American aerospace company SpaceX announced that its signature rocket Falcon 9 will return to service in December with 11 scheduled commercial satellite launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
SpaceX said the satellite launch for New Jersey-based telecommunications firm Orbcomm will be the first mission of the Falcon 9 rocket since its failed liftoff on June 28.
The spacecraft was supposed to carry a Dragon capsule and deliver much needed supplies to the crew of the International Space Station when it suddenly exploded minutes after it was launched from Canaveral.
The mishap was the first failed launch of the Falcon 9 in 18 space missions.
The space company had been expected to send a communications satellite for the Luxembourg-based firm SES for its next space mission.
SpaceX, however, selected Orbcomm instead because it would not require the Falcon 9 rocket to make a secondary burn for its upper-stage engine to reach lower orbit.
The failed liftoff of Falcon 9 in June occurred when a liquid oxygen tank for the rocket's upper-stage engine ruptured during launch.
SpaceX is yet to finish its own investigation into the accident, but the company has said that faulty strut is the likely cause of the rupture that led to the disintegration of the Falcon 9.
After the launch of the commercial satellites for Orbcomm, SpaceX said it plans to conduct testing of its upper-stage engine in orbit too. This is to help improve confidence that its spacecraft is ready to carry the SES-9 satellite to orbit over 22,000 miles above the Earth.
The switch from SES to Orbcomm does not affect SpaceX's timeline for a return-to-flight space mission that is slated to take place over the next six to eight weeks, according to the space company.
"We are excited to launch our 11 OG2 satellites aboard SpaceX's newly upgraded Falcon 9 rocket and have full confidence in SpaceX and their dedication to this launch," Marc Eisenberg, Orbcomm's chief executive, said (PDF).
SpaceX said that once the Orbcomm satellite launch is completed, it still eyes a lift off of the SES satellite from Canaveral in December.
The space company's Falcon 9 rocket helped launch the first six of Orbcomm's OG2 satellites in 2014. The scheduled second launch will complete the telecom firm's constellation-supported machine-to-machine communications.
