Amid favourable weather conditions, SpaceX set to launch Falcon 9 rocket with 60 Starlink satellites

SpaceX Falcon 9: SpaceX is all set to launch its Falcon 9 rocket that would be placing as many as 60 Starlink satellites. The launch has been scheduled for Tuesday at 9:58 pm EST, which means that in India, the launch would be occurring at 8:28 am on Wednesday, and it would be taking off from the Space Launch Complex 40 of the Florida-based Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The company said that as of now, the weather conditions seemed favourable for the launch, which means that so far, the take-off would take place as planned.

During this mission, SpaceX would also be landing the first stage of the Falcon 9. As per the company’s plan, once the rocket leaves the atmosphere of the Earth, the first stage and the second stage of the rocket would separate. At this point, the engines of the second stage would start, continuing the mission and eventually undertaking the deployment of the payload.

Meanwhile, the first stage would undergo a flip maneuver, after which the stage would re-enter the atmosphere of the Earth. This would indicate the completion of ‘Entry Burn’. Once entry burn is carried out successfully, the engines of the first stage, which were cut off before the separation of the two stages, would restart in order to slow down the first stage. With the help of the grid fins fitted on the first stage, the stage would be guided to the correct path for the vertical landing. Once the path is correctly ascertained, the engines would restart one last time to ensure that the first stage undergoes a smooth landing.

Notably, the Starlink satellites are being launched as part of SpaceX’s Starlink internet project, as per which the company would provide users with high-speed internet by directly beaming internet to individual satellite dishes that users would be provided with. The company has said that due to the relatively low positioning of these satellites, the latency period experienced by Starlink users would be quite low, while users would eventually get internet with speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Currently, this speed ranges between 50 Mbps and 150 Mbps, and it would be increased to 300 Mbps this year as more satellites would be deployed. About 1,000 Starlink satellites have been deployed by SpaceX so far out of the ambitious network of 12,000 satellites.