UNITED STATES: After completing the intended 60 launches in a year without fail, Elon Musk’s SpaceX added one more mission to that distinguished list.
SpaceX successfully launched the ISI EROS C-3 mission to a low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for the last launch of the year.
There is no need for the December 31 backup launch option with an identical span of the launch window.
The EROS satellite group, which Israel initially launched in 2000, includes EROS-C.
According to sources, the spy satellite will join two synthetic aperture radar satellites and a quartet of EROS satellites before the decade’s end.
The satellite has a distinct scan capacity, unparalleled revisit and diversified imaging times, and either a 60 cm multi-spectral resolution or a 30 cm resolution.
The satellite is anticipated to be transported by the Falcon-9 in a low-Earth orbit retrograde to the rotation of the Earth.
The Falcon-9 spacecraft’s first stage will split around eight minutes after liftoff and land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
According to SpaceX, the Falcon-9 first-stage rocket used for this trip has also been used to launch missions such as Globalstar FM15, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, Transporter-4, and Transporter-5, including two Starlink missions.
SpaceX is building the Starlink satellite broadband constellation to provide for the delivery of commercial internet connectivity.
When the Starlink constellation was launched in January 2020, it broke all previous records for the number of small satellite constellations, with more than 3,300 in orbit as of December 2022.
The firm is also working on Starship, a privately funded, totally reusable, super heavy-lift launch system for interplanetary and orbital travel.
Once functional, it will take over as SpaceX’s primary orbital vehicle, replacing its present fleet of Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon.
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