B1062 took off for its 11th time this morning and then landed successfully on ASOG. This is SpaceX's final Falcon 9 launch for the year.
It was SpaceX's 60th successful Falcon 9 launch this year. 60 in 52 weeks, easily beating SpaceX's planned cadence for the year of one a week. Without any failures!
Their goal for next year is reportedly 100 launches (better than one every four days)!
The payload on this one was a bit of a mystery. It was 54 "Version 1.5" Starlinks. There was some speculation that it might be the roll-out of the "Version 2 minis", the more powerful planned Starlinks intended to be able to communicate directly with cell-phones. (The full-capacity Version 2's are too large for a Falcon 9 and are waiting for Starship.) But the fact that this launch carried 54 suggests that these aren't much more massive than Version 1 Starlinks, so it doesn't appear to have been Version 2 minis.
(SpaceX photo)
I Lied!
I just learned that SpaceX has a 61'st Falcon 9 launch scheduled for this year, on Dec 30th, from Vandenberg.
It was SpaceX's 60th successful Falcon 9 launch this year. 60 in 52 weeks, easily beating SpaceX's planned cadence for the year of one a week. Without any failures!
Their goal for next year is reportedly 100 launches (better than one every four days)!
The payload on this one was a bit of a mystery. It was 54 "Version 1.5" Starlinks. There was some speculation that it might be the roll-out of the "Version 2 minis", the more powerful planned Starlinks intended to be able to communicate directly with cell-phones. (The full-capacity Version 2's are too large for a Falcon 9 and are waiting for Starship.) But the fact that this launch carried 54 suggests that these aren't much more massive than Version 1 Starlinks, so it doesn't appear to have been Version 2 minis.
(SpaceX photo)
I Lied!
I just learned that SpaceX has a 61'st Falcon 9 launch scheduled for this year, on Dec 30th, from Vandenberg.