SpaceX liftoff
A Falcon 9 rocket lifts off and lands — the firm’s second launch within just 48 hours.
A Falcon 9 rocket sends 10 satellites into space — a successful test of the firm’s ability to increase launch rates.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off successfully Sunday afternoon from Vandenberg Air Force Base’s Western Range, carrying a payload of 10 commercial communications satellites in an important test of the company’s ability to increase launch rates.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 landed without incident on Space X’s West Coast drone ship in conditions described as “windy and marginal,” the Hawthorne company said.
SpaceX was working with a tight launch window, Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted shortly before the liftoff. “Launch at 1:25 delivering 10 satellites for Iridium. Droneship repositioned due to extreme weather. Will be tight,” he said.
By 2:37 p.m., the company reported that all 10 satellites had been successfully deployed, at a release rate of one every 100 seconds.
The launch also represented SpaceX’s fastest turnaround so far from a previous launch.
On Friday, SpaceX launched a Bulgarian communications satellite from Kennedy Space Center in Florida using a reused firststage booster that had launched the first batch of Iridium satellites this year. That booster landed on a f loating drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Friday’s launch was the second time SpaceX has launched and landed a reused first-stage booster.
The satellites launched Sunday will be part of a socalled constellation operated by Iridium Communications Inc. Iridium launched the first 10 satellites in January aboard a Falcon 9 rocket in SpaceX’s first mission after a September launchpad explosion grounded the company for the last few months of 2016.
The network of satellites, known as Iridium Next, is intended to provide mobile communications capabilities on land, at sea and in the air. The McLean, Va., company has a contract with SpaceX for six more launches over the next 12 months to complete the constellation.
Though the contract specifies that new first stages will be used, Iridium Chief Executive Matt Desch said last week that he would be open to using a previously flown booster in the future. But, he said, he would want to see whether using a reused first stage would speed up launch dates.