SpaceX plans to send a space tug aloft with another large group of Starlink internet satellites on Sunday night (September 4).
a SpaceX A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to lift off Sunday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on the east coast of Florida, with 51 rockets on board. starlink Internet satellites into orbit. The launch time is set to 10:09 PM EST (0209 GMT on September 5th). Watch it here in the window above, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly through the company (Opens in a new tab).
It will also be on board with the Starlink Group 4-20 Sherpa-LTC2, a space tug provided by Seattle-based Spaceflight. The tug will carry payload for Boeing’s Varuna Technology Demonstration Mission (Varuna-TDM), which “aims to test the V-band communications of a proposed constellation of 147 non-geostationary broadband satellites”. According to SpaceNews (Opens in a new tab).
The first Sherpa-LTC orbital transport vehicle has been removed from SpaceX’s January 2022 launch opportunity due to a fuel leak, SpaceNews added.
Related: Starlink megaconstellation from SpaceX is launched in pictures
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Sunday’s flight plan calls for SpaceX to present the first phase of its plan Falcon 9 The missile returns to Earth for a soft landing on the drone, just read the instructions, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. The landing – the seventh for this booster – is scheduled to take place approximately 8.5 minutes after launch.
Sherpa-LTC2 is scheduled to deploy from the upper stage of the Falcon 9 49.5 minutes after liftoff, and Starlinks will follow about 23 minutes after that, SpaceX Written in the description of the task (Opens in a new tab).
SpaceX has already sent more than 3,000 Starlink satellites into orbit, in an effort to create a huge constellation to serve broadband targeting remote areas. SpaceX has already launched more than 25 Starlink-centric missions in 2022.
This will be SpaceX’s 40th launch of the year and will continue to add to the Starlink megaconstellation. SpaceX has secured approval to launch 12,000 satellites from Starlink and has asked an international regulator to give a thumbs up to 30,000 additional satellites.
In late August, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk Announced plans to send calling directly to smartphones using Starlink, in conjunction with T-Mobile. Another deal announced on Tuesday (August 30) will see Starlink service sent to Royal Caribbean cruise ships.
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