Starlink: 10,000 lasers in space
March 5, 2024
SpaceX broke a batch of records on the March 3rd-4th weekend. In a 20-hour period it launched the Dragon ‘Crew-8’ group of astronauts to the International Space Station.
It also launched a large batch of 53 scientific satellites on its latest Transporter mission, and placed another group of 23 of its own Starlink satellites into their transfer orbits.
· March 3rd 10:53 pm EST – Crew-8
· March 4th 5:05 pm EST – Transporter-10
· March 4th 6:56 pm EST – Starlink 6-41
SpaceX also revealed that, to date, SpaceX has launched nearly 1,000 smallsats for 130+ customers across its entire Rideshare/Transporter programmes. Rideshare significantly increases access to space for small satellite operators around the world.
“The [Transporter-10] spacecraft launched by Falcon 9 as part of this programme range from Earth observation satellites to in-space manufacturing, robotics, student research projects, entertainment, tech demos for human spaceflight, and more,” said SpaceX.
As for the latest batch of Starlink broadband satellites launched on March 4th, SpaceX says “this mission brings us above 10,000 operational space lasers for the constellation, which enable satellites to provide truly global coverage and serve those in the most remote locations on Earth.”
Michael Sheetz, a columnist on CNBC, said he was old enough to remember when a Dragon [astronaut] launch, a commercial launch, and a Rideshare launch represented a good month for SpaceX, and “now it is just a good day”.
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