SpaceX to launch another bundle of Starlink internet satellites today

SpaceX’s next launch will deliver 56 more Starlink internet satellites into the company’s global internet constellation after liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Wednesday afternoon.

The 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket is set for liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 4:01 p.m. EDT (2001 UTC). Forecasters from the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predict a 60% chance of good weather for launch Wednesday.

The primary weather concerns Wednesday are expected to be thick clouds and ground winds. The weather team expects a broken deck of cloud cover and gusty northerly winds Wednesday. SpaceX has backup launch times Wednesday at 5:43 p.m. and 7:22 p.m. EDT (2143 and 2322 UTC) if conditions are not favorable at the first launch opportunity.

The mission Wednesday, designated Starlink 5-10, will continue deploying SpaceX’s older-generation Starlink V1.5 satellites after the company paused launches of new higher-capacity second-generation Starlinks this month.

Ground teams continue troubleshooting unspecified problems with the first batch of new Starlink V2 Mini satellites, which are larger and offer four times the broadband capacity of the older-design satellites. The first 21 Starlink V2 Mini satellites launched Feb. 27 on a Falcon 9 rocket, but stopped raising their altitude earlier this month. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, said the satellites encountered issues after the launch last month, and some of them could be deorbited while others could be salvaged to eventually move into the active Starlink fleet.

The new Starlink V2 Minis carry upgraded phase array antennas and a more efficient, higher-thrust argon-fueled electric propulsion system. They also have two solar arrays, compared to a single extendable solar panel on each Starlink V1.5 spacecraft.

SpaceX’s most recent mission last Friday launched 56 more older-generation Starlink V1.5 satellites, and the launch Wednesday will follow a nearly identical profile to add 56 more.

While the Starlink V1.5 satellites are similar to the Starlink spacecraft SpaceX has launched over the last few years, SpaceX began launching Starlinks in December into orbital planes that are part of SpaceX’s second-generation, or Gen2, network. The Starlink 5-10 mission will continue the Gen2 deployments.

With the 56 new satellites on Wednesdays flight, SpaceX will have launched 4,217 Starlink spacecraft since the first prototypes in 2018. That number includes test satellites no longer in service, and satellites that have already re-enter the atmosphere.

SpaceX currently has more than 3,800 functioning Starlink satellites in space, with roughly 3,300 operational and more than 400 moving into their operational orbits, according to a tabulation by Jonathan McDowell, an expert tracker of spaceflight activity and an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The Starlink V2 Mini satellites that SpaceX began launching in February represent an intermediate step between the smaller Starlink V1.5 spacecraft and the even larger full-size Starlink V2s, which SpaceX plans to deploy in orbit using the company’s new Starship mega-rocket. The Starlink V2s will be capable of transmitting signals directly to cell phones. But with the Starship rocket still undergoing preparations for its first orbital test flight, SpaceX began launching the Gen2 satellites on Falcon 9 rockets and developed the V2 Minis to fit on the company’s existing launch vehicles.

The Federal Communications Commission granted SpaceX approval Dec. 1 to launch up to 7,500 of its planned 29,988-spacecraft Starlink Gen2 constellation. The regulatory agency deferred a decision on the remaining satellites SpaceX proposed for Gen2. With the launch Wednesday, SpaceX will have flown 330 Starlink Gen2 satellites into orbit.

Specifically, the FCC granted SpaceX authority to launch the initial block of 7,500 Starlink Gen2 satellites into orbits at 525, 530, and 535 kilometers, with inclinations of 53, 43, and 33 degrees, respectively, using Ku-band and Ka-band frequencies.

The FCC previously authorized SpaceX to launch and operate roughly 4,400 first-generation Ka-band and Ku-band Starlink spacecraft that SpaceX has been launching since 2019.

The Gen2 satellites could improve Starlink coverage over lower latitude regions, and help alleviate pressure on the network from growing consumer uptake. SpaceX says the network has more than 1 million active subscribers, mostly households in areas where conventional fiber connectivity is unavailable, unreliable, or expensive.

The Starlink spacecraft beam broadband internet signals to consumers around the world, connectivity that is now available on all seven continents.

Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX’s vice president of Starlink commercial sales, said earlier this month the company is producing about six satellites per day at a Starlink factory near Seattle.