It’s been less than two weeks since SpaceX and NASA launched two astronauts into space, but SpaceX is already revving up for another rocket launch.
Elon Musk’s firm will launch a Falcon 9 rocket into space tomorrow morning, as part of its Starlink mission.
The rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral at 05:12 EDT (10:12 BST), and will carry 60 Starlink satellites into orbit.
This is the ninth batch of Starlink satellites, bringing the total number in orbit to over 500.
NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre said: “SpaceX is scheduled to launch 60 Starlink satellites from a Falcon 9.
“This will be the 9th mission in support of the constellation of networked satellites known as Starlink.
“The goal of Starlink is to create a network that will help provide internet services to those who are not yet connected, and to provide reliable and affordable internet across the globe.”
During the launch, the Falcon 9 rocket will carry the Starlink satellites into orbit, before attempting to land at sea.
Elon Musk hopes the satellites will bring low-cost internet to remote areas on Earth.
Starlink explained: “With performance that far surpasses that of traditional satellite internet, and a global network unbounded by ground infrastructure limitations, Starlink will deliver high speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.”
However, several astronomers have raised concerns that one of the satellites could pass in front of a telescope and obscure an image.
In a recent study, published in arXiv, researchers led by Stefano Gallozzi, wrote: "Depending on their altitude and surface reflectivity, their contribution to the sky brightness is not negligible for professional ground based observations.
"With the huge amount of about 50,000 new artificial satellites for telecommunications planned to be launched in Medium and Low Earth Orbit, the mean density of artificial objects will be of >1 satellite for square sky degree; this will inevitably harm professional astronomical images.”
SpaceX will stream the launch live on its YouTube channel here.
Meanwhile, Brits will have several opportunities to see the Starlink satellites from the UK this week.
According to Find Starlink, the satellites will be visible from the UK at:
9:58 pm, 12 Jun 2020
10:38 pm, 12 Jun 2020
11:34 pm, 12 Jun 2020
11:53 pm, 12 Jun 2020
1:10 am, 13 Jun 2020
1:27 am, 13 Jun 2020
3:03 am, 13 Jun 2020
10:33 pm, 13 Jun 2020
10:46 pm, 13 Jun 2020
12:09 am, 14 Jun 2020
12:27 am, 14 Jun 2020
2:03 am, 14 Jun 2020
3:38 am, 14 Jun 2020
10:55 pm, 14 Jun 2020
11:09 pm, 14 Jun 2020
11:27 pm, 14 Jun 2020
12:45 am, 15 Jun 2020
1:02 am, 15 Jun 2020
2:38 am, 15 Jun 2020
10:27 pm, 15 Jun 2020
11:06 pm, 15 Jun 2020
11:44 pm, 15 Jun 2020
12:02 am, 16 Jun 2020
1:38 am, 16 Jun 2020
3:14 am, 16 Jun 2020
