Hispasat success for SpaceX, but no landing
March 6, 2018
By Chris Forrester
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched a Hispasat satellite into orbit in the early hours of March 6th from its Cape Canaveral launch site. However, a planned landing of the rocket’s first stage did not take place as hoped because of bad weather at the floating landing site.
Lift-off was at 05.33 GMT and the launch was flawless, and delivered Hispasat 30W-6 into a geostationary transfer orbit just 30 minutes after launch.
The satellite weighed 6 metric tonnes and was the biggest-ever satellite carried by SpaceX. It was also the 50th launch for SpaceX.
“SpaceX will not attempt to land Falcon 9’s first stage after launch, due to unfavourable weather conditions in the recovery area off of Florida’s Atlantic Coast,” SpaceX said before lift-off,
In separate news from the company, Elon Musk’s cherry red roadster sports car has reached 8 million kms from Earth (5m miles) according to the live tracking website ‘Where is Roadster?’. The car was launched into space on a month ago on February 6th upon a larger Falcon Heavy rocket. The car is travelling at 7,264 mph (11,690 km/h).