SpaceX launched its 67th rocket of the year Tuesday night, an impressive total for the company and its flagship booster, the Falcon 9. At this pace (a clip of one launch every four days), the company will launch more than 90 rockets. during this calendar year.
This Starlink satellite launch was notable for several other reasons. This is the first time SpaceX has reused the Falcon 9’s first stage 17 times. This booster (serial number 1058) flew in his last 11 Starlink missions along with GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, Intelsat G-33/G-34, and Transporter-6.
SpaceX conducted a fairly significant evaluation of booster wear after the Falcon 9’s first stage reached 15 flights, and the company’s engineers now believe the rocket can achieve at least 20 flights. Remarkably, SpaceX was able to push the boundaries of booster reuse while maintaining a 100 percent success record on the previous 228 launches of its Falcon 9 rocket until the pad explosion in September 2016. .
As part of its maintenance process, SpaceX still performs basic inspections and replaces engines and other critical components from time to time. In addition, the company risks its own Starlink satellites only to the most experienced boosters, reserving low-mileage rockets for customers.
minimal webcast
SpaceX continued its trend toward a minimalist broadcast approach with Tuesday night’s launch webcast, “Starlink Group 6-17 Mission.” The company still offers hosted webcasts for external satellite customers and partners with NASA for crew and cargo launches. But for Starlink, as of last month, the company is only providing a video feed with minimal audio from its launch control center. This video starts 5 minutes before he takes off.
One could argue that this is the correct approach to a Starlink launch. Starlink launches now occur frequently, with roughly the same flight profile from mission to mission. One of SpaceX’s earliest employees, Hans Koenigsmann, once told me that one of his goals for the company was to take the “magic” out of launches. And with these regular Starlink launches, the company has largely succeeded in removing the must-see from its launches.
Additionally, SpaceX founder Elon Musk has never actively supported launch webcasts. His attitude is primarily that no one hosts a webcast when planes take off from the airport. So if SpaceX aims to operate like an airline, why does it need to broadcast every launch?
But Musk also understands the value of showcasing his company’s efforts. Additionally, external customers love the visibility and publicity of webcasts. This probably explains why non-Starlink missions still feature hosted and (slightly) more complex webcasts.
Huh, YouTube?
One decision that seems indefensible in terms of expanding SpaceX’s reach and appeal is Musk’s decision to remove SpaceX’s webcasts from YouTube.
Instead, SpaceX now streams its webcasts exclusively on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter that Musk acquired for $44 billion. Perhaps this decision was made because Musk sees his YouTube as a competitor to his X, just as SpaceX stopped posting new images to his Flickr.
This not only reduces the video resolution but also many other problems Degrading the experience for online viewers. So it’s perhaps no surprise that alternative launch streams by NASASpaceflight.com and Spaceflight Now appeared to increase the viewership of his Starlink launch on Tuesday night.