SpaceX has launched the eighth Starlink Constellation, the American private space agency has launched a new batch of 60 more Starlink Satellites into the low earth orbit on Wednesday (June 3) from the Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. After making the historic launch of Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission this is the 2nd liftoff in the last five days.
On 30th May 2020, SpaceX has sent two NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley toward the International Space Station aboard on the Crew Dragon capsule using a different Falcon 9 rocket.
This was a historic event for NASA and SpaceX because it was the first time astronauts have launched from U.S. soil into Earth orbit since the last space shuttle launch by NASA on July 8th 2011.
The Crew Dragon Demo-2 launch was also a milestone for the future of humankind and space exploration. SpaceX has become the only private company that has sent human to the International Space Station (ISS). This is also the first step into the commercialization of space and space exploration. Astronauts docked with the orbiting lab about 19 hours later and will remain there from one to four months.
After successfully sending the Astronauts to International Space Station, SpaceX has resumed its regular projects and one of such projects is Starlink. The Starlink project of SpaceX is to provide a low latency internet connection around the globe.
The company will launch a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites, Starlink will provide fast, reliable internet to populations with little or no connectivity, including those in rural communities and places where existing services are too expensive or unreliable.
So far the company has launched nearly 500 Starlink satellites including the satellites launched on Wednesday into low earth orbit. With the every launch Musk’s space agency SpaceX is making some milestone. On Wednesday (June 3) SpaceX has made another milestone by successfully launching the 60 Starlink Satellites to the low earth orbit using a Falcon 9 rocket.
The first stage of this Falcon 9 booster was already been used 4 times for previous missions. It was only the second Falcon 9 first stage to fly five times. The booster previously launched two other Starlink missions as well as a batch of Iridium NEXT satellites and a Canadian communications satellite.
This was the SpaceX’s 53rd successful booster recovery and the 34th on a drone ship called “Of Course I Still Love You.”
SpaceX plans to begin limited commercial service across the northern United States and Canada in 2020 and that is planned to be after completing 12 launches and after putting the 720 satellites into earth’s orbit. The company has already deployed around 500 Starlink satellites into the orbit so it seems right on time. The latest batch of Starlink satellites is equipped with deployable sunshades designed to minimize sunlight reflecting off bright surfaces.
