After being delayed for a week due to upper wind "no go" and software updates on the satellite, SpaceX had finally launched its first 60 Starlink satellites on today's Falcon 9 launch.
At sharp 10:30 p.m. EDT (Friday 10:30 a.m. GMT+8), Falcon 9's nine Merlin engines ignited with approximately 5,885 kN of thrust carrying the first 60 Starlink satellite for the company to orbit. With tonight's first stage landing, SpaceX has successfully landed 40 Falcon booster on the company's drone ship Of Course I Still Love You and at the landing zones at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Vandenberg Air Force Base.
When the drone ship and the booster makes it back to the port, it will mark the 39th successful booster recovery for SpaceX. One Falcon rocket core from the Falcon Heavy's second launch last month landed on the SpaceX's drone ship, but tipped into the ocean before it could be brought back to the port.
Starlink were built by SpaceX's satellite team in Redmond, Washington, and will separate from the launcher in a unique fashion, similar to spreading cards on the table as described by SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk.
"There actually may be a small amount of contact between the satellites, but it's very, very slow, and the satellites are designed to handle it," Musk said. "But we wanted to avoid having 60 different deployment mechanisms for the satellites. We expect them to turn on shortly after deployment. They'll start warming up the ion drive and go through a bunch of health checks.
"We should know if they're in good shape probably about two or three hours after deployment, so three or four hours after launch," he said.
Each satellite carries a krypton ion propulsion system and Ku-band antennas to continue in-orbit demonstrations of SpaceX's planned broadband network, which may eventually number up to 12,000 small relay stations in low Earth orbit.
Future Starlink satellites will carry Ka-band and V-band radio transmission hardware, along with laser inter-satellite links to allow signals to bounce between spacecraft in orbit, rather than going through a ground station.