Leave It To SpaceX To Make The Building Of A New Sat Constellation Almost Boring...

On Saturday, June 13 at 5:21 a.m. EDT, 9:21 UTC, SpaceX successfully launched its ninth Starlink mission, carrying 58 Starlink satellites and three of Planet’s SkySats. This mission marked SpaceX’s first SmallSat Rideshare Program launch.

Falcon 9’s first stage previously supported Dragon’s 19th and 20th resupply missions to the International Space Station. Following stage separation, SpaceX's Falcon 9 first stage landed on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

One half of Falcon 9’s fairing previously flew on the JCSAT-18/Kacific1 mission, and the other half previously flew on SpaceX’s third Starlink mission. Planet’s SkySats were deployed sequentially beginning about 12 minutes after liftoff, and the Starlink satellites deployed approximately 26 minutes after liftoff.

Starlink has three phases of flight: (1) orbit raise, (2) parking orbit (380 km above Earth), and (3) on-station (550 km above Earth). During orbit raise, the satellites use their thrusters to raise altitude over the course of a few weeks. Some of the satellites go directly to station while others pause in the parking orbit to allow the satellites to precess to a different orbital plane. Once satellites are on-station they reconfigure so the antennas face Earth and the solar array goes vertical so that it can track the Sun to maximize power generation. As a result of this maneuver, the satellites become much darker because the solar array visibility from the ground is greatly reduced.

Starlink is designed to deliver high speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable. Private beta testing is expected to begin later this summer, followed by public beta testing, starting with higher latitudes.

FMI: www.spacex.com, www.starlink.com