SpaceX will launch a batch of Starlink Internet satellites in Florida, the USA on November 12th. This will be the first Starlink satellite launched by SpaceX in the past two months and the first Starlink satellite launched by SpaceX on the East Coast of the United States in the past six months.
It is reported that SpaceX will complete 13 Starlink satellite launch missions in the first five months of 2021, bringing a total of nearly 1,000 satellites into orbit. However, only a batch of Starlink satellites was launched in the following five months.
On September 14, SpaceX put the 51st Starlink satellite V1.5 using laser communication into orbit on the west coast of the United States. The second batch of Starlink satellites originally scheduled to be launched on the west coast in the middle of this month was postponed indefinitely.
In fact, SpaceX has not yet determined the launch date of the Starlink satellite a few days ago. On November 4, a second-hand Falcon 9 rocket booster was found driving towards the LC-40 launch pad along the road of the Kennedy Space Center.
Since launch pad No. 39 has been clearly used by SpaceX to arrange the implementation of the manned space mission Crew-3 plan, the Falcon 9 rocket in transit will be used to launch Starlink satellites as the only reasonable explanation.
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In fact, just one day after people discovered the rocket booster in transit, the dangerous area information issued by the 45th Space Wing at Cape Canaveral confirmed that SpaceX plans to start at 7 am EST on Friday, November 12th launch a batch of Starlink satellites by 8 o’clock.
In addition, this Starlink satellite launch mission is not the second launch plan of the second group of Starlink satellites near the polar regions, but the first launch of the fourth group of Starlink satellites.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network will launch 4400 satellites in the first phase, divided into five groups. The company divides the satellites into different groups (Shell) according to different orbital altitudes and inclination angles. In May of this year, SpaceX successfully launched a batch of Starlink satellites on the east coast, meaning that all the first group of satellites was launched into space.
In September, Starlink satellite V1.5 equipped with laser communication technology was launched for the first time, and SpaceX named it the first launch of the second group of Starlink satellites. It is reported that the second group of SpaceX satellites mainly operate over the polar regions, including 720 satellites; the fourth group has the same number of satellites as the first group, 1584 satellites.
In addition, the third and fifth groups have 340 and 158 satellites respectively. The two sets of satellites have slightly different operating altitudes in polar orbits and are likely to be the last two sets of satellites launched in the first phase of the SpaceX Starlink network.
Unlike the Starlink satellites V1.0 used in the first group, the fourth group of satellites will all be Starlink satellites V1.5 equipped with laser communication technology, so that the Starlink satellites can finally achieve orbital communication, thereby reducing the entire network connection.
On November 7, the SpaceX service ship Bob and the unmanned recovery ship ASoG left Port Canaveral to prepare for the launch of the Starlink satellite.
