From Cape Canaveral, Florida, space agency SpaceX launched 58 satellites for its broadband Internet network Starlink and three Earth observation satellites on Saturday, the Florida newspaper reported today.
It was the first time that other satellites ‘piggyback’ with Starlinks.
Barely nine days after a Falcon-9 launch vehicle of SpaceX departed from platform LC-40, a new one took off on Saturday at 11:21 Belgian time.
The short time span between two launches from the same platform is a new record, the authoritative newspaper writes.
About 35 minutes after the start, 58 new satellites for Starlink were released simultaneously, preceded by three SkySats satellites, each weighing 110 kilos, for the Earth observation company Planet Labs.
For Starlink, 538, each weighing a quarter of a ton, have been launched into space through nine launches with a Falcon-9 since May 2019. On the night of 22 to 23 June, a Falcon for Starlink has to depart from the famous launch platform 39A.
LC-40 is next week, this time to bring a GPS satellite into space.
In July, a Falcon-9 will again bring Starlinks and SkySats. It will be the last three for Planet Labs, which will then have a constellation of 21 satellites.
SpaceX plans to launch some 1,000 Starlink satellites during the year, and thousands more in subsequent years..
