SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 kicks off for sixth time

Ilona Mask's SpaceX company once againhas renewed its records in the field of repeated use of the first stage of the Falcon 9 spacecraft. The first stage starts for the sixth time. The launch of the next Falcon 9 (B5 B1051.5) spacecraft designed to continue the Starlink program took place on August 18 at 17:32 Moscow time and was carried out from the site of the SLC-40 complex at Cape Canaveral. The purpose of the expedition is to launch another squadron of 58 Starlink 10 v1.0 satellites into orbit and three SkySat-19, -20 and -21 satellites for Planet Labs under the SmallSat Rideshare Program.

Another start led to the update of manyrecords of the SpaceX company. The main achievement, of course, is the sixth launch of the same first stage of Falcon 9, which has already successfully flown and returned to Earth five times. The first flights were associated with the launch of the Telstar 18V satellite into orbit in September 2018, the Iridium NEXT-8 communication satellites in January 2019, and three missions under the Starlink program (in May 2019, January 2020 and June 2020).

Since the first launch of the Falcon 9 sreusable first stage completed on March 31, 2017, SpaceX made 68 attempts to reclaim the stage, 58 of which were successful. One step then flew six more times, two steps traveled five times, six steps flew three times, and 24 steps flew twice. In accordance with the technical standards for the Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket, the use of the first stage is allowed up to 10 times with an obligatory intermediate technical inspection and up to 100 times with partial replacement of units and parts.

It should be noted that the current launch is becominganniversary for SpaceX, which is launching a rocket into space for the 100th time. At the same time, 92 launches were made using the Falcon 9 rocket. All launches of the company were made in the short time of the existence of SpaceX, founded in 2002 and launched Falcon 1 in 2008, and the most successful spacecraft Falcon 9 first took off ten years ago in 2010.

The current start was successful, and in just 2.5minutes the first stage separated from the ship and in the 9th minute landed on the offshore platform Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean. The second stage then successfully launched three SkySat-19, -20 and -21 satellites into orbit, and then the entire squadron of 58 satellites for the Starlink Internet project.

During the anniversary launch, she was also caught innet one half of the head fairing. SpaceX's Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief spacecraft took part in capturing the rocket part. Last month, ships were able to retrieve both halves of the rocket fairings from the ANASIS-II mission. The company also plans to use parachute systems to return the fairings. The fairings cost 10% of the rocket costs and reusing them will also reduce the launch price.

Starlink project, within which theSpaceX's 100th anniversary space launch aims to create a global Internet network that spans the entire Earth. The project started at the end of 2014 and since then more than 660 satellites have been launched into orbit, of which 550 units belong to the version 1.0 series.

Launch of Starlink satellites began in Novemberlast year, less than 10 months ago. In total, 9 launches took place under the Starlink project. By the end of 2020, Musk plans to send 6 more satellites into space.

SpaceX has now begunStarlink testing for the North of the USA and the South of Canada. By the end of the year, commercial operation of the Starlink network may begin in these areas. Launching the network globally for users around the world will require up to five more years of work. According to experts, to connect the Internet from Musk, it will take up to $ 100 to purchase equipment.

Falcon 9's booster supporting this mission previously launched Telstar 18 VANTAGE, Iridium-8, and three separate Starlink flights pic.twitter.com/Dwc7EXFiiL

- SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 17, 2020
Recent achievements of SpaceXIt should be noted that the prototype of the Raptor engine was successful in firing tests, which, in the amount of six pieces, are planned to be installed on the Starship interplanetary spacecraft. Elon Musk recently tweeted about reaching a record 330 bar pressure in the engine's combustion chamber. This is 61.1 bar more than the previous achievement. Also recently, a Starship SN5 with a single Raptor engine made a spectacular experimental flight of 150 meters. The next test for a combination of Raptor and Starship prototypes will be a 20 km flight with further landing.