SpaceX rocket launches into orbit with 16th batch of Starlink satellites since the beginning of the year

SpaceX rocket launches into orbit with 16th batch of Starlink satellites since the beginning of the year

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The Falcon 9 launch vehicle launched into orbit with another batch of mini-satellites for the orbital constellation of the Starlink global Internet coverage network. From the messages of the developer company SpaceX on Twitter, it follows that the launch vehicle puts 56 mini-satellites into orbit.

Starlink is a global satellite system developed by SpaceX to provide high-speed broadband satellite Internet access in places where it was unreliable, expensive or completely unavailable.

According to SpaceX, the launch was carried out from the 40th launch complex of the US Space Force base at Cape Canaveral in Florida at 1:03 (at 8:03 Moscow time). The launch vehicle should put all the satellites into orbit about an hour after launch.

Shortly after launch, the first stage of the launch vehicle will land on the offshore drone platform. It is located in the Atlantic, 660 km from the cosmodrome.

This is the 16th launch of Starlink satellites since the beginning of 2023 and the 85th since May 2019. As part of the project, about 4.4 thousand mini-satellites were launched into orbit, some of them failed or went out of orbit. Over 4.1 thousand remain in working condition.

SpaceX plans to deploy an orbital constellation of 12,000 spacecraft, and then increase the network to 30,000 vehicles. The amount of investment in the project is estimated at $10 billion.

Lusine Balasyan

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