Kennedy Space Station, Cape Canaveral, Florida, and after eight minutes and 30 seconds, the reusable portion completed its return. In the Atlantic Ocean.
A reusable two-stage Falcon 9 rocket blasted off with a satellite beam at its tip and then landed on the platform that was dubbed “Of course I still love you.” (Of course I still love you.)
This allows SpaceX to reuse the more expensive parts of the rocket, which in turn reduces the cost of accessing space, according to its website.
Today is the third Falcon 9 rocket to be launched in the past two weeks, as well as the 15th Falcon 9 mission so far in 2021.
Since 2010, there have been at least 116 launches of this “backbone” rocket by Elon Musk, who is also the owner of Tesla electric vehicles, and NASA’s partner in the program to send astronauts to the International Space Station in commercial ships from the United States. . Soil.
Musk’s idea is to place 1584 satellites for the Starlink program in Earth orbit, 549 kilometers above Earth, which is a much shorter distance than usual for these commercial devices.
On May 4, the space company launched another batch of 60 satellites into space from Florida for its Starlink internet.
The Starlink program now offers initial pilot service both domestically and internationally and will continue to expand to include near-global coverage of the populated world in 2021, the SpaceX website states.
With the massive shipping of satellites from the Starlink network, SpaceX intends to provide high-speed, stable and “affordable” Internet to users anywhere in the world through these satellites that will operate in low orbit, which will allow better communication and service.
The technology giant Google announced, last Thursday, that it has reached a joint agreement with SpaceX to provide data, cloud services and applications to Starlink commercial customers in locations around the world starting this year.
In addition, SpaceX will install ground stations inside Google data centers that will connect to the Starlink satellites, allowing fast and secure internet services through Google Cloud.
(With information from EFE)
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