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Elon Musk's praise as SpaceX breaks annual launch record with Starlink mission
The latest launch is an addition to the constellation of broadband satellites called ‘Starlink’ - majorly consumer-based service with hundreds of thousands of internet users - that Elon Musk's company is racing to build.
Elon Musk founded SpaceX has broken its record for the most number of rockets launched in a calendar year and the feat followed the world's richest person's praise on Twitter for his firm. The achievement comes as Musk continues to be embroiled in $44 billion Twitter deal controversy. The deal was cancelled over lack of clarity on spam accounts on Twitter. The battle is now in court.
Meanwhile, SpaceX on Friday launched its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, thereby completing its 32 launch of 2022.
“Congrats to SpaceX team on record number of launches!” Musk tweeted.
SpaceX - a spacecraft manufacture and satellite communications corporation - also shared a post on the micro-blogging site on the achievement. “Deployment of 46 Starlink satellites confirmed – completing SpaceX’s 32nd mission of 2022!”
The latest launch is an addition to the constellation of broadband satellites called ‘Starlink’ - majorly consumer-based service with hundreds of thousands of internet users - that Musk's firm is racing to build, Reuters reported.
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With Friday's launch, SpaceX remains on the path to reach its goal of as many as 52 orbital missions by the end of the current year. The company said that the Falcon 9 is reusable and can be reflown up to 15 times.
So far, SpaceX has launched nealy 3,000 Starlink satellites to space.
The nearly two-decade-old company has in recent months moved its focus from manufacturing Falcon 9 rockets to managing a fleet of the ones already built. SpaceX has launched Starlink satellites to space faster than its rivals in the satellite internet sphere, including British satellite operator OneWeb.
The UK firm, which is close to completing an internet constellation with fewer satellites, has launched its satellites on Russia's Soyuz rocket. However, this year the company has plans to use the Falcon 9 after its contract with Soyuz was cancelled over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Reuters report added.
