SpaceX launches Italian remote sensing satellite putting on a spectacular sunset sky show as it climbed toward orbit
After three weather delays and a scrub Sunday due to a wayward cruise ship, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket finally blasted off Monday on its fifth try, putting on a spectacular sunset sky show as it climbed toward orbit, dropping off its first stage booster along the way for a fiery descent to touchdown at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Monday climbs away from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station carrying an Italian remote sensing satellite.After boosting the payload out of the lower atmosphere, the first stage separated, flipped around and flew itself back to landing at the Space Force station, chalking up SpaceX's 104th successful booster recovery and its 22nd in Florida.
A long-range tracking camera spots the Falcon 9's second stage pulling away fromthe just jettisoned first stage.While more cruise ships headed out Monday, the Falcon 9 was cleared for launch and successfully delivered its payload to the desired orbit. The satellites can resolve surface features smaller than a yard across when zoomed in on a specific target. They also can operate in"stripmap" mode, observing a continuous strip of land, or in a third mode that captures imagery of an area 124 miles to either side of a satellite's ground track.
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