A shiny new SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the latest military satellite into space for the US Space Force on Thursday.
Elon Musk's missile company finally launched the third generation military GPS satellite after a series of previous delays. It was in the beginning Set to Blastoff at the end of September but then it was pushed back a few days. It was about to take off on October 2nd, but the launch was canceled with just two seconds before the countdown clock ran out.
The unexpected issue resulted in several other delays, notably from NASA's Crew-1 mission send four astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, worried that the problem might occur with other Merlin engines.
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An investigation found that a piece of "masking paint" had blocked a pressure relief valve line and two of the missile's nine Merlin engines were attempting to fire early. The suspect engines were replaced and new start dates were set.
Now the GPS III Space Vehicle 04 is on its way into orbit. The first stage booster used at launch landed on the drone ship less than nine minutes after launch. Of course I still love you in the Atlantic. It is planned to make its second flight on another GPS satellite mission in 2021.
The company is also expected to attempt to rescue the halves of the fairing or the nose cone using different ships.
The next SpaceX launch is expected to be the one mentioned above Crew-1 mission for NASA. The start is planned for November 14th.
Watch Starlink 11 take off and the Falcon 9 drone ship land
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