The launch took place this morning in Florida.
SpaceX has launched its first batch of 60 operational satellites in its Starlink mega constellation, as it prepares to blanket Earth in thousands of satellites and beam internet around the globe.
Today, Monday, November 11 at 9.56 A.M. Eastern Time, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida with the satellites on board. They will be deployed initially at an altitude of 280 kilometers, undergoing tests to check they are operating properly before being raised to their final orbit of 550 kilometers using their onboard ion thrusters.
Almost nine minutes after the launch, the first stage of the booster successfully landed on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You out in the Atlantic Ocean. Having flown on three missions before, this was the first time a first stage booster of a Falcon 9 had successfully launched and landed four times. This was the 75th Falcon 9 launch overall, and 45th successful landing.
This flight, known as Starlink-1, was the first launch of fully operational satellites in SpaceX’s eventual constellation of 42,000 Starlink satellites. The previous launch in May 2019 saw 60 prototype satellites launched, referred to as “version 0.9”, with SpaceX testing out some of their capabilities since including their ability to maneuver in orbit.
Each of the satellites are identical, weighing about 260 kilograms and equipped with instruments to relay internet access to the ground via separate ground stations. With a total weight of 15,600 kilograms, this is the heaviest payload SpaceX has ever launched.
In the future, it will be possible for people on the ground to connect to the internet via a Starlink receiver on the ground, paying a monthly subscription fee to access the internet. SpaceX hopes to provide internet to every on Earth, including the estimated three billion people without internet access. Last month, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted via Starlink for the first time.
Reaching that goal will be no small feat, however. SpaceX is hoping to eventually conduct a Starlink launch roughly every two weeks to loft the necessary number of satellites to orbit, ensuring that any location on Earth can get high-speed access to the internet via the service at any time of day.
SpaceX says that a further six to eight launches will be needed to begin the service in the Northern U.S. and Canada, although the price of the service has not yet been revealed. After another 24 launches, or about 1,500 satellites presuming there are still 60 per launch, the company says it can begin global coverage. It hopes to achieve this by the end of 2020.
The satellites will be deployed at 280 kilometers, before raising their orbits to 550 kilometers ... [+]
Today’s launch was a milestone not just for Starlink, but for SpaceX’s launch capabilities as well. As mentioned, the first stage of the Falcon 9 booster on today’s mission had flown three times before, twice in 2018 and once in 2019, making this the first time a first stage had been used on four separate launches.
Another milestone was the reuse of the payload fairing, or nosecone, on the rocket, which previously flew on the Arabsat-6A Falcon Heavy mission in April 2019. The fairings return to Earth via parachute, being caught by floating ships equipped with giant nets called Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief. Today’s mission was the first time these fairings, estimated to cost about $6 million, have been reused.
A second recovery was not attempted on this flight owing to some concerns about the ships' operations in high seas, but SpaceX will retreive the two halves of the fairing after they splash down into the ocean.
SpaceX tweeted an image of its Starlink-1 satellites yesterday, Sunday, November 10.
Starlink is not without its detractors, however. Astronomers have been increasingly concerned with the impact the satellites will have on the night sky; following the first launch in May 2019, the train of satellites was clearly visible in the night sky, potentially hampering future astronomical observations.
To allay these concerns SpaceX said it would paint its satellites black to lower their reflectivity, although it doesn't seem this has been done for the satellites on Starlink-1. But some have questioned whether this will be enough, with the large solar panels of the satellites still likely reflecting sunlight and being visible at dusk and dawn, key times for certain types of astronomy like observing comets near the Sun.
Another concern is the collision risk posed by these satellites. Currently only 2,000 active satellites orbit Earth, but SpaceX alone plans to increase this by up to 21 times. With thousands of satellites also planned by their space internet competitors, such as OneWeb and Amazon, the total number of active satellites in orbit could exceed 50,000 in the near-future.
Coping with this increase will require satellite operators to dodge out of the way of each other more often, known as a collision avoidance maneuver. In September a European satellite was forced to dodge out of the way of a SpaceX Starlink satellite, and by some estimates these maneuvers could increase from three a day to eight an hour if all mega constellations come to fruition.
There are concerns too about the possibility these satellites could add to the problem of space junk in orbit. Already 3,000 dead satellites orbit Earth, and even with low failure rates these constellations could add a significant amount of debris to orbit that other satellites will have to avoid.
On this Starlink-1 mission, SpaceX said that one of the satellites had a problem before the launch that meant it “may not orbit raise”. However, being placed into an initial orbit of 280 kilometers, the company said it would “quickly burn up in Earth’s atmosphere” if this was the case.
Nonetheless, if some of these satellites were to fail at higher orbits, they would take years to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, posing a collision risk until they did. Amazon recently calculated that if 15 percent of its upcoming Project Kuiper satellites failed, they would have a 17 percent chance of colliding with another piece of space debris in their lifetime.
All eyes will now be on the Starlink-1 satellites as they make their way to their final orbit. Astronomers will be keeping a keen eye on how bright they are, while other satellite operators will be eager to check they are not behaving abnormally and potentially posing any problems during orbit-raising.
Today’s launch is just 0.14 percent of SpaceX’s upper target of 42,000 Starlink satellites. Many will see the provision of internet for all, including bringing three billion people into the digital age, as a worthy goal. Others will be keeping a keen on eye on the constellation as it grows by the thousands in the coming years.
