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The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster that carried NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Douglas Hurley on the first private space flight to the International Space Station (ISS) crashed into the Atlantic Ocean late yesterday while en route to landing. Inclined. This rocket was the first of his SpaceX rockets to fly 19 consecutive successful missions, and after the NASA mission, it launched nearly 1,000 satellites into space. The latest launch took place just before the holiday weekend, flying alongside a constellation of Starlink satellites and landing on SpaceX’s Gravitas Missing drone ship at sea.
SpaceX puts to rest the remarkable rocket that launched more than 200 tons of satellites in less than four years
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 program is perhaps one of the most successful programs in the history of launch vehicles or the rocket industry. This booster is the first of its kind in the world that can lift a heavy payload into space with the help of propulsion and land vertically. At the same time, because each rocket can be used more than a dozen times, the marginal cost for SpaceX and its customers to launch payloads into space is also significantly lower than if SpaceX built a booster for each new rocket. launch.
The Falcon 9’s somewhat rapid reusability, aided by its increased number of rockets, has been one of the biggest drivers of SpaceX’s success in building its Starlink Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite internet constellation. Previous attempts at such missions have failed due to the long lead times for building rockets.
Today’s booster, which should currently be resting at the bottom of the ocean floor, was first launched in May 2020 when SpaceX launched its first crewed demonstration mission for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP). , it was something special.
After launching the two astronauts, the rocket also launched a South Korean military satellite, two SpaceX satellite rideshare missions, and 14 Starlink missions. In the three and a half years since the launch of DM-2, he has lifted more than 260 tons, or 860 satellites and spacecraft, into space.
The DM-2 astronaut-launching rocket booster was the only rocket in SpaceX’s fleet to launch 19 missions, while the other three completed 17 missions each. The last of these rockets flew this month to launch another South Korean military satellite, and this rocket booster was also the first to land in 14 flights.
It’s also extremely rare for a SpaceX rocket to simply fall off a drone ship into the water, and the company characterized Falcon 9’s first unplanned mission as an accident.that share on social media.Strong winds and waves caused the booster to topple over on the drone ship.” and changes to the mechanical design of the Falcon 9’s landing gear will prevent similar accidents from occurring in the future.