SpaceX has opened accreditation for members of the media to attend the launch of the first batch of Starlink satellites from the SLC-40 launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base.
This is an important milestone for the aerospace company, which has effectively moved from pure research and development to mass production of spacecraft as part of the Starlink mission. The announcement states that the launch will take place no earlier than May, although many experts believe that in fact the implementation of the SpaceX Starlink mission will not begin so soon.
Now, while research and development will continue as SpaceX Starlink engineers work to realize the final design of the first few hundred or thousands of spacecraft, a significant portion of the team's efforts will be focused on producing as many Starlink satellites as possible.
Since the three major phases of the Starlink mission will require anywhere from 4400 to nearly 12 satellites, SpaceX will need to build and launch more than 000 satellites over the next five years, averaging 2200 high-performance, low-cost spacecraft per month.
Source: 3dnews.ru