SpaceX successfully launched the same Falcon 9 rocket into space for the 22nd time. The launch took place on Sunday evening (August 11). Two satellites were launched into low-Earth orbit that will provide broadband coverage in the Arctic, Space.com writes, citing the mission description.
Image source: SpaceX
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying two Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM) spacecraft lifted off from California’s Vandenberg Space Base on Sunday at 10:02 p.m. ET (7:02 p.m. California local time; 02:02 GMT Aug. 12; 06:02 p.m. Moscow time). The first stage of the rocket returned to Earth as planned approximately 8.5 minutes after launch and made a soft landing on the autonomous offshore platform Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean.
According to the mission description, this was the 22nd launch and landing for this particular rocket booster. Thus, the company repeated the record for the number of re-launches, set in June, when the next batch of Starlink Internet satellites was sent into low-Earth orbit using another Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
The first ASBM satellite was deployed 42.5 minutes after launch. The second – after another five minutes. According to aerospace giant Northrop Grumman, which assembled the two satellites for the mission, the ASBMs are “designed to expand broadband coverage in the Arctic region for the US Space Force and Space Norway.” Space Norway is a state-owned company that develops and manages Norway’s strategic space infrastructure.
The ASBM satellites, which will operate in a highly elliptical orbit to provide coverage, are equipped with a variety of instruments, “including military payloads for the U.S. and Norwegian militaries, as well as a commercial payload from telecommunications company Viasat and a radiation monitor for the European Commission,” Northrop Grumman wrote. in your mission statement.
Sunday’s launch was part of a busy weekend for SpaceX. The company launched 21 Starlink satellites from the Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida on Saturday morning (August 10). SpaceX also planned to launch another batch of Starlink satellites on Sunday morning from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, also on Florida’s Space Coast, but the launch was aborted with 46 seconds left in the countdown.