CBS News By William Harwood 5/15/2019
SpaceX readied a previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket for launch Wednesday evening carrying 60 Starlink internet relay satellites. The satellites will help pave the way toward a planned constellation of nearly 12,000 needed to provide space-based internet connectivity around the world.
Stacked inside the rocket's 17-foot-wide nose fairing, the satellites were scheduled for launch from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:30 p.m. EDT. SpaceX planned to attempt recovery of the rocket's twice-flown first stage with landing on an off-shore droneship.
The flight plan called for satellite deployment to begin about an hour after launch. The 60-satellite 30,000-pound payload is the heaviest launched to date by a Falcon 9 rocket.
"This mission will push the operational capabilities of the satellites to the limit," the company said in its mission press kit. "SpaceX expects to encounter issues along the way, but our learnings here are key to developing an affordable and reliable broadband service in the future."
SpaceX founder and chief designer Elon Musk was more blunt in n earlier tweet, attempting to lower expectations somewhat by saying "much will likely go wrong" on the initial mission. He also cautioned that six launches of 60 satellites each would be needed for even "minor" internet coverage on a global scale.
The complete constellation, which reportedly will cost in the neighborhood of $10 billion, will be made up of nearly 12,000 Starlink satellites, up to 4,400 of them using Ku- and Ka-band radios with the rest using so-called V-band frequencies. The satellites will be deployed at three orbital altitudes — 210, 342 and 745 miles — in multiple planes to provide global high-throughput coverage.
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