Deployment of the satellites is scheduled to begin 59 minutes after liftoff and should take about 15 minutes, SpaceX representatives have said.
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Saturday’s launch is the first of seven for Elon Musk’s SpaceX outfit to carry out through early 2018 for Iridium in support of the latter’s efforts to replace its current almost 20-year old constellation at a rate of 10 new satellites at a time. In 2016, SpaceX was almost on that pace before the failed launch derailed its efforts.
The numbers for 2016 are probably just as bad, since, according to the Journal, the September accident pushed half of the company’s planned 2016 launches off its schedule. After stage separation, the first stage of Falcon 9 will attempt to land upright on the company’s “Just Read the Instructions” droneship stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
This was the first successful landing on this particular drone ship, although four others had already been performed on the alternate drone ship that SpaceX has positioned in the Atlantic.
Company founder Elon Musk called it the most hard failure in SpaceX’s history.
While the rocket landing was dramatic, the main goal today is to loft the 1,896-lb.
The SpaceX Falcon rocket blasted off from California earlier in the day, delivering the satellites into low-Earth orbit about an hour later.
United States company Iridium provide global voice and data communications via a network of 66 active satellites and are now building a new satellite network dubbed Iridium NEXT. The Thales Alenia-built satellites are the first members of Iridium Communications’ next-generation satellite constellation, which will provide communications and data services across the globe. Today’s launch brings the Falcon 9’s success rate up to 28 in 30 flights since its debut in 2010.
SpaceX has an ambitious programme ahead, taking astronauts into space and cargo to the worldwide space station, as well as reusing rockets to cut costs. It was the first launch this year from VAFB and the first for SpaceX since a failed test launch on September 1.
SpaceX will return to flight on Saturday morning and launch a rocket into space for the first time since a launchpad explosion last September.
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That blow-up forced a months-long suspension, during which SpaceX determined that the failure was caused by problems with a helium pressure vessel inside the rocket’s second-stage liquid oxygen tank.
