![]() Want to find out more about SpaceX’s plans for the future of transport? Subscribe to MUSK READS+ for exclusive interviews and analysis about spaceflight, electric cars, and more.īeyond these missions, SpaceX is expected to host a series of Starlink launches on a regular basis from both Florida and California. Seeing that the world successfully launched 104 rockets to orbit last year, that means SpaceX accounted for 25 percent of global orbital flights in 2020.ĬEO Elon Musk stated on Twitter in October 2020 that his goal for 2021 was 48 missions - something it looks like he could actually achieve in 2022. The record currently goes to 2020, when the company launched 26 missions. It could be SpaceX’s biggest year so far. That’s not even including Starlink, the frequently-launched satellites constellation for its growing internet service. Inverse estimates, based on sources including NextSpaceflight and SpaceflightNow, that SpaceX plans at least 36 launches next year. Hot on the heels of 2021, where it’s thus-far launched 25 missions, the space-faring firm is gearing up to massively increase its throughput. TARGET ORBIT: Approximately 404 miles (640 kilometers), 97.9 degrees inclination for the first three payloads Approximately 310 miles (500 kilometers), 97.SpaceX is set for perhaps its biggest year ever. LAUNCH AZIMUTH: South-southeast, then south WEATHER FORECAST: 60% probability of acceptable weatherīOOSTER RECOVERY: “Just Read the Instructions” drone ship LAUNCH SITE: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida PAYLOAD: 40 microsatellites, CubeSats, picosatellites, an orbital transfer vehicles, and hosted payloads Read our mission preview story for details on the Transporter 4 launch. Instead, the booster headed for SpaceX’s rocket landing platform. On Transporter 4, the first stage provided a boost lasting 15 more seconds than on the Transporter 3 mission in January, leaving insufficient propellant to fly back to Florida’s Space Coast. Those factors prevented the Falcon 9 booster from returning to landing at Cape Canaveral, as it did on the past two Transporter rideshare flights. The satellite is heavier than any of the satellites SpaceX has flown on any of the previous Transporter missions, and the Falcon 9 delivered EnMAP to an orbit higher than the the past rideshare launches. The manifest for Transporter 4 was down to 40 spacecraft, but that was primarily due to EnMAP’s presence on the mission. The Transporter 2 mission on June 30, 2021, carried 88 payloads into orbit, and Transporter 3 launched Jan. 24, 2021, with a record 143 satellites on a single rocket. SpaceX launched the first Transporter mission on Jan. The Transporter 4 mission was SpaceX’s fourth dedicated small satellite rideshare launches since January 2021, and the second of four Transporter rideshare flights planned this year. ![]() ![]() Credit: Michael Cain / Spaceflight Now / Coldlife Photography SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on pad 40 at Cape Canaveral, ready for liftoff on the Transporter 4 mission. The 2,160-pound (980-kilogram) EnMAP spacecraft carries a hyperspectral Earth imaging instrument to survey crops, forests, and other surfaces, providing detailed information about the state of vegetation and plant health. That milestone was followed by two more second stage burns to lower the rocket’s orbit to roughly 310 miles (500 kilometers) for separation of the remaining satellites. Two smaller payloads also deployed at that altitude. The second stage released the mission’s largest payload, Germany’s EnMAP environmental monitoring spacecraft, at an altitude of about 404 miles (650 kilometers). ![]() The booster achieved its seventh flight to space since its first mission with NASA’s Crew-1 astronauts in November 2020. The rocket’s first stage landed on the drone ship “Just Read the Instructions” parked in the Atlantic Ocean between Cuba and the Bahamas, about 330 miles (530 kilometers) downrange from Cape Canaveral. The Falcon 9 rocket headed southeast from Cape Canaveral, then south along Florida’s east coast to place the mission’s 40 payloads into polar orbit. A stalled cold front is predicted to be over Central Florida at the time of Friday’s instantaneous launch opportunity, but forecasters Friday morning upped their odds of good weather from 30% to 60% as thunderstorms moved south of the spaceport. There was a 60% chance that weather conditions will be favorable for launch Friday, according to the U.S. EDT (1624 GMT) Friday with with 40 satellites to begin Earth-observing, communications, and technology demonstration missions. SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:24 p.m. ![]()
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