Days after SpaceX opened pre-orders for Starlink’s Internet service, two more Falcon 9 rockets will be launched from the Space Coast in Florida from Sunday night and Tuesday morning – weather permitting – to push the network closer to commercial operations.
The next two Starlink missions, which are expected to offer about 60 satellites each, will fly on Falcon 9 rockets from two different launch pads.
Next in line is a launch of Falcon 9 from Route 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, scheduled for approximately 23:20 EST (0420 GMT Monday). SpaceX is preparing another Falcon 9 for the blast from Route 39A, a few miles north of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, as soon as 1:17 AM EST (0617 GMT Tuesday).
The launch, scheduled for Tuesday, has been delayed several times since the end of January, most recently to allow, according to SpaceX, ‘additional inspections’ of the rocket. The launch Sunday night was previously planned for Saturday night.
The weather forecast is unpredictable for both missions’ immediate launch opportunities, with a 40 percent chance of acceptable conditions expected in Cape Canaveral on Sunday night, when forecasters predict cloud cover, showers and thunderstorms across the space coast. There is a 60 percent probability of good weather for the launch from Route 39A early Tuesday, according to the 45th Weather Squadron of the U.S. Space Force.
After the Falcon 9s are launched from Florida to the northeast, they will deliver their cargo to orbit a hundred kilometers above the earth, with a slope of 53 degrees to the equator. SpaceX aims to repair the first phase booster of both missions using the two drone ships sent into the Atlantic Ocean.
The launch on Sunday and Tuesday will take place less than two weeks after SpaceX’s latest Starlink mission, which delivered 60 satellites to orbit Cape Canaveral on 4 February. This is the 19th and 20th series of Starlink satellites launched since May 2019 on special Falcon 9 missions.
SpaceX has more than 1,000 satellites in its Starlink constellation, well on track to complete the implementation of the initial portion of 1,584 Starlink stations later this year. SpaceX will not stop there, with plans to send additional orbital “shells” of Starlink satellites into a polar orbit to enable worldwide coverage, with a first-generation fleet containing a total of 4,400 spacecraft.
The Starlink satellites, built by SpaceX technicians in Redmond, Washington, weigh about a quarter of a ton each, and stack in the Falcon 9 rocket charge.
The Federal Communications Commission has authorized SpaceX to eventually operate up to 12,000 Starlink satellites.
SpaceX this week began accepting pre-orders from prospective Starlink users, which cost $ 99 for a potential customer to align with the broadband service. Once confirmed, customers will pay $ 499 for a Starlink antenna and modem, plus $ 50 for shipping and handling, SpaceX says. A subscription costs $ 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 going on for months in the northern United States, Canada. According to SpaceX, more than 10,000 users abroad are already in the Starlink service, according to a February 3 filing regularly with the FCC.
“Starlink continues to improve as SpaceX uses additional infrastructure and capability, with an average of two Starlink launches per month, to add significant capacity on the runway, along with the activation of additional holes to improve performance and service coverage. expand across the country, “SpaceX wrote in the submission. .
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, tweeted on Tuesday that SpaceX’s subsidiary Starlink will be announced as soon as it has a predictable cash flow.
“Once we can predict the cash flow pretty well, Starlink will give IPO,” Musk tweeted.
Until then, SpaceX will spend cash at a high rate to maintain the Starlink network’s high – speed deployment, from satellite launches at an average rate every few weeks to the production of ground terminals for users. SpaceX said the entire project could cost more than $ 10 billion, but Musk said revenue opportunities are even higher, giving SpaceX the means to advance its daring plans to send humans to Mars.
“SpaceX must go through a deep chasm of negative cash flow over the next year or so to make Starlink financially viable,” Musk tweeted. ‘Every new satellite constellation in history has gone bankrupt. We hope to be the first to do so. ”
The FCC allocated SpaceX nearly $ 885 million in government subsidies in December through a program to expand broadband access for rural Americans.
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