18 days ago, Musk SpaceX just successfully launched 49 "Starlink" satellites, encountered a geomagnetic storm, fell 40, heavy losses. At 22:44 on February 21, Beijing time, a "Falcon" 9 Block 5 rocket lifted off from the SLC-40 launch pad of Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida, sending 46 "StarLink" V1.5 satellites into space, which was considered to make up for the last loss.
The 2022 Falcon 9 rocket was successfully launched for the seventh time
In order to save costs, the "Starlink" V1.5 satellite in the fourth orbital layer originally used a 15-minute rapid deployment mode, that is, the "Falcon" 9 rocket was used to send them to an orbital altitude of 210 kilometers, and after checking that there was no problem, relying on the satellite's own Krypton-ion Hall thruster, it took several weeks to climb to the final orbit at an altitude of 540 kilometers. This process is very slow, and in the case of sudden space weather such as Earth storms, the resistance at the top of the atmosphere suddenly increases by 50%, so it is tragic.
It is said that the star chain crashed the picture
This is the Falcon 9 rocket wreckage re-entry screen
Just as the so-called eat a long and wise, this time launched 46 "Starlink" satellites, Musk long memory, restored the normal deployment mode of 1 hour, that is, with the Falcon "9 rocket to send them to an orbital altitude of more than 300 kilometers, to minimize the risk of satellite climbing resistance. Up to now, SpaceX has launched a total of 2137 "Starlink" satellites, currently 1922 in orbit, 1897 space operations, 1542 official operations, and 215 satellites have re-entered the atmosphere, instead of the 40 that everyone sees.
StarChain enters the test orbit
It is worth mentioning that this launch has created a small record, that is, the successful recovery of the 100th fairing. The recovery and reuse of the "Falcon" series of rockets not only involves the core stage and boosters, but even the fairing has to be carefully fished back from the sea, and it is said that each time the fairing is successfully recovered, it can save 3 million US dollars.
Falcon 9 fairing recovery
Not only that, after this launch, SpaceX also completed the 107th recovery of the "Falcon" series of rocket boosters. The booster B1058, which carried out this launch mission, was the 11th successful launch and recovery. As a result, SpaceX already has 2 11-lot and 2 10-hand Falcon 9 boosters, and the rocket recovery and reuse technology is really fully mature.
B1058 11th launch
Unlike another 11-hand booster, the B1051, the 10th launch of the B1058 was on January 13, 2022, and the 11th launch was made more than a month later. The 10th launch of B1051 was on May 9, 2021, and the 11th launch was on December 18, 2021, more than half a year apart. Generally speaking, after the Falcon 9 rocket has been reused 10 times, it must undergo a major repair before the 11th launch can be carried out. Now it seems that B1058 has omitted this step, and the speed of reuse is getting faster and faster.
In addition, just suffered a loss 18 days ago, SpaceX can regain its strength and make up for more than half a month, whether it is a satellite or a rocket, the speed of adjustment is also quite amazing, which is the charm of the mass and assembly line production of satellites and rockets.
Blade-shaped star-chain satellite matrix
Falcon 9 Rocket Factory
In fact, on December 18, 2021, Eastern Time, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket also set a world record of two launches a day. First, at 7:41 on the same day, a Falcon 9 carrying 52 Starlink satellites lifted off from California; then at 10:58 p.m. that night, another Falcon 9 carried a Turksat 5B communications satellite and lifted off from Florida.
Two launches a day, a record
Following the successful launch of 46 "Starlink" satellites on February 21, another "Falcon"9 will send a batch of "Starlink" satellites into space on February 25, completing its eighth launch in 2022. If there is no accident, there is another launch, the number of SatelliteLink satellites in orbit will exceed 2,000, and the era of satellite Internet has really come.