“Static fire test of Falcon 9 complete – targeting May 15 for launch of 60 Starlink satellites from Pad 40 in Florida,” tweeted SpaceX in the social platform.
SpaceX ground teams at Cape Canaveral transferred a Falcon 9 rocket to launch pad 40 and rotated the booster vertical on Monday for a preflight hold-down firing. SpaceX had officially announced that they had completed the hot fire test and Falcon 9 is a go for launch on May 15, Wednesday. Falcon 9 will carry 60 satellites into orbit for the company’s planned Starlink broadband constellation.
The launch will be the first mission dedicated to SpaceX’s multibillion-dollar Starlink project, which aims to eventually provide internet connectivity worldwide with a constellation that could eventually number nearly 12,000 satellites.
The 60 satellites are already installed on top of the Falcon 9 launcher, encapsulated inside the rocket’s huge nose shroud for Wednesday launch. Since a Falcon 9 rocket exploded during preparation for a similar hot fire test in September 2016 which ended up destroying the launch vehicle and an Israeli-owned commercial communications satellite, SpaceX has conducted the static fire tests without payloads on board the rocket.
SpaceX is the launch provider and the customer for Wednesday’s launch.
“Much will likely go wrong on the first Starlink mission,” Elon Musk tweeted on his official Twitter page. He added that six more launches of 60 satellites are required for “minor coverage” and 12 more launches would provide “moderate coverage”.
The Starlink satellites are built and manufactured at a SpaceX facility in Redmond, Washington. SpaceX officials have previously said the project could cost $10 billion to develop and deploy. The Starlink satellites are designed to beam broadband signals around the world from orbits, creating a global umbrella of high-speed internet connectivity.
The first group of up to 1,584 Starlink satellites will operate in orbits 341 miles (550 kilometers) above Earth, at an inclination of 53 degrees to the equator. Falcon 9 is now targeting for launch on Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. EDT (10:30 a.m. GMT+8).