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IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

Watch SpaceX launch its third Falcon 9 rocket in less than two weeks

• https://www.theverge.com, by Loren Grush

This summer is shaping up to be packed full of SpaceX launches, with another one of the company's Falcon 9 rockets set to take off Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This time, the vehicle is tasked with launching a communications satellite into a high orbit for the company Intelsat. And it comes just a week after SpaceX's "doubleheader" weekend, when it launched two rockets in just 49 hours.

Unlike most SpaceX launches lately, this rocket will not attempt a landing after takeoff. The change likely has to do with the satellite that the company is launching. The probe, called Intelsat 35e, weighs more than 13,000 pounds, making it one of the heaviest satellites SpaceX has ever launched. It's also going to a particularly high orbit above Earth called geostationary orbit — a path 22,000 miles up. Those two factors combined mean the Falcon 9 will have to burn a lot of fuel to get the satellite where it needs to go, so there won't be much propellant leftover to perform a controlled landing.


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