Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

SpaceX makes its 100th successful launch with a Starlink mission

By
Add as a preferred source on Google
Starlink Mission

SpaceX has deployed its fifteenth batch of Starlink satellites, with a launch taking place on Saturday, October 24 at 11:31 a.m. ET from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. A Falcon 9 rocket carried a batch of 60 satellites to add to the growing Starlink constellation satellite network which will eventually provide global broadband internet access.

Recommended Videos

The first stage booster of the Falcon 9 was caught by the droneship “Just Read the Instructions,” stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

This marks SpaceX’s 100th successful launch since the company launched its first Falcon 1 to orbit in 2008. This includes 95 Falcon 9 launches, three Falcon Heavy launches, and two Falcon 1 launches.

Falcon 9 launches SpaceX’s 100th successful flight → https://t.co/w5a0ZzbGoM pic.twitter.com/yNokC8MRng

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 24, 2020

Over these 100 launches, SpaceX has made impressive strides in improving the reusability of its rockets, getting better and better at catching first-stage rocket boosters for reuse and even starting to sometimes catch and reuse other parts as well such as payload fairings. Out of 100 successful launches, the company has caught the first stage booster 63 times, allowing boosters to be reused 45 times.

“SpaceX believes that fully and rapidly reusable rockets are the pivotal breakthrough needed to dramatically reduce the cost of access to space to enable people to travel to and live on other planets,” the company said in a statement. “While most rockets are expendable after launch — akin to throwing away an airplane after a one-way trip from Los Angeles to New York — SpaceX is working toward a future in which reusable rockets are the norm.”

As well as its much-used Falcon 9 rocket, which SpaceX says is now the most-flown operational rocket in the United States, the company is also forging ahead with the development of its Starship rocket for super heavy lift. The idea is to use the Starship for missions to the Moon and eventually to Mars. The development of the latest prototype, the SN8, is continuing with a recent static fire test. The company plans to before another static fire test before attempting a hop test, in which the rocket rises from the ground.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said he aims for Starship to reach orbit next year, potentially sending a Starship to Mars as early as 2024.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Former Space Writer
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
Topics
SpaceX Starship reaches orbit for the first time but its historic flight ends early
Starship reaches orbit for the first time and deploys 26 Starlink satellites before an early splashdown.
spacex-starship

After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180

Read more
Starship is finally going orbital, and SpaceX has picked September 22
Flight 14 is aiming for orbit, Starlink V3 deployment and a very long day in space.
Starship rocket.

SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.

Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver

Read more
Want a city on the Moon? Scientists say there’s not enough water
A billion tons still comes up short
Artist impression of activities in a Moon Base.

For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.

A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.

Read more