This Monday morning, SpaceX launched 60 satellites into space from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, this being the second installment as part of the Starlink project.
On board the Falcon 9 spacecraft, the second batch of 60 experimental satellites designed to provide Internet access was sent.
The mission was carried out without problems, and the 60 satellites were expected to be placed in Earth’s orbit approximately one hour after launch.
The company launched a first group of satellites in May, and plans that its flourishing constellation will eventually have more than 40,000 satellites.
However, when Elon Musk’s company launched the first, many astronomers were surprised to see that the satellites were extremely bright, which made them fear that the constellation wreaked havoc on scientific research and transformed.
Since then, several scientists have initiated research to better quantify the impacts of Starlink and share their concerns with SpaceX.
In response, SpaceX has said it wants to mitigate potential impacts.
It should be noted that the initial Starlink plan required a mega-constellation of 12,000 satellites.
But SpaceX recently submitted documents to the International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations agency that manages the global spectrum of satellite radio frequency, to launch another 30,000 satellites.
When James Lowenthal, an astronomer at Smith College, first saw the Starlink satellite train marching like fake stars through the night sky in the spring, he knew something had changed.
“I felt that life as an astronomer and lover of the night sky would never be the same,” he told The New York Times.
Most of the first Starlink nodes have moved to higher orbits and are now almost imperceptible, but they are still notable in places with dark skies. If thousands more of these satellites are launched, Dr. Lowenthal said he fears “it will seem that the whole sky is full of stars.”
Watch the footage posted to Twitter below:
Successful deployment of 60 Starlink satellites confirmed! pic.twitter.com/bpBqO9oYR3
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 11, 2019
Source: Elnuevodia
