CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – SpaceX will launch its next batch of Starlink satellites on Thursday (February 4) as part of a potential dual launch that will further expand the company’s satellite internet fleet, and you can watch live action online.
The Hawthorne, Calif.-Based company is planning to launch consecutive Starlink missions, launching two batches of 60 Starlink satellites from the Internet on two different Falcon 9 rockets.
The first mission is scheduled to take off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Thursday at 1h19 EST (6h19 GMT), followed by a second of NASA’s historic Pad 39A here at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, just over 24 hours later, in Friday at 5:14 am EDT (1014 GMT) – if everything goes as planned.
You can watch the launch live here and on the Space.com homepage, courtesy of SpaceX, starting about 15 minutes before launch. You can also watch the launch directly via SpaceX.
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SpaceX has already got off to a quick start this year, as Thursday’s launches will be the fourth (and potentially fifth) of the year for the private space flight company. The company has relied heavily on its flight-proven rocket fleet and, as such, managed to take off a record 26 in 2020. Two of these flights were astronaut missions to the International Space Station – marking the first for a commercial company and the first human missions to be launched from Florida since the retirement of the space shuttle program in 2011.
This year the company has even greater ambitions; is planning to launch 40 rockets between the launch sites in California and Florida.
SpaceX will put its two drone ships – “Of course I still love you” and “Just read the instructions” – for use on Thursday, as the company hopes to get both boosters. If successful, the landings will mark the 74th and 75th recoveries for SpaceX since the company landed its first booster in 2015.
The first on the launch pad will be the booster known as the B1059, prepared for its fifth flight. This first stage previously carried two different cargo refueling missions from the SpaceX Dragon to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s CRS-19 and CRS-20, an Earth observation satellite to Argentina (SAOCOM-1B in August 2004). 2020), followed by a satellite spy for the US government as part of the NROL-108 mission in December. Thursday’s flight will mark the second Starlink payload that this particular booster has loaded.
Next, there will be another passenger eight times. Known as the B1049, this booster became the first in the SpaceX fleet to fly seven times and the second to attempt eight launches and landings. To date, a Telstar communications satellite has been hoisted in September 2018, followed by an Iridium NEXT satellite in January 2019 and then four different Starlink missions.
Its counterpart, the B1051, recently became the first booster in the SpaceX fleet to fly eight times. This booster recently sailed back to port after launching its record-breaking mission on January 20. SpaceX designed its Block 5 variant of Falcon 9 to fly at least 10 times with minimal overhaul between flights. Although the company has not yet reached that milestone, these two drivers can achieve it this year.
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SpaceX created its Starlink internet program to connect users worldwide and provide reliable and affordable internet services, particularly in remote and rural areas. The company does this with the help of a small user terminal the size of a laptop. SpaceX planned that its original Starlink constellation would contain 1,440 of the Internet’s flat-panel broadcast satellites.
The company needed at least several hundred in orbit before it started deploying the service, said the company’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk. Thursday’s launch will bring the total number of Starlink satellites in orbit to over 1,000, including the first 10 to be launched on a polar orbit trajectory. These satellites took off as part of a shared effort on 24 January.
Called Transporter-1, this rideshare mission included 143 small satellites, marking the largest number of satellites a rocket has carried into space so far. Ten of them were SpaceX’s own Starlink satellites. Towards a polar trajectory, this group of spacecraft will help the company provide coverage for high-latitude regions.
An extensive beta testing phase from Starlink, called “Better than nothing”, is well underway, with the company recently expanding the program to customers in the UK, thanks to the approval of telecommunications regulator Ofcom.
The company also acquired its first Canadian customer, the Pikangikum First Nation reserve. The satellite internet service helped the community to connect to health and education services and more.
Related: SpaceX launches 60 Starlink satellites and lands rocket on a stunning night takeoff
Flight milestones
If everything goes according to plan, consecutive launches will mark flights 105º and 106º overall for the 70-meter high SpaceX two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, as well as the 53rd and 54th flight of the heavy-duty rocket since the company started to recover boosters in 2015.
Over the past five years, the company has refined its recovery efforts while continuing to prove the reliability of Falcon 9. Reusing booster rockets has now become commonplace for SpaceX and has allowed the company to launch its rockets at a record pace. In 2020, Falcon 9 became the most launched rocket of all time, when it launched on its 84th flight – a record for the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket.
With the company’s last flight, the Transporter-1 mission on January 24, the Falcon 9 Block 5 variant has also passed the 85-flight mark, having successfully launched 86 times.
To date, SpaceX has successfully landed its first stage boosters 73 times. This is thanks to the company’s two fully operational drone landing platforms – “Of course I still love you” and “Just read the instructions”. The dynamic duo is allowing SpaceX to launch (and land) more rockets. SpaceX has two reinforcement recovery options: on a drone ship or in one of its landing zones. Since ships are mobile and can be positioned in the ocean, it consumes less fuel than if the propellant returned to land on the Cape. Of the more than 70 booster landings, only 21 were on land, with the rest on one of the two drone ships.
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Thursday’s flights could be the first time SpaceX launched two rockets on the same day from its two Florida-based launch platforms. This is partly due to climate-related delays. The Starlink 17 mission, launched on B1049, was originally planned for January 30, but has been postponed for several days to allow weather conditions in the recovery zone to improve.
The Starlink 18 mission, which was already scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1:19 am EST (0619 GMT) on Thursday, is now scheduled to launch 28 hours before Starlink 17 due to the delay of the time and need more pre-launch checkouts.
Since SpaceX depends on its frequent flyer fleet, the company wants to make sure that it can successfully retrieve the return booster on one of its drone ships. Both ships were deployed in two different landing zones for the two missions.
SpaceX will try to recover the fairing parts (the two halves of the “protection cone” at the top stage of the rocket) from each of these launches. The company has been very successful in removing the protective shroud from the water and even catching the falling pieces with the help of two boats equipped with a net – called GO Ms. Tree and GO Ms. Chief.
Usually, the team decides whether to pick up or collect the fairing halves on launch day. And these recovery efforts take place about 45 minutes after takeoff.
Currently, the weather is 90% favorable for both launch opportunities, with the only concerns with the climate being the potential for high takeoff winds at the launch site. There is a backup launch time for each mission, if needed.
The team continues to monitor the climate in the recovery zone to ensure that their recovery efforts are successful.
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