Two BlackSky spacecraft were launched into orbit, followed by Starlink satellites
NEW YORK, December 3. /tass/. SpaceX on Thursday successfully delivered 48 mini-satellites to orbit for its Starlink network, as well as two microsatellites from BlackSky. The broadcast was conducted on the SpaceX website.
The launch of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle from the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome (Florida) took place at 18:12 East Coast time (02:12 Moscow Time on December 3). An hour later, two BlackSky spacecraft were launched into orbit with a short interval, half an hour after that, they were followed by Starlink satellites.
Approximately ten minutes after launch, the first stage of the launch vehicle was automatically planted on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean. Previously, this element of the Falcon 9 has been repeatedly used during launches.
The Starlink network is designed to provide Internet access by deploying a large number of devices weighing 260 kg. According to SpaceX, the launch of a total of 11 thousand satellites and their commissioning will cost $ 10 billion. The company assures that it will be able to provide broadband Internet with a traffic speed of 1 gigabit per second, which corresponds to the 5G standard. The devices of the American company BlackSky weighing 55 kg each are equipped with optical equipment and must carry out visual observation of our planet.
Since May 2019, SpaceX has already put about 1.9 thousand Starlink satellites into orbit.
