Monday, July 20

SpaceX seeks to set turnaround record for an orbital rocket on Monday

SpaceX will attempt to launch a South Korean military communications satellite on Monday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Anasis 2 mission has a nearly four-hour launch window, running from 5pm ET (21:00 UTC) to 8:55pm (00:55 UTC Tuesday).

This effort follows a delay from last week, when SpaceX called off a launch attempt to investigate a second stage issue. The company has not said whether it replaced the second stage for this launch or fixed a problem with the existing hardware.

Perhaps the most notable aspect of Monday's launch is that, if successful, it would break the company's record for turnaround time for a Falcon 9 rocket first stage. This booster was first used on May 30 with the launch of the Demo-2 mission for NASA, successfully sending astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station. A launch Monday means the company will have reused this booster in just 51 days.

Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

No comments:

Post a Comment