A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted-off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 0209 GMT on 5 August. Carried by the rocket were 51 Starlink satellites of Group 4-20 destined for the constellation’s “Shell 2” located at 540 km, inclined at 53.2 degrees. However, marking the first of two such events planned for this month the Starlinks were joined by a commercial rideshare payload. In this instance it was a Sherpa-LTC Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) built by launch arranger Spaceflight Inc. Unusually for such an OTV though its only customer was a hosted payload reportedly for Boeing to test V-band communications technologies – identified as “Varuna-TDM”. The Sherpa-LTC is a chemically powered variant of the Sherpa family and is set to raise its orbit to a targeted 1,000 km.
The first-stage of the Falcon 9 rocket – identified as B1052 – successfully landed on the drone barge Just Read The Instructions (JRTI) located downrange in the Atlantic Ocean at T+ 8 minutes 29 seconds. This marks the seventh flight of this particular first-stage.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifts-off with its 52 satellite payload. Courtesy of SpaceX
