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Elon Musk’s SpaceX finally launches DSCOVR satellite into deep orbit
Scanning through Elon Musk’s Twitter feed seems like something out of Interstellar‘s transcript with Matthew Mcconaughey rocketing through space, giving status updates as he goes along. “Can’t delay any longer. Must proceed with primary mission to launch the Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft,” Musk tweeted recently.
This tweet came just before space exploration company Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (or just SpaceX) successfully launched an unmanned rocket, Falcon 9, at the Cape Canaveral enabling it to deploy a weather satellite.
This is SpaceX’s third attempt to carry the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth to the sun.
Can't delay any longer. Must proceed with primary mission to launch the Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2015
And so, finally, just over half an hour after Falcon 9 left Earth, the satellite, DSCOVR, was successfully deployed.
Primary mission on target. Spacecraft head towards the sun! All good there.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2015
The DSCOVR will reach its orbit in the next 110 days where it will be tracking the sun and all its shenanigans. Thanks to a partnership with NASA, NOAA and the United States Air Force, the satellite will “observe and provide advanced warning of extreme emissions from the sun which can affect power grids, communications systems, and satellites close to Earth,” SpaceX writes in its announcement.
Read more: Google invests $1 billion in SpaceX as 21st century Space Race heats up
Unfortunately because of crappy weather conditions SpaceX couldn’t recover the Falcon 9 rocket. Though, as Musk tweeted, the company did manage to find enough data which shows that it landed within 10 meters of its target, which means the company would likely be able to land the rocket on unmanned ships in the future.
Rocket soft landed in the ocean within 10m of target & nicely vertical! High probability of good droneship landing in non-stormy weather.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2015
You can watch the launch here:
