On Sunday morning (July 17), SpaceX successfully launched and landed one of its Falcon 9 rockets carrying one of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites.
Falcon 9 Carried 53 Starlink's Satellites
At 10:20 a.m. EDT on Sunday, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 53 Starlink internet satellites was launched from the Florida-based Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, as per the report of Space.com.
According to a mission description provided by the company, the booster also assisted in nine Starlink missions, loft the Demo-2 crewed test trip to the International Space Station (ISS), the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, and the SXM-7 communications satellite. The news outlet noted that it was the 13th launch for this Falcon 9's first stage.
The flight marked the company's 31st Falcon 9 mission of the year, tying its launch total from 2021.
Starlink Satellites
For those who are unfamiliar, Starlink is an internet service that makes use of satellites to provide broadband connectivity to users who have the necessary receiving hardware.
The mission of Starlink is to provide connectivity to remote or underserved areas. Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, claims that if Starlink can take even a small portion of the global telecommunications industry, it might bring in up to $50 billion annually.
SpaceX has been steadily developing the Starlink service since it came out of beta testing at the end of 2021. By the end of 2022, this expansion development is anticipated to be completed.
Customers could purchase its products and services in a number of different countries as of September 2021. Thirty-five countries will have access to Starlink's broadband satellites, according to a recent SpaceX announcement.
Starlink is a massive constellation of broadband satellites from SpaceX. Space.com pointed out that to date, the company has put more than 2,800 Starlink spacecraft into low Earth orbit, and many more are expected to launch in the near future. SpaceX currently has permission to loft 12,000 Starlink satellites, and it has also applied for permission to put an additional 30,000 spacecraft into orbit.
China Might Destroy SpaceX's Starlink Satellites
Elon Musk's Starlink satellite constellation is something China wants to be able to take down. As previously reported, citing the state media South China Morning Post, Chinese military researchers stated that if SpaceX's Starlink satellites pose a security danger to their country, they must be able to entirely disable or eliminate them.
Author Ren Yuanzhen and several senior scientists from China's defense industry argued in a research paper that was published in the peer-reviewed journal Modern Defense Technology that the Chinese military would need to develop methods to counteract any threat posed by Elon Musk's Starlink satellite constellation.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg noted that to compete with the U.S. in every aspect, China wants to maintain control of the nation's data.
According to Space News, after two Starlink satellites came perilously close to colliding with China's Tianhe space station in 2021, China started to be cautious of the constellation.
Related Article: SpaceX Successfully Launches Another 46 Starlink Satellites
