SpaceX successfully launches 60 more Starlink satellites.

Starlink is a satellite internet constellation being constructed by SpaceX providing satellite Internet access. The constellation will consist of thousands of mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), working in combination with ground transceivers. SpaceX also plans to sell some of the satellites for military, scientific, or exploratory purposes. The SpaceX satellite development facility in Redmond, Washington houses the Starlink research, development, manufacturing, and on-orbit control operations. The total cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation was estimated by SpaceX in May 2018 to be about US$10 billion.

SpaceX on Sunday launched another batch of 60 of its internet-beaming Starlink satellites, growing its constellation even further. That makes 835 Starlink satellites launched thus far, though not all of those are operational (some were test satellites that were intentionally decommissioned). The launch, from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, also included a successful controlled landing and recovery of the first-stage booster, as well as a semi-successful dual catch of the fairing halves used to protect the cargo during launch.

I say semi-successful because both of SpaceX’s recovery barges actually did catch the fairing halves as they parachuted back down to the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, but one of the nets on the barges gave way during the catch. SpaceX says the recovery crew is fine, but that’s obviously not an ideal outcome. Still, being positioned correctly to catch both fairing halves is definitely a win for the company’s efforts on that aspect of Falcon 9 launch vehicle reusability.

This is another impressive show of SpaceX’s ability to maintain a very fast and frequent pace of launches, which has this year focused mostly on delivering its own Starlink satellites to orbit. The company has already launched almost 300 new Starlink satellites since June and has plans to launch at least two more batches during the next month, including a tentative launch scheduled for this coming Wednesday.

Starlink is already in the process of being tested internally by SpaceX employees and technicians, and the company is readying for a broader public beta to begin before the end of this year.

HIGH-SPEED INTERNET ACCESS ACROSS THE GLOBE

With performance that far surpasses that of traditional satellite internet, and a global network unbounded by ground infrastructure limitations, Starlink will deliver high-speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.

Starlink is targeting service in the Northern U.S. and Canada in 2020, rapidly expanding to near-global coverage of the populated world by 2021.

Starlink is on the leading edge of on-orbit debris mitigation, meeting or exceeding all regulatory and industry standards.

At end of life, the satellites will utilize their on-board propulsion system to deorbit over the course of a few months. In the unlikely event the propulsion system becomes inoperable, the satellites will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere within 1-5 years, significantly less than the hundreds or thousands of years required at higher altitudes.