Following Weather Delays, SpaceX Successfully Launches Starlink Satellites Written 30 January 2020
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying approximately 60 satellites for SpaceX's Starlink broadband network lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, FL, Wednesday, 29 January 2020 | Associated Press–©
Spaceflight Now reports that following a delay of “more than a week” due to weather, “SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday from Cape Canaveral with 60 more satellites for the company’s Starlink Internet network.” The launch means SpaceX is “continuing to build out a fleet of fleet of orbiting broadband relay stations that could eventually number in the thousands.” After jettisoning its payload, the Falcon 9 rocket used to conduct the launch successfully landed aboard the SpaceX drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” – “marking the 49th time SpaceX has recovered one of its rockets intact.” SpaceX also attempted to catch the two halves of the Falcon 9’s “payload shroud” in “two fast-moving fairing recovery boats – named ‘Ms. Tree’ and ‘Ms. Chief.’” SpaceX “confirmed Ms. Tree caught one side of the shroud in a giant net. Ms. Chief, equipped with a similar net, failed to snag the other half of the fairing before it fell into the sea, but teams were expected to pull the hardware from the ocean for inspections and refurbishment.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)