Billionaire Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX launched a Falcon 40 rocket from Launch Complex SLC-9 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, Florida on Thursday to deliver the first batch of 60 satellites into Earth orbit for future deployment of its Starlink internet service.
The launch of the Falcon 9, which took place around 10:30 pm local time (04:30 Moscow time on Friday), marks an important milestone in the Starlink global satellite broadband data network project.
It was originally planned to send satellites into orbit a week ago, but the launch first due to strong winds, and then completely postponed in order to have time to update the firmware of the satellites and conduct an additional check to obtain a guaranteed result.
These satellites are designed to form an initial constellation of spacecraft capable of transmitting signals from space for high-speed Internet service to customers around the world.
Musk said that the Starlink project should become a new important source of revenue, which he estimates will be about $3 billion a year.
Speaking at a briefing last week, Musk called the Starlink project key to funding his larger plans - developing a new spacecraft to take commercial customers to the moon and eventually a mission to colonize Mars.
Source: 3dnews.ru