A previous launch of the night Starlink, on June 3rd. Today it looked like that too, we promise.
SpaceX
Under the cover of dark early Friday morning, SpaceX launched its ninth operational flight of the broadband-enabled Starlink satellites. The launch received three delays that returned in late June due to weather and additional technical checkouts. The longest-awaited launch reached lift-off at about 1:12 am ET (10:12 pm PT), when the company’s working dog Falcon 9 rocket rose into a flame of smoke and smoke from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The first stage of the rocket booster returned to Earth and completed a perfect landing on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX also notes that it will try to catch the hairdresser’s half of the rocket, as they did during the ANASIS-II launch on 20 July.
The mission’s loadload included two rideshare satellites and the first batch of SpaceX’s broadband satellites equipped with a sunshade to reduce their brightness, that has been a big point for many stargazers.
Since Elon Musk’s company launched the small satellites more than a year ago, astronomers and other observers have been surprised and even disturbed by the amount of sunlight that the bypass routers reflect, often disrupts scientific observations.
Musk and SpaceX have partnered with major astronomical organizations on the issue and have promised to solve the problem as they draw up plans to launch tens of thousands of satellites in the coming years. Initially, SpaceX tried to launch a so-called ‘darksat’, which was essentially a Starlink satellite with a dark coating, but the results of this approach were mixed. Next developed and tested the company a usable sunscreen called VisorSat.
One VisorSat-equipped satellite was launched earlier this month to test the new tech and the next launch will carry the first batch of satellites that should be fully shaded. According to SpaceX, it has yet to reach its orbit, but that has not stopped the company from launching the next batch with the same visor.
You can watch the launch below or on CNET’s YouTube channel:
It’s been all week for SpaceX. Every Sunday, the Crew Dragon returned to Earth from the International Space Station, splashed on Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, the SN5 Starship prototype completed a short “hop” at the SpaceX facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The thermos-shaped prototype, a forerunner of a potential Mars-colored spacecraft, launched 500 feet into the air and nailed the landing, causing Musk to lead “Mars really looks like.”
