SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket launches on first commercial flight - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket launches on first commercial flight.

The massive booster carried a Saudi telecommunications s A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, carrying the Arabsat 6A communications satellite, lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 11, 2019.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket successfully lifted off Thursday, marking the towering booster’s second flight and its first commercial launch. This was also the first time that all three of the rocket's reusable boosters returned safely to Earth.
The Falcon Heavy roared into space at 6:35 p.m. ET from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The massive booster carried into orbit a 13,000-pound Saudi telecommunications satellite designed to provide television, internet and mobile phone service to the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

The 230-foot-tall rocket weighs more than 3.1 million pounds and is made up of three reusable boosters based on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which has been ferrying cargo to the International Space Station since 2012.
Less than 10 minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s two side boosters maneuvered back to Earth and nailed simultaneous, side-by-side landings on pads at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. For the first time, the company also successfully landed the center core booster on a robotic drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Florida.
Flight engineers at SpaceX's mission control center in Hawthorne, California, erupted in loud cheers after it was confirmed that all three boosters returned safely.
The Falcon Heavy is designed to loft into low-Earth orbit up to 140,000 pounds — more than any American rocket has been able to carry since NASA’s Saturn V, which took Apollo astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and ‘70s.
The Falcon Heavy made its maiden flight on Feb. 6, 2018.


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SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket launches on first commercial flight.

SpaceX carries out 50th launch of Falcon 9 rocket - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

SpaceX carries out 50th launch of Falcon 9 rocket

SpaceX carried out the 50th launch of its signature Falcon 9 rocket early today, about 33 minutes into the flight, the satellite was deployed into geo-stationary orbit.

SpaceX carried out the 50th launch of its signature Falcon 9 rocket early Tuesday, a swift ascent to a milestone which many aerospace giants take far longer to attain.
The launch of the Falcon 9 carrying a Hispasat Spanish-language telecommunications and broadband satellite took place on schedule at 12:33 am (0533 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
About 33 minutes into the flight, the satellite was deployed into geo-stationary orbit, SpaceX said in a webcast.
The satellite weighs six tonnes and is almost the size of a city bus, making it the largest geostationary satellite that SpaceX has taken into space.
The satellite aims to expand television, broadband and telecommunications service in Europe and Northwest Africa.
The Falcon 9 first flew in 2010, and since then has become the California-based company’s workhorse for sending supplies to the International Space Station, as well as launching both commercial satellites and secretive government payloads.
Powered by nine Merlin engines, the Falcon 9’s first stage has also mastered the art of landing upright on solid ground or on floating platforms in the ocean after launch.
These “recycled” rocket launches are part of SpaceX’s goal to cut the cost of space flight and re-use expensive rocket parts instead of tossing them in the ocean after each launch.
But SpaceX did not attempt to land Falcon 9’s booster Tuesday due to unfavorable weather in the recovery area off Florida’s Atlantic coast, said a company statement.
According to the website ArsTechnica, SpaceX’s 50 launches are “double the maximum number of flights the Atlas V (2014 and 2015) and space shuttle (1985) performed during their most prolific years.”
Elon Musk’s grand visions for space exploration include sending tourists into orbit around the Moon and eventually colonizing Mars.
Last month SpaceX launched its monster Falcon Heavy rocket—three times as powerful as the Falcon 9—for the first time, propelling Musk’s own Tesla roadster with a spacesuit-clad dummy at the wheel into orbit near Mars.


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SpaceX carries out 50th launch of Falcon 9 rocket