SpaceX is set to resume building up its Starlink constellation of broadband satellites on Friday morning.
A Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 4:31 a.m. PT (7:31 a.m. ET) carrying a batch of the latest laser-equipped version of the flying routers.
In recent months, Elon Musk’s company has been focused on getting Starship ready for its first orbital flight while also transporting astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station.
After hurling hundreds of Starlinks through the sky over the first half of 2021, there has only been one Starlink mission so far in the second half, which sent a total of 51 next-generation satellites to low-earth orbit.
That mission was the first Starlink launch conducted from California and the first group fully equipped with laser links that will allow satellites to communicate with each other in orbit and reduce the need for numerous ground stations.
So far SpaceX has shipped over 100,000 satellite receivers, and it plans to continue expanding and improving Starlink’s coverage into 2022.
Friday morning’s launch will be followed by a landing attempt on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. The whole mission is expected to be livestreamed by SpaceX. We’ll embed the feed right here once it’s available.
