Washington. January 20. INTERFAX-The Falcon 9 heavy launch vehicle successfully launched a new batch of 60 mini-satellites into low-Earth orbit on Wednesday, designed to continue the deployment of the global Internet coverage of the Starlink system, developer SpaceX said.
"The withdrawal of 60 Starlink satellites has been confirmed," the statement said.
This is the 17th launch of a group of Internet satellites, starting in May 2019, as part of the Starlink project. The previous batch of 60 Starlink satellites was launched on November 24 last year. Taking into account the current satellites, the SpaceX orbital constellation already consists of 1013 Starlink spacecraft. The company is currently the largest satellite operator in the world.
The launch was carried out at 08: 02 US East Coast time (16: 02 GMT) From Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Cape Canaveral Space Center in Florida.
Approximately 1 hour and 5 minutes after the launch of the rocket, a group of Starlink satellites was launched into the specified orbit.
Meanwhile, the first reusable stage of the SpaceX launch vehicle, which was used for the launch for the eighth time, 8 minutes and 26 seconds after launch, made a controlled vertical landing on the Just Read the Instructions automatic floating platform, which was located in the Atlantic about 630 km from the Cape Canaveral spaceport.
In addition, special marine rescue vessels Ms. Chief and Ms. Then, in the Atlantic, they had to fish out of the water two wings of the fairing of the head of the rocket, which, after separation, descended on parachutes. Reusing the fairing saves SpaceX up to $6 million on its rocket launches.
