SpaceX — STARLINK Mission Success

SpaceX — Falcon 9 / STARLINK Mission patch.

May 24, 2019

Lift-off

On Thursday, May 23 at 10:30 p.m. EDT SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. SpaceX’s Starlink is a next-generation satellite network capable of connecting the globe, especially reaching those who are not yet connected, with reliable and affordable broadband internet services.

Falcon 9’s first stage for this mission previously supported the Telstar 18 VANTAGE mission in September 2018 and the Iridium-8 mission in January 2019. Following stage separation, SpaceX landed Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX’s first Starlink mission

Approximately one hour and two minutes after liftoff, the Starlink satellites were deployed at an altitude of 440km. They then used onboard propulsion to reach an operational altitude of 550km.

The 60 small satellites, each with a flat-panel design and built by an in-house SpaceX team, will be joined by hundreds more Starlink craft over the next year to fill out the network’s preliminary constellation. Eventually, SpaceX says thousands of Starlink satellites may be launched to provide high-speed Internet services to consumers around the world.

Image above: Artist’s concept of a Starlink satellite with its solar array wing unfurled. Image Credit: SpaceX.

Each satellite carries a krypton ion propulsion system and Ku-band antennas to continue in-orbit demonstrations of SpaceX’s planned broadband network, which may eventually number up to 12,000 small relay stations in low Earth orbit.

Future Starlink satellites will carry Ka-band and V-band radio transmission hardware, along with laser inter-satellite links to allow signals to bounce between spacecraft in orbit, rather than going through a ground station.

For more information about SpaceX, visit: https://www.spacex.com/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: SpaceX/SciNews/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

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