It’s been a little while since any major space related news, but then again it’s been a rather quiet front on the side of launches of note – or at least, ones I feel it good to write about.
In this case, we have another SpaceX Falcon 9 launch, this one of a communications satellite for South Korea.
As expected, the launch proceeded normally, with the satellite being inserted into its proper initial orbit (the payload will insert itself into its final orbit, as is standard for most geostationary satellites these days) and the 1st stage of the Falcon 9 making yet another landing, this time on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Another perfectly normal launch for SpaceX. Like most launches, I’m not aware of if this is a re-flown booster or not (they don’t ever seem to make this information easy to find, even though every other fan seems to know everything about the company /sarcasm ) but since it landed safely, there’s no doubt it will fly again.
Interestingly, beyond the same constant annoyances in the live webcast (read, the announcers and the fact they insist on having the audio bleed in from fans at the SpaceX HQ) I really overall enjoyed watching this launch and landing. It reminded me that, as I keep saying, I have no actual beef with SpaceX and their current operations – it’s the fanbase that’s terrible, alongside the hype machine that Elon Musk generates towards his rather outlandish presentations.
Anyway, this isn’t one of those posts, so, as always, here’s the webcast so you can enjoy the launch, and the commentary. Enjoy!