Waco Trib by Eric Killelea 8/17/2022
SpaceX banking on Starship launches from South Texas to ramp up deployment of Starlink satellites
As SpaceX works toward the first orbital launch of a Starship from South Texas, it's with the idea of deploying hundreds of the Starlink communications satellites the company has said are key to its future.
Elon Musk's private space company this month has been conducting static fire tests — full dress rehearsals for a rocket — in preparation for the massive Starship's long-sought first trip into orbit from Boca Chica. It's also been raising billions of dollars to fund the Starship and Starlink projects.
While Musk has been widely quoted about his dreams of colonizing Mars and taking people and cargo to the moon, his company's immediate plans are in low earth orbit, with a satellite business that's taking an increasingly Texas flavor.
"The big secret that is not so secret is that they now have actual Starlink satellites there in Boca Chica and have loaded them in to SN24 like a giant PEZ dispenser," an ex- SpaceX employee said this week, referring by number to a Starship that's been on the launch pad since early last month. "On the first orbital launch from Boca, Elon wants to deploy satellites on its very first test mission, which is very ambitious."
The former employee spoke on condition of anonymity to share knowledge of the company's plans.
In a tweet early this month, Musk said "a *successful* orbital flight is probably between 1 and 12 months from now."
SpaceX has long touted Starship's potential to ramp up its Starlink network. In 2019, Gwynne Shotwell, president and CEO, said that while its Falcon 9 rocket could launch 60 Starlink satellites per batch, Starship could "take 400 satellites at a time" into orbit.
More:
https://wacotrib.com/business/local/spacex-banking-on-starship-launches-from-south-texas-to-ramp-up-deployment-of-starlink-satellites/article_246c53f2-1e8f-11ed-a29e-979d80860f4c.html
