A rocket Falcon 9, SpaceX took off on Saturday from California and put a dozen satellites into orbit, the first launch from the company since a ship similar was devoured by flames on a platform of Florida for more than four months.
The rocket two-stage blasted off at 9:54.m. from the Base Vandenberg Air Force with a cargo of satellites for Iridium Communications Inc., that will replace your entire network with 70 satellites of new generation.
The satellites were deployed about an hour after the release.
About nine minutes after lift-off, among the applause of the control room, the first stage of the rocket fell off and landed in a vertical position on a platform located in the Pacific Ocean south of Vandenberg, as part of the efforts of SpaceX for re-use of its thrusters.
The company has managed six landings successful previous on offshore platforms or on land.
A camera on board the first stage of the rocket gave the public an experience face-to-face, returning to the Earth, ignited the rockets landing, and played land of perfect way on the floating platform.
The return to activity is an important step to SpaceX, the company of billionaire Elon Musk with headquarters in California, which has scheduled about 70 pitches with value higher than 10,000 million dollars. In addition to the take-offs commercial, SpaceX moved supplies to the International Space Station and develops a Falcon with the capacity to carry astronauts to the station.
Officials SpaceX indicated that they identified all possible causes of the accident which occurred on the 1st of September during a pre-test at the launch at the Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and corrected the faults.
In the mishap destroyed the rocket and its cargo — a satellite that Facebook wanted to use them to extend access to internet in Africa — and forced to keep on the ground the program Falcon 9 in which research had been conducted.
This month, SpaceX announced that the researchers came to the conclusion that the accident involved a defect in one of the three tanks of helium located within the tank of liquid oxygen of the second phase of the ship.
In the research were involved in the Air Force, NASA, the National Board of Transportation Safety (NTSB, for its acronym in English) and the Federal Aviation Administration, which issued the license to the release.
The incident of September represented the second time that a Falcon 9 was destroyed. In June 2015, a ship of this type filled with supplies for the International Space Station disintegrated shortly after take-off. the SpaceX determined that the accident was due to the break-up of a pillar of support.
10 satellites that were launched on Saturday are part of a project of Iridium, based in McLean, Virginia, to replace its existing network of satellites that provide voice and data communications all over the world.
(Source: AP)
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