'Maybe there's a hidden Tesla?' Elon Musk boasts about 'heaviest payload' of SpaceX ahead of Starlink launch

The Starlink launch, which puts the first set of 60 internet satellites into a low-earth orbit and has been rescheduled to Thursday, is stirring up quite a bit of frenzy on social media.

Thursday May 16, 2019 , 3 min Read

Is it a hidden Tesla? Maybe it is a tiny pirate ship with a SpaceX flag on it!

Remember that time when Elon Musk launched his very own cherry red Tesla Roadster into space, blasting David Bowie’s "Space Oddity” with the message “Made on Earth by humans” engraved on it? The car was sent as part of Falcon Heavy’s payload, and had unsurprisingly stirred frenzy on social media.

And all that Musk said in response was, “It’s kind of silly and fun.”

Well, we are not sure if the SpaceX CEO has similar plans for his Starlink satellites this time around, but the anticipation ahead of Thursday’s launch is surely building up. Supposed to put the first 60 set of internet satellites into a low-earth orbit, loaded inside the fairing of the Falcon 9 rocket, the launch is scheduled for Thursday, 10.30 pm ET, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

It was initially meant to take place on Wednesday but the launch was rescheduled to Thursday due to heavy winds over the launch site.

Also Read: 'Is this real?' Elon Musk unveils 60 ready-to-launch internet satellites and Twitter is blown away

Musk, in the meantime, is keeping his followers busy on social media with updates about the launch. If the tech billionaire is to be believed, the Starlink internet satellites, weighing in at 18.5 tons, will be the heaviest payload SpaceX has delivered until now. Not only this, but each launch will also "deliver 1 terabit of bandwidth to the Earth".

Starlink mission will be heaviest @SpaceX payload ever at 18.5 tons. If all goes well, each launch of 60 satellites will generate more power than Space Station & deliver 1 terabit of bandwidth to Earth.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2019

“6 more launches of 60 (satellite emoji) for initial activation, 12 for significant coverage,” Musk added in the same thread, stirring a bit of a frenzy on Twitter.

“So if these satellites are being deployed like a pack of cards, are they getting designations based on cards - will there be satellites called 'Ace of Spades' and 'Joker',” a Twitter user chimed in.

Others got hooked to the mathematics involved in the weight of the payload. According to reports, each satellite among the first 60 of the Starlink launch weighs around 227 kg. This got a Twitter user thinking, “I'll note that 18.5 tons is not 60 x 227 kg!! Implies about 3000 kg of payload adapter hardware? (sic)”