SpaceX launch rescheduled for June 25
June 24, 2020
By Chris Forrester
SpaceX was due to launch another batch of Starlink satellites on June 23rd but bad weather at the Cape means that – weather again permitting – launch will now be on June 25th.
This will be the 10th launch of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites and take the total in orbit to almost 600. Musk says that his Starlink service will debut “later this summer” first serving Alaska and the northern US and Canadian regions. He has said that he only needs about 400 satellites in orbit to provide a basic ‘beta’ service, and that a fleet of 800 would provide “moderate” coverage for public subscribers/users.
Potential users can now sign up (on the Starlink website) for hard news and service announcements.
Musk’s SpaceX rocket will also carry a pair of BlackSky Earth observation satellites built by LeoStella. They weigh about 50 kgs each.
Launch time on June 25th will be 4.39 pm (Florida time) from the Cape and launch complex 39A. Musk’s floating landing barge, ‘Of Course I Still Love You’, will be ready for the rocket’s return.
Musk says Starlink “will rapidly expand to near-global coverage of the populated world by 2021. Starlink will deliver high speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.”