The US company SpaceX through booster Falcon 9 to orbit at the same time two commercial communications satellite. Spacecraft are owned by companies Asia Broadcast Satellite (Hong Kong) and Eutelsat (France).
simultaneous transport of two satellites has been made possible thanks to their new lightweight design. The company – manufacturer of both devices Boeing has used in their construction, electric ion engines. It is possible to reduce the weight of each satellite to two tons. This is considerably less than the design of the satellite with chemical engines, entailing the need to install fuel tanks.
Booster Falcon 9 was launched on Sunday, March 1 at 22:50 local time (Monday March 2 at 6:50 am MSK) Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral (Florida). SpaceX company decided not to test the system to return to Earth the first stage. Moreover, CEO Elon Musk said that for the next time, scheduled for March 21, this goal will not be pursued too – testing will hold another time.
In addition, Max said that a new generation of missiles Falcon 9 will be produced with improved features aimed at safe landing and re-use the media.
Lessons satellites into orbit Eutelsat and ABS are designed to provide communications between consumers in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East and Africa .
For 30 minutes after the launch of the satellite successfully undocked from the rocket and began their maneuvers. Devices will take a few months to achieve the goal – the orbit is at an altitude of about 36,000 kilometers. After that the device will be tested by experts, and if all goes well, they will take up their duties.
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