SpaceX’s tenth launch of the 12 months was a photogenic one.
A Falcon 9 rocket topped with 55 Starlink craft launched flawlessly Sunday at 12:10 a.m. EST (0510) GMT, and SpaceX shared the images on Twitter (opens in new tab).
The moon comes near photobombing the early morning launch from Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station in Florida. SpaceX photographers even captured the rocket streaking in entrance of the practically full Snow Moon.
About eight minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s first stage landed as anticipated on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas, obtainable within the Atlantic Ocean a number of hundred miles (or kilometers) off the Florida coast.
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This was the twelfth time this explicit booster launched and landed, based on a SpaceX mission description (opens in new tab). The manifest of earlier missions embody six different Starlink excursions and two distinguished personal astronaut flights: The Ax-1 journey to the Worldwide Area Station in April 2022 and the Inspiration4 Earth orbit mission in September 2021.
Falcon 9 launches 55 Starlink satellites to orbit pic.twitter.com/kASyhCqrkoFebruary 12, 2023
The launch furnished 55 extra members of the fast-growing Starlink constellation, which incorporates more than 3,500 operational satellites (opens in new tab) to date. SpaceX has permission to incorporate 12,000 Starlink spacecraft altogether and has utilized so as to add 30,000 extra.
The Falcon 9 rocket has made 9 of the ten launches of 2023, with one different carried out by the highly effective Falcon Heavy rocket. It’s doable that Starship, a next-generation spaceship that shall be tasked with bringing payloads and other people to the moon and past, will make its first try at orbit quickly following an enormous test engine burn final week, based on CEO Elon Musk.
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a e-book about space medication. Comply with her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
