Elon Musk’s space company has a busy week. It hopes to keep ramping up the pace of launches until we’re off this planet.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying Iridium satellites stands ready for launch Monday morning.
SpaceX launched a batch of 10 satellites to low-earth orbit Monday morning, just two days before its next scheduled launch on Wednesday.
While this week’s satellite launches may seem boring, they’re an early rehearsal for making humans a multiplanetary species, as Musk likes to say.
It’s going to take a lot of practice to get enough reliable rockets running on time to move that many aspiring Martians around. SpaceX is basically using commercial missions to master the skills that could one day take us to Mars.
Of course, Musk’s ambitions will also require a lot of actual rockets. SpaceX has this covered too with its plan to reuse rocket stages. In fact, Wednesday’s EchoStar mission will be flown using a “flight-proven” Falcon 9 that’s already been to space.
