SpaceX News, Update: Aerospace Company to Reach Fastest Pace Yet With Launch Every Two to Three Weeks
Space Explorations Technologies Corporation, more commonly known as SpaceX, appears to be back on track after the aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company's plans were temporarily halted when a Falcon 9 rocket exploded in September 2016. If everything goes according to their plan, SpaceX will be able to reach its fastest launch pace yet.
"We should be launching every two to three weeks," Space X president Gwynne Shotwell told Reuters on Monday.
This particular pace was what the company intended to accomplish in 2016 before their fleet of rockets were grounded due to the launch pad accident in Cape Canaveral, Florida. As a result, SpaceX was only able to launch eight out of the 20 that they had initially planned.
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According to reports, SpaceX intends to launch 27 missions this year and have more in the pipeline.
"We have more than 70 future launches on our manifest representing over $10 billion in contracts," Bret Johnson, SpaceX's chief financial officer, told The Wall Street Journal last month.
SpaceX resumed operations in January with the successful launch of a Falcon 9 rocket intended to deploy 10 satellites for voice and data company Iridium. It was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Currently, SpaceX's launch pad in Cape Canaveral is still undergoing repairs and SpaceX is also in the middle of constructing another launch site in Texas. For the meantime, the next several launches will be from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, also in Florida.
According to SpaceFlight Now's launch schedule, SpaceX will launch another Falcon 9 rocket for an operational cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 11:34 a.m. EST. It will be followed by another launch two weeks later, on Feb. 28 at 12: 27 a.m. EST, to send an EchoStar 23 communications satellite for EchoStar.
Meanwhile, in line with SpaceX's contract with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to taxi astronauts to and from the ISS in 2018, the company has been modifying its rockets' engines to enhance performance and address safety concerns, specifically about cracks in the turbine blades of the turbopumps. The new turbopumps are expected to be installed sometime in November.
