SpaceX launches heavy Israeli satellite and succeeds in capturing nose cone

SpaceX successfully launched the relatively heavy Israeli communications satellite Amos-17 into orbit with a Falcon 9 rocket. One half of the missile’s nose cone has been successfully captured by a ship.

SpaceX announced on Twitter that the Amos-17 satellite has been successfully decoupled from the rocket and launched into orbit. This satellite, made by Boeing for the Israeli company Spacecom, is equipped with transponders for the Ka, Ku and C bands and is intended to provide communication services in these frequency bands in Europe and Africa, among other places. This satellite launch was reportedly free of charge after a SpaceX launch of the Amos-6 satellite went completely wrong in August 2016. During a static fire test, the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the satellite exploded. Since then, such test ignitions are no longer carried out including the cargo to be transported.

When launching a Falcon 9 rocket, an attempt is usually made to contain the lower rocket stage for possible reuse. However, this was not attempted with the current launch, which incidentally involved a rocket stage that was used twice before. The rocket stage plunged into the Atlantic Ocean and it was deliberately planned that way. Due to the relatively hefty weight of the Amos-17 satellite of some 6,500 kg, the Falcon 9 rocket needed as much fuel as possible to get the satellite into the desired orbit, leaving insufficient fuel for a successful launch. make a landing attempt.

However, SpaceX managed to catch half of the rocket’s nose cone or fairing. CEO Elon Musk posted a short video on Twitter showing a nose cone half being successfully caught in the ship’s large, horizontal safety net, GO Ms. tree. The other half ended up in the ocean; a second ship tries to salvage that part. In the past, it has often not been possible to catch the nose cone parts coming down from a parachute, but that tide seems to be slowly turning. The current successful reception attempt is the second time in a short time that this has been successful; At the end of June, this was successful for the first time, when a nose cone half from a launched Falcon Heavy was caught in the net of GO Ms. tree.