SpaceX is ready for the 14th Starlink mission of 2020 after breaking the annual launch record

SpaceX has statically launched a record-breaking Falcon 9 Booster and says it is ready to launch its 14th Starlink mission this year just a day and a half after breaking the company’s previous annual launch record.

Established in 2018, SpaceX’s previous annual launch record was 21 missions: 20 Falcon 9s and one Falcon Heavy. Now, in just over mid-November, SpaceX has easily outdone itself, launching for the 22nd time to deliver the Sentinel 6A oceanographic satellite into polar orbit on November 21.

On the east coast, SpaceX activated the Falcon 9 booster B1049 to six flights just five hours after the successful launch of Sentinel 6A, setting the rocket for its seventh flight – the first for SpaceX and reusable missiles – in support of the Starlink v1 flight. .0 15 (Starlink-15).

After an apparent static fire outage on November 20 and a short 24 hour delay, the B1049 is now scheduled to take off no earlier than 21:56 EST (02:56 UTC), November 22 with approximately 16 tons (~ 35,000 lbs) of Starlink communications satellites in tow. Designed to permanently cover the Earth with affordable, high-quality broadband internet, SpaceX has already begun rolling out a public beta test to what appears to be one or several thousand users in the northern United States and southern Canada.

Speaking to a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) thread on November 21, one of the participating SpaceX Starlink engineers revealed that the company is aiming for a “larger beta” launch as early as late January 2021. Despite having approximately 820 in orbit. functioning Starlink satellites, about a third have been launched recently and are still either increasing their orbits or waiting in phase orbits to orient themselves correctly and maximize Starlink’s Internet coverage.

While it is actually impossible to predict which orbital “ plane ” is targeting a particular batch of Starlink satellites, it is likely that the approximately 300 spacecraft still heading into operational orbits will complete their journeys within the next 60 days. In general, it takes about 2-3 months from a given Starlink launch for all ~ 60 satellites to reach their 550 km (~ 340 mi) operational orbits, a process usually performed in batches of 22 – each essentially representing a ring. in the uniform space of Internet coverage a few hundred miles wide.

Despite SpaceX following a record year of ~ 25+ launches, CEO Elon Musk has revealed that the company is pushing for up to 48 launches in 2021, more than half of which would likely be Starlink missions.

Tune in below to see the SpaceX Sunday Starlink launch live later tonight.