SpaceX launches 143 satellites into orbit, most ever

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SpaceX launches 143 satellites into orbit, most ever

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Post by smp »


From Ars Technica:
"Sunday 10:15am ET Update: At the opening of its launch window, a Falcon 9 rocket took off from Florida on Sunday morning and made a flawless ascent into space. After dropping off the second stage in a parking orbit, the first stage returned to land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. This was the 73rd time a Falcon 9 rocket first stage has been recovered.

Meanwhile, the second stage began to circularize its orbit before it was scheduled to begin a satellite deployment sequence at 59 minutes into flight. The final 10 satellites are expected to be deployed at 1 hour and 31 minutes following liftoff."

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/01 ... e-mission/

I believe that only 10 of the satellites were Starlink satellites, but here we are now, launching hundreds of satellites at a pop, many times a year! Will we ever see any abatement, or will we continue to go crazy putting up hundreds and hundreds of satellites per year?

smp
Stephen
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Telescopes: Questar 3.5 Standard SN 18-11421; Stellina (EAA)
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