At 2254 GMT on 15 May SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 vehicle carrying 52 Starlink satellites and two rideshare payloads: Capella-06 and Tyvak 0130. The mission was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The B1058 first-stage successfully landed on the drone barge “Of Course I Still Love You” stationed in the Atlantic Ocean 8 minutes after launch. The two fairing halves were separated and parachuted down to land in the Atlantic where they were recovered by the vessel “Shelia Bordelon”.
The Falcon 9 lifts-off from Kennedy Space Center carrying the Starlink and rideshare payloads. Courtesy of SpaceX via YouTube
The Capella-06 satellite is owned by Capella Space, an American company intending to provide SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) imagery products. A second Capella satellite, Capella-05, was initially contracted to also be on this flight however, its schedule has no changed to a June launch. There is little information available on the Tyvak supplied satellite, Tyvak 0130. It is however, described as an “optical spectrum astronomy observation satellite”.
