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Official SpaceX Starlink Mission, Feb. 17, 2020 (Attribution: SpaceX, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

Official SpaceX Starlink Mission, Jan. 29, 2020 (Attribution: SpaceX, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

Official SpaceX Starlink Mission, Jan. 29, 2020 (Attribution: SpaceX, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

Official SpaceX Starlink Mission, Jan. 29, 2020 (Attribution: SpaceX, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

Official SpaceX Starlink Mission, Jan. 29, 2020 (Attribution: SpaceX, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

Official SpaceX Starlink Mission, Feb. 17, 2020 (Attribution: SpaceX, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

Official SpaceX Starlink Mission, Feb. 1, 2020 (Attribution: SpaceX, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

Official SpaceX Starlink Mission, Feb. 17, 2020 (Attribution: SpaceX, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

Official SpaceX Starlink Mission, Feb. 17, 2020 (Attribution: SpaceX, Presented at: WindermereSun.com)

(Please click on red links & note magenta)

On Monday, February 17, 2020, the launch of Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canveral, FL, proceeded normally, but when the first stage was due to land on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship, the rocket did not appear. Later, SpaceX confirmed in the SpaceX webcast that the first stage made a soft landing in the water near the drone ship. Falcon 9 launches 60 Starlink satellites. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the fifth batch of 60 Starlink satellites (Starlink-4) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on 17 February 2020, at 15:05 (10:05 EST). Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage (Block 5 B1056) failed to land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Falcon 9’s first stage for this mission previously launched the CRS-17 mission in May 2019, the CRS-18 mission in July 2019, and the JCSAT-18/Kacific1 mission in December 2019. In the video “SpaceX Starlink launch & Falcon 9 first stage failed landing, 17 February 2020“, below:

SpaceX is targeting Monday, February 17 at 10:05 a.m. EST, or 15:05 UTC, for its fifth launch of Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. A backup launch opportunity is available on Tuesday, February 18 at 9:42 a.m. EST, or 14:42 UTC.

SpaceX have been launching Starlink satellite groups every few weeks and while Monday’s launch was once again successful, the booster was lost after it made a soft landing in the water next to the barge. There’s no official word on what went wrong, but we can speculate based on the information we have, in the video “SpaceX’s Latest Successful Mission Ends With A Failed Landing“, below:

Falcon 9’s first stage previously launched the CRS-17 mission in May 2019, the CRS-18 mission in July 2019, and the JCSAT-18/Kacific1 mission in December 2019. Following stage separation, SpaceX will land Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Approximately 45 minutes after liftoff, SpaceX’s two fairing recovery vessels, “Ms. Tree” and “Ms. Chief,” will attempt to recover the two fairing halves, in the video “Starlink Mission”, below:

Since the start of the space age, more than 8,800 objects have been launched into orbit, according to estimates from the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. But in a few years, that number could increase significantly. Private companies plan to launch thousands of satellites to beam internet to customers on Earth. SpaceX alone has announced plans to launch 42,000 satellites. If this happens, SpaceX will be responsible for about a fivefold increase in the number of spacecraft launched by all of humanity, in the video “Why SpaceX And Amazon Are Launching 42,000+ Satellites“, below:

Back in 2019, SpaceX’s Starlink division is on track to offer satellite-broadband service in the United States in mid-2020, the company’s president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell said Oct. 22, 2019.
Getting there will require the company to launch six to eight batches of satellites, Shotwell told reporters during a media roundtable. SpaceX also has to finish the design and engineering of the user terminals, which is not a minor challenge, Shotwell acknowledged. SpaceX’s proposed Starlink constellation of thousands of satellites, which are designed to orbit at low altitudes above the Earth and beam internet coverage to the surface below. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted two tweets that show he’s testing the broadband service. Elon Musk has a Starlink terminal at his house and he used it to send a tweet early on Oct. 22, 2019.”Sending this tweet through space via Starlink satellite,” Elon Musk tweeted to his 29 million followers. Two minutes later, Musk sent a follow-up tweet that said, “Whoa, it worked!!” In this video Engineering Today will discuss SpaceX’s plan to provide internet coverage with Starlink constellation as soon as mid-2020, in the video “SpaceX Starlink Broadband Services in Mid-2020“, below:

The early SpaceX Starlink satellites lack inter-satellite links planned for later versions.  Can they still provide low latency wide-area communications?  In this video I look at what might be possible using ground relays to hop from satellite to satellite around the world, in the video “Using ground relays with Starlink“, below:

Today we are going to talk about the 60 Starlink satellites that SpaceX just launched in a groundbreaking mission. But more than that we are going to talk about why this mission is such a big deal. I mean they are just satellites right? Surely we already have plenty of satellites around our pale blue dot by now?  Here is the thing though. SpaceX have just started an amazing long term mission. Not for any other launch provider, but for themselves. This amazing set of missions aims to create a super low latency telecommunications network. And how are they going to do this? Not by launching just these 60 satellites, which is amazing by itself, but by launching around 12,000 satellites in three sophisticated orbital shells around the world, in the video “How is SpaceX Starlink going to be revolutionary?” below:

Gathered, written, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker More about the community at www.WindermereSun.com

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