SpaceX to give ride-share on satellite mission aiming to provide ‘constellation’ of high-speed broadband routers

The ninth Starlink mission will let another company hitch a lift for the first time, with three separate planet-monitoring satellites also stowed aboard
A view of Earth from Starlink - although no there are no confirmed details on when customers can sign up for its internet service
@SpaceX

Satellites designed to beam high-speed internet down to Earth are due to be blasted into orbit on Saturday as part of the first “ride-sharing” mission by SpaceX.

The launch, which will not be crewed, is part of plans by Elon Musk’s company to deploy a “constellation” of mass-produced routers circling our planet to provide blanket broadband access.

But for the first time three separate high-resolution camera satellites belonging to imaging firm Planet Labs, designed to monitor Earth’s geography and environment, will hitch a ride.

This ninth Starlink launch comes a fortnight after SpaceX successfully launched two veteran Nasa astronauts to the International Space Station in the first privately designed and funded crewed US expedition.

Such missions usually take stacks of 60 broadband satellites at a time aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, but this time they will take 58 of the devices to make room for the extra payload.

If the Starlink project is successful, it will be the biggest orbiting broadband constellation.

The goal of the project first phase is to have 1,584 of the 260kg satellites orbiting 350 miles above Earth by 2022, with plans to launch at 12,000 of them in the main constellation.

However, concerns have been raised about the dangers of having so many objects in constant orbit, adding to the risk of collisions.

Musk has previously teased plans for Starlink on social media.

When asked about the project’s timeline, he tweeted in April: “Private beta begins in ~3 months, public beta in ~6 months, starting with high latitudes.”

The idea is broadband signals from space would be received on earth by parabolic dishes, which look like huge versions of home satellite receivers, and then beamed to consumers via a special receiver.

However no confirmed schedule for beta testing, initially likely to be in the US and Canada or pricing structure has been confirmed.

Saturday's launch is the second of three such missions within 18 days

SpaceX has also released dramatic footage of the first one of this series, which happened on 3 June.

Once again it uses a Falcon 9 rocket, which is seen separating from the first stage booster and soaring away after reaching its programmed altitude.

SpaceX had designed it first stage boosters for reuse to cut costs, and those in operation on Saturday have been employed twice previously to send a Dragon cargo spacecraft on resupply missions to the ISS.

The event at Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre, which was moved from its original slot on Friday, is due to take place at 10.21am GMT (5.21am EDT).

Meanwhile, Nasa has said astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are due to return from their historic SpaceX mission to the ISS in August, dependent on the technical performance of their Crew Dragon spacecraft, weather conditions and the pair's work schedule aboard the space station.

The colonels' jobs so far have included fixing the treadmill in the orbiting lab and transferring cargo from a Japanese supply vehicle.

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