Days after SpaceX opened pre-orders for the Starlink Internet service, two more Falcon 9 rockets will be launched from Florida’s Space Coast on Sunday evening and Tuesday morning – weather permitting – to bring the network closer to commercial operations.
The next two Starlink missions, expected to deliver about 60 satellites each, will fly on Falcon 9 missiles from two different launch pads.
Next in line is a Falcon 9 launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, scheduled for approximately 11:20 p.m. EST Sunday (0420 GMT Monday). SpaceX is preparing a new Falcon 9 for an explosion from Path 39A, a few miles north at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, as soon as 1:17 p.m. EST (0617 GMT Tuesday).
Tuesday’s launch has been delayed several times since the end of January, most recently to allow time for “additional inspections” on the rocket, SpaceX said. The Sunday night launch was previously scheduled for Saturday night.
The weather outlook is questionable for the immediate launch capabilities of both missions, with a 40 percent chance of acceptable conditions at Cape Canaveral on Sunday evening, when forecasters predict clouds, showers and thunderstorms over the Space Coast. According to the US Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, there is a 60 percent chance of good weather for launch from pad 39A early Tuesday.
After launching northeast from Florida, the Falcon 9s will deliver their payloads into orbit several hundred kilometers above the Earth, at a 53-degree tilt from the equator. SpaceX is aiming to restore the first stage booster of both missions using the company’s two drone ships being sent to the Atlantic Ocean.
The Sunday and Tuesday launches will come less than two weeks after SpaceX’s most recent Starlink mission, which delivered 60 satellites into orbit from Cape Canaveral every February 4. These are the 19th and 20th batches of Starlink satellites launched on Falcon 9 special missions since May 2019.
SpaceX has more than 1,000 satellites in its Starlink constellation, well on track to complete deployment of its first installment of 1,584 Starlink stations later this year. SpaceX will not stop there, with plans to launch additional orbital “shells” from Starlink satellites into polar orbit to enable global coverage, with a first-generation fleet totaling some 4,400 spacecraft.
Built by SpaceX engineers in Redmond, Washington, the Starlink satellites weigh about a quarter of a ton each, and they launch stacked in the Falcon 9 rocket.
The Federal Communications Commission has authorized SpaceX to eventually operate up to 12,000 Starlink satellites.
SpaceX began accepting pre-orders from potential Starlink users this week and charged $ 99 for a potential customer to line up for the broadband service. Once confirmed, customers will pay $ 499 for a Starlink antenna and modem, plus $ 50 for shipping and handling, SpaceX says. A subscription costs $ 99 per month.
SpaceX says the service should be available across the United States later this year.
In the northern United States, Canada, beta testing of the Starlink network has been going on for months. SpaceX said more than 10,000 users in the United States abroad are already using the Starlink service, according to a regular Feb. 3 filing with the FCC.
Starlink continues to improve as SpaceX deploys additional infrastructure and capacity, on average two Starlink launches per month, to add significant on-orbit capability in addition to activation of additional gateways to improve performance and extend service coverage across the country. to extend, “SpaceX wrote in the application. .
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted Tuesday that SpaceX’s Starlink subsidiary will go public once it has predictable cash flow.
“Once we can reasonably predict cash flow, Starlink will IPO,” Musk tweeted.
Until then, SpaceX will spend a lot of money to maintain the rapid deployment of the Starlink network, from satellite launches at an average pace of every few weeks to the production of ground terminals for users. SpaceX has said the entire project could cost more than $ 10 billion, but Musk has said the revenue opportunities are even greater, giving SpaceX the resources to advance its bold plans to send humans to Mars.
“SpaceX must go through a deep chasm of negative cash flow over the next year to make Starlink financially viable,” Musk tweeted. “Every new satellite constellation in history has gone bankrupt. We hope to be the first to not. “
The FCC awarded SpaceX nearly $ 885 million in government grants in December through a program aimed at expanding broadband access for rural Americans.
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