SpaceX plans to launch 2 batches of Starlink satellites this week

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. SpaceX plans to continue weekly launches of 60 Starlink satellites simultaneously, with at least two scheduled for the coming week.

The private aerospace company, and now growing internet service provider, has not disclosed its next Falcon 9 launches, but the Federal Aviation Authority’s flight restrictions show different potential windows for two launches.

Pending approval from the 45th Space Wing, which oversees the eastern range, a SpaceX Falcon 9 will take off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base on Saturday night and place more Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.

[RELATED COVERAGE: New internet option emerges as SpaceX expands Starlink service to more customers | SpaceX to launch NASA’s lunar Gateway on Falcon Heavy]

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In addition, another Falcon 9 could take off in the early hours of Tuesday morning from Kennedy Space Center Launchpad 39A, also with about 60 Starlink satellites.

The launch of KSC was postponed several times last week. The company said in a tweet that it “needed additional inspections before it could fly one of our industry-leading boosters.”

Combined, the launches will send the Starlink constellation above 1000 into orbit. The Starlink constellation is part of CEO Elon Musk’s plan to create an internet in space using a network of ultimately 42,000 satellites. In recent weeks, the company has expanded its beta testing of its Internet service to more than 10,000 customers.

Potential customers can visit Starlink.com and request a $ 499 Starlink kit with a $ 99 per month service. The kit includes a wifi router and dish. However, according to SpaceX, it depends on where a customer lives when their kit and service starts. For an Orlando address, the quoted estimate is mid to late 2021.

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Laura Forczyk, the owner of space consultancy Astralytical, said that in addition to signing up more customers, the company must also prove to the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates satellite broadband usage, that it can perform and provide the services SpaceX says it will do with the Starlink constellation.

“The FCC has given SpaceX the ability to use the particular broadband they have given them, if they are successful with Starlink with a certain number of customers and launched a certain number of satellites over a period of time,” Forcyk told News 6.

SpaceX tries to succeed where other companies have failed. Musk said in a tweet this week that Starlink could be the first.

“SpaceX must go through a deep gap of negative cash flow in the coming year to make Starlink financially viable,” the CEO tweeted. “Every new satellite constellation in history has gone bankrupt. We hope to be the first to not. “

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