Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/s684z16wh7
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 20, 2022
SpaceX efficiently launched and deployed one other set of 54 Starlink satellites on the morning of October 20, 2022. It was the 2nd Starlink launch this month. Moreover, it was the one centesimal launch from Area Launch Complicated 40 at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Area Power Station. And it was SpaceX’s forty eighth profitable Falcon 9 mission of 2022. Subsequently, the Falcon 9 first stage touched down efficiently about 9 minutes later at sea on the SpaceX droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship pic.twitter.com/gcz5B3yN9O
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 20, 2022
SpaceX Starlink launches for October
Starlink Group 4-29: Wednesday • October 5, 2022 • 23:10 UTC (4:10 p.m. PT)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Vandenberg SFC, California | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 4-36: Thursday • October 20, 2022 • 14:50 UTC (10:50 a.m. ET)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral, Florida | SUCCESS
Starlink Group 4-31: Monday • October 31, 2022 • TIME TBD
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Vandenberg SFB, California | DATE/TIME MAY CHANGE
Go on to SpaceX’s YouTube channel for a livestream of the launch. Livestreams usually start about 5 minutes earlier than liftoff.
After launch, search for a prepare of lights
Following each Starlink launch, the web buzzes with individuals asking:
What’s that lengthy line of lights within the sky that appears like a prepare?
What you’re seeing is the Starlink satellites transferring into a better orbit. By the way, you may examine to see if they’ll go over your space utilizing the Discover Starlink web site.
Congrats to @SpaceX crew on forty eighth launch this 12 months! Falcon 9 now holds report for many launches of a single car kind in a 12 months.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 20, 2022
Rising numbers amid controversy
As of September 2022, Starlink supposedly consists of over 3,000 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit. They impart with designated floor transceivers and supply web entry to over 500,000 subscribers as of June 2022.
Love ’em or hate ’em, these Starlink satellites are a part of SpaceX’s imaginative and prescient for a world web communication satellite tv for pc constellation. They ship high-speed web service worldwide, primarily to areas the place ground-based web is unreliable, unavailable, or costly. The non-public firm is well-known for launching batches back-to-back, a number of instances a month, frequently lofting 60 satellites at a time. And SpaceX plans to construct as much as maybe as many as 30,000 ultimately.
Understandably, most thought it was thrilling to see the primary few Starlink satellites touring collectively within the evening sky. However then extra have been launched, after which extra. And astronomers started to fret.
As a result of Starlinks are brilliant, astronomers say they’re photobombing astronomical photos. Subsequently, they’ve the potential to intervene with the skilled astronomical observations which have introduced us our modern-day view of the cosmos. And though SpaceX has tried to handle the problem, they continue to be removed from what astronomers say is suitable.
Backside line: SpaceX’s most up-to-date Starlink launch took flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 14:50 UTC on October 20, 2022.
Learn extra from EarthSky: Starlink satellites can appear to be a plume or prepare of sunshine
Through Area Launch Schedule
