SpaceX puts 60 Starlink internet satellites into orbit, with more set to launch on Friday – Spaceflight Now

Sixty more SpaceX-owned Starlink internet satellites exploded in a moonlit winter sky over Cape Canaveral aboard a Falcon 9 launcher early Thursday, while another Falcon 9 stood on another launch pad a few miles away for another 60 Starlink payload loft on Friday.

Nine Merlin 1D engines sprang to life and sent a rumble across the Florida Space Coast at 1:19 a.m. EST (6:19 a.m. GMT) Thursday. Holding clamps released to allow the 70-meter-high Falcon 9 rocket to descend from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force station.

The Falcon 9 guidance system directed the rocket northeast of Cape Canaveral to align with the predicted orbital tilt of the Starlink satellites.

After exceeding the speed of sound, the Falcon 9 flew into the rarefied upper layers of the atmosphere and threw its 15-stage first-stage amplifier about two and a half minutes into the flight. An upper stage engine ignited to continue accelerating in orbit with the 60 Starlink satellites, while the first stage – designed B1060 in SpaceX’s reusable rocket inventory – descended to a targeted landing on the drone of SpaceX “Of course I still love you” nearly 400 miles (630 kilometers) downstream in the Atlantic Ocean.

The first stage landing punctuated the fifth space trip and back for this booster, and it broke the record for the fastest turnaround time between flights of a SpaceX booster, surpassing the previous mark of 38 days established last month.

Here’s a replay of the Falcon 9 rocket launch a few minutes ago from the Cape Canaveral space station.

It was the fourth Falcon 9 launch of the year and the 107th Falcon 9 flight overall since 2010.https: //t.co/TyXGKQ0Tf3 pic.twitter.com/7zhgSix4m9

– Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) February 4, 2021

The reminder of Thursday’s mission last flew on January 7 with the Turksat 5A communications satellite, just 27 days ago.

The Falcon 9’s upper stage reached a preliminary orbit with all 60 Starlink satellites about nine minutes after takeoff on Tuesday, then re-ignited its engine for a second to maneuver into a targeted orbit between 155 miles and 180 miles (250 by 291 kilometers) at altitude.

The 60 Starlink satellites deployed from the rocket just over an hour after takeoff, while flying over the Pacific Ocean near New Zealand.

With the new broadband relay stations launched on Thursday, SpaceX’s Starlink fleet appears to have grown to more than 1,000 active satellites, according to data collected by Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks global activity. satellites and launches.

In total, the company has launched 1,085 satellites to date, including prototypes and failed spacecraft that are no longer in orbit.

Another 60 Starlink satellites are mounted on a Falcon 9 rocket awaiting take-off from Station 39A, a few miles north of Station 40 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. This launch was blocked for several days to await better weather conditions in the booster landing zone off the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX briefly planned to launch the two Falcon 9 rockets within five hours of each other early Thursday, but the company said Wednesday afternoon that the platform 39A mission would be pushed back to Friday morning at 5:14 a.m. EST (10 14:14 GMT) “to allow time for pre-launch checks.” “

Flying 170 miles above Earth near New Zealand, the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket has just deployed another 60 Starlink Internet satellites to join the ever-growing fleet of broadband relay platforms. SpaceX in orbit. https://t.co/TyXGKQ0Tf3 pic.twitter.com/TARFqiuqf6

– Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) February 4, 2021

SpaceX has its two ocean rocket landing platforms, or drones, deployed in the Atlantic Ocean for the two Starlink missions.

The two missions will be the 18th and 19th Falcon 9 flights dedicated to the Starlink network, which SpaceX is building to provide high-speed internet services around the world. Thursday’s mission was SpaceX’s fourth Falcon 9 launch of the year and Falcon 9’s 107th flight since 2010.

SpaceX says the Starlink network is providing preliminary low-latency internet service to users in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom through a beta test program. Commercial service will begin after SpaceX has its initial network of approximately 1,584 satellites in orbit, including spare parts.

The quarter-ton Starlink satellites are built by technicians and engineers at SpaceX in Redmond, Washington.

The initial block of Starlink satellites, including the 60 launched Thursday, fly in medium-tilt orbits tilted 53 degrees from the equator. The new Starlink satellites will deploy their solar panels and activate their automated krypton ion boosters to reach their final operating positions in the grid.

Once operational, they will orbit at an altitude of 341 miles, or 550 kilometers, to provide broadband coverage to almost everyone in the world.

SpaceX plans to launch more Starlink satellites into polar orbit to provide global coverage for maritime and air customers, including the U.S. military. The company has regulatory approval to launch approximately 12,000 Starlink satellites.