Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp, speaks during a news conference at the National Press Club April 5, 2011 in Washington, DC. (Photo : Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)
If aerospace manufacturer SpaceX gets a green light, then its Falcon 9 rocket could return to space flight as early as mid December. Activities for the private space transport services company has been at a halt since September.
"Iridium NEXT will be launching on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on December 16, 2016 at 12:36 p.m. PST," reads an update on the website of telecoms company Iridium. "Launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the Falcon 9 rocket will deliver 10 Iridium NEXT satellites into low-earth orbit."
According to the post, the launch is subject to the approval of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Previously, there was an unfortunate incident that happpened to one of Space X's units -- one of its two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicles exploded during a routine pre-launch test at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Sept. 1.
If the FAA gives the go-signal to SpaceX, their payload of the first 10 Iridium-owned NEXT communication satellites will be on its low-Earth orbit this month. The telecoms company is replacing its existing 66 satellites with 70 new ones. This will then be a seven-launch job for the Falcon 9 rockets.
According to Space.com, SpaceX engineers are on the last part of their own investigation into the cause of the explosion of one of its own rockets. The company already found out that the effect of liquid oxygen and its carbon-composite helium container in the upper stage had caused the explosion to occur.
The catastrophic failure also destroyed the $200 million Israeli-owned Amos 6 communications satellite that was already on-board and ready to launch in a matter of days. It was reported that Social media giant Facebook was also going to use the same satellite for its ongoing work of bringing internet connectivity to the remote parts of the planet. The incident also damaged SpaceX's main launch facility on the East Coast.
The private space transport services company is also scheduled to launch the EchoStar 23 communcation satellite by Jan. 8. This will bring direct-to-home television programming over Brazil. After that, the company will focus on its Dragon cargo mission, which is to ferry supplies to and from the International Space Station, Space Flight Now reported.
