SpaceX started the week with several payloads to launch into orbit. Elon Musk's space company had to make multiple deployments to send a big batch of satellites for their private customers.
SpaceX Launch 53 Satellites
On Monday (March 4) at precisely 5:05 p.m. ET (2205 GMT), the company's Transporter-10 mission was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California's Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E). Fifty-three payloads, including True Anomaly's Jackal spacecraft, a variety of CubeSats and nanosats, and the Aires satellite manufactured by spacecraft maker Apex, which will carry numerous payloads itself, will be launched into various orbits during the launch. The 53 satellites should be released from SpaceX's upper stage roughly two hours after liftoff, providing all goes according to plan.
It was SpaceX's 20th Falcon 9 flight of 2024. According to the business, it intends to launch 144 times this year.
SpaceX landed its first stage booster at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg today, around 7 minutes and 40 seconds after liftoff. This is the company's 280th booster landing overall and its 205th straight orbital-class rocket landing.
Transporter-10 is a ridesharing mission, transporting several smaller payloads for numerous clients. Private businesses can now launch satellites into orbit more conveniently and affordably without having to wait to "tag along" with the launch of a larger spacecraft thanks to these launches. This rideshare flight will be SpaceX's eleventh overall.
Today's launch will include many deployment events from various orbits due to the vast number of payloads. The rocket's second-stage Merlin vacuum engine is slated to switch out 53 minutes into the flight, which is when the first deployment is anticipated. The mission will be the B1081 Falcon 9 booster from SpaceX's fifth launch.
SpaceX Needs To Implement Corrective Actions For Starship Flight No. 3
While SpaceX continues to launch payloads for its private customers, its mission to send humans to the Moon and Mars has been delayed. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wrapped up its investigation for Starship's second flight last month and ordered Musk's company to take corrective actions before it cleared Starship for its next flight.
The FAA claims that SpaceX has identified the leading causes of the problem and that all parties have approved the 17 corrective actions listed in SpaceX's incident report.
The FAA's list of corrective actions split into seven for the Super Heavy Booster and ten for the Starship vehicle, includes a wide range of adjustments, from hardware redesigns to operational changes.
SpaceX intends to rebuild hardware, create new control system models, and reevaluate engine evaluations using OTF-2 flight data for the Super Heavy Booster. The Starship vehicle's corrective actions include equivalent modifications to hardware, operational adjustments, and updates to guidance systems and flammability assessments.
SpaceX plans to use the information it learned from the OTF-2 flight in its next Starship and Super Heavy launch initiatives. The flight test results will be used "along with planned performance enhancements" to improve the reliability and efficiency of the most powerful launch system in the world.
After the first flight test, SpaceX said that it is also "improving the speed of propellant loading operations prior to launch" and that the pad modifications, which included the water-cooled flame deflector, proceeded as planned. Furthermore, SpaceX still places a high priority on iterative design and development.
RELATED ARTICLE: Is the ISS Retiring? NASA Details Plans for Using Privately Developed Space Stations in the Future
Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times.
