On the night of Monday to Tuesday, 60 new satellites will be launched by the company SpaceX as part of the Starlink program, Numerama reports. The stated objective is to allow certain remote corners of the world to have access to the Internet by 2020, by putting about 7,000 devices into orbit.
Last May, SpaceX had already launched a first cluster of around sixty Starlink satellites, then a second in November. Soon, several dozen of them should still be sent as part of this mission, the marketing of which is announced for 2020.
Static fire test of Falcon 9 complete — targeting Monday, January 6 at 9:19 pm EST for launch of 60 Starlink satellites from Pad 40 in Florida
- SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 4, 2020Reusable launchers
To launch the 60 satellites from the base of Cape Canaveral (United States), SpaceX will use a rocket whose first stage has already been used three times on other missions. Following the launch into orbit, the company again wants to recover not only this first stage but also half of the cover that was used to protect the devices during atmospheric flight.
This is the whole strategy of SpaceX, which wishes to make its activity profitable by deploying these reusable launchers. This Tuesday, January 7, the mission should take place around 3 a.m., French time.
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