[ad_1]
The third time is a charm.
After two delays last week, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its heaviest payload on Thursday night, launching dozens of satellites to ultimately provide high-speed Internet access from space.
A reusable Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying 60 Starlink satellites, weighing about 18.5 tonnes in total. A few minutes later, the rocket – without payload – landed successfully on a drone, SpaceX said. About an hour after takeoff, SpaceX confirmed the successful deployment of the 60 satellites.
The mission was originally scheduled for last Wednesday, but it was cleaned shortly before the launch two nights in a row.
"The Starlink mission will be the heaviest payload of @SpaceX so far, with 18.5 tons. If all goes well, each launch of 60 satellites will generate more power than the Space Station and provide 1 terabit of bandwidth to the Earth ", Musk tweeted last week.
Read also: SpaceX rockets endangered in "potentially catastrophic" way, prosecutors say
According to Musk, another six launches of 60 satellites each will be needed "for initial activation" and another 12 to provide "significant coverage". In total, the Starlink project aims to launch eventually up to 12,000 satellites. About 4,400 satellites will gravitate between 340 and 823 miles, and another group of some 7,500 satellites will gravitate lower, between 208 and 214 miles above the Earth, according to SpaceX. The company hopes that the "constellation" of satellites will ultimately provide broadband Internet coverage worldwide.
In a media call last week, Musk said SpaceX envisioned the satellite network as a way to fund future Mars missions.
See also: Elon Musk says Jeff Bezos' plan to colonize space "makes no sense"
"We see this as a way for SpaceX to generate revenue that can be used to develop more and more rockets and spacecraft," said Musk, according to CNBC.
"We think we can use Starlink's revenue to finance Starship," he said, referring to the company's huge spaceship that could one day fly to Mars.
Musk added that SpaceX had sufficient funds to launch the Starlink project. "At this point, we seem to have enough capital to move to an operational level," CNBC said.
[ad_2]
Source link