All you need to know – Axios

Driving the news: SpaceX launched the first 60 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on one of its Falcon 9 rockets Thursday night. The rocket was launched at 10:30 am ET and the first propeller returned about 10 minutes after launch for a soft landing on a drone in the Atlantic Ocean, after sending the satellites into orbit.

The backdrop: In November 2018, SpaceX obtained permission from the FCC to launch 7,000 Starlink satellites in space with the ultimate goal of creating a network of 12,000 satellites surrounding the Earth and providing access to the Internet.

• Musk said the goal of Starlink is to provide a source of revenue to fund a possible city on Mars, according to Space News.
• The first two Starlink "demonstration satellites" were launched into space on February 22, 2018 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, with the PAZ satellite on one of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets .
• These first two satellites were essentially a proof-of-principle test. Nicknamed Tintin-A and Tintin-B, both satellites were scouts, but Mr. Musk said the 60 launched now are "design-production" satellites.
• In October 2018, Reuters announced that Mr Musk had fired at least 7 people from Starlink's management team because of "disagreements over the pace of development and testing of his Starlink satellites."
• The report highlighted the urgency with which Musk was approaching the project as SpaceX ran the first private company to create this constellation.
• Musk tweeted a photo of the 60 satellites loaded into the Falcon rocket. He tweeted that "a lot of things will probably go wrong" during this first mission and that 6 additional launches of 60 satellites are needed for a "minor coverage" and 12 for a "moderate".

The other sideA number of private companies – including OneWeb, Telesat and Leosat – have also approved their satellites. Amazon's Kuiper project also plans to launch thousands of satellites into orbit in the name of providing global broadband.

Yes, but: These types of satellite constellations are huge and SpaceX will have to coordinate its constellations and avoid other satellites and space debris that could threaten the network. The company will also have to avoid adding to the problem of junk food in space.

• It's also hard to know at what price a satellite internet service will be competitive with a system like 5G – and whether it will be a commercial success or not.

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