The Falcon 9B1060 rocket completed its eighth flight on Wednesday (30th) during the mission conveyor -2. The B1060 represents one flight every month and a half, revealing SpaceX’s progress toward developing a reusable first stage rocket.
This Falcon 9’s shipment pace is picking up – there have been five flights since January 2021. The number is even more impressive when compared to the Falcon 9. orbitals On NASA, which usually performs one or two tasks a year, because it needs a lot of fixes between releases.
The first use of this transport was in June 2020 during a mission by the US Space Forces to install satellites GPS III.
Breaking the sound barrier during the launch of the Transporter-2 missionSource: Reproduction / Trevor Mahleman
The Falcon 9 rocket line completed 20 missions this year. Portal photographer and journalist aRS TechnicaTrevor Mahleman recorded images of the launch and landing of the Transporter-2 mission, which sent several commercial and government satellites into space. We can see how time and wear have transformed the B1060’s gritty look.
B1060 . landingSource: Reproduction / Trevor Mahelmannhal
B1060 before its first launch in 2020 compared to the current state of the missileSource: Reproduction / Trevor Mahleman
carrier is delayed 2
The Falcon 9 flight was supposed to take place on Tuesday (29), but was canceled during the countdown. The aircraft entered the exclusion zone set by the US Federal Aviation Administration, which hampered the launch. After the incident, Space X founder and CEO Elon Musk posted a tweet criticizing the US agency’s regulations.
Unfortunately, the launch was canceled for the day, as the aircraft entered the “exclusion zone”, which is unreasonably gigantic.
There is simply no way humanity could become a space-faring civilization without major organizational reform. The current regulatory system is broken.
– Elon Musk June 29, 2021
“There is simply no way for humanity to become a space civilization without organizational reform,” complained the businessman. He concluded that “the current regulatory system is broken”.
You can watch the full broadcast of the mission in the video below.