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SpaceX Just Launched 'Most Spacecraft Ever Deployed on a Single Mission'
https://www.sciencealert.com ^ | 24 JANUARY 2021 | Staff

Posted on 01/25/2021 8:52:16 AM PST by Red Badger

SpaceX on Sunday launched its Falcon 9 rocket carrying a record number of satellites on board, the private space company said.

The rocket successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 10:00 am (1500 GMT), 24 hours after its initial take-off had been scrubbed due to bad weather.

Andy Tran, a SpaceX production supervisor, said in a video of the launch that the Falcon 9 was carrying 133 commercial and government "spacecraft" as well 10 SpaceX satellites.

"The most spacecraft ever deployed on a single mission," Tran said.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/js3zVM77rH

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 24, 2021 SpaceX is flying Falcon 9 under a "rideshare" program through which other firms and governments pay the Elon Musk-founded company to deliver their technologies to space.

Minutes after taking off, the Falcon 9's main booster that had thrust the rocket to the edge of space separated from the rest of the craft and dropped back down to Earth in a controlled fall.

It landed itself on an unmanned spaceport drone ship called Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean, marking the booster's fifth successful deployment and recapture.

Falcon 9's first stage has landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship pic.twitter.com/6gWWlLiXdG

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 24, 2021 In a series of tweets, SpaceX said all 143 satellites had been successfully deployed.

SpaceX aims to send thousands of small satellites into space to form a global broadband system called Starlink.

Scientists have expressed concerns about the number of objects clogging the space around Earth. SpaceX say their satellites are designed to burn up in the atmosphere within a few years.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: satellites; spacex
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1 posted on 01/25/2021 8:52:16 AM PST by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

Just what we need...


2 posted on 01/25/2021 8:54:48 AM PST by Democrat = party of treason
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To: Red Badger

This is the shit that spies on all of us. Wonder if Bill Gates was involved?


3 posted on 01/25/2021 8:56:17 AM PST by sanjuanbob
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To: Red Badger

“SkyNet became active....”

:D

Hoss


4 posted on 01/25/2021 9:22:56 AM PST by HossB86 (Christ, and Him alone.)
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To: sanjuanbob

Oh geez starlink is SpaceX internet based satellites, plus a bunch of private sats.


5 posted on 01/25/2021 9:24:29 AM PST by markman46 (engage brain before using keyboard!!!)
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To: markman46
Oh geez starlink is SpaceX internet based satellites, plus a bunch of private sats.

Exactly. Not just SpaceX, but competitors are wanting to follow the same game plan as SpaceX, including Chinese competitors. Namely, to send thousands of linked satellites in order to create internet based services. SpaceX came up with the idea first, and first to implement it. They have collision avoidance capabilities.

6 posted on 01/25/2021 10:28:32 AM PST by roadcat
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To: Red Badger
Just the other day they said those satellites are 500 .lbs each. Payload of 36 tons plus?

I did not realize those rockets were that large.

7 posted on 01/25/2021 10:43:12 AM PST by MAAG (Tetelestai, paid in full. You are as righteous as God is. Double jeopardy is forbidden.)
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To: MAAG
Just the other day they said those satellites are 500 .lbs each. Payload of 36 tons plus?
I did not realize those rockets were that large.


Only 10 were the 500lb SpaceX satellites. A BUNCH were probably the microsatellites, about the size of a shoebox.

However, the Falcon 9 CAN lift 25 tons to Low Earth Orbit.
8 posted on 01/25/2021 11:02:18 AM PST by BikerJoe
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To: roadcat

yep, then next launch of starlinks sats is Jan


9 posted on 01/25/2021 11:04:07 AM PST by markman46 (engage brain before using keyboard!!!)
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To: BikerJoe

Thanks, good to know.


10 posted on 01/25/2021 12:46:07 PM PST by MAAG (Tetelestai, paid in full. You are as righteous as God is. Double jeopardy is forbidden.)
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To: MAAG

DpaceX has the falcon heavy rocket that in fully expendable mode can lift 64 metric tons or 141,000 lbs to low earth orbit. That payload is second only to the mighty Saturn V and is the largest payload today and any time in the last 50 years since the Saturn V last flew. The first flight of that massive booster put Elons Tesla roadster into a Mars transfer orbit around the sun. Yeah they laughed car to Mars crossing orbit that’s how much throw that booster has. The falcon 9 only has 25 tons of payload which still puts it in the medium to heavy sector.

https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/falcon-heavy/


11 posted on 01/26/2021 11:48:33 AM PST by JD_UTDallas ("Veni Vidi Vici" )
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To: roadcat
SpaceX came up with the idea first, and first to implement it.

They are the first to implement it, but there were ideas for this sort of constellation in the 1990's. The technology wasn't quite ready at that time.

12 posted on 01/26/2021 11:53:52 AM PST by kosciusko51
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To: Democrat = party of treason

Starlink is just what a lot of rural people need. Low latency broadband network allows work from home in the deep rural areas far far away from blue cities. Currently those areas are only served by high latency viasat or hughesnet both of which cost exuberant amounts, have data caps, and get overloaded to the point of uselessness during peak time. With a 10mbs 200ms connection I can geosteer 5 wells at a time from anywhere on earth via sat telemetry. At $1500 per well per day of contract geologist time. Station means I can steer from my sailboat in the Caribbean or from a cabin in Alaska or from the swamps of Louisiana while at my hunting camp you get the idea it’s worldwide work from remote location for millions who are chomping at the bit to do so. Currently I’m tethered to Wi-Fi or 4g hotspots or fiber at my private office location. Having a phased array sat set up with pole to pole 100mbs plus access is a game changer. Those two new sats are the first in polar orbits all the others are at 53 degrees which means the high latitudes are absent in services with polar orbits the 60 degree plus latitudes are covered for me that means Alaska and Canada where I like to hunt and fish become profitable locations.


13 posted on 01/26/2021 11:58:02 AM PST by JD_UTDallas ("Veni Vidi Vici" )
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To: kosciusko51
They are the first to implement it, but there were ideas for this sort of constellation in the 1990's.

Well, Arthur C. Clarke came up with the idea of telecommunication satellites in the 1940s, but the technology wasn't quite ready at the time. At least SpaceX came up with the idea accompanied by a viable plan to implement, and is getting it done. Just like the idea of "transparent aluminum" in Star Trek, it is meaningless without the means. Jules Verne wrote about sending spaceships to the Moon, but never got it done.

14 posted on 01/26/2021 11:59:05 AM PST by roadcat
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To: roadcat

Okay, let me restate. The launch technology to deploy them cheaply wasn’t ready.

Several companies were actively developing the satellites on the back of the initial success of Iridium. However, the economic downturn of the early 2000’s scuttled the programs.


15 posted on 01/26/2021 12:03:07 PM PST by kosciusko51
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To: BikerJoe

What was unique about this launch is they sent the bird South hugging Florida coastline to reach polar orbit. They had the drone ship near Cuba to catch the booster and the second stage did a curving plane change burn that took it over Cuba and Panama cool stuff. The fairings also splashed down near Cuba and Mrs tree the catch boat is down there in international waters to retrieve them the only parts not recovered is the second stage booster it burns up over the Pacific. Even losing the delta V with a plane change burn the falcon still threw 20+ tons into a 500+no sun sycro orbit which is impressive. The reason spacex is allowed to overfly Cuba is they have installed automatic flight termination charges which will shatter the stack should it go off course while it’s IIP (instantaneous impact point) is over land. a rocket when it fails don’t come straight down under the point where it’s current ground path is since it has a significant horizontal velocity relative to it’s gravity vector the IIP is always down range following Newton’s ballistic path plus if still inside the atmosphere air drag. By the time the IIP crosses Cuba it is only for a few dozens of seconds since the second stage is above 100km and doing 4000+ meters per second or 4 times faster than a 30_06 rifle bullet at the muzzle. Impressive stuff.


16 posted on 01/26/2021 12:08:46 PM PST by JD_UTDallas ("Veni Vidi Vici" )
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To: kosciusko51
The launch technology to deploy them cheaply wasn’t ready.

That's a big one. To make this plan feasible, SpaceX implemented the means for these satellites to be in low-Earth orbit. They are not geostationary far out in space. They are self-guiding with collision-avoidance capabilities and make use of AI. Any failing satellites are guided to burn up in the atmosphere, and are then replaced by other satellites. Being in low-Earth orbit reduces latency problems that geostationary satellites have. Older plans were for a bunch of geostationary satellites.

17 posted on 01/26/2021 12:10:06 PM PST by roadcat
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To: JD_UTDallas

Makes it hard to enjoy using telescopes sometimes.


18 posted on 01/26/2021 12:12:56 PM PST by Democrat = party of treason
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To: JD_UTDallas
They had the drone ship near Cuba to catch the booster and the second stage did a curving plane change burn that took it over Cuba and Panama cool stuff.

Nice explanation! I read that SpaceX is developing plans to bring second stage rockets back with ballutes (balloon/parachutes) for reuse of the entire spaceship. Hope they get it done.

19 posted on 01/26/2021 12:18:59 PM PST by roadcat
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To: kosciusko51

Microsoft and bin rates were part of Teledesic which was exactly what starlink is. TELEDESIC planned for 4000+ birds in polar leo with iridium type phased arrays. The launch costs with throw away rocket made it fully economically. SpaceX doesn’t throw away 80% of it’s bird is reused. The first stage which is 75% of the gross cost is landed on OCISLU or the the other 2 ships. The fairings two of them at an estimated 6 million bucks each are parachuted and recovered by Mrs Tree and sister ship. Only the second stage booster with a single Merlin vac engine is burned up estimated to be valued at $5 million for the whole second stage. Spacex doesn’t release internal construction costs. With a 25 tons LEO payload it has been calculated that adding a inflatable heat shield and parachutes would cost 1000kg for the shield and 500 for chutes for 1.5 Mton they could save the second stage too send a boat into the Pacific to recover it. Turns out 1.5 tons of payload is worth more than what ever the actual production cost of that second stage is so they must have gotten it down to a very low value. Musk has said they won’t do second stage recovery they are focused in starship the Mars booster.


20 posted on 01/26/2021 12:21:14 PM PST by JD_UTDallas ("Veni Vidi Vici" )
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