SpaceX Returns to Flight With Successful Falcon 9 Launch

NEXT will eventually replace Iridium’s current communications network, which consists of 66 satellites in low-Earth orbit, company representatives have said.

In addition to successfully boosting its 10-satellite payload into orbit, the rocket made history by sticking its landing on a droneship in the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first ever successful boostback landing on the West Coast. SpaceX was able to find some debris of the COPVs after the accident and found that the aluminum liner had buckled, or was scrunched up.

But reliable, affordable rockets would still be the company’s most fundamental asset.

On September 1 during a pre-launch test at Cape Canaveral, Florida, a SpaceX Falcon 9 exploded on the launch pad, destroying the $62 million rocket and a almost $200 million satellite. The damage sustained was so significant that now, four months later, the launch pad at Cape Canaveral is still unsuitable for use.

The dramatic launchpad explosion on September 1 threw a wrench into that previous success.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and CEO, said the company now has about 70 flights on its manifest, a backlog valued at some $10 billion.

In the months after, SpaceX had many launch delays.

Meanwhile, SpaceX exuded confidence that a flawless launch will follow.

SpaceX officials told the Journal that the company has more than $1 billion cash on hand and no debt, as well as a long line of customers waiting for future launches. It’s impossible not to wonder who will come out on top, the team of giant defense contractors, or the billionaire tech magnate’s startup.

And on top of this, the company wants to enshroud the planet in (and sell) high-speed internet as it takes on a jaw-dropping effort to launch 4,425 satellites – more than humanity has launched off Earth.

This latest Elon Musk SpaceX launch certainly had a lot riding on it, since Musk’s goal of making human beings a multi-planet species requires bringing down the cost of launching people and cargo into space to a fraction of what it is now. Iridium Next is created to deliver faster data transfer speeds and higher throughputs than Iridium’s existing network, representing one of the largest “tech upgrades” in history.

Investigators said fueling procedures allowed chunks of super-chilled liquid oxygen to form in the rocket’s upper stage.

SpaceX is due to put the 70-satellite constellation into place with seven launches over the course of the next year. The satellites are part of the world’s largest commercial satellite constellation into space, Iridium Next.

The plan is to create a voice and data network that will help the telecommunications network, with the help of these satellites. But those dangers are worth pushing the boundaries of exploration and technology.