SpaceX Falcon 9 to transport 88 spacecrafts to orbit

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch and subsequent landing will take place at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Tuesday. The rocket will lift off from Launch Complex 40 and the its 162-foot booster will separate from the payload-hauling in the second stage. It will flip around and begin a descent toward Landing Zone 1. According to USA Today, the booster, which will fly to an altitude hundreds of thousands of feet above Earth’s surface, will touch down just 5 1/2 miles from where it started.

Space X tweeted, “Targeting Tuesday, June 29 for launch of Transporter-2. This mission will launch 88 spacecraft to orbit and more customer mass than SpaceX’s previous dedicated rideshare mission.”

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Releasing a statement on Monday, Elon Musk’s Space X said that there was a possibility that residents of Brevard, Orange and Okeechobee counties may hear one or more sonic booms, depending on weather and other conditions.

When an aircraft or rocket approaches the speed-of-sound barrier during acceleration or deceleration, it generates sonic booms. According to USA Today, Falcon 9’s sonic booms aren’t heard during ascent but its landing booms are generated just over the Cape as it fires its Merlin engines to slow down.

It will be SpaceX fly second Transporter mission. It allows several organisations to split launch costs by flying smaller spacecraft in one Falcon 9 payload fairing. The first Transporter flight created a record in January by carrying 143 spacecraft.

SpaceX is owned by billionaire Elon Musk and it designs, manufactures and launches the world’s most advanced rockets and spacecraft. Founded in 2002, the aim was to reduce space transportation costs.

US Space agency NASA on May 30, 2020, used SpaceX rockets to launch two astronauts, including Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken into orbit on a spacecraft.