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Relevant For General Studies:-
- Washington: SpaceX has launched its Falcon 9 rocket, sending an unusual payload into space—64 satellites at the same time, a US record.
- And the company headed by US tech billionaire Elon Musk marked another milestone on Monday in its bid to make rockets more re-usable, like airplanes: the blast-off used a recycled booster for the third time.
- California-based SpaceX has landed more than 30 of these boosters back on Earth, and has begun re-using them on subsequent missions.
- In the past, companies have typically allowed rocket parts costing many millions of dollars to fall like junk into the ocean.
- Monday’s landing of the first stage was flawless, like many before it.
- Several minutes after lift-off, the tall, white portion of the rocket—known formally as the first stage—separated from the second stage.
- The booster then fired its engines and made a controlled, upright landing on a platform in the Pacific Ocean, video from SpaceX’s live webcast showed.
- Meanwhile, the second stage pressed deeper into space, carrying 15 micro-satellites and 49 CubeSats belonging to 34 different clients including public, private and university sources from 17 different countries including South Korea, France and Kazakhstan.
- The launch was chartered by a company called Spaceflight, which specialises in space “rideshares,” or putting multiple satellites on the same rocket.
- Microsatellites weigh a few dozen pounds (kilograms) and CubeSats are even smaller.
- The satellites will be placed into orbit over the next several hours.
- Not all the clients have scientific missions.
- The Nevada Museum of Art sent up a sculpture called “Orbital Reflector” by artist Trevor Paglen.
- The reflective, inflatable sculpture is designed to eject from its satellite and orbit the earth “for several weeks before disintegrating upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere,” the museum said.
- This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.
