China News Agency, Houston, August 18th. On August 18, local time, SpaceX sent the 11th batch of Starlink satellites into space, completing the 100th of the company’s "Falcon" series of rockets. The launch mission. So far, the company has launched a total of 643 "Starlink" satellites.
According to the official website of SpaceX, at 10:31 am Eastern time on the 18th, the "Falcon 9" rocket (B1049.6) carried 58 "Starlink" satellites and 3 "sky" earth observation satellites from Florida, USA Cape Canaveral Air Force Base lifted off. About eight minutes after liftoff, the rocket booster landed smoothly on the offshore recovery platform located in the Atlantic Ocean.
According to the US media "The Space" report, this rocket booster has performed five launch missions. Rocket boosters account for 60% of the total cost of the "Falcon 9" rocket.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk once said that rapid reuse of rockets is the key to significantly reducing space costs. Musk said that the latest "Falcon 9" rocket can complete 10 launch missions with almost no need for refurbishment, and can complete 100 launch missions under refurbished conditions.
In addition, in order to further reduce launch costs, SpaceX has begun to recover and reuse its payload fairing.
SpaceX's "Starlink" network is a low-Earth orbit satellite cluster that provides high-speed Internet access services covering the world. SpaceX plans to deploy about 12,000 "Starlink" satellites in space. The entire plan is expected to require an investment of approximately US$10 billion.
According to a Reuters report on the 18th, according to a regulatory document, SpaceX has completed $1.9 billion in financing. Analysis of data analysis company PitchBook shows that this will be the company's largest single round of financing to date. Bloomberg said that after the completion of the transaction, SpaceX's valuation will reach 46 billion US dollars. (Finish)