2020 was the year with the most action in the history of SpaceX, the Elon Musk company that manufactures and launches reusable rockets, but the action also began in 2021 and maybe shaping up to be the year with the most launches to the orbit of the rockets from the company.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with Turkey’s Turksat 5A satellite last week from Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. If you didn’t see it, don’t worry, you can go to the SpaceX website. You can also view past releases here.
Last Thursday’s was practically a routine mission for Elon Musk’s company, but since it was a night launch the view was very spectacular, so take a look.
The Turksat 5A is one of two satellites that Turkey will launch with SpaceX, for communication purposes around the country and connecting with the Middle East, Europe and parts of Africa. The Turksat 5B is scheduled to launch in October this year.
With this, there are 103 Falcon 9 rocket launches, which are reusable and have two launch phases and which have put satellites into orbit and are used to transport cargo and people to the International Space Station (ISS, for its acronym in English). ). In total, the company has launched 108 rockets.
Because they are reusable rockets, SpaceX has been able to relaunch 45 rockets, which greatly reduces the cost – in fact, last week’s trip was the fourth flight of that same Falcon 9 and after putting the satellite into orbit it landed from I return in an unmanned ship – called Just Read the Instructions – that has the company stranded in the Atlantic Ocean.
SpaceX, a company founded nearly two decades ago by Elon Musk – who, according to a Bloomberg report, already surpassed Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest person with a net worth of $ 188.5 billion – is the first private company to shipped cargo to the ISS in 2012, but whose long-term goal is to get humans to Mars.