SpaceX’s first Starlink launch in 2021 falls on Tuesday [update]



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Update: SpaceX says it has delayed the launch of Falcon 9’s Starlink-16 to no earlier than 8:23 a.m. (1:23 p.m. UTC) Tuesday, January 19 (NET), to allow time for weather conditions to improve in the recovery areas of Atlantic Ocean from the rocket.

If the schedule holds, the Falcon 9 B1051 booster is now on track to attempt its eighth launch and landing 37 days after flight number seven – still potentially breaking the current two-week rocket rotation world record.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and local weather conditions appear to be on track for the company’s first Starlink launch in 2021 and the 17th Starlink mission as a whole.

The mission – known as Starlink-16 (V1 L16) – is expected to take off no earlier than 8.45am EST (1.45pm UTC) on SpaceX’s 16th launch of the operational Starlink v1.0 satellites. Monday January 18th.

Launched from SpaceX’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) LC-39A facilities, Starlink-16 is expected to carry a default batch of 60 low Earth orbit (LEO) internet satellites. Delivered in a relatively low transfer orbit (i.e. fast decaying), the 60 satellites will gradually spread out after their deployment, open their solar panels and begin a period of one or more days of balance sheets. health.

(Teslarati – SpaceX)

Once declared healthy by SpaceX’s ground controllers, each flat, rectangular satellite will power up a krypton-powered Hall-effect thruster and begin the several-week process of elevating and circularizing its orbit. In reality, it can take several months for each Starlink batch to break up into smaller groups and reach their respective planes – which refers to a kind of linear band of satellite coverage wrapped around the circumference of the Earth. For the parts of the Starlink constellation, SpaceX is currently focusing on construction, each of those planes requires 22 satellites – two of which would be spares.

As previously discussed on Teslarati, the Falcon 9 booster that SpaceX assigned to Starlink-16 is expected to fly just 36 days after its last mission, breaking the previous world record for reusable rocket rotation by around 30%. Starlink-16 will also be the eighth launch of the Falcon 9 B1051, marking another first for the Falcon rocket family.

According to SpaceX, both halves of the Starlink-16 payload fairing (the conical carbon-fiber composite structure that shields satellites from the elements and atmospheric stress) will be tested in flight – one on its second flight and one on its second flight. ‘another for a third time. Waiting the last second to avoid high seas in the recovery area, the double-faired recovery vessels GO Ms Tree and GO Ms Chief departed a port in North Carolina en route to the Starlink fairing capture area. January 16, 17. It remains to be seen whether Starlink-16 will mark a return to simultaneous capture attempts, which have not been seen for several months.



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