'Is this real?' Elon Musk unveils 60 ready-to-launch internet satellites and Twitter is blown away
SpaceX has received approval for the Starlink launch from The Federal Communications Commission. The launch will take place in two phases - 4,409 satellites will be launched in the first group, followed by a second group of 7,518 satellites.
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No great feat is achieved without overcoming an obstacle!
Each time Elon Musk failed to deliver a Tesla on time, or faltered with any of his other promises, the tech entrepreneur earned a new critic. At the same time, Musk was also at the receiving end of accolades and praises, thanks to his many tech breakthroughs and pioneering steps towards space exploration.
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On Tuesday (tentatively), the SpaceX CEO is about to pull off another such feat when he launches the first 60 internet satellites as part of his Starlink project. The low-orbit satellites, meant to transmit internet connectivity to various corners of Earth from space, will be part of the (nearly) 12,000 strong mega constellation of internet satellites that Musk plans to deploy over time.
This is part of the ultimate plan to offer high-speed internet connectivity across the globe, up from space – a mission that has seen several other space players including Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, SoftBank-backed OneWeb, Telesat, and LeoSat join the race in recent times to launch low-orbit internet satellites.
However, with the SpaceX announcement, Musk has clearly taken a lead. He dropped the news – as usual – via Twitter over the weekend, showing off the first 60 satellites loaded inside the fairing of Falcon 9 rocket.
“If static fire (thumbs up emoji) on Mon, (rocket emoji) on Tues,” the serial tech entrepreneur added in the same thread. Going by this emoticon riddled message, it appears that if all goes well, the launch might happen around Tuesday (or Wednesday as per earlier reports).
The announcement, undoubtedly, has sparked a wave of excitement among Musk’s loyal social media followers. One responded saying, “Is this real. Wow,” as someone else added, “Hardworking geniuses with a sense of humour the American way. Thanks Elon you are the coolest billionaire in the universe keep it up buddy we love you.”
Earlier, SpaceX received approval for the Starlink launch from The Federal Communications Commission. As per reports, the launch were to take place in two phases – in the first phase, a group of 4,409 satellites will be launched, followed by a second group of 7,518 satellites.
“This next batch of satellites will really be a demonstration set for us to see the deployment scheme and start putting our network together,” Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and COO, added at the Satellite 2019 conference.
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