Elon Musk-owned SpaceX on Wednesday took one more dig at just Russia, seconds before launching 48 Starlink satellites to Earth’s low orbit.
What Happened: In the launch video of Falcon 9's latest mission, SpaceX launch engineer Julia Black can be heard saying, "Time to let the American Broomstick fly and hear the sounds of freedom" seconds before the liftoff.
The Context: Her jibe, similar to the Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO's last week, was in reference to a quip made by Russia's space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin.
Rogozin, while announcing his country's decision to stop supplying rocket engines to the United States in retaliation for its sanctions against Russia, had said Americans could "use broomsticks" instead to launch their rockets.
The Launch: This was SpaceX's forty-first launch using the partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket, propulsion engineer Youmei Zhou said in a live telecast prior to the liftoff at 8:45 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It was also SpaceX’s ninth Falcon 9 launch so far this year.
Starlink is a SpaceX venture designed to beam down high-speed internet, especially in remote areas from satellites in orbit to Earth.
Musk recently said the service would be expanded to 14 countries and that the company is awaiting licenses in several other countries.
