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On Wednesday afternoon, SpaceX continues its Internet initiative from space, launching another batch of 60 broadband transmission satellites in orbit from Florida. This is the company’s seventh launch for its ambitious Internet project, known as Starlink, and if it succeeds, SpaceX will have launched more than 420 of the nearly 12,000 planned satellites into orbit.
With such a massive constellation in orbit, SpaceX hopes to eventually provide global coverage of the Internet from space. Once enough satellites have been launched, the company plans to sell user terminals to customers that will allow them to connect to the satellite network. As of now, the plan is to extend partial coverage to Canada and the northern United States sometime this year, with global coverage potentially available in 2021.
if successful SpaceX will have put 420 of the nearly 12,000 planned satellites into orbit
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the company only needs around 400 satellites to provide “initial operational capacity” and then 800 satellites to increase that to “significant operational capacities.” That means that after this launch, SpaceX will have the minimum number of spaceships that Musk says is required to start Starlink.
But SpaceX still has plenty of satellites to launch before things get “meaningful,” and the company’s latest Starlink launch. It was not as good as the others. During that March launch, one of the main engines of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket went out early when the vehicle went into space, with its 60 satellites in tow. (The rocket still successfully deployed the satellites into orbit, despite the poor engine.) Additionally, the Falcon 9 was unable to land, missing the drone that was targeting the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX landings are not part of the main mission, which is to put the satellites into orbit, but a failed landing is rare for the company these days. And this was the second failed landing for SpaceX this year.
That means there will be plenty of eyes on this mission to make sure it works well, and not only SpaceX will pay attention. The company is just over a month away from launching its first astronauts into space on the Falcon 9 rocket for NASA. The space agency has been working with SpaceX to investigate the March engine failure to make sure it’s not a major problem before people ride the rocket. A smooth launch will be required today for SpaceX to maintain its target launch date for its NASA flight on May 27.
many eyes will be on this mission to make sure it goes well
For today’s flight, SpaceX is using a lot of used hardware. The company is flying one of its Falcon 9 rockets that has been in space and returned three times before, and the nose cone, which surrounds the satellites on top of the rocket, also flew into space on a previous mission. After takeoff, Falcon 9 will attempt to land a third time on one of SpaceX’s autonomous drones in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX will also try to catch the two halves of its nose cone, or payload fairing, using two of the company’s ships equipped with giant nets. Until now, SpaceX has yet to catch these fairing halves and land a rocket on the same flight.
Takeoff is scheduled for 3:30 PM ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Launch time today was actually increased by seven minutes, a rarity for the space industry. In fact, the launch of SpaceX was originally planned for tomorrow, but moved to today as there was a better chance of good weather. If, for some reason, the Falcon 9 can’t launch today, SpaceX will try again tomorrow at 3:15 PM ET.
Live coverage of today’s launch will begin about 10 minutes before takeoff. Come back this afternoon to see the mission live.
