The private space company of the United States, Musk's SpaceX, has successfully carried out 2 launches in 2022, successively using two N-hand recoverable rocket Falcon 9 to send 154 satellites into orbit.
Falcon 9 liftoff instantly
The private space company of the United States, Musk's SpaceX, has successfully carried out two launches in 2022, successively sending 154 satellites into orbit with two N-hand recoverable rocket Falcon 9.
In just 2 weeks in 2022, SpaceX has successfully launched 2 times
The first time was on January 6, local time, a 4-hand "Falcon" 9 numbered B1062, that is, the rocket that carried out the "Inspiration 4" mission and sent 4 civilians into space for tourism, successfully sent 49 "Starlink" satellites into low Earth orbit. This launch is the world's first in 2022 and the 136th launch of the Falcon 9 rocket.
The world's first launch in 2022
The second launch is even more powerful, on January 13, local time, SpaceX used a 10-hand B1058 "Falcon" 9 rocket to send 105 satellites from 29 customers in 17 countries into a 550-kilometer-high sun-synchronous orbit. The launch, dubbed Transformer-3, has several highlights.
First of all, this B1058 Falcon 9 rocket, in 10 launches, a total of 540 satellites into different orbits, set an all-time high. After this successful recovery, after several months of renovation, it may be able to carry out the 11th launch of the B1051 Falcon 9. Of course, it may also become a lawn decoration.
One arrow 105 stars
B1058 previously 9 missions
Second, this rocket recovery is back on land, contrary to the normality of landing on a recovery ship before. It is said that landing at sea is more fuel-efficient for the entire recovery mission, because this is the shortest landing distance, which is equivalent to "cutting a short path". As for why it landed on land this time? It may be related to the fact that its mission orbit is a 550-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit, which was previously in a low-Earth orbit of three or four hundred kilometers, whether it was transporting personnel, resupplying, or launching the "Starlink" satellite to the International Space Station.
This time it landed on land
Recover the 1058 boosters in the landing
Third, the launch of satellites by recyclable rockets is really cheap, and it is said that the unit price of the launch of this Transferer-3 mission is only 3500 US dollars per kilogram, which is about 22225 yuan. It should be known that the launch price per kilogram of the International Space Station, which originally had a lower orbit, was close to 100,000 yuan. And even a company like Virgin Orbit, known for its cheap rockets, costs about 10 times more per kilogram of launches into sun-synchronous orbit than the Transferer-3 mission.
Musk has already hit the price of satellite launches to $3,500 per kilogram
The fourth time, this time 105 satellites, adopted a unique "carpooling" launch method, the rocket's upper stage is complex and exquisite. For example, China launched a Long March 6 in 2021, which also used a similar design, sending 9 satellites from 6 companies into space at a time, but now it seems that SpaceX is the best and most daring.
105 satellites for 29 customers in 17 countries are arranged in this way
The previous favorite for "carpooling" launches is India, whose main business in commercial aerospace is to launch a bunch of tiny satellites to many customers in many countries. But since SpaceX's recyclable rockets entered the international commercial launch market, the biggest impact is also India, almost all of the commercial launch business, has been robbed by Musk, India's rocket launches in the past two years, from six or seven per year, directly reduced to one or two per year.
Of course, the main reason for the sharp decline in the number of rocket launches in India in the past two years is that due to the impact of the epidemic, personnel and materials cannot be freely exchanged, and the castles in the air cannot continue to exist, which has been discussed in detail in other articles and will not be repeated. In fact, the "dimensionality reduction blow" of SpaceX, including the international commercial launch cake of Russia, Europe and the mainland, only Russia can maintain some sense of existence because it grabbed the launch contract of the Oneweb constellation.
Only russia remains
Finally, it should be said that neither SpaceX's one-arrow 105 satellites this time nor India's one-arrow 104 satellites in 2017 are not the most satellites launched by a rocket in a mission. The real world record holder was the Jan. 24, 2021 Transferer-1 mission, when SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully put 143 satellites into orbit at a time. It seems that this Transferer mission is dedicated to the mass launch of satellites. If in the future the "starship" is built, more satellites will be launched at a time, and guess whether it is possible to send thousands of satellites to a predetermined orbit at a time?
This is carpooling
Throughout 2022, SpaceX's plan is to launch 50 rockets, at least 36, which is really "rich and invincible". However, for Musk, this year also has troubles, that is, the first orbital class launch of the "starship", which has been postponed from December 2021 to January 2022, and now it has been postponed for at least 2 months, if SpaceX finally gets the "starship", it will be a "dimensionality reduction blow" for the global commercial launch market and manned spaceflight.
If the starship is done, it is really a "big killer"
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