Tonight, SpaceX will attempt to jumpstart its ambitious internet-from-space initiative known as Starlink, by launching the first 60 production satellites of nearly 12,000 planned spacecraft into a low orbit above Earth. These inaugural probes do not have all of the capabilities that the finalized satellites are supposed to have, but their launch will get the ball rolling on Starlink — and should help SpaceX learn what it takes to operate a large crop of vehicles in space.
“This was one of the hardest engineer projects I’ve ever seen done, and it’s been executed really well,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said during a conference call.
Starlink is one of SpaceX’s most formidable projects. SpaceX envisions putting up two groups of satellites into…
from The Verge – All Posts http://bit.ly/2HkzYo1
via IFTTT