SpaceX put into orbit a new batch of Internet satellites Starlink, brought the constellation to 2089 devices

Image Credit: spacex

 Washington. February 3. INTERFAX – A falcon 9 heavy launch vehicle on Thursday successfully launched into orbit a batch of 49 mini-satellites designed to continue the deployment of the global Network of Internet coverage of the Starlink system, the developer of SpaceX said.

"The withdrawal of 49 Starlink satellites has been confirmed," the report said.

The launch was carried out at 13:13 on the east coast of the United States (at 21:13 Moscow time) from the launch complex 39A at the spaceport at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Liftoff!

SpaceX's orbital constellation now consists of 2,089 spacecraft weighing 290 kg each. Currently, the company is the largest satellite operator in the world.

About 15.5 minutes after the launch, 49 satellites separated from the second stage of the rocket in an elliptical transition orbit with an altitude of up to 340 km. After checking their performance by SpaceX engineers, the satellites using their own ion engines will rise to the standard orbit at an altitude of 540 km.

This was the 37th launch into orbit of a group of Internet satellites since May 2019 as part of the Starlink project. The previous batch of Starlink satellites was launched on January 19.

At the same time, the reusable first stage of the American Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which was used for launches for the 6th time, about nine minutes after launch made a controlled vertical landing on the floating drone platform A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was located in the Atlantic about 640 km from the cosmodrome.

In addition, special SpaceX rescue vessels had to fish out of the water two flaps of the fairing of the head of the rocket, which after separation descended by parachutes. Reuse of the fairing allows SpaceX to save up to $ 6 million when launching its rockets.