The first launch of SpaceX with a large number of high-speed Starlink satellites is scheduled for May 15, according to a company executive.

WASHINGTON – The first launch of SpaceX with a large number of high-speed Starlink satellites is scheduled for May 15, according to a company executive.

Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX, said the launch would carry "dozens of satellites", adding new prototypes to both currently in low Earth orbit.

"This next batch of satellites will really be a set of demonstrations to allow us to see the deployment scheme and start networking our network," she told Satellite 2019 here. "We are starting to launch satellites for effective service later this year."

Related: Watch SpaceX launch its first Starlink satellites

Shotwell said SpaceX plans to launch two to six more times for its Starlink broadband constellation, in addition to the May 15 launch. The number of Starlink launches this year depends on the results of this first batch, she said.

SpaceX predicts a constellation of up to 12,000 satellites, according to documents filed with the US Federal Communications Commission. The company said in 2017 that it would need 800 satellites in orbit for a commercial service – an estimated target for the period from 2020 to 2021.

Shotwell said the demonstration satellites that will be launched on May 15 will be "test satellites" without inter-satellite links. The test satellites will have high-performance on-board antennas and electric propulsion, she said.

Shotwell said the launch, scheduled for early May, had been postponed to May 15 due to delays with the shipment of a previous cargo mission to the International Space Station for NASA. SpaceX has launched a Dragon supply capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket to the ISS on May 4, after a power problem on the station and a subsequent electrical incident with the rocket recovery UAV SpaceX delayed the May 1st mission.

SpaceX is targeting 18 to 21 launches for this year, not counting Starlink missions, said Shotwell. This rate is in line with previous years – SpaceX was launched 18 times in 2017 and 21 times last year – but lower than the 30 to 40 annual launches planned by the company in 2017.

Shotwell said SpaceX had expanded its manufacturing capacity to 40 rockets a year in anticipation of a commercial boom that would not happen.

"We thought the commercial market could extend to that, I think we would have probably wanted it, but [now] we have a lot of capacity to launch our Starlink system, "she said.

SpaceX has been launched five times this year – four Falcon 9s and one Falcon Heavy.

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