SpaceX Completes 20th Starlink Mission

[Grendal]

SpaceX successfully delivered another load of 60 satellites to join its Starlink constellation.



The mission was originally slated for January 27, but was delayed or scrubbed 10 times before lifting off Thursday morning from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.



SpaceX now has more than 1,000 Starlink satellites in orbit and the company has said it believes it can provide internet service around the globe with 1,200 satellites. The system could ultimately scale to 30,000 satellites.



Thursday’s launch marked the 20th Starlink mission and the fifth this year. Starlink is currently in beta, serving about 10,000 customers. The price is currently $99 per month plus a one-time fee of $499 for the user terminal, mounting tripod, and router.



The company is also reportedly staffing up a factory to build Starlink hardware.

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[Grendal]

Weather is looking good at the launch site. Moderate at the landing site.

 

[e-FTW]

Another 8th mission! We see ten before the summer!

 

[Grendal]

Nothing official yet. The static fire was aborted and the recovery ships are headed back to port. So it's unlikely to launch on Sunday.

I'll adjust the date when it becomes official.

 

[Grendal]

 

[Grendal]

One more day delay. The time will be adjusted when I know it.

 

[Grendal]

 

[Grendal]

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

You see, that's the problem with re-usable rockets. They introduce another source of delay: weather in the recovery zone.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Holy crap.

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1356807508975845381?s=20

 

[Grendal]

70% chance for a go tonight and the recovery area is also quite good.

 

[ICUDoc]

Why not make them simultaneous launches?

Falcon Heavy Homage

 

[Cosmacelf]

Wait a minute! L18 launched before L17? SpaceX is just messing with us now!

 

[Grendal]

Pushed out again!

 

[Grendal]

Wait a minute! L18 launched before L17? SpaceX is just messing with us now!

It's the new math: 18 is the new 17!

 

[EVCollies]

Nice to hear it was delayed partially because both halves from prior launch were recovered.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Nice to hear it was delayed partially because both halves from prior launch were recovered.

Maybe they just forgot about needing a ship for each fairing half.

Looks like they need to add Ms Judge and Ms Ng to the fleet.

 

[Grendal]

Delayed indefinitely. There is likely some kind of hardware issue to make this happen.
https://twitter.com/nextspaceflight...gLyO5e8TgIae4XKmiHzsFlaD1vXHk7Tujyie9vHIIgqXM

The launch of Starlink V1.0 L17 has been delayed indefinitely, per canceled NOTMARs. A different Starlink mission, Starlink V1.0 L19 is currently scheduled to launch Feb. 11.

 

[Grendal]

New date is likely the 16th.

 

[Grendal]