SpaceX launched a colossal new commercial communications satellite into orbit Saturday night while setting a new launch record for its Falcon 9 rocket.
The Falcon 9 was launched into orbit from Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with 34 from SpaceX. starlink internet satellites and BlueWalker 3, a prototype satellite built by AST SpaceMobile that is billed as the largest commercial communications suite ever flown in space. Liftoff was at 9:20 pm EDT (01:20 GMT) on Saturday night (September 10), with the falcon 9 reinforcement doing some spacex story when he returned to Earth.
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“This is an unprecedented 14th landing for this booster,” said Jesse Anderson, SpaceX production engineering manager, during live commentary (opens in a new tab).
The mission also set some other records.
It was SpaceX’s first five-engine mission to deploy payloads to orbit, as well as the heaviest rideshare payload in the company’s history. (blue walker 3 it weighs a whopping 3,300 pounds (1,500 kilograms), Anderson said).
“One of our most complex missions”, CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk wrote about the flight On twitter (opens in a new tab).
Meet BlueWalker 3 from AST SpaceMobile
While SpaceX’s primary goal for Saturday’s launch was to add 34 new Starlink satellites In addition to its growing constellation in orbit, AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 satellite stood out for both its size and its ambitious mission.
The satellite, which will measure 693 square feet (64 square meters) when fully deployed, is the largest commercial antenna array launched into space. Their mission: to test a new technology designed to bring global cell phone service directly to users from space. The goal is to fill coverage gaps and provide seamless high-speed phone and data services in underserved areas.
“The reason our satellite is big is because to communicate with a low-power, low-internal-force phone, you only need a large antenna on one side with a lot of power, and that’s a critical part of our infrastructure. Scott Wisniewski , chief strategy officer of AST SpaceMobile, told Space.com in an interview, “We think it’s really important to communicate directly with regular phones, no changes to the phone, no additional burden on the user.”
It will be several weeks before AST SpaceMobile orders BlueWalker 3 to deploy its spring-loaded antenna, Wisniewski said. During that time, the company will perform a series of health checks to ensure the satellite is healthy, he added.
AST SpaceMobile has partnered with 25 cellular service providers, 10 of which will participate in the company’s planned six-month BlueWalker 3 test cruise to test its capabilities on six continents around the world. Those partners include providers such as Vodaphone, Rakuten Mobile and Orange, and a potential reach of 1.8 million phone users, Wisniewski said. Earlier this summer, the company received a FCC license to test BlueWalker 3 service in Texas and Hawaii in the United States.
To provide full coverage, AST SpaceMobile will need more than one satellite. “This is the culmination of a kind of research and development stage for our company before moving into satellite production next year,” Wisniewski said.
The company plans to follow BlueWalker 3 with five operational satellites in 2023. Ultimately, its goal is to build a constellation of at least 100 giant satellites to provide full coverage.
AST SpaceMobile is not alone in your search for cell phone coverage from space. The company Lynk Global is working on a similar project and Elon Musk announced last month that SpaceX partners with T-Mobile to provide cellular service with its Starlink satellites.
Because of their size, the AST SpaceMobile satellites may be visible to skywatchers from the ground, and some astronomers have criticized the plan for its potential impact on the telescope’s observations from the ground, according to a New scientific report (opens in a new tab). If that complaint sounds familiar to you, it’s because it’s one that chased SpaceX’s own Starlink constellation once the company started releasing dozens of them at a time.
A rocket reuse record as Starlink grows
Approximately 8.5 minutes after the launch of the BlueWalker 3 and Starlink satellites, the first stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket returned to Earth for a precise landing on the company’s A Shortfall Of Gravitas drone in the Atlantic Ocean. The landing set a new record for the number of launches from a Falcon 9 booster.
Before Saturday’s flight, the Falcon 9 stage launched eight different Starlink missions, as well as SpaceX’s first astronaut test flight for NASA (called Demo-2) in May 2020; the ANASIS-2 satellite for South Korea in July 2020; the uncrewed CRS-21 cargo mission to the International Space Station for NASA in December 2020, as well as the Transporter 1 and Transporter 3 carpool missions in January 2021 and January 2022, respectively.
When Elon Musk Unveiled Falcon 9 Block 5 Workhorse booster in 2018, said SpaceX’s goal was to fly them at least 10 times. With each subsequent flight, the company has pushed the limits of rocket reuse as part of its effort to reduce the cost of spaceflight.
Similarly, SpaceX has continued to increase the size of its Starlink constellation, as well as the number of countries and coverage areas in recent years. in August, Royal Caribbean announced (opens in a new tab) will use Starlink on board all of its cruise ships by 2023, and SpaceX already offers services for RVs, ships and homes around the world.
The company has launched more than 3,200 satellites since 2019, with thousands more to come. SpaceX plans to complete its initial constellation with 12,000 Starlinks in orbit and has requested permission to increase it to 30,000 satellites.
Sunday, Sept. On January 11, SpaceX plans to launch another Starlink mission. That flight, which will carry 54 Starlink satellites, is scheduled to launch from Space Launch Complex 40 in the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:53 p.m. EDT (02:53 GMT). You’ll be able to watch that launch live on Space.com at liftoff.
Saturday’s launch marked the 41st of the year for SpaceX. It was the company’s 179th release overall.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. follow us @spacedot.com, Fabook Y Instagram.
