SpaceX launches 116 satellites on epic Transporter 11 rideshare mission, lands rocket (video)


When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.

 A rocket lifting off in front of a blue sky.  A rocket lifting off in front of a blue sky.

SpaceX Transporter 11 lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Space in California on Aug. 16, 2024. | Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX launched an epic rideshare mission to space today (Aug. 16).

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 116 different satellites launched on the company’s Transporter 11 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 2:56 p.m. EDT (1856 GMT; 11:56 a.m. local time.)

The first stage of Falcon 9 landed nearby the launch site roughly eight minutes after liftoff, as seen in the broadcast on X, formerly Twitter. It was the 12th successful flight for the veteran booster. SpaceX is expected to confirm the payload deployments later today.

a rocket lifting off in front of a blue skya rocket lifting off in front of a blue sky

a rocket lifting off in front of a blue sky

Related: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 2 Maxar satellites on record-tying 20th flight (video)

Transporter 11 includes a range of payloads from different companies. One of the payloads, for example, is an Nvidia Jetson Orin NX chip. The chip is a noted artificial intelligence and edge computing graphics processing unit (GPU).

SpaceX's Transporter-11 payloads are seen before launch.SpaceX's Transporter-11 payloads are seen before launch.

SpaceX’s Transporter-11 payloads are seen before launch.

RELATED STORIES:

— 8 ways that SpaceX has transformed spaceflight

— SpaceX inks landmark deal to launch European navigation satellites: report

— The top 10 views of Earth from space

The GPU will be shielded with a nanoparticle-infused polymer made by Cosmic Shielding Corporation (CSC), a spin-out from Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology. The university already did a test on the International Space Station, but Transporter 11 will be the first time it shields real hardware during a space mission.

SpaceX has already launched four other missions in the past week, with two of those efforts devoted to sending more satellites into space for the Starlink megaconstellation.

The Transporter 11 launch is SpaceX’s 80th of 2024, with more than 70% of the satellites devoted for Starlink.

This article was updated at 1:10 p.m. EDT with a slightly adjusted launch time published by SpaceX on its website, and again just following the successful launch.



Source link

About The Author

Scroll to Top