MEXICO: American aerospace company SpaceX announced that its signature rocket Falcon 9 will return to service in December with 11 scheduled commercial satellite launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
SpaceX said the satellite launch for New Jersey-based telecommunications firm Orbcomm will be the first mission of the Falcon 9 rocket since its failed liftoff on June 28.
The spacecraft was supposed to carry a Dragon capsule and deliver much needed supplies to the crew of the International Space Station when it suddenly exploded minutes after it was launched from Canaveral.
The mishap was the first failed launch of the Falcon 9 in 18 space missions.
The space company had been expected to send a communications satellite for the Luxembourg-based firm SES for its next space mission.
SpaceX, however, selected Orbcomm instead because it would not require the Falcon 9 rocket to make a secondary burn for its upper-stage engine to reach lower orbit.
The failed liftoff of Falcon 9 in June occurred when a liquid oxygen tank for the rocket’s upper-stage engine ruptured during launch.
SpaceX is yet to finish its own investigation into the accident, but the company has said that faulty strut is the likely cause of the rupture that led to the disintegration of the Falcon 9.
After the launch of the commercial satellites for Orbcomm, SpaceX said it plans to conduct testing of its upper-stage engine in orbit too. This is to help improve confidence that its spacecraft is ready to carry the SES-9 satellite to orbit over 22,000 miles above the Earth.
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