Advanced Television

SpaceX readies another 53 Starlinks

November 30, 2021

By Chris Forrester

Barely two weeks since the last Starlink launch (on November 12th) a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is expected to place another (approximately) 53 of its broadband-by-satellite craft into orbit on December 1st.

With the usual caution of bad weather the launch will take place from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 18.20 pm Florida time.

The last launch took the number in orbit to some 1844, of which 1699 were working nominally.

The new craft are understood to be equipped with inter-satellite connectivity by laser, and this extra functionality will enable the satellites to pass internet traffic from satellite to satellite without having to touch the Earth’s terrestrial networks.

Musk has previously said: “Inter-satellite laser communications means Starlink can carry data at speed of light in vacuum all around Earth before touching ground. Over time, some amount of communication can simply be from one user terminal to another.”

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