SpaceX launches 88 satellites on rideshare mission

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The rocket took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 3:31 p.m. ET and flew south along the East Coast as it hurtled into space. The satellites delivered into orbit were from a range of government and commercial customers — including NASA and the radar satellite company ICEYE — as well as three satellites of SpaceX’s Internet constellation Starlink.

After takeoff, the Falcon 9’s first stage rocket booster — the large bottom portion that houses the motors that give the rocket its initial thrust upon takeoff — returns to land upright on a ground platform so it can be refurbished and used again in future missions. SpaceX says cost savings by reusing spaceflight hardware is key to making spaceflight cheaper.

The booster used on Wednesday was previously used in seven other launches, and each half of the rocket’s streamline — the dome-shaped cover over the rocket that protects satellites during launch — has also been used on previous missions.

SpaceX is best known for carrying satellites, cargo and – more recently – astronauts into orbit atop Falcon 9 rockets, but earlier this year the company kicked off its campaign of co-flights for several customers, with the rocket’s cargo container stuffed with batches. of small satellites belonging to a variety of SpaceX clients. rideshare missions serve as a way for SpaceX to capitalize on the growing demand for small satellites, or small satellites, to enter orbit, and small satellites have seen a rise in popularity over the past few years. Their sizes range from as small as a smartphone to the size of a kitchen refrigerator. As it has grown more advanced, large numbers of companies have entered the market promising to provide services using new smallsat technologies, usually small satellites get into orbit by tagging larger and more expensive satellites, and the waiting list can be long and unpredictable. But there has been a huge push in the launch industry to cater directly to the needs of the booming smallsat market. Dozens of new rocket companies are vowing to build miniature rockets that can provide quick and easy launch of small satellites. Two of these companies, Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit, have successfully sent their miniature rockets into orbit and started commercial operations.

Virgin Orbit’s second orbital launch took off on Wednesday morning, just hours before the launch of the SpaceX mission.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets are much larger than the Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit rockets, and are typically used to launch massive communications, spy satellites or the Dragon spacecraft, which transports astronauts and cargo to and from the International Space Station.

The decision to devote only additional tasks to launching small constellations of satellites is company first, and it is a sign of how much interest in the industry has grown.

With the increasing number of devices in orbit, experts are becoming increasingly concerned about crowding. Satellites have collided in orbit before, and while such incidents pose little threat to people on Earth, debris from a crash can remain in orbit for years or decades.

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