Yesterday SpaceX launched another rocket from Florida, but this rocket is completely different from most of the flight routes from the east coast of the United States. After launching, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket did not fly eastward like most Florida missions, but flew south after liftoff, bypassing the southeastern coast of Florida, and heading over Cuba.
This is because the destination of this mission is the so-called polar orbit-a path that traverses the poles of the earth mainly from north to south. In fact, this will be the first time a rocket has taken off from Florida and headed south since 1969.
So far, most polar launches in the United States have been carried out from the southern coast of California. In this way, the rocket flies over the open ocean when it goes south, not over the densely populated land.
As of now, only SpaceX can fly this unique path from Florida because of the way its Falcon 9 rocket is designed . The company’s rocket has an automatic flight safety system, which means that if the aircraft deviates from the path or has a problem, it can self-destruct without requiring ground input instructions, which is important for flying this polar route. Since the rocket will fly near densely populated areas, any deviation from the flight must be dealt with quickly to ensure the safety of ground personnel. However, the gas plume emitted by the rocket engine may interfere with any self-destruct signals sent by the ground, so the Falcon 9 must be able to explode without human assistance.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from SpaceX’s launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base at 7:18 PM Eastern Time. Subsequently, the rocket flew south, passing over the southeastern coast of Florida near Miami, and then flying over Cuba.
The main satellite launched this time is SAOCOM 1B, and there are also two small satellites on board. SAOCOM 1B is the second of two identical Earth observation satellites that SpaceX has signed for the Argentine Space Agency. The two satellites will use radar to observe the earth together to hunt for disasters that may damage agriculture, mining, fishery and other industries. The satellite will enter a polar orbit called a sun-synchronous orbit. This path allows satellites to pass through the same area on the earth at the same time every day, which is very good for earth observation satellites that want to track changes in their positions on the earth over time.
Naijatechnews learned that in this mission, SpaceX used a Falcon 9 rocket, which had already flown to space three times before. After liftoff, the rocket successfully landed back to SpaceX’s ground landing pad near the Florida launch site. SAOCOM 1B was deployed only 14 minutes after takeoff, and the two small satellites will be deployed about an hour after launch.
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