B1078 rises atop a column of fire from the Cape’s historic Space Launch Complex (SLC)-40 at 6:17 p.m. EDT Tuesday. Photo Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX has successfully landed its 300th booster, following Tuesday evening’s post-sunset flight of a many-times-used Falcon 9 out of storied Space Launch Complex (SLC)-40 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The B1078 core—which first sprang onto SpaceX’s scene last March to loft Dragon Endeavour and her Crew-6 quartet of NASA astronauts Steve Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fedyayev and Sultan Al-Neyadi of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for their six-month Expedition 68/69 increment aboard the International Space Station (ISS)—took flight for the ninth time at 6:17 p.m. EDT and returned eight minutes later to alight on the expansive deck of the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS), “Just Read the Instructions”, situated offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.

下午 6 點 17 分，B1078 在開普敦歷史悠久的太空發射綜合體 (SLC)-40 的火柱頂上升起。美國東部時間週二。圖片來源：SpaceX 繼週二晚上多次使用的獵鷹9 號在佛羅裡達州卡納維爾角太空部隊站著名的太空發射綜合體(SLC)-40 發射升空後，SpaceX 已成功著陸第300 個助推器。 B1078 核心——去年3 月首次出現在SpaceX 的舞台上，用於發射Dragon Endeavour 和她的Crew-6 四人組，其中包括NASA 宇航員Steve Bowen 和Warren“Woody”Hoburg、俄羅斯宇航員Andrei Fedyayev 和阿拉伯聯合大公國的Sultan Al-Neyadi ）以表彰他們在國際太空站 (ISS) 上為期六個月的 Expedition 68/69 增量——於下午 6:17 進行第九次飛行。美國東部夏令時間，八分鐘後返回，降落在位於大西洋近海的自主太空港無人機船（ASDS）「只需閱讀說明」的寬敞甲板上。

It marked the 300th successful recovery on land or at sea of Falcon 9 boosters or Falcon Heavy side-boosters, an impressive tally which has now seen hardware alight 233 times on drone ships in the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans since April 2016 and 67 times on solid ground at Cape Canaveral or Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., since December 2015. During that span of time, there have been eight failed ASDS landing attempts—most recently in February 2021—and a single “land” landing failure, in which the returning booster was instead ditched at sea in December 2018.

它標誌著獵鷹9 號助推器或獵鷹重型側助推器在陸地或海上的第300 次成功回收，這一數字令人印象深刻，自2016 年4 月以來，硬體在大西洋或太平洋的無人機船上已起降233 次，在固體上起降67 次。最近一次是在2021 年2 月，還有一次「陸地」著陸失敗，其中返回的助推器於 2018 年 12 月被遺棄在海上。

Most recently, the historic B1058 core, which earned renown as the one-time ride to space of “Bob and Doug” and was until last December the most-flown member of SpaceX’s fleet, toppled over on the drone ship’s deck and was partially lost at sea. Notable successes included the synchronized return of Falcon Heavy side-boosters to Landing Zones (LZ)-1 and 2 at the Cape for the first time in February 2018.

最近，具有歷史意義的B1058 核心在無人機船的甲板上翻倒並部分丟失，該核心因“鮑勃和道格”的一次性太空之旅而聞名，直到去年12 月為止一直是SpaceX 機隊中飛行次數最多的成員在海上。值得注意的成功包括 2018 年 2 月獵鷹重型側面助推器首次同步返回海角著陸區 (LZ)-1 和 2。

Last night’s launch also marked the tenth Falcon 9 to take flight so far in April, achieving a cadence of a flight every 2.3 days and positioning SpaceX well on track for its oft-stated goal of up to 144 missions by the end of the year. April has seen ten boosters with 102 flights between them—including the first 20-times-used booster—lift over 180 Starlink low-orbiting internet communications satellites, the 11-payload Bandwagon-1 “rideshare” mission to a mid-inclination orbit and the Space Force’s first Weather System Follow-on Microwave (WSF-M) next-generation environmental monitoring satellite.

昨晚的發射也標誌著 4 月迄今第十次飛行，實現了每 2.3 天飛行一次的節奏，使 SpaceX 有望實現其經常宣稱的到年底執行 144 次任務的目標。 4 月份，共發射了10 顆助推器，進行了102 次飛行（包括第一個使用了20 次的助推器），將超過180 顆Starlink 低軌道互聯網通信衛星、11 個有效載荷的Bandwagon- 1「共乘」任務送入中傾角軌道，以及太空部隊的第一顆氣象系統後續微波（WSF-M）下一代環境監測衛星。

In readiness for launch, the East Coast-based drone ship, “Just Read the Instructions”, departed Port Canaveral on Saturday for her recovery position in the Atlantic Ocean. And late Monday, SpaceX announced that it was targeting an expansive “launch window” ranging from 6:17 p.m. EDT through 9:25 p.m. EDT Tuesday, with backup availability on Wednesday and attempts opening at 5:50 p.m. EDT.

為了做好發射準備，位於東海岸的無人機船「Just Read the instructions」於週六離開卡納維拉爾港前往大西洋的回收位置。週一晚間，SpaceX 宣布其目標是擴大“發射窗口”，從下午 6 點 17 分到下午 6 點 17 分。美國東部時間晚上 9:25美國東部時間週二，週三提供備份，並嘗試在下午 5:50 開放。美東時間。

Weather conditions for both attempts were predicted to be 95-percent-favorable, with only a slight risk of violating the Cumulus Cloud Rule on Tuesday. A high-pressure center offshore to Florida’s northeast was expected to “allow a low-topped, mixed stratocumulus-cumulus deck to stream onshore,” the 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Space Force Base noted, although this was not expected to pose a launch weather concern.

預計這兩次嘗試的天氣條件都是 95% 有利，週二違反積雲規則的風險很小。帕特里克太空軍基地第 45 氣像中隊指出，佛羅裡達州東北部近海的一個高壓中心預計將“允許低頂、混合層積雲-積雲甲板流向陸上”，儘管預計這不會造成發射天氣憂慮。

B1078 took flight on time at 6:17 p.m. EDT, kicking off the ninth voyage of a career which began with Crew-6 in March of last year and went on to lift six batches of Starlinks, a pair of O3b mPOWER broadband satellites and the Space Force’s highly secretive USSF-124 payload of six discrete spacecraft—two Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) satellites for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the final four Tranche 0 Transport and Tracking Layer (TTL) satellites for the Space Development Agency (SDA)—into orbit. Across only 13 months of active operational service, B1078 has transported more than 130 payloads aloft.

B1078於下午6點17分準時起飛。美國東部夏令時間，開啟了其職業生涯的第九次航行，該航行從去年3 月的Crew-6 開始，隨後運載了六批Starlinks、兩顆O3b mPOWER 寬頻衛星和太空軍高度機密的USSF-124有效載荷（六顆）離散太空船－飛彈防禦局(MDA) 的兩顆高超音速和彈道追蹤太空感測器(HBTSS) 衛星以及航太發展局(SDA) 的最後四顆第0 階段傳輸和追蹤層( TTL) 衛星進入軌道。在僅 13 個月的現役服役期間，B1078 已在高空運輸了 130 多個有效載荷。

Powering uphill under the thrust of her nine Merlin 1D+ engines, the core burned out at 2.5 minutes into ascent and returned to a picture-perfect JRTI touchdown at eight minutes into the flight. Meanwhile, the single Merlin 1D+ Vacuum engine of the second stage ignited for a six-minute “burn” to deliver the 23 Starlinks the rest of the way to orbit, with deployment timed at just shy of 65 minutes into the mission.

在九個 Merlin 1D+ 發動機的推力下上坡時，核心在上升 2.5 分鐘時燃盡，並在飛行 8 分鐘時恢復到完美的 JRTI 接地。同時，第二級的單一 Merlin 1D+ 真空引擎點火，進行了六分鐘的“燃燒”，將 23 個星鏈衛星送入軌道，並在任務開始後不到 65 分鐘進行部署。

 As a network, Starlink enables high-speed and low-latency internet provision to over 70 sovereign nations and international markets in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and Africa. Earlier this week, the Hawthorne, Calif.-headquartered launch services provider announced that Starlink connectivity is now available in Albania, bringing to 74 the total number of sovereign nations or regions to receive coverage.

作為一個網絡，Starlink 為北美、南美、歐洲、亞洲、大洋洲和非洲的 70 多個主權國家和國際市場提供高速、低延遲的互聯網服務。本週早些時候，總部位於加州霍桑的發射服務提供商宣布，星鏈連接現已在阿爾巴尼亞推出，​​使接收覆蓋的主權國家或地區總數達到 74 個。

The downsized V2 Mini satellites, first flown in February of last year, boast three to four times greater “usable” bandwidth than earlier Starlink iterations. “V2 Minis include key technologies—such as more powerful phased-array antennas and the use of E-Band for backhaul—which will allow Starlink to provide 4x more capacity per satellite than earlier iterations,” SpaceX explained. “Among other enhancements, V2 Minis are equipped with new argon Hall thrusters for on-orbit maneuvering.”

尺寸縮小的 V2 Mini 衛星於去年 2 月首次飛行，其「可用」頻寬是早期 Starlink 迭代的三到四倍。 SpaceX 解釋說：“V2 Mini 包含關鍵技術，例如更強大的相控陣天線和使用 E-Band 進行回程，這將使 Starlink 每顆衛星的容量比早期版本高出 4 倍。” “除其他增強功能外，V2 Mini 還配備了新的氬霍爾推進器，用於在軌機動。”

Florida-based intercity operator Brightline adopted Starlink on its trains in 2023, the first passenger rail service in the world to do so. Additionally, El Salvador’s Ministry of Education has begun integrating Starlink capability into its schools to help close the digital divide between urban and remote rural communities and 50 Rwandan schools are now connected via Starlink’s high-speed internet service.

總部位於佛羅裡達州的城際營運商 Brightline 於 2023 年在其列車上採用了 Starlink，這是世界上第一個這樣做的客運鐵路服務。此外，薩爾瓦多教育部已開始將 Starlink 功能整合到其學校中，以幫助縮小城市和偏遠農村社區之間的數位鴻溝，50 所盧安達學校現已透過 Starlink 的高速網路服務連接。

And in January, SpaceX lofted its first six “Direct-to-Cell” Starlinks, which permit mobile network providers to offer “seamless global access to texting, calling and browsing”, whether “on land, lakes or coastal waters”, without the need to change hardware or firmware. Within six days of that first launch, SpaceX engineers sent and received their first text messages via Direct-to-Cell and as of this month Starlink reportedly has about 2.7 million registered subscribers or customers worldwide.

今年1 月，SpaceX 推出了首批6 個“Direct-to-Cell”星鏈，允許行動網路供應商提供“無縫的全球簡訊、通話和瀏覽服務”，無論是“在陸地、湖泊還是沿海水域”，而無需網路連接。需要更改硬體或韌體。在首次發射後六天內，SpaceX 工程師透過 Direct-to Cell 發送和接收了第一條短信，據報道，截至本月，Starlink 在全球擁有約 270 萬名註冊訂戶或客戶。