2022 will have been an exceptional year for SpaceX. The spaceflight company recently conducted a new launch with a very specific goal in mind.
Of course, the maneuver ended well once again, while the year was already quite hectic in this area!
A (very) busy year!
This Wednesday, December 28 at 4:34 a.m. local time, a Falcon 9 rocket blasted off into Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was the 60e take-off carried out by SpaceX in 2022 (compared to 31 in 2021). In this exercise, the company led by Elon Musk has not experienced the slightest failure this year… And this last flight was no exception to the rule.
Eight minutes after launch, the rocket’s first stage returned safely to Earth. He landed smoothly on the recovery barge SpaceX A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean despite terrible weather. So much so that the takeoff of the Falcon 9 (which was flying for the eleventh time) had almost been delayed. However, we have the right to wonder about the nature of this mission carried out at the very end of December… The answer is obvious to say the least.
An ever-expanding network
The famous Falcon 9 had 54 latest-generation Starlink satellites on board. The head of production and engineering at SpaceX explained to be “able to deploy satellites into new orbits that will add even more capacity to the network” thanks to the recent obtaining of a new licence. The purpose of bringing the satellites into service is to improve network coverage, to make service faster in areas already covered and, by extension, to gain additional customers.
This second generation of Starlink satellites would be far more powerful than the 3,300 already in operation. Through these new installations, the service will even be able to reach smartphones directly (which was not the case previously). This should resolve the congestion concerns that have affected the network for several weeks.
Source : Space.com
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