SpaceX Mission to Launch 60 Internet Satellites Delayed by a Day

SpaceX will launch 60 satellites into lower Earth Orbit in order to make internet more accessible globally.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 ready to launch 60 satellites into the lower Earth Orbit.

(Photo: AP)

Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch its Starlink mission on Thursday, 17 May after a delay in the launch due to heavy upper level winds, the company said.

The launch delay came less than half an hour before the Falcon 9 rocket was to be launched with 60 satellites.

SpaceX’s Starlink mission is the first step towards CEO Elon Musk’s vision of providing affordable internet all over the globe.

(Photo: Twitter/@ElonMusk)

SpaceX will send a batch of 60 satellites into the lower-Earth orbit, first batch of the megaconstellation that will make up the Starlink. This will put SpaceX ahead of its competition such as Amazon’s Kupier project and SoftBank-backed OneWeb.

The first 60 satellites will be dropped off at an altitude of approximately 440 Kilometres above Earth, CNet reported. If everything goes as planned, these satellites will gradually propel themselves to an altitude of approximately 550 Kilometres.

CEO Elon Musk had tweeted a picture of the stacked-up payload of the Falcon 9 rocket.

This mission will be the Falcon 9 Rocket’s third flight with the first two coming in September 2018 and January 2019.

(With inputs from CNet.)