After multiple delays for weather and technical issues, SpaceX finally launched a Falcon Heavy rocket Sunday carrying a competitor's internet satellite, the first of three next-generation data relay stations capable of terabyte-per-second performance.
multiple delays for weather and technical issues
SpaceX launched its sixth Falcon Heavy rocket Sunday, using the company's most powerful operational booster to put a third-generation ViaSat internet satellite into orbit along with two smaller hitchhiker satellites.Powered by 27 Merlin engines in three strapped-together Falcon 9 first stage boosters, the Falcon Heavy quickly accelerated as it consumed its kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants and lost weight.
The single engine powering the Falcon Heavy's upper stage shut down eight minutes after launch, putting the vehicle in an initial parking orbit. Two more firings were planned over the next three hours and 44 minutes to get the satellite into the planned geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above the equator.Sunday's flight capped an intense few days for SpaceX, which launched 46 of its own low-altitude Starlink internet satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday.
Thousands of Starlinks are required to ensure that multiple fast-moving satellites are above a user's horizon at any given moment to provide uninterrupted service. The satellites receive user inputs, and send those to nearby Starlinks for relay to"gateway" ground stations connected to high-speed data lines. Responses are then passed along back to the user.
Capable of handling up to 1 terabyte of data per second, the satellites are equipped with the largest dish antenna ever launched on a commercial satellite. Once on station, the huge mesh reflector will unfold atop an 80- to 90-foot-long telescoping boom based on technology developed for the James Webb Space Telescope.
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