Washington. December 18. INTERFAX - INTERFAX - The Falcon 9 heavy launch vehicle on Saturday successfully launched into orbit a batch of 52 mini-satellites designed to continue the deployment of the global network of Internet coverage of the Starlink system, the developer company SpaceX reported.
"The successful withdrawal of satellites has been confirmed," the message says.
The launch was carried out at 04:41 East Coast time of the USA (at 12:41 Moscow time) from the launch complex of the US Space Forces at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
The SpaceX orbital grouping now consists of 1942 spacecraft weighing 290 kg each. Currently, the company is the largest satellite operator in the world.
Approximately 15.5 minutes after launch, 52 satellites separated from the second stage of the rocket in an elliptical transition orbit up to 341 km high. After the SpaceX engineers have checked their operability, the satellites using their own ion engines will rise to a standard orbit with a height of 540 km.
This is the 34th launch of a group of Internet satellites into orbit since May 2019 as part of the Starlink project and the 18th this year. The previous batch of Starlink satellites was launched on December 3.
The reusable first stage of the American Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which was used for launches for the 11th time, approximately nine minutes after launch made a controlled vertical landing on a floating platform-the drone Of Course I Still Love You, which was located in the Pacific Ocean 645 km from the launch pad at the Vandenberg base.
In addition, special SpaceX rescue vessels will have to fish out of the water two wings of the fairing of the rocket head, which after separation descended by parachute. The reuse of the fairing allows SpaceX to save up to $6 million when launching its rockets.
