A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch later today carrying a new batch of satellites into orbit for communications company Iridium. After takeoff, SpaceX will try to land the Falcon 9’s first stage — the 14-story high core of the rocket that contains the main engines and most of the fuel — on an autonomous drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. If successful, it’ll be the 13th time SpaceX has successfully landed one of these rocket stages, and the eighth time it’s performed the feat at sea.
This is the second launch SpaceX is attempting in one weekend — the quickest turnaround ever. (Launches are weeks or months apart, usually.) On Friday, SpaceX sent a Bulgarian communications satellite into space from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in what the private spaceflight company called a “weekend doubleheader.” That flight was supposed to occur last weekend, but it was pushed back so that a valve could be replaced in the fairing, which is the cone at the top of the rocket that holds the satellite. On Sunday, Elon Musk said that the rocket has also been equipped with “significantly upgraded” fins made of titanium, which replaced aluminum fins that were prone to catching fire during reentry.
Flying with larger & significantly upgraded hypersonic grid fins. Single piece cast & cut titanium. Can take reentry heat with no shielding. https://t.co/SmyCCQRt2F
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 25, 2017
Today’s launch is part of Iridium’s plan to create a large constellation of 66 telecommunications satellites in lower-Earth orbit called Iridium NEXT. It will deliver mobile voice and data coverage all over the planet, including over the ocean and at the poles. The first 10 satellites were launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket in January; today’s launch will bring the number of satellites in space to 20. When fully completed, the constellation will also be used to provide a minute-by-minute tracking system for airplanes.
The Falcon 9 rocket that launched the first 10 Iridium NEXT satellites in January
Photo by SpaceX
Iridium has six more launches scheduled with SpaceX over the following 12 months, CEO Matt Desch said during a call with reporters on June 19th. “Our network activity in space is really going to get a bit frenetic here in the coming months,” Desch said. As these new satellites go up, they will slowly replace the old-generation satellites — some of which have been in orbit since the 1990s.