SpaceX Transporter-4: Falcon 9 successfully lifts off carrying 40 spacecraft; WATCH

SpaceX successfully launched 40 new spacecraft to orbit under its Transporter-4 mission on April 1. The launch was conducted using a Falcon 9 rocket which lifted off at 9:54 pm (IST) from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The Falcon 9 booster stage was air-borne for approximately following which it landed on the Just Read the Instructions drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. The company shared a video of the liftoff which was executed despite the weather being just 30% favourable for launch. 

The Falcon 9 rocket was carrying CubeSats, microsats, picosats, non-deploying hosted payloads, and an orbital transfer vehicle carrying spacecraft to be deployed at a later time. According to SpaceX, this was its 12th mission of 2022 and the seventh one for this particular Falcon 9 booster. It has previously flown on six instances including those for Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, NASA's IXPE and one Starlink mission. Company CEO Elon Musk had said that SpaceX is now aiming for a total of 60 Falcon 9 launches this year, breaking its previous record of 31 launches in 2021.

SpaceX gears for Ax-1, Crew-4 launches in April

With the completion of the Transporter-4 launch, SpaceX will now be gearing up for Axiom Space's Ax-1 and Crew-4 missions which are targeted for April 6 and April 20. Both the missions would launch four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) but for very different reasons. Where Ax-1 would be the first fully private venture backed by NASA, the Crew-4 is to transport three NASA and one European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut. On the other hand, the Ax-1 would last just 10 days whereas astronauts under the Crew-4 would be visiting the ISS for much longer. 

The team of Ax-1 includes Axiom VP and ex-NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, along with entrepreneurs Larry Connor, Mark Pathy, and Eytan Stibbe. The team of Crew-4 includes NASA's Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins and ESA's Samantha Cristoforetti.