SpaceX successfully launched its latest batch of Starlinks on December 28, but there is some confusion about the precise composition of the satellites carried into orbit.
Officially, SpaceX calls the mission Starlink Group 5-1, and the satellites are widely rumored to be the first flight dedicated to “second generation” versions of Starlink. The mission called for insertion at an altitude of 530 km and an inclination of 43 degrees.
But 54 satellites is definitely a “scaled down” version of the full Gen-2 spec, and the modifications are why 54 spacecraft could fit inside the Falcon 9 fairing.
In August 2022, SpaceX formally told the FCC that “SpaceX will use satellites technically identical to both [Starship and Falcon 9] rockets, [but that] the physical structures will be adapted to the physical dimensions of the rockets on which they will be launched.”
Elon Musk referred to these modified craft as “mini” versions of Starlink V2.
In early December 2022, SpaceX received its FCC license approving the deployment of 7,500 new Starlink Gen 2 satellites.
The next planned Starlink launch (named F9-2) is expected to carry a “full-size” Vesion-2 payload that has twice as many solar panels (each 12.8 meters as opposed to 8.1m) and that it is said to be almost three times larger. massive (1250 kg vs 259 kg) like the current V1 satellites.
Importantly, these new versions are equipped with laser links between satellites and improve Internet traffic links that can be shared from satellite to satellite around the world, avoiding the need to relay signals across networks of land-based Internet.
The launch on December 28, the 60th in 2022 for SpaceX, was a complete success and the Falcon 9 first stage booster subsequently landed with its usual pinpoint accuracy on the floating barge “Shortfall of Gravitas”.
This 60th flight for SpaceX was almost double what it achieved in 2021. SpaceX made a 61st flight on December 30 with an Israeli image craft. Elon Musk talks about managing 100 flights by 2023.
There is a Falcon 9 launch of a large batch of smaller satellites (the Transporter-6 mission) scheduled for January 3rd, and then its next payload will be to competitor OneWeb, likely on January 8th. This one, officially Flight OneWeb-16, will carry 48 satellites into orbit for rival broadband operator OneWeb.
This flight is SpaceX’s second for OneWeb. On December 9, 2022, it put 40 satellites into orbit for OneWeb. The launch will bring the total number of OneWeb satellites launched to 550 from a base fleet of 600.