SpaceX ‘s first StarX release of 2021 is now set for Wednesday | Human World

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Rocket with four extended legs landing on a flame plug on a ship.

A Falcon 9 landing in 2017. Image via SpaceX.

SpaceX today once again delayed the launch of the first set of controversial Starlink satellites for 2021. Their launch into low-orbit on Earth was first scheduled for January 18, then for the -today, January 19. Now scheduled for Wednesday, January 20, at 8:02 EST (13:02 UTC; UTC translation to your time) from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The latest set of 60 Starlink satellites will be launched on a tried and true Falcon 9 rocket at SpaceX. You can watch the live release on the SpaceX website.

This is the first of many Starlink launches in 2021, as SpaceX moves toward the goal of orbiting tens of thousands of these satellites, with the goal of accessibility provide high speed broadband internet.

The first reuse phase of the Falcon 9 supported a further seven missions.

The Earth's curve as seen from orbit, with 16 tiny climbs (Starlink satellites), each numbered.

Astronauts at the International Space Station took pictures of the southern lights and a train of 16 Starlink satellites (each with a unique ID number) on April 13, 2020 over the South Sea off the coast of Antarctica. Image via ISS / NASA. See also this video.

Starlink controversy within the astronomy community. Despite the promise of global internet access, both professional and amateur astronauts fear that the SpaceX Starlink satellites – seen as “constellations” of moving “stars” – will disturb the skies. night. The National Science Foundation and the Astronomical Society of America released a report on the situation in August 2020, following talks among more than 250 experts at the scene. Constellations 1 (SATCON1) satellite workshop.

SpaceX recently released some Starlink satellites with a black sunshade – called VisorSat – which the company hopes will reduce the satellite’s visible brightness by reducing the amount of sunlight it emits. see. That’s just one of six recommendations recommended by the SATCON1 team.

In the first attempts to mitigate the impact of the spacecraft this was the launch of a prototype Starlink satellite later named DarkSat earlier in 2020, which had an antireflective black cover. Recent ground-based observations of DarkSat in orbit found it to be half as clear as a standard Starlink satellite, which is a good development, according to experts, but still far from what astronomers say is needed . University of Antofagasta astronomer Jeremy Tregloan-Reed told the observation team that evaluated the prototype:

I would not consider DarkSat as a win but instead a good step in the right direction.

The Federal Communications Commission has allowed SpaceX to launch as many as 12,000 of the flat-panel broadband satellites, but the company has announced plans to ship up to 30,000. With those plans – as well as Amazon ‘s Kuiper Project targeting 3,236 satellites and OneWeb, a company that is now bankrupt in recent UK – government credit, possibly struggling for 2,000 – will not come. increase in the scale of astronomy satellite problem.

19 clear thin lines crossing part of a starry sky from side to side.

Time image shows a passage of a Starlink satellite group, creating clear streaks through a telescope field of view at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in November 2019. Image via CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA and DECam DELVE Study.

Bottom line: SpaceX plans to launch tens of thousands of Starlink satellites, with life rates around 5 years, into low-orbit on Earth. The goal is global internet accessibility. Astronauts are worried. Here’s how to watch the release now scheduled for Wednesday, January 20th.

Lia Rovira

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