Days after SpaceX opened orders for the Starlink internet service, two more Falcon 9 rockets are due to launch from the Florida Space Coast on Sunday night and Tuesday morning – weather permitting – to help take the network forward. closer to business operations.
The next two Starlink missions, scheduled to launch around 60 satellites each, will be launched on Falcon 9 rockets from two different launch platforms.
Next on the line is a Falcon 9 launch from platform 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station scheduled for approximately 11:20 pm EST on Sunday (4:20 am GMT on Monday). SpaceX is preparing another Falcon 9 to take off from platform 39A, a few miles north, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, as soon as 1h17 EST (6h17 GMT on Tuesday).
The launch scheduled for Tuesday has been delayed several times since late January, most recently to allow time for “additional inspections” on the rocket, according to SpaceX. The Sunday night launch was previously scheduled for Saturday night.
The weather forecast is doubtful for the opportunities for instant launching of both missions, with a 40 percent chance of acceptable conditions expected in Cape Canaveral on Sunday night, when meteorologists predict cloud cover, rain and storms on the coast. Space. There is a 60% chance of good weather for the launch of platform 39A early Tuesday, according to the 45th US Space Force Weather Squadron.
After launching toward northeastern Florida, the Falcon 9s will send its payloads to orbit several hundred kilometers above Earth, at an inclination of 53 degrees from the equator. SpaceX aims to recover the first stage booster for both missions using the company’s two drone ships dispatched to the Atlantic Ocean.
The launches on Sunday and Tuesday will occur less than two weeks after SpaceX’s most recent Starlink mission, which placed 60 satellites in orbit on February 4 from Cape Canaveral. They will be the 19th and 20th batches of Starlink satellites launched on dedicated Falcon 9 missions since May 2019.
SpaceX has more than 1,000 satellites in its Starlink constellation, about to finish deploying its initial tranche of 1,584 Starlink stations later this year. SpaceX will not stop there, with plans to launch additional orbital “shells” from Starlink satellites in polar orbit to allow global coverage, with a first generation fleet totaling about 4,400 spacecraft.
Built by SpaceX technicians in Redmond, Washington, Starlink satellites weigh about a quarter of a ton each and are launched stacked within the payload cover of the Falcon 9 rocket.
The Federal Communications Commission has authorized SpaceX to operate up to 12,000 Starlink satellites.
SpaceX began accepting orders from potential Starlink users this week, charging $ 99 for a potential customer to queue for broadband service. Once confirmed, customers will pay $ 499 for a Starlink antenna and modem, plus $ 50 for shipping and handling, SpaceX says. The subscription will cost $ 99 per month.
SpaceX says the service should be available in the United States later this year.
Beta testing of the Starlink network has been ongoing for months in the northern United States, Canada. SpaceX said more than 10,000 users in the United States who are abroad are already on the Starlink service, according to a document regularly filed on February 3 with the FCC.
“Starlink continues to improve as SpaceX deploys additional infrastructure and capacity, averaging two Starlink launches per month, to add significant capacity in orbit along with enabling additional gateways to improve performance and expand service coverage areas across the country, ”wrote SpaceX in the document.
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, tweeted on Tuesday that SpaceX’s Starlink subsidiary will go public as soon as it has a predictable cash flow.
“As soon as we can predict the cash flow reasonably well, Starlink will do the IPO,” tweeted Musk.
Until then, SpaceX will spend a lot of money to maintain the high-speed deployment of the Starlink network, from satellite launches at an average pace every two weeks to the manufacture of ground user terminals. SpaceX said the entire project could cost more than $ 10 billion, but Musk said the revenue opportunities are even greater, providing resources for SpaceX to move forward in its bold plans to send people to Mars.
“SpaceX needs to go through a deep abyss of negative cash flow next year or later to make Starlink financially viable,” tweeted Musk. “Every new satellite constellation in history has failed. We hope to be the first to do so. “
The FCC awarded SpaceX nearly $ 885 million in government grants in December through a program that aims to expand broadband access for rural Americans.
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