SpaceX has launched its 50th Falcon 9 rocket mission, and on board is its largest ever geostationary satellite payload, a Hispasat unit that’s around the size of a city bus.
The launch took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida this morning and proceeded as planned, delivering Hispasat 30W-6 to its target geostationary transfer orbit. The Standish satellite weighed 6 metric tons and sets a new record for the space company for a satellite of this kind.
This marks a big milestone for the Falcon 9 rocket, which began service for SpaceX in 2010 with its first version. SpaceX also recently launched its Falcon Heavy for the first time, and is looking ahead to its next-generation launch craft: The BFR or sometime colloquially called the ‘big f*cking rocket.’
