Falcon 9 launcher launched from a cosmodrome at Cape Canaveral at 22:59 East time (06:59 Moscow time). After the start, the first stage was supposed to return to the autonomous seaside platform called Of Course I Still Love You, but she failed. An accident confirmed the representative of Spacex Jessica Anderson.
Despite the loss of the first stage, the launch can be considered successful: in the company Ilona Mask declared the successful conclusion of 60 Starlink Internet satellites into orbit. Previously, Spacex made it clear that the launch of the payload is the main task, and the return of the first stage is significant, but not the main part of it.
The past start became for the Falcon 9 carrier missile already in the new year. In the previous four launches, Spacex successfully returned the carrier steps.
We will remind, in November, the rocket passed another important stage in his life: the same stage was first able to run in the seventh time. The product brought the STARLINK satellites into orbit, and its first stage has been successfully returned back.
It is worth saying that last year the Falcon 9 rocket made more starts than any other carrier. Total Spacex spent 25 launches of these missiles: everyone was successful. In second place in terms of the number of launches, the Russian Soyuz is located, on the third, the Chinese "Changzhheng-2" missile.
At the same time, according to the total number of rocket and space launches in front of all China: last year, he fulfilled 39 starts, of which 35 were successful. The United States for the same period carried out 37 launches. In the third position is Russia with its 15 launches.
Recall, in 2020, the country carried out the first for almost six years the launch of the Heavy Rocket "Angara-A5", which in the future should become one of the main Russian carrier missiles.
As previously known, the carriers of the Angara family can be an important tool for Russia in the matter of studying the long-range space: especially since the prospects for the super-heavy rocket "Yenisei" are still very foggy.
Source: Naked Science