SpaceX launches Falcon 9 with first broadband internet satellites

Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a customer payload plus its own broadband demonstration satellites in the company’s first mission since millions tuned in earlier this month for its Falcon Heavy debut.
The Thursday launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s central Coast carried a radar-imaging satellite for Spain’s Hisdesat Servicios Estrategicos SA. The PAZ satellite will orbit the planet 15 times a day and collect information - including ship tracking and weather data - for government and commercial customers.
The rocket also carried a pair of SpaceX’s own broadband satellites as a secondary payload.

Microsat-2a and -2b are the first prototypes for the company’s planned constellation of satellites - dubbed Starlink - intended to offer broadband internet around the world.
“If successful, Starlink constellation will serve least served,” Musk said in a Tweet Wednesday. SpaceX’s fourth launch in what is expected to be a record year took off from the California pad at around 6:17 a.m. local time. SpaceX is targeting roughly 30 total launches this year, including flying its new Falcon Heavy rocket again in June.

Falcon Heavy: SpaceX's amazing launch, but what about environmental impact?

SpaceX has now launched the most powerful spacecraft since the Apollo era – the Falcon Heavy rocket – setting the bar for future space launches. The most important thing about this reusable spacecraft is that it can carry a payload equivalent to sending five double-decker London buses into space – which will be invaluable for future manned space exploration or in sending bigger satellites into orbit.

Falcon Heavy essentially comprises three previously tested rockets strapped together to create one giant spacecraft. The launch drew massive international audiences – but while it was an amazing event to witness, there are some important potential drawbacks that must be considered as we assess the impact of this mission on space exploration.

But let’s start by looking at some of the many positives. Falcon Heavy is capable of taking 68 tonnes of equipment into orbit close to the Earth. The current closest competitor is the Delta IV heavy which has a payload equivalent of 29 tonnes. So Falcon Heavy represents a big step forward in delivering ever larger satellites or manned missions out to explore our solar system. For the purposes of colonising Mars or the moon, this is a welcome and necessary development.

Musk's Mars plans: SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket soars in debut test launch

The world's most powerful rocket, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, roared into space through clear blue skies in its debut test flight on Tuesday from a Florida launch site where moon missions once began, in another milestone for billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's private rocket company.

The 23-story-tall jumbo rocket, carrying a cherry red Tesla Roadster automobile into space as a mock payload, thundered off its launchpad in billowing clouds of steam and rocket exhaust at 3:45 p.m (2045 GMT) at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

Boisterous cheering could be heard from SpaceX workers at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, where a livestream feed of the event originated. Several hundred spectators packed a campground near Cocoa Beach, 5 miles (8 km) from the space center, to watch the blastoff.

Falcon Heavy will be a success if it doesn't blow up on launch pad: Musk

The maiden flight of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s larger and more powerful Falcon Heavy rocket will be a success if it doesn’t blow up on the launch pad, according to Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.

“This is a test mission, so we don’t want to set expectations of perfection,” Musk said on a call with reporters Monday ahead of the planned demonstration flight from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “I would consider it a win if it just clears the pad.”

The new rocket, which is expected to take off as early as 1:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, is a reusable “super heavy” launch vehicle that will allow the closely held company to bid on heavier commercial and government payloads. It has double the capacity of its closest competitor, United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy. And competitors are watching closely, with Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin LLC and ULA’s Tory Bruno both wishing Musk good luck via Twitter as tourists swarm Florida’s space coast.