Spacex envía al espacio 40 pequeños satélites Spacex launches 40 satellites into orbit, lands rocket at sea

MIAMI.-UN cohete Falcon 9 de la firma privada Spacex despegó con éxito desde Cabo Cañaveral, en Florida (EEUU), con 40 pequeños satélites a bordo desarrollados por diferentes firmas que han sido parte de la misión Transporter-4.

El cohete despegó sobre las 12.24 de la tarde (hora local), desde una plataforma de la Estación de la Fuerza Espacial de Cabo Cañaveral y unos diez minutos después la primera etapa del Falcon 9 aterrizó en la plataforma «Just Read the Instructions» colocada en el Atlántico.

Esta etapa o parte del cohete recuperada hoy tiene un recorrido de seis viajes previos, el primero de los cuales fue con la misión Crew-1, la primera tripulada desarrollada entre Spacex y la NASA que en noviembre de 2020 envió astronautas a la Estación Espacial Internacional (EEI).

Las misiones Transporter de Spacex consisten en viajes compartidos que permite asumir entre instituciones privadas y públicas el costo aproximado de más de 50 millones de dólares que supone poner en órbita la carga total.

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It was the seventh flight for this Falcon 9 first stage. Spacex pulled off yet another rocket launch and landing.

A two-stage Falcon 9 rocket lifted (April 1) at 12:24 p.m. EDT (1624 GMT) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying 40 spacecraft to orbit for a variety of customers.

These craft are a diverse bunch, consisting of "cubesats, microsats, picosats, non-deploying hosted payloads and an orbital transfer vehicle carrying spacecraft to be deployed at a later time," Spacex wrote in a description of today's mission, which is known as Transporter 4.

All of the immediately deployable payloads will be flying free within 90 minutes after launch, if all goes according to plan.

The Falcon 9's first stage, meanwhile, came back down to Earth for a vertical, powered touchdown on Spacex's droneship Just Read the

Instructions, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles off the Florida coast.

It was the seventh launch and landing for this Falcon 9 first stage. The booster also helped launch the Crew-1 and Crew-2 astronaut missions to the International Space Station (ISS) in November 2020 and April 2021, respectively; the Siriusxm communications satellite in June 2021; the CRS-23 cargo run to the ISS in August 2021; and one batch of Spacex's Starlink internet satellites, according to the Transporter 4 mission description.

As impressive as seven launches and landings is, it's far from a Spacex record. Less than two weeks ago, a Falcon 9 first stage lifted off for the 12th time, successfully sending 53 Starlink satellites to orbit. The booster came down for a droneship landing that day as well.