Lift off! Elon Musk’s SpaceX fires 55 Starlink satellites into orbit on board Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida
- SpaceX has conducted its 10th launch of the year sending 55 Starlink satellites into space with its Falcon 9 rocket with the first stage landing on a drone ship
- This particular Falcon 9 booster has already been used for 12 launches
- Starlink satellites will be deployed in low Earth orbit; SpaceX has received permission to deploy up to 12,000 satellites and has applied for 30,000 more
SpaceX successfully launched its tenth mission of the year on Sunday by blasting 55 Starlink internet satellites into space aboard its Falcon 9 rocket.
The launch took place just after midnight with cameras capturing the spectacular moment as the rocket appeared to traverse the moon.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket landed on the SpaceX droneship out in the Atlantic, positioned a few hundred miles off the Florida coast.
Falcon 9 is the safest and most experienced active American rocket and the only one currently certified for transporting humans to the International Space Station.
So far, this particular Falcon 9 booster rocket has been used for 12 launches and landings, including six Starlink missions and two historic private astronaut flights.
The launch took place just after midnight with cameras capturing the spectacular moment as the rocket appeared to traverse the moon
SpaceX successfully launched its tenth mission of the year on Sunday by blasting 55 Starlink internet satellites into space aboard its Falcon 9 rocket
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched with another batch of Starlink internet satellites just after midnight
WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT THE ‘GEN2’ STARLINK SATELLITES?
The ‘Gen2’ Starlink satellite is an upgraded version of the first generation model, of which SpaceX has launched more than 3,500.
These are said to be more powerful, so can handle more traffic and provide faster service.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said in the past that they will also provide direct smartphone connectivity, helping to expand cellular coverage into ‘dead zones’ around the world’.
However it is unclear whether the satellites launched today will have this capability, as documentation suggests the required hardware makes them too heavy to be able to be launched using a Falcon 9 rocket.
The upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket then continued its journey to a low Earth orbit to deploy the Starlink satellites approximately one hour after liftoff.
The Starlink network currently consists of more than 3,500 operational satellites and is expected to grow considerably larger with permission to deploy up to 12,000 satellites.
The company have requested approval of an additional 30,000.
The satellites provide low-latency, high-speed internet at an affordable cost – often to remote areas without existing WiFi – and last year expanded to yachts, cruise ships and RVs.
In tests, the service has been shown to offer speeds of up to 200 megabits per second, which is higher than what copper cables that are typically used in more remote areas, can achieve.
Although all of the Starlink launches so far have been deployed with the help of a Falcon 9, that could soon change when Starship is airborne.
That’s because Musk’s $3 billion (£2.4 billion) spacecraft – a vehicle that could be a game-changer for long-distance space travel – is expected to be able to carry the larger and heavier Starlink 2.0 satellites, which could soon allow internet to be beamed to smartphones.
The first batch of up to 7,500 units of the upgraded model were sent to space at the end of 2022.
These are said to be more powerful than the first generation models, so can handle more traffic.
The rocket blasted past the moon as the launch was viewed from Cape Canaveral in Florida
In a quirk of perspective, the rocket appeared to be aiming directly for the moon
Flames blast out the bottom of the rocked. So far, this particular Falcon 9 booster rocket has been used for 12 launches and landings, including six Starlink missions and two historic private astronaut flights
SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said the Starlink satellites will provide direct smartphone connectivity, helping to expand cellular coverage into ‘dead zones’ around the world’
No spacecraft is currently capable of sending humans to Mars, but all that could change with the development of Starship, which has been built to take the first astronauts to the Red Planet by 2030.
Its creation is part of the Musk’s grander vision of making us a ‘multi-planetary species’, first by starting a human colony on Mars and even getting to the point of building cities.
Starship will be capable of carrying up to 100 people to the Red Planet on a journey that is 250 times further than the moon and would take around nine months each way.
In April 2021, NASA also announced that it had selected SpaceX’s next-generation vehicle as the first crewed lunar lander for its Artemis III mission — due to put the first woman and first person of color on the moon in 2025.
SpaceX launched its hugely successful Falcon 9 rocket to space for the 201st time today, as it deployed 55 more Starlink internet satellites into orbit (pictured, the launch from February 2)
It was the sixth launch of Starlink satellites so far this year. Pictured is a lift-off on January 31
ELON MUSK’S SPACEX BRINGS BROADBAND INTERNET TO THE WORLD WITH ITS STARLINK CONSTELLATION OF SATELLITES
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has launched more than 3,500 of its ‘Starlink’ space internet satellites into orbit and hopes to have 30,000 in the sky.
They form a constellation designed to provide low-cost broadband internet service from low Earth orbit.
While satellite internet has been around for a while, it has suffered from high latency and unreliable connections.
Starlink is different. SpaceX said its goal is to provide high-speed, low-latency internet all over the world – especially to remote areas.
Musk has previously said the venture could give three billion people who currently do not have access to the internet a cheap way of getting online.
It will also help fund a future city on Mars.
Helping humanity reach the Red Planet and become multi-planetary is one of Musk’s long-stated aims and was what inspired him to start SpaceX.
Musk’s rival Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, also plans to launch a constellation of low Earth-orbit satellites to provide broadband access to remote areas, as part of its Project Kuiper.
However, astronomers have raised concerns about the light pollution and other interference cased by these satellite constellations.
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