![]() The higher launch rate has been aided by shorter turnarounds between missions at launch pads in Florida and California, and SpaceX’s reuse of Falcon 9 boosters and payload fairings. Launches carrying satellites for SpaceX’s own Starlink internet network, like the mission Saturday, have accounted for more than half of the company’s Falcon 9 flights so far this year. Two more Falcon 9 rockets are scheduled to fly before the end of the year, one from Florida and one from California. The launch Saturday was SpaceX’s 59th launch so far in 2022. The Starship rocket itself, designed to be fully reusable with relatively low operating costs, is central to Elon Musk’s Mars dream. The Starlink network was conceived as a venture to help draw in revenue to fund SpaceX’s ambition to build a base on Mars. But the Starship has not yet attempted a launch into low Earth orbit, and delays in developing and testing the new rocket will likely force SpaceX to start launching a smaller version of the new Starlink satellite design on Falcon 9 rockets. SpaceX is developing an upgraded, much larger Starlink satellite design sized to launch on the company’s huge next-generation Starship rocket. The company has approval from the Federal Communications Commission to eventually launch and operate up to 12,000 Starlink spacecraft, and SpaceX has signaled it could aim to fly as many as 42,000 Starlink satellites in orbit. SpaceX is more than halfway complete with deploying the initial fleet of 4,400 Starlink internet satellites. The spacecraft beam broadband internet signals to consumers around the world, connectivity that is now available on all seven continents with testing underway at a research station in Antarctica. The network architecture includes satellites flying a few hundred miles up, orbiting at inclinations of 97.6 degrees, 70 degrees, 53.2 degrees, and 53.0 degrees to the equator. SpaceX targeted Shell 4 with Saturday’s mission. The 54 new Starlink satellites launched into one of five orbital “shells” in SpaceX’s internet constellation. The company currently has more than 3,200 functioning Starlink satellites in space, with about 3,000 operational and nearly 200 moving into their operational orbits, according to a tabulation by Jonathan McDowell, an expert tracker of spaceflight activity and an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. government customers.Īfter Saturday’s mission, SpaceX has launched 3,612 Starlink satellites into orbit, including prototypes and failed spacecraft. Since then, SpaceX had launched nine consecutive missions for commercial and U.S. The launch Saturday was SpaceX’s first Starlink mission since Oct. ![]() 16, ready for launch with 54 more Starlink internet satellites. A Falcon 9 rocket stands on Launch Complex 39A on Dec. It’s now flown 15 times so far, helping deliver 777 satellites into orbit, including the 54 Starlink internet satellites launched Saturday. The missions flown by B1058 have included the launch of a South Korean military communications satellite, a space station cargo mission, two Transporter small satellite rideshare missions, and 10 flights with Starlink satellites. The booster stage, tail number B1058, debuted May 30, 2020, with the historic launch of NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on SpaceX’s first human spaceflight mission. The first stage booster on the Starlink 4-37 mission set a record for SpaceX’s reusable rockets. Subscribers can currently connect to the Starlink network in more than 40 countries and territories. The satellites on-board the Falcon 9 will add to SpaceX’s consumer-grade, high-speed, low-latency internet network. The rocket’s upper stage released the 54 flat-packed Starlink satellites about 15 minutes into the mission. The Falcon 9 arced northeast from Florida’s Space Coast, aiming for a low Earth orbit inclined 53.2 degrees to the equator. SpaceX delayed the Starlink launch, designated Starlink 4-37, from Friday to focus on the O3b mPOWER mission for SES, one of SpaceX’s oldest customers. ![]() Those flights deployed the U.S.-French SWOT satellite, designed to survey Earth’s surface water resources, and two commercial broadband satellites for SES’s O3b mPOWER constellation. It was the third Falcon 9 launch in less than 34 hours, following missions Friday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station - just a few miles from pad 39A - and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. EST (2132:30 GMT) Saturday from Launch Complex 39A. Liftoff of the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 occurred at 4:32:30 p.m. SpaceX launched 54 more Starlink internet satellites Saturday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, using a Falcon 9 booster on its 15th flight to space, a record for the company’s reusable rocket fleet. EDITOR’S NOTE: Watch a replay of our live coverage of the Falcon 9 launch with the Starlink 4-37 mission.
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