SpaceX To Deploy Falcon 9 Rocket On Tuesday After Firing It Off 52 Times in 52 Weeks

SpaceX has successfully flown 52 Falcon 9 rockets in 52 weeks after maintaining an average of one launch per week for an entire year.

One of SpaceX's most difficult commercial missions, the Starlink 4-2 rideshare mission, broke the existing Falcon 9 rocket reuse record. Additionally, Teslarati said it was SpaceX's 150th consecutive successful launch.

The business stated that Tuesday would be the earliest SpaceX Falcon 9 will lift off again.

SpaceX Unloads Heaviest Rideshare Payload

According to Florida Today, at 9:20 p.m. EDT, liftoff from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center marked Florida's 39th launch of the year and sent the BlueWalker 3 satellite for client AST SpaceMobile to orbit together with a package of 34 Starlink satellites.

At Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a pre-launch Falcon 9 engine test was performed on Sunday morning, and the firm said its next launch would not happen until Tuesday. Initially, Sunday night was projected to be the time.

Thirty-four of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites, as well as BlueWalker 3, a prototype satellite built by AST SpaceMobile that is billed as the largest commercial communications array ever flown in space, were carried by the Falcon 9 as it was launched into orbit from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

It was a 9:20 p.m. liftoff. EDT on Saturday evening (Sept. 10), with the Falcon 9 rocket creating some SpaceX history during its descent to the planet.

"This is a record-breaking 14th landing for this booster," Jesse Anderson, a SpaceX production engineering manager, said during live commentary.

The operation also set a few additional records.

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It was also the company's biggest rideshare cargo ever. It was SpaceX's first five-engine-burn mission to place payloads in orbit. According to Anderson, BlueWalker 3 weighs 3,300 pounds (1,500 kg).

Most Complex Commercial Launch

Once it was detached from the rocket, the Falcon 9's expendable upper stage launched SpaceX's most difficult commercial flight.

"One of our most complex missions," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote of the flight on Twitter.

The second stage and cargo were launched into an elliptical orbit a few hundred kilometers above the planet's surface during the first and longest burn, which lasted around six minutes.

The bottom end of that ellipse was raised with a second burn approximately 45 minutes after launch, putting BlueWalker 3 into a circular orbit at a distance of around 500 kilometers (310 miles).

52 Falcon 9s, including Starlink 4-2, have been safely launched by SpaceX since Sept. 14, 2021. Though not strictly done so in a calendar year, SpaceX has already surpassed CEO Elon Musk's goal of 52 launches annually.

Perhaps even more amazing is that this flight was SpaceX's 150th consecutive successful Falcon launch. According to Teslarati, no other rocket family (the Falcon) or individual rocket (the Falcon 9) has carried out more successful launches.

Starlink 4-2 was the 42nd launch of SpaceX in 2022. If the business keeps up its current pace, it may have completed more than 60 Falcon launches by the end of the year.