Without a doubt, the internet is among the most amazing inventions in the history of mankind. Although it’s impossible to imagine our life without it, there are some regions across the planet that remain totally offline. SpaceX wants to solve this issue by launching Starlink satellites, and today (June 13), the space agency took another bundle of 58 such satellites into orbit.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida and carried along the satellites, just two weeks after another important mission of Elon Musk’s company. SpaceX previously sent NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station.
Three Planet Labs Skysats included
The Falcon 9 rocket that blasted off today also carried three Earth-observing spacecraft for Planet Labs. Their goal is to help Planet Labs develop imagery for the Earth’s surface.
Falcon 9 launches 58 Starlink satellites and 3 @planetlabs Skysats to orbit before returning to Earth and landing on a droneship pic.twitter.com/K6OjgJQZfv
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 13, 2020
Adding this mission, the total number of Starlink satellites that revolve around the Earth in the low orbit exceeds 500 pieces. Starlink will eventually become a satellite constellation made by SpaceX with the goal of providing broadband Internet access. The constellation will be made of thousands of mass-produced satellites in low Earth orbit, and they shall be working in combination with ground transceivers.
As Wikipedia reveals to us, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (aka SpaceX) is an American space transportation services company and aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded eighteen years ago by Elon Musk with the purpose of reducing space transportation costs for enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX has developed a few launch vehicles, it’s working on the Starlink satellite constellation, and let’s not forget the Dragon spacecraft.
Although the colonization of Mars sounds only like a sci-fi movie scenario, NASA is taking seriously the idea to land humans on the Red Planet. If the Artemis program goes well and humans will return to the Moon by 2024, such a milestone will mean the best motivator for a further trip to Mars.
