CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -The overall contract award was US$278 million to provide three demonstration launches of Falcon 9 with the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft.

Detailed explanation-2: -The rocket previously launched another big batch of Starlink satellites (the company did not say which one, and there have been many); SpaceX’s CRS-24 cargo mission to the International Space Station in December 2021; Eutelsat’s Hotbird 13F telecom satellite in October 2022; and the OneWeb 1 flight in December 2022.

Detailed explanation-3: -A Falcon 9 launched the first private crewed spacecraft, a Dragon carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken, to the ISS on May 30, 2020. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy will be replaced in the 2020s by the Super Heavy–Starship system.

Detailed explanation-4: -A Falcon 9 rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Thursday with 53 more Starlink satellites for SpaceX’s global internet network.

Detailed explanation-5: -SpaceX wants to use the Starship vehicle to launch the company’s Starlink internet satellites, flying heavier, next-generation versions of the broadband relay stations than the spacecraft now being launched by the smaller Falcon 9 rocket.