SpaceX launches back-to-back Falcon 9 missions over the weekend
SpaceX efficiently launched the Transporter 9 mission from California and a pair of O3b mPower communications satellites from Florida over the weekend as the corporate prepares for one more spherical of Starlink missions and the potential for Starship Built-in Flight Check 2.
The Transporter 9 mission noticed 113 payloads deployed into varied orbits following the launch from Vandenberg House Power Base in California. This mission additionally featured the return of the stubby stage 2 engine nozzle on the Merlin 1D vacuum engine, which saves weight when SpaceX doesn’t want as a lot efficiency capabilities as when utilizing the total nozzle.
The Falcon 9 that launched the Transporter 9 mission was Booster 1071 and accomplished its twelfth flight to area and again. Following stage separation, B1071 carried out a boostback burn and landed at Touchdown Zone 4 simply 1,400 ft away from the launch pad.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on Touchdown Zone 4 pic.twitter.com/Vl9WAOoTY4
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 11, 2023
Simply over 24 hours later, on the other coast, one other Falcon 9 took flight to ship the O3b mPower 5 & 6 communications satellites to Medium Earth orbit. The 2 satellites had been efficiently deployed simply over 2 hours after lift-off. These had been the third pair of mPower satellites launched by a Falcon 9.
For this flight, SpaceX assigned Booster 1076, which, after a profitable landing on the droneship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’, accomplished its ninth flight.
Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/7xuJd88TOZ
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 12, 2023
SpaceX additionally despatched out restoration ships on every coast to get well the payload fairings from the missions. The corporate has seemingly perfected the refurbishment course of on the fairings, recurrently reusing flight-proven fairings past simply Starlink missions.
Subsequent up for the corporate is one other set of back-to-back Starlink launches from Florida and California. As of writing, the primary one on the vary is from SLC-40 in Florida at 11:00 pm ET, adopted shortly after with a launch from SLC-4E at 11:38 pm PT. As at all times, launch instances can change, particularly with the Starship IFT 2 tentatively scheduled for the morning of November seventeenth.
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