To meet the goal of placing 45,000 internet satellites in low Earth orbit, SpaceX will be launching more than four dozen Starlink satellites into space on Wednesday, March 9 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
SpaceX Will Launch 48 Starlink Satellites To Space This Week
At 8:45 a.m. EST, a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket carrying 48 Starlink spacecrafts will be launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Furthermore, Space.com detailed that "If all goes according to plan, about nine minutes later, the Falcon 9 first stage will come down for a vertical landing on the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean a few hundred miles off the Florida coast."
According to the 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Space Force Base in Florida, there is an 80% likelihood that the weather will be suitable for launch on Wednesday.
SpaceX Starlink Satellites
For those who do not know, Starlink is owned by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk claiming that it is the "World's Most Advanced Broadband Internet System."
To further explain Starlink, the company stated on their website: "Using advanced satellites in a low orbit, Starlink enables video calls, online gaming, streaming, and other high data rate activities that historically have not been possible with satellite internet. Users can expect to see download speeds between 100 Mb/s and 200 Mb/s and latency as low as 20ms in most locations."
With regards to how it operates, Starlink internet operates by transmitting data through the vacuum of space, where it moves considerably quicker than fiber-optic cable. It can also reach many more people and places.
As compared to most satellite internet services operating by single geostationary satellites, Starlink clarified that it is a constellation of numerous satellites orbiting the planet at 550 kilometers and covering the whole globe. This information appears to beat the other satellite internet services orbiting at 35,000 kilometers.
The following are the number of Starlink satellites launched via Falcon 9 this year:
- January 6 - 49 Starlink satellites
- January 18 - 49 Starlink satellites
- February 3 - 49 Starlink satellites
- February 21 - 46 Starlink satellites
- February 25 - 50 Starlink satellites
- March 3 - 47 Starlink satellites
Elon Musk aims to have a total of 45,000 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit.
How To Watch Starlink Satellite Launch
Digital Trends shared two simple ways to watch the said launch: through SpaceX's Twitter and its YouTube account.
To do so, head to SpaceX's Twitter and then click the follow button to have updates as well as to watch the stream of the said launch.
Aside from the Twitter account, SpaceX also has its own YouTube account where it posts the mission's early phases.
In case fans could not locate the YouTube account, the last option to watch the launch is through Starlink's official website.
