Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho...

This kind of image is becoming routine : on April 2, two SpaceX stand-alone barge passed each other at the entrance to the Port Canaveral, Fla.

As the " Just Read The Instructions " barge repatriated the B1077 stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, used (for the fourth time) on March 29 during the 79th mission dedicated to the deployment of the Starlink constellation for the global internet, the barge " A Shortfall of Gravitas " was leaving in turn to position itself at sea.

Five days later, it would receive the B1076 stage, launched from the Cape Canaveral military base (also for the fourth time), and assigned to station the Intelsat 40e geostationary communications satellite.

Unusual hiatus

This was the 23rd launch of the year for SpaceX, and the 17th made from Florida.

A hiatus we were no longer used to has since occurred (notably for weather reasons), with the next Falcon 9 mission now expected on April 15.

It will be the " sherpa " Transporter 7 mission embarking 51 payloads, including two Frenchnanosatellites: BRO 9 from Unseenlabs and InspireSat 7 from Latmos (see our April 11 online article).